Notes from Chris

Episode 885

Aaron Spivak loved his juice bar business. He had eight of them throughout Toronto, but growing them was a major burden. Each location was really only accessible to the people in nearby neighborhoods—which meant, if he wanted to keep getting new customers, he’d have to keep opening new brick-and-mortar stores.

When e-commerce started to pick up steam, Aaron was captivated. He realized he could sell juice and smoothie related products to anyone without needing a physical location, so he tried it out by building a basic WordPress site and learning as he went—and it worked. His juice brand, Revitalize, slowly grew to have customers all over Canada.

But, always up for experimenting, Aaron wanted to try something else. A friend of his named Lior kept mentioning an idea—weighted blankets. That friend had seen how helpful a heavy blanket could be for reducing stress and anxiety and sleeping better, and when they both noticed a successful Kickstarter campaign in early 2017 for a very similar product, they decided to just go for it.

Aaron started calling up manufacturers in the blanket and textile spaces. He called five, then ten, then fifty. The rejections just kept rolling in. Nobody wanted to manufacture a really high-quality blanket at small quantities. Sales reps kept trying to convince him to go with a lower quality material—but Aaron didn’t want a mediocre blanket. He wanted a stellar one. One blanket to weigh down them all.

Finally, after nearly 150 calls, Aaron found a partner who was willing to create the blankets. Before he and Lior placed their first order, they wanted to see if they could get some pre-sales to soften the blow of the initial inventory investment, which was priced at nearly $90,000 Canadian dollars.

So they set up a really simple Shopify store with their product, the Hush Blanket, listed them at about $200 (these blankets aren’t cheap), then launched some pre-sale ads on Google. The two spent all day together working on logistics, waiting eagerly for that first sale. But it didn’t come.

The next day, Aaron and Lior kept waiting—but no sales. Their ads were getting lots of impressions… why weren’t people clicking and buying? Even though it had only been two days, the lack of a single sale was heartbreaking.

And then, at 9pm that night, while Aaron was gathering his things to go home, they heard it: “Cha-ching!” Aaron’s Shopify app made the noise they’d been waiting for—their first sale! They high-fived, spend a few minutes dreaming of the next few days, and parted ways.

Just 18 months since launch, Hush Blankets is already clearing multi-six figures each year in profit. Much of it has been reinvested in the business, including the introduction of their new Hush Iced Blanket—a cooler version of the original blanket for warm weather.

And while the money is great, it’s something else that really makes Aaron and his partner proud: the customer reviews. The business is making a difference. People with anxiety are sleeping better than they have in years. Aaron himself is more of a restless soul: he’s now looking for his next big idea.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Hush Blankets: Tuck in and learn more about Aaron's side hustle over on his website
• Shopify: Aaron used Shopify to set up his site for Hush Blankets, and they're offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!
• Indiegogo | Hush Iced: And check out Aaron's new Indiegogo campaign for the Hush Iced Blanket—just in time for summer!

SEE ALSO:

• Shoe Designer Runs After $1 Million Challenge: “Why can’t dress shoes look great and perform well at the same time?” This runner and industrial designer was irritated, so he set out to find the sole solution
• Business Students Make $125,000 Selling Headphone Attachments: Two friends always talked about starting a business. But it wasn’t until a run-in with some expensive headphones that they finally found the idea they’d been waiting for
• Line Chef Makes Millions Cooking Up Apron Empire: A chef sets out to reinvent the humble apron, growing it to a multi-million-dollar company while still working in restaurants at night

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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