This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome to a new week of Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Wherever you are in the world, whatever you're up to today, I hope you are thinking about investing in yourself. Every day on the show, there is a new story of someone who does that.
It's usually someone like you, who's pretty busy, already has a full-time job, or has a family, or is going to school, or doing all three of those things, but yet also finds a way to create more freedom for themselves by starting a side hustle. And this show is all about deconstructing the process in a way that you can follow. Now, I've been excited about this episode today. It's kind of a throwback to episode number two of Side Hustle School, all the way back on January 2nd. That episode was called British Man Makes $700 a Month, blogging about fish tanks.
Now, that was right in the beginning of the show, and it was a super popular episode. Really kind of put us on the map. Well, guess what? Apparently, Britain has cornered the market on containers for fish and plant life, although not everyone over there does it the same way. That first story was about earning affiliate income from Amazon.com.
Today's enterprising Brit made the most of a temporary unemployment situation by learning to construct terrariums and sell them online worldwide. I'll bring that story to you right after this. [Music]
25-year-old Adam Shaffee has always loved plants, even though he was born and raised in the concrete jungle of London. When he was young, he sought out all things green, and he was fixated on cactuses, also known as cacti. And by the way, both pronunciations are correct.
And he usually had several around the house. As a teenager, he moved on to carnivorous plants, collecting Venus flytraps and displaying them on his windowsill. Then in his 20s, he migrated towards the more peaceful tomato plant. He might say tomato, and is currently growing 12 varieties. His house is now filled with more than 100 of his favorite tomato plants, as well as 20 other varieties of plants.
Two years ago, Adam graduated with a master's degree and ended up with a good job in marketing. However, it took a few months to find work because of a turn down in the industry. So while he was applying for jobs, he also decided to explore something else. Back when he was a young plant enthusiast, Adam had come across terrariums. If you're not familiar with them, terrariums are geometric shaped mini greenhouses that people use to display their plants and decorate their homes.
And a lot of the early versions of these terrariums were pretty basic. They accomplished the goal of improved humidity for growing the plants, but they didn't look very nice. Adam noticed that there was a new type of terrarium, a geodesic dome that looked a lot better and was steadily gaining popularity. He wondered if he could learn to make them himself. And so he took on a lot of debt and decided to return to university again to get a formal degree in building terrariums.
Just kidding, he actually just logged on to the website wikihow.com. On Wikihow, which is completely free, Adam learned he could make his own glass dome using pre-cut glass triangles and silicon filler. There's a special process they call the Tiffany glass technique, which uses copper foil to create 3D stained glass shapes. If you want to learn more about that, you too can go to wikihow.com. But for the purpose of our story, let's talk about what Adam did with this knowledge.
His interest was piqued. He had a bit of time on his hands while he was applying for jobs. So he decided to attempt making at least one. After also making a few mistakes, he succeeded. And his friends were so impressed by his creation, they encouraged him to sell the terrariums online.
He wasn't sure at first, but he decided to experiment by posting one on Etsy. A few days later, much to Adam's surprise, a customer he described as a nice lady from across the ocean in the U.S. messaged him and put in an order. It was a transcontinental match made in heaven, or at least an exchange of PayPal funds. Adam wrapped the finished product in layers and layers of bubble wrap and sent off his first sale.
Afterwards, he celebrated with a pint at the pub and a trip to the nearest stained glass shop to buy some new tools. That sale had convinced him, so he invested about 500 pounds or $640 for materials and tools, and he created a website using Shopify. Through his Shopify website and his Etsy shop, he offers his customers something a bit different from the mass-produced offerings that they're used to seeing. His terrariums are better made, and he's constantly changing his methods to perfect the finishing on them. Naturally, these handmade products cost a bit more than the ones in the mainstream market, typically ranging from about $45 to $115, depending on the size.
Since starting just over a year ago, he has sold over 100 terrariums, averaging a bit more than 600 pounds a month, just under $800, in monthly income. He's also expanded to sell kits for filling terrariums. These kits include soil, gravel, activated charcoal, and moss. These kits have actually become his best-selling items on Etsy, and as a bonus, they take far less time to make than the terrariums themselves. Adam is busy with his marketing job during the day, but in his hustle time, the next steps include creating additional stock to expand to craft markets throughout London.
Let's see what sprouts next. [Music]
Congratulations, Adam. Whenever I find a story like this, I get excited. Not because I'm particularly interested in terrariums myself, but because it illustrates something that's so important. When you want to have an online business and you're thinking, what should it be?
I encourage you to look for topics or fields or industries that are lesser known, maybe even a bit quirky or esoteric. Those of you who've been listening for a while, you probably notice I don't talk a lot about internet marketing, finance, home business opportunities, or basically anything that's common or stereotypical when you think about, quote unquote, starting an online business. So when you're trying to figure out what your thing is, well, look at plants, for example, or fish tanks, or chicken saddles. Another very popular episode from early on. Or lawn care, like we talked about last week, or hand lettering before that, or organic chemistry.
These are the best places to find your ideas. It has nothing to do with business. You're gonna learn whatever business skills you need, and then you're gonna apply them to whatever topic you end up choosing. Now, by the way, here's an easy practical tip for you. When it comes to selling on Etsy or eBay or any online marketplace like that, good photos go a long way.
Now, I know this sounds simple, but a lot of people who sell on these sites, they really don't have good photos, and something like a terrarium, well, it's very visual. It's also tactile, but since you can't touch it through the screen, you have to be able to really get a good look at it and see why it might be better than just buying one of the mainstream ones. So Adam says he's taking particular care to make sure he's showing really good images of the work he makes. And I think that's true even if you're not selling something so visual. If you compare two people selling the same kind of thing on any one of these sites, and one of them has significantly better images, that person is probably gonna make more sales, or if it's an auction, they're gonna have a higher closing price.
Whatever the metric of success is, taking the time to put care on your listings will go a long way. Well, I hope that was helpful. In addition to other proud exports, like scones or shortbread biscuits, but not like the American biscuits, United Kingdom can now take pride knowing that it has cornered the market on both fish tanks and terrariums. They also provide healthcare for all their citizens, regardless of income, but that's a story for another day. To find the show notes for today's episode, and take a look at Adam's Geodesic Terrariums, just come on by sidehustleschool.com/135.
That is for episode 135. Much more to come. And by the way, speaking of plants, do you know why you can't iron a four-leaf clover? Because you shouldn't press your luck. That's right, I'll be here all week.
I'm Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
