Hand-Stamped Feminist Jewelry Earns $25,000 Side Income

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

[Music]

Greetings and welcome back. This is Side Hustle School. I'm Chris Guillebeau. Fun story for you today. I love seeing success stories of artists who make money.

And I've mentioned this before, but it's totally okay to make art just for the sake of art, of course. But I know that there's this big group of artists out there, including a number who listen to the show, and they're making art but not making money, and they would like to change that. So I always get excited when I find a good example of someone who's been able to do something fun that they enjoy that uses their skill and creativity and also brings them a good side income. So if you're out there making art and not making money, don't give up, but do see what you can learn and how you can adapt. Today's story is about a woman who makes hand-stamped feminist jewelry and earned more than $25,000 from it just last year.

That story right after this. [Music]

Today's story comes from Stacy Bowers in Little Rock, Arkansas. Stacy works as a communications coordinator for an arts education nonprofit, and her side hustle is called Bang Up Betty. She sells hand-stamped, funny, feminist jewelry, as well as some tote bags, shirts, and enamel pins. Bang Up Betty started as a jewelry-making hobby, but it's grown into a solid brand with a good size following.

It all began when Stacy made copper bracelets for holiday gifts, and the bracelets contained four-letter acronyms like OMFG and STFU. The gifts were a big hit, so she decided to list them on Etsy. It seemed easy to get her designs out there and available to buyers. The bracelets she made were pretty simple, yet fun, so she continued to experiment with Etsy listings. Then she decided to build her own website using Squarespace, and she got the domain bangupbetty.com.

At first, that website was merely informational, and all her sales would go through Etsy. She designed it herself, which involved staying up late nights chatting with the Squarespace customer service team so she could figure things out without hiring a web designer. A friend volunteered to take portraits and product photos for the new site. Eventually, she converted that site to an e-commerce one, which allowed her to save money on processing and listing fees at Etsy. She wanted her side hustle to be sustainable, both in case Etsy failed her for some reason, but also because she wanted people who wore her designs to say they got them from bangupbetty, not from Etsy.

Now, I said her designs were fun and feminist. She has a smash the patriarchy shopping bag that you can purchase. She has a nasty woman bracelet, and she also has designs that are merely fun, like a George Michael heart pin or a necklace that simply reads hot mess. Stacy gets her supplies from chains to charms to shipping envelopes from probably 15 to 20 different suppliers. She says she keeps her workspace organized and her supplies in clear containers, so she's never surprised to be out of something.

In fact, she says her workspace, which is one part of her apartment, is cleaner than the rest of the apartment because it helps her to maintain order and peace while she's making and shipping out products. And the jewelry making itself is also a pretty organized process. There are five steps to it, stamping, polishing, drilling, assembling, and packing. Stacy makes a lot of different items per week, but she breaks down the steps over several days so that she doesn't feel completely overwhelmed. She does all of her own marketing from sending printed materials to potential retailers to managing her social media accounts.

And the least favorite part of the business is, well, the business side, like keeping records of her expenses and sales to hand her her CPA as a detailed spreadsheet every year. She has a file folder that has labels for shipping receipts, materials receipts, sales tax confirmations, and so on. As long as it's not the holiday season when her sales skyrocket, Stacy's able to keep a healthy balance of work, side hustle, and play. Her job at the education nonprofit takes up some of her weekends with fundraisers or scholarship competitions that have to work around school schedules, but she's able to work just about each evening for at least an hour or two on Bang Up Betty. In December, though, she's in full panic mode all the time, waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel, that light is called January, and the big payoff she receives for all her hard work.

Last year, Stacy made more than $25,000 from Bang Up Betty. She's now shopping for her first house, in large part because the business has outgrown her apartment. Stacy also takes advantage of opportunities to give back. Last year, she created a Strong as Hell bracelet and donated 100% of the proceeds to an organization called Arkansas Women's Outreach. She also recently came up with a new line of enamel pins with proceeds that go to the ACLU and other causes she believes in.

[Music]

Awesome, so what struck me about this, Bang Up Betty, which by the way, you may have noticed, Stacy's name is not Betty. Betty is the name of her cat. So that's where that comes from. What struck me about it was its strength, how this brand kind of takes a clear stand. The jewelry looks really fun.

It's affordable. A lot of the pieces are like 40 bucks. It has phrases like, "I believe in science." Doesn't really apologize. It doesn't try to tone it down. And I think that's a big part of why it's successful.

You can look at her listings on Etsy or go to the website bangupbettie.com. You will have an immediate opinion on it. Some people are gonna respond very well to it. Others won't, but there's no in between. And it also makes for great gift items, especially since there's so much variety.

Some of the items have personalization options. And as I said, it looks really good. It's affordable without being cheap. So it's no surprise that December is a huge month for her. If you're an artist, what can you learn from this?

What can you take away? If you're not an artist, you can still think about that messaging. What can you take a stand for? What can you create? It's going to attract some people while repelling others.

Don't be afraid to do that. I hope this gets you thinking. And I hope something you hear today pushes you forward a little bit. I hope it helps you take action. I already mentioned Stacy's website.

You can also read more about her and see her designs on the show notes page, which is sidehustleschool.com/124. Episode 124. Thank you for listening. Much more is on the way. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

[Music]