Chemical Analyst Strikes a Side Hustle Match(Stick)

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Well, yesterday was all about ballroom dancing. Today, on Side Hustle School, let's talk about arson. Well, not quite arson, we're talking about matches, but still, when I was a kid, I really liked to play with fire. It was mostly just a phase, although it was a phase that lasted several years, and part of my other bad behavior, juvenile delinquency, et cetera, but it did get me in trouble a couple of times. Now, because of my fond memories of carrying lighters around from the age of eight onwards, I enjoyed working on today's story, which is all about fire and specifically matches.

It actually gets even more specific than that. Have you ever looked at a random item and wondered, hey, where does that thing come from? For example, when you strike a match, there are three components, the match itself, the matchbox, and what's called the striker, where you strike the match to create the chemical process that lights it on fire. Well, today's feature is about a chemical analyst who creates a side hustle match by selling those match strikers, as well as a variety of matches in her online store. That's right, she's got an online store, an e-commerce store all about matches, and she's earning a couple of thousand dollars a month from it.

You really can light up your life with a side hustle. Stay tuned, that story's coming right up. [Music]

Where there's smoke, there's fire. And in Melissa Moore's case, where there's fire, there's a side hustle. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the chemical manufacturing senior analyst is also a lifelong candle and incense lover.

Her side hustle is matchsticks and the paper you strike them on. You know, the striker strip on the side of matchboxes, well, she imports those by the sheet, about the size of a piece of paper, and sells them online on Etsy, Amazon, eBay, and her own website. In addition to generic ones, she also cuts them down into various sizes to create more artistic strikers, as well as hearts, moons, letters, and even the outlines of US states. The sheets and the die-cut shapes have adhesive backing, so they function like stickers. How did this all come to be?

Well, for years, Melissa tolerated tacky lighters and ugly matchboxes to help fulfill her candlelit dreams. But when she took a casual wander through stacks of homemade pottery at an arts festival, an idea sparked in her mind. It was while she was perusing oil warmers that she noticed a small compartment on some of them that could be the perfect size to hold matches. The clay also gave it an easy striking surface. While staring at that oil warmer, Melissa realized all she really wanted was a cute container to hold her matches in and complete her candle collection.

So she turned to Google to start searching for these match holders. But all she could find were dingy antiques or flimsy plastic ones. After many days and many more refined search terms later, Melissa finally found the perfect jar size for her grocery store-sized matches. But she still needed a way to light those matches, and the big challenge was finding a match striking surface to use with her container. She finally found a matchstick manufacturer overseas that would sell her just the match strike paper, so she quickly pressed the buy button.

One Sunday afternoon crafting session later, Melissa had glued the paper to her containers, filled them with matchsticks, and realized that she couldn't possibly be the only person who needed this. That side hustle fire was lit. She began creating her matchstick vases every day after work. She bought about 20 vases from Michaels, which was enough to build a stockpile, but not too many in case they needed to become holiday presents instead of items for sale. Matchsticks from the grocery store and 50 sheets of striking paper rounded out the rest of her initial stock.

The next weekend she set up a WordPress site and an Etsy profile. All totaled, Melissa estimates that her startup costs were under $1,000. That was seven years ago, and it's been a slow burn since. Melissa now brings in around $3,500 in monthly revenue. Her profit margins are a bit more than 50%, which means she's making just under $2,000 in profit each month.

Since people use striking paper and matches for all sorts of reasons, she receives steady sales throughout the year. She's since branched out from focusing on just her website and Etsy, and now sells via Amazon and eBay too. She's added more designs to her product lineup and uses a cutting machine to cut her striking paper into various sizes, including circles, hearts, letters, and outlines of US states. Last October, for the first time, her side hustle income exceeded one of her biweekly paychecks. She took that as a green light to plan an exit strategy from her full-time job.

She's now focused on building her business by finding new target markets that could use the products. For example, one of those markets is Campers, another survival enthusiast who buy matches and striking paper for their emergency kits. Customer feedback is one of the main tools that helps Melissa grow. It gives her ideas of what items to list and helps her become more efficient. Her main challenge is getting to a place where she feels financially stable and has enough cash on hand to keep her inventory up, instead of dipping into her profits.

She's getting better at monitoring her inventory and planning ahead, but sometimes gets caught with low stock and has to play a game of catch-up. Melissa realized how fragmented the matchstick industry was because there wasn't one go-to destination, so she set herself the goal of making the purchasing experience easy and fun. It sounds like she's on a hot streak. [Music]

Okay, here's a fun fact and a challenge for you. First of all, the fun fact, there is a word for the people who like to collect matchbooks from restaurants.

If you like to collect matchbooks or other match-associated things, you might be a falluminist, or you just might be engaging in falluminy. Now, here's the challenge for you that may be even more helpful than the fun fact. Take note of some of the random items you encounter throughout your day. Things like match strikers, which you have probably never given much thought to, at least I haven't. See if you can figure out where they come from.

Just as you go about your day in your home, your office, your work, whatever you're up to, identify some random items, then go online and see if you can deduce where they are manufactured. And if you wanted to purchase them in bulk, how could you do so? Maybe the items that you find consist of multiple components, you have to track down each individual component. Imagine that you had to find a way to either buy these components or the whole item or commission them somehow or make them yourself. How would you do it?

Now, this is not to say you're gonna go out and start a match striker competitive website, and you very well may not end up doing anything with any of these items that you do this research for. But in doing so, you're gonna develop your sense of observation, your sense of curiosity as it's expressed in doing these kinds of things and figuring out, okay, how do these things get made? How much do they cost? If I were to sell them myself, how would I do that? Could there possibly be a market there?

These are valuable skills, no matter what you end up doing next. If you can acquire these kinds of skills, like I talk about often on the show, then there are so many opportunities out there for you. Just a question of deciding, okay, which opportunity do I wish to pursue? But not, you know, how in the world would I possibly do this? So I will leave you with that.

Go out and strike a match, look for some random items. And remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/665. You can come by and check out Melissa's Business, anything else that I mentioned in the episode. And of course, you can pick up a free Five Steps to Hustle Guide.

Thanks so much for being out there. I'll be back again tomorrow with the weekly recap and a whole new set of episodes all next week. I would love for you to join in. It is completely free. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.