Stay At Home Mom Delivers Fresh Side Income

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

[Music]

Welcome to a brand new week on Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. So excited you're here. Got a great story for you today to kick things off. First of all, what if you're out there and you don't have a lot of resources?

What if you don't have a lot of time? What if you have always worked in a traditional job and don't know much about running a business? Well, guess what? I have a little reality check. Long ago, those may have been valid reasons for not starting a side hustle, but no more.

My entire goal here, my mission is to show you how regular people, perhaps regular people just like you, are breaking down barriers and finding a way to succeed in this brave new world of opportunity. Today's story features someone who had all of those limitations, all of those perceived barriers to entry, yet she managed to do pretty well for herself. It's all about a stay-at-home mom who delivers fresh side income. She's actually delivering that in the form of produce. After moving to Tennessee from Canada, a restless homemaker creates an online farmer's market, delivering that produce to more than 200 homes a week.

Pretty cool story. It even features a fun fact about homing pigeons. I'll tell you about that at the very end. So let's say thanks to our sponsor and then take root. [Music]

Shortly after getting married, Anju Wilson moved from Canada to Tennessee.

The state of cowboy boots and country music was a world away from what she had known, but that wasn't the only difference. In Canada, Anju worked in human resources, but in the United States, she became a stay-at-home mom, at least for a while. Anju loved her kids, but she simply didn't wanna be a full-time homemaker. Hopeful of finding a new hobby to keep her busy, she brainstormed a few ideas and sowed a few seeds, but it wasn't until 2015 that one of them began to germinate. After thinking through her interests, one thing stood out above everything else.

She was incredibly passionate about good nutrition. She loved going to local farmers markets to buy in-season produce and support growers. Her hunch was that many other moms would feel the same way. And to validate that hunch, Anju didn't have to look far at all. She made a Facebook group for fresh food-loving moms in her area.

Her goal was to meet moms so they could pool their resources and buy artisan and fresh foods and book. She figured if even a handful of other people were willing to contribute, they could save quite a bit on their weekly food bills. It didn't take long for the seed of her idea to sprout its first leaves. Within a couple of weeks, she had 30 members, was already organizing bulk orders. Once an order was made, they would arrange a play date to drop off the produce.

She continued to nurture the group. And over the next year, the member count grew to more than 600. Her small seedling was now growing into a plant. And the more moms she met, the more Anju realized there was a lot more potential with this concept. She felt she could leverage her existing audience to launch a food-based side hustle.

And to do that, she partnered with a passionate mom she befriended through the Facebook group. They wanted to create an online store that would simulate a local farmer's market. Customers would pay once for a membership and then for a weekly fee, have fresh seasonal food delivered to them. It would make sourcing local produce much easier for people. They decided to call their new venture, Weekly Fig.

And before they started thinking about a website, they knew they'd need suppliers to provide produce. Buying for a few people every week was one thing. Now they were hoping to deliver it to hundreds of homes. So they'd need arrangements with local suppliers who could work in bulk. Fortunately, they lived in Tennessee where there's no shortage of farmers.

So Anju and her co-founder Hitler wrote to talk to them. They explained to the farmers what they were trying to do and all were receptive. But of course, they had to work out a pricing model. One that meant the farmers would be fairly paid while at the same time leaving enough margin for Weekly Fig to profit. Anju didn't want it to cost them an arm and a leak.

To do that, they didn't rely on tough negotiation tactics. They were simply open and honest. For items they wanted, Anju would offer a price they could afford to pay and the farmers either accepted or declined. This was important to her as part of supporting local farmers means paying them a fair and livable wage. The approach worked well.

By being transparent about what they could afford, they built trust and were able to recruit 14 different farms. Weekly Fig could now supply everything from meat to dairy, bread to eggs, and of course, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. That was all well and good, but now they needed a website. An online store was one of the most important parts of their vision. Knowing that, they decided to spend most of their startup capital building the site, and the total cost was $4,000.

Finally, with suppliers ready and the website live, it was time to turn up the beat. Also, to launch it, you know, to get it out there. Through some hustle and a bit of luck, Anju and her co-founder launched Weekly Fig with an interview on local radio. Before the segment was over, they had 10 people sign up for weekly delivery. It was a great validation of their business model and a promising start.

From there, things continued to grow via word of mouth, so much so that Weekly Fig delivered to 300 homes in the first year. In fact, it was getting to be too much work. They needed some help, and they knew just where to look, that stay-at-home mom network. Anju began to recruit her friends as delivery drivers. These drivers would be responsible for delivering the food once per week to homes close to where they lived.

Now, that's the great thing about the Weekly Fig business model, it is weekly. In other words, Anju could get the help she needed, but at the same time, batch a lot of the tasks together in a single day so that she doesn't need full-time employees. The day before delivery day, all suppliers ship their stock to the Weekly Fig home hub. Anju and the team pack up the individual boxes, the fleet of drivers then arrives and picks them up for delivery the next day. The delivery area is divided into seven zones, one zone for each driver.

Those zones are designed in such a way that deliveries can be done while the driver is returning home. This technique has enabled them to the point of delivering to over 200 houses each week, and all deliveries are completed in just four hours. The financial side of this side hustle is also quite healthy. In 2017, the total revenue generated was $37,000, and they are expecting much more before the end of 2018. So far, the co-founders haven't been taking any money out of the business for themselves, but it's not because they can't, it's because they have no debt and are reinvesting everything back into growth.

And while they aren't taking any money directly, there is a plus side. They have zero dollar food bills since all their family food needs are covered by Weekly Fig. They do have to take some money from the business soon, but for now, like a good crop, they just want to see it grow. The team has recently rebranded their website and increased the number of products they offer. Their goal for the next year is to focus more on education and to use that as an acquisition tool.

They believe that teaching people the benefits of supporting local farms and eating healthy will bring in plenty of new customers. And when that is up and running, they hope to duplicate the model in other cities. Anju has planted herself in fertile soil. [Music]

Well, isn't that a fun story? I've got a fun fact for you as well.

This is a really fun, fun fact. I wish to just say it's like a super deluxe fun fact. So some of her suppliers, some of the suppliers for Weekly Fig, they come from Amish Farms outside the city. And these communities don't have electricity or modern communication tools, so they can't take orders over the phone or through the internet. What do they do?

Well, to handle this problem, the orders are sent to the farms via homing pigeon. Not a joke, sent to the farms via homing pigeon on small sheets of paper attached to the bird's leg. If that is not the most awesome, fun fact you hear today, I'm just gonna give up. I mean, I think that's so cool. I wanna take orders via homing pigeon.

I was gonna focus on cryptocurrency, but I think I'm gonna just back it up a little bit and go vintage homing pigeon. Also, I mentioned $4,000 in startup costs. Okay, where did that money come from? So we asked Anju and she said, "For Weekly Fig, we pre-sold membership in veggie boxes, and that helped fund everything else. We then worked out of a garage until things picked up." So my advice is start small, don't spend money on extravagant things until you build up a base.

Great advice, Anju. Thank you so much. That well illustrates the Side Hustle School model. You can do more than you think, and your limitations might not be limitations at all. My friends, we are indeed living in that new world of possibility.

I really believe there is something out there for everyone. I hope you do everything you can to find it. I'm gonna do everything I can to keep bringing you stories. Perhaps one of them will give you an idea. And as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes, including links to Weekly Fig, are at sidehustleschool.com/709. That is for episode 709. Coming back at you again tomorrow with 710 and much more on the way, be sure you're subscribed. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School.