Notes from Chris

Episode 1261

When Becky Hoy first got married, life was good. But after her husband was sent on a long deployment as an Active Duty Army soldier, she began to get bored. Her day job as a HR director kept her busy, but it wasn’t enough to occupy all her free time during the months he’d be away.

She also felt lonely. Fortunately, Becky wasn’t one to sit around and mope for too long. She started looking for something to get her fired up. As a fan of self-improvement, she began to see the alone time as an opportunity to better herself.

She started by carefully planning each remaining day until her husband returned—and as she did, she went from cursing the deployment to feeling like it happened for a reason.

Fast forward a few years, and a friend of Becky’s was in a similar situation with her husband recently deployed. To help her out, Becky shared her philosophy and created a care package filled with the same tools and treats that she’d used during those tough months. Things like personal care products, journals, and a few luxuries.

Then she thought: if her concept worked for two people, it’d probably work for military spouses all across the country. With that thought, she initiated a side hustle mission...

Being familiar with subscription boxes, Becky thought it was the perfect model for her idea. She called it Brave Crate and, in just ninety days, she had the concept all mapped out. It was time to put boots on the ground.

She offered people on the list a special ‘founding member’ discount. This was a limited time offer that would never be repeated. This secured Becky thirty-six initial customers, a number she could hardly believe. She celebrated with a happy dance, dinner and mojitos.

To source products for the boxes, Becky looked for handmade goods of the self-care variety, the types of things you’d find on Etsy. Since she expected order volume to be low in the beginning, she felt safe ordering from individual sellers rather than wholesalers.

While that isn’t all profit and not quite enough to quit her day job, Becky has a new mission planned for 2020. That includes more products and services for military spouses, the first of which will be a course to help them launch their own online businesses.

She’s proven you don’t have to be a seasoned veteran to win the side hustle war.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Becky and her subscription box for military spouses at her website, BraveCrates.com.

SEE ALSO:

• Nature-Loving Neighbors Create Kids Subscription Box: When two couples can’t figure out how to get their kids outdoors and away from electronics in the winter, a personal challenge blossoms into an unbeLEAFable side hustle.
• Cigar Subscription Box Delivers Smoking Returns: A software engineer starts a premium subscription box service for savvy cigar smokers.
• Comic Book Curator Creates Custom Crate Subscription: A Sacramento-based comic and collectibles owner sparks an interest in reading with a monthly comic book subscription box service.

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

Yours in the revolution,

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