Rustic Wall Hangings Rack Up Worthwhile Profits

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

[Music]

Only four months into starting, today's side hustler transitioned her project into a full-time income. She did this by following a different approach than we usually recommend. In fact, in her words, she jumped off the cliff, closing off her other sources of income so that she would be hyper-focused in making this new business venture work for her. You can call that side hustle hard mode, not something we recommend, as I said, but she won the challenge. She passed the test, she defeated the end boss, and then she became her own boss, which is the point.

In this story, we'll hear about how this self-taught manufacturer of home decor begins earning up to $8,000 a month from her woodworking. There's also a twist, one that we don't have very often, in that she begins the project with her partner, like her life partner and her work partner, and that person is no longer her partner, either her life partner or her work partner. Now, fortunately, they were able to decouple amicably, but not without some regrets. So she was very open with us about that. We'll look at that experience, along with a couple of tips for anyone interested in taking a hands-on project like woodworking to the next level.

Lots of good stuff in this episode. Stay tuned for Rustic Wall Hanging's Rack Up Worthwhile Prophets. [Music]

In Spokane, Washington, CJ Morrison runs her own business, hand-crafting unique items made from wood. She builds her pieces in her garage, typically wooden wall art, geometric shelving, and tables, then sells them online and through wholesale accounts. This is now a very successful endeavor, bringing in a full-time income.

But of course, it wasn't always that way. Before starting the side hustle, CJ and her former partner, Joe, were working on other projects, including reselling vintage furniture. While meeting up with people and selling out of her car was fun, it was also unpredictable. CJ craved something more solid, and she also didn't want to just be a reseller, she wanted to make something of her own. Drawing on their vintage furniture exploits, CJ and Joe started thinking about how to use their creative capacities to enhance people's homes.

The idea they chose sprang to life after visiting a friend who had a handmade geometric inlay coffee table. Upon seeing that tabletop and thinking that they could pull off something on par with it, they bought a couple of saws and converted their one car garage into a wood shop. They found some reclaimed wood at a lumber yard and got busy designing. Then they made their first collection of 12 pieces, art hangings, trays, and tabletops. It's worth noting that CJ had zero experience with woodworking, outside watching her dad work with tools when she was younger.

Joe, again her partner at the time, grew up with a dad who was a contractor, but he'd never built any furniture or home goods either. Together, they learned on the fly, with CJ jumping in with drawing and creating designs and both of them doing the actual woodwork. Serendipity arrived when a woman who owned an art gallery came to buy a set of vintage side tables and noticed their collection of wooden wall panels. This encounter led to their work being displayed at the woman's gallery. It was key in getting exposure in the very first month of starting.

They participated in their first craft fair about a month later and made $1,000. CJ said at the time they didn't know how to price their work and discovered later that they were underpricing, but still that weekend it felt huge for them. And just as they'd learned to use those tools and design their own handcrafted art, they learned about running a business. They called this business Roaming Roots Woodworks. It cost a grand total of $700 to get off the ground, mostly the cost of tools and materials, in addition to setting up their first website.

They traveled to art festivals and craft fairs across the state, as well as to neighboring states. They also posted daily on Instagram to show people that what they were creating was desirable. Those people were taking notice. It seemed the more they displayed their work, the more they were booked out with orders. As they continued to make, share and sell, they gained confidence and raised their prices.

Whenever demand was too high, they'd raise their prices again. This strategy has worked out well as a business model, with CJ saying the market will let you know when you're overpriced. The business grew from strength to strength, but as time went on, there was one big problem that resulted in a major change. Because they both lived and worked together, CJ and Joe were almost never apart, and their relationship didn't make it through the stressors of a home-based business and the intensity of their schedule. There was a time when they were working seven days a week, 10 hours a day, to keep up with demand for their pieces.

They eventually went their separate ways, with CJ taking over the business completely, doing everything from creating to shipping, to all the behind-the-scenes technical work. She says if she could go back, she would set more healthy boundaries around her schedule and change how much time they spent together. But she's also made peace with the breakup and believes they're both on better paths now than if they'd stay together. This business is now earning between $2,000 and $8,000 a month, depending on the time of year. And CJ is learning new techniques to create more forms of decor.

She eventually plans to transition again. She wants to return to school to become a licensed counselor. But for now, she's busy. There's a new collection of wall hangings and an interview with her local newspaper that require her attention. [Music]

All right, definitely something to consider there in terms of the relationship stuff.

I'm glad she's come to peace with it and believes that she's better off now and that he's better off now, et cetera, et cetera. But of course, a good lesson in just being mindful. If you wanna start a business with your partner, it could bring up a lot of issues. So just be wise, be careful about that. Now, I realized in the story, I didn't even get to the part about, that I mentioned in the introduction, of how she went all in a few months after starting and deliberately closed off her other sources of income, including the vintage furniture reselling business.

And that's not always something I recommend that people do. And in fact, I tend to recommend the opposite, where you keep your source of income and you kind of build out your side hustle until it has the potential to replace that income. But I also respect the bravery. I respect the kind of courage it takes to say, this is what I want to do. And I'm gonna focus fully on it.

You can also ask yourself in that situation, what are the costs of failure? If it doesn't work out, can I go back to selling vintage furniture? Can I go back to something else? And if the answer is yes, then maybe you realize, okay, the stakes are not that high. I can give myself a better chance of success.

And if it doesn't work, then the cost of failure is not super high. So it could be something to think about. And also one practical tip, CJ's price points are determined by three factors, the size and difficulty of each piece, the materials needed, and then her time. So if you're interested in woodworking or something similar, that's like hands-on arts and craftsy, you can find standard calculators online to help you determine the wholesale price of handmade goods. We'll see if we can link at least one of them up in the show notes.

And CJ did that, and then she would double the wholesale price for retail sales. And as you heard, she's doing really well. So congratulations, CJ. And by the way, her art looks fantastic. I was looking at her Instagram.

I actually wouldn't go and buy one myself. So I'm just looking around my living room to see, you know, where it might fit. You should check it out for yourself. And don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. The show notes, including links to everything I mentioned are at sidestalescool.com/816.

Also, it's the last call for our 30-day email challenge, the landing page challenge where you can get a free account and also some training to help build your first 1,000 email subscribers. Just go to sidestalescool.com/challenge. If you haven't signed up yet, it's going to be closing soon. Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back again tomorrow.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From The Onward Project.