Rosary Bead Hustle Pays Bills for Homeschooling Mom

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

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Welcome to a new week. And also, hey, welcome to the Rosary Bead Hustle. This is Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Gonna tell you today about a mother of two who learns to make a full-time income working from home so that she can spend more time with her kids.

And she does it by selling, well, I guess I already told you, she's selling Rosary Beads. Now, this is pretty cool. She now earns at least $20,000 a year from Etsy sales and even more from being stocked in a local department store. These crafty creations have answered her prayers, provided her with manna, milk and honey, and even a new camel. It's actually a new car.

You can think of it like a Toyota camel. Lots of good lessons here, all about making something that people want, getting positive reviews, keeping up with inventory, all kinds of stuff. So asking it will be given to you, seek and you will find, list your items and you will sell. Here's a message on behalf of our sponsor and then we will walk by faith, not by sight, straight to this story. [Music]

When Maria Lauren had her first child, she knew she couldn't go back to her day job in a bank.

Hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet was much more alluring than counting other people's deposits all day. But how would she make her dream a reality? Well, she started by selling items on eBay shortly after her son was born. That was fine for a while, but it was also exhausting. Listing products, shipping them out every day, dealing with customer questions, it was a lot of work.

And most important of all, Maria just didn't enjoy it. She liked some parts of it, but not all. After the birth of her second child and then eventually seeing both her kids start school, she started looking around for something else to do. Around this time, she also began volunteering at the school. They had a charity gala coming up and needed some help making rosary beads.

Guessing this was a Catholic school, since it's, you know, rosary beads. Maria jumped in. The school provided her with the necessary beads and equipment, and it turned out that she had a real knack for it. In no time at all, she'd crafted some beautiful pieces that caught the attention of a lot of people at the gala. It was at this event that an unsuspecting Maria found a customer for a business she hadn't even conceived of yet.

A friend saw the rosary beads and asked if she could create a custom set for her daughter as a gift. This friend was very specific about what she wanted in terms of coloring and sizing. And since Maria had enjoyed the process so much, she leapt at the chance. That custom order led to another, and another, and another. Before she knew it, Maria had created a handful of custom pieces, and almost as if guided by something greater than herself, had become a jewelry maker.

But transitioning it to a business, she wasn't so sure about that. Then one night, she had a vision. A North star was leading her to etsy.com, or actually her mom said, "Hey Maria, why don't you open up an Etsy store?" So she did, and she named that store Willow and Bead. The biggest difference between making custom orders and selling on Etsy was the outlay of costs and materials. Custom orders enabled her to keep costs down.

Someone would order a piece, Maria would buy the beads, and then make what they wanted straight away. When pre-making products for sale online, however, she didn't have that luxury. Maria wanted to make sure that what she made would sell, so that she could recoup her costs quickly. To do that, she made a few different pieces and asked her friends what they liked, and what they'd be willing to pay for it. That information, combined with a few sales she'd already made, helped her stock inventory that was likely to sell.

Right after launching her store, a friend placed a custom order. And here's a smart thing, pay attention to this. Instead of selling it to her directly, Maria asked her friend to purchase the piece through Etsy. It cost her a small amount in fees, but then the friend could post a positive review, and that review helped kick things off, validating her store to other would-be customers. At this point, Maria got a little too excited, which translated into her buying a lot of beads she never ended up using, and then making a lot of pieces that never ended up selling.

Shiny object syndrome is real, but gradually she learned, and only kept on hand enough product to make 50 to 75 pieces. As they sold down, only then would she purchase more supplies. Once in a while she would misfire, and make something that wasn't popular, but that was fine, because then she could just discount it to move it out of the shop quickly, and she knew to never make more of that kind. After a few years of steady selling on Etsy, her mom nudged her forward again. She suggested that Maria try to sell her pieces at Bon Mar, a popular department store chain in their part of the country.

Maria thought that would be impossible, but her mom, once again her biggest fan, kept insisting. Eventually Maria gave in and sent off a Hail Mary email to the buying team at the store. As it turned out, Grace was on her side. The team loved her pieces and decided to stock them. A couple more years went by, and Maria expanded her collection further, adding bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.

Because she stuck with her low inventory model, her Etsy store grew from strength to strength. Of course, there have been a few trials and tribulations. One of the issues was not trademarking her name. In hindsight, she thinks she should have done this from the very beginning, as there are now a few other nonrelated companies using the same name. She also admits that she doesn't always enjoy keeping up with records and receipts.

But in the end, those are small problems. Maria's faith in the path helped her create a great little side hustle that has changed her life for the better. In the past year, her Etsy store has generated over $20,000 in profit, and that doesn't include sales from the Bon Mar department stores, which significantly increases that number. Although she makes more profit margin from her Etsy store, the volume that comes through Bon Mar makes up for the difference. All those sales have improved her family's life.

She's been able to save up and buy a car, go on vacations, and do a lot of things that would just not be possible if she had gone back to work at the bank. It also allowed her to eventually start homeschooling her kids, bringing them even more time together. A little faith, a little hustle, and Maria is exactly where she needs to be. [Music]

Awesome, congratulations to Maria. Always love stories of self-sufficiency, people who are pursuing the path of side hustles to be able to care for their family or otherwise do what's important to them.

And now here are some biblical lessons from the Willow and Bee Shop. First of all, Maria, remember the 11th commandment. Thou shalt get positive reviews as quickly as possible. Very smart to have your friend place an order. This is a friend who was gonna order anyway, just to be clear.

But instead of just doing the order directly, Maria said, "Hey, come and place it on Etsy." That way her friend could leave her a legit positive review. Very good. Number two, as the psalmist said, "Though I may walk through the valley of excessive inventory, "I shall fear no overstock. "I will be wise and put my less popular products on sale." Listen, the struggle can be real. If you're making an artistic product, some kind of crafty thing like this, for a lot of people, probably myself included, it's our natural instinct to just buy a ton of supplies.

And, you know, have hundreds and hundreds of these rosary beads available for sale, and trying all kinds of different patterns and colors, and, you know, just going overboard. But Maria showed a lot of restraint in saying I'm only gonna stock 50 to 75 products at any given time. And when those sell down, that's when I'm gonna order more supplies and make more products. So she is wise. She follows the admonition of, I believe it was the Apostle Paul, who said, "I can do all things through Etsy "who gives me strength." And for you, listeners, friends, community, do not grow weary in doing good.

Because if you set this up properly, those bank deposits will arrive day after day, at least as long as you put in the work. You gotta walk by faith, not by sight, but you also have to put in the work. That's what Side Hustle School is all about, helping you achieve a goal that's important to you, helping you create freedom, independence, confidence, security, all good things to help you live the life you want. It's not just about making money, it's about what does that allow you to do to become how can you serve others, how can you achieve your own dreams? That's a value that I try to live out every day, both here on the show and elsewhere.

If you'd like to check out the show notes for today's episode, perhaps pick up some rosary beads for yourself or someone who needs them, just come to sidehustleschool.com/807. We're gonna link up Maria's site and anything else I mentioned in the episode. A lot more stuff is on the way, come back tomorrow, be sure you're subscribed, tell your friends, it's completely free. This resource is here to serve you. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.