Military Spouse Starts Subscription Box Mission

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

[Music]

Oh yeah, what's up everybody. Chris Guillebeau here for Side Hustle School. I hope you are doing well. I hope you are investing in yourself. I hope you are handling whatever struggles and challenges come your way.

I know it's been quite a year of struggle and challenge for so many people. So I just acknowledge that first and foremost. And I encourage you to find a way to come to the end of this year and look back and say, "Wow, what a crazy year. A lot of stuff happened that was outside my control, but I did something for myself as well. And I actually found a way to move forward, even in the midst of a difficult time." And in today's case study/story, when an HR director's husband gets sent on military deployment, she uses the alone time to march toward a subscription box.

This care package helps other military spouses shift their focus away from just counting the days until homecoming and onto self-care and personal development. So if you find yourself in a situation that's outside your control, and it involves a certain amount of waiting, you have a choice in how you will spend that waiting time. And I've been thinking a lot about that this year, the year of 2020, the year that time stood still. So if you have some extra time, will you just wait around for the circumstance to change, or will you use it to your benefit? That is my challenge and encouragement for you.

And the story is called "Military Spouse Starts Subscription Box Mission." That story is coming up after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

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 an HR director kept her busy, but it wasn't enough to occupy all her free time during the long months he'd be away. She also felt lonely.

Unfortunately, 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 might work for military spouses all across the country. With that thought, she initiated a side hustle mission.

Ton ton ton. Being familiar with subscription boxes, Becky thought that was the perfect model for her idea. She called it Brave Crate, and in just 90 days, she had the concept all mapped out. It was time to put boots on the ground. She set up a website to collect the emails of potential customers.

When the time was right, she could promote her product directly to their inboxes. The difficult part though, was finding ways to build the list. To do so, Becky chose to create what's known as a lead magnet. A lead magnet is something of value you can offer to people in exchange for their email address. And in her case, the magnet was a short ebook of conversation starters military couples could use when one partner was deployed.

She offered people on the list a special founding member discount. This was a limited time offer that would never be repeated. It secured Becky 36 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. Throughout the process of creating the boxes, she continually reminded herself that done is better than perfect. She knew deep down that she'd be more critical of her work than her customers would. It was vital to launch and get the concept out there.

So for example, rather than have professional packaging made, she used a homemade option with inserts on her home computer. It wasn't as beautiful as it might've been, but it got the job done. And it allowed her to quickly get the first batch of subscription boxes to her founding members. By the end of the first month, Becky was exhausted. But the mission was still far from over because Brave Crate began blowing up.

That lead magnet continued to generate emails and word of mouth began to spread. The customer referrals only compounded her existing marketing efforts on outreach to bloggers and influencers in the military community. Within months, it became overwhelming. To tackle the problem, Becky quickly discovered the value of batching tasks. She began grouping together common activities like packing the boxes and shipping so she could get it all done at once.

This saved significant time in stopping and starting. She was also able to automate things like emails, invoicing, and charging customers. Doing all of that enabled her to scale the business quickly. And those improvements led to significant success in just two short years. Becky has gone from sending 36 boxes a month to several hundred a month and generating more than $10,000 in revenue each month.

While that isn't all profit and not quite enough to quit her day job, Becky has a new mission planned for 2020 and beyond. This mission includes more products and services for military spouses. The first of which will be a course to help them launch their own online business. She's proven you don't have to be a seasoned veteran to win the side hustle war. [Music]

Well, I love this story.

Congratulations to Becky. She's done a wonderful job, obviously, and what a great name, Brave Crate. I mean, that is a work of art in itself. I was looking at her website and I also like, among other things, how she describes her pricing. So we go to the frequently asked questions page.

You know, there's a question, obvious question, how much does it cost? And she says, well, you can get your Brave Crate for just $33.99 a month for a six month subscription. Shipping for your box is only $6 no matter where you are. Brave Crate also offers monthly and three month subscription options. So notice how she's kind of set that up there.

Like you can buy a monthly or a three month subscription, but that's kind of de-emphasized. Like the main emphasis, like the subscription is, you can get your Brave Crate for just $33.99 a month for a six month subscription. That's what she wants people to sign up for. And I bet a lot of these are purchased as gifts. So also by nudging people toward that six month subscription is gonna help her overall retention rate, her average customer value, et cetera.

Now one downside perhaps is it has kind of a limited lifespan because presumably even though a deployment can be long, that military spouse does come back. On the plus side, it's a large market. There are something like 700,000 military spouses in the United States alone. Other countries also have populations of people serving overseas for a while. And usually there are communication networks among spouses or partners who are, I was gonna say left behind, left behind sounds pretty bad, but who are not deployed, let's say, who are back at home.

They have good communication networks and the word can spread among those people. So fantastic project, great example. And listeners, don't forget, if you're inspired, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. My hope is that you will use this time well. I'm trying to do the same, trying to follow what I model.

And if you wanna check out the show notes for today's episode, just come to sidehustleschool.com/1261 for links to Brave Crate and anything else I mentioned in the episode. Oh, and be sure you come back tomorrow because much more is on the way. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.