Nature-Loving Neighbors Create Kids Subscription Box

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

[Music]

Friends, listeners, and side of social community, what's up, welcome to the program. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Today's story features two nature-loving neighbors who create a subscription box program. When these two couples can't figure out how to get their kids outdoors and away from electronics in the winter, a personal challenge blossoms into an unbelievable side hustle. Business-wise, it's an interesting case study because it's started by these two neighbors who become friends, but also because it's unlike just about every other subscription box in the world.

Instead of going on forever, where you subscribe to the box and it just keeps on coming month after month until the end of time, or until you get sick of it and unsubscribe, they set it up to end after a fixed period of time. So why do they do that and what can you take away from that? In addition to the general lesson of how they identified this need and how they made it happen. All of that is coming up in today's episode. I'm so glad you're here.

Here is a quick thank you to our sponsor and then I'll tell you all about it. [Music]

Justin and Crystal Ren had just moved into a new neighborhood with their toddler. That same day, Justin saw his new neighbor, Richard, next door mowing the lawn. He knew exactly how to start their relationship off on the right foot. He held up two ice cold beers for them to share.

Richard could get behind this peace offering. The two had their first conversation and would continue to have friendly chats in the yard from time to time in the coming years. And over those years, their families began to grow. Justin and Crystal had two more kids and Richard and his wife Kirsten gave birth to a baby girl. As they grew up, the kids were always running back and forth from one another's houses.

Through constantly trying to figure out where exactly those kids were, the couples began talking more and more. They started to hang out together, even without the kids. And eventually they planned a trip to Chicago for both families in December, 2017. The Friday before the Chicago trip, every single parent managed to have the day off work. They took advantage of this rare opportunity to walk all the kids to school together.

All four parents loved to be outside. In fact, they loved it so much that they wanted to walk nearly a mile in the cold both ways just because they could. During that walk, they started talking about how to keep their kids outside and active over the winter months. They knew that the allure of tablets and indoor toys was even stronger when it was cold outside. By the end of the walk, a competition had been started.

Each couple had to come up with the most fun outdoor activities to incorporate into their upcoming trip. Just a few days later, they had realized something through their research. There was no resource out there with all the information they were looking for. With the plethora of parents griping about kids spending too much time on electronics and not playing outside anymore, and the difficulty in finding tools to create fun outdoor activities, it seemed like there was an opportunity for someone to figure it out. In fact, they believed they had enough ideas with enough depth that they could create a subscription box program.

Their excitement was ignited. When they went to Chicago, they spent the days exploring the city and the nights working on their idea while the kids were asleep. By the end of that weekend, the team had agreed on and bought the domain name, Think Outside Boxes. They also applied for an LLC, set up eight social media handles, and had a rough layout of what they wanted to work towards. Later that month, they all had a week off between Christmas and New Year's.

It was then that they really began to plant the seeds of this nature loving business. They spent their time surrounded by huge folding tables and taped up flip charts on the walls. They determined what their boxes would include, as well as their timeline to launch and a list of tasks they needed to complete. After some deliberation, they decided that each box would cost $35. The price goes down a bit if you decide to subscribe quarterly and down even further if you commit to a year.

But wait, you won't believe what they decided to do next. They chose to create only 12 boxes total, one per month for a year. That's right, they decided to cap the length of time a customer could commit to their business. Each box is themed and follows a track that teaches topics including nutrition, first aid, navigation, and my personal favorite, fire setting. Now this was highly unconventional, but everyone on the team had experience with quitting subscription box programs after only six months of purchasing them.

A lot of times they felt like they had gained all they could from the service. They believed that with a clear end of the subscription, they would have a higher retention rate. Now this business is still new. It only launched about five months ago in July, but Justin reports that they have been right so far. The people who begin the program keep coming back for more.

To market their product, the team first experimented with traditional methods of online advertising. They tried paid social marketing, then Google pay-per-click ads, and neither of these methods really got them the traffic they were looking for. At some point, they realized that their story was difficult to tell in those ways. So instead, they began attending outdoor events and connected with nature-loving influencers. This has been a big help to their profits.

Before making the switch, Think Outside Boxes was making about 500 to $1,500 a month. When they took time out to attend those events, their October profit ended up being around $3,000. Plus, they were recently featured on Crate Joy, a database full of subscription box businesses. Justin says that a key part of doing business is to put the relationships you have ahead of the business itself, always. We hope their success continues, and remember, Team Side Hustle School is rooting for you.

[Music]

So this is really interesting, this whole point of starting a subscription box but having a fixed length to it. I actually think it is really smart. It reminds me of a program that I did a long time ago, several years back, called Adventure Capital. It was an online continuity program, but it also had a 12-month fixed length. And that was partly for the same reason that I thought people were kind of fatigued with this idea of paying month after month with no end in sight, but it was also for me.

I like the idea of saying, okay, here is this fixed course and here's this program that I make for 12 months and then it's over. Now, I do think the track that they have, like the themed boxes that they have created, is key for maintaining retention because you know that if you subscribe to this service, you know, over the course of a year, this month you're getting this thing, next month this thing kind of goes by quarter and so you have this sense that you're building to a logical end. I think that is a big part in keeping those retention levels up. So perhaps the downside is, okay, well, if somebody is a true fan, after 12 months, you know, they're out, but I really think the upside greatly outweighs that because if somebody is a true fan and wants to keep subscribing, I'll probably just tell other people about it and bring other customers to you. And if they really are able to keep their average retention, you know, above six months, you know, nine months up to 12 for a lot of people, then that is much better than so many subscription boxes out there.

So interesting model and of course, it is a much needed topic. When I was a kid, I didn't get outside much. I pretty much spent all my time playing video games. Not that that was a bad way to spend a childhood. I mean, no regrets there.

I also wanted to mention a resource. I may have talked about this at some other point, but I've been listening to it again. I've been listening to the audio book called "Never Lose a Customer Again," which was written by a friend of mine, Joey Coleman. And I read this book when it first came out, really liked it. Now I'm actually going back through it.

And whenever I go for a long run, I'm listening to a couple of chapters of it. It is all about creating fantastic customer experience, choosing to really invest in customer support and maintaining retention, which is something a lot of businesses struggle with. So if that is interesting to you, check it out. Again, it's called "Never Lose a Customer Again." All right, thank you so much for joining me today. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Today's show notes, including links to everything I discussed, great joy, and of course, think outside boxes are at sidehustleschool.com/678. I will be back with you again tomorrow as we continue our journey. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School."