Family Trio Makes Marvelous Mask Magnets

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

[Music]

Hey, hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. We are still in the first week of a new year as well. This is a year of change, a year of challenge, a year of opportunity.

I encourage you to decide for yourself how you want this year to go and ask yourself what steps you can take to help bring that vision into reality, at least the ones you can control. That's what this is all about, creating freedom through the form of a money-making project. Now, in today's story, when a family looks for a way to jazz up their protective masks, that would be face masks, of course, they become attracted to magnetic charms. You might not be surprised to know that face masks actually became a billion dollar industry in 2020. That is billion with a B, definitely a new way of life for lots of us, but here we are.

We're gonna look at this story. Family Trio makes marvelous mask magnets. Mask and you shall receive. That story is coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]

Like so many in mid-2020, Hank Eckhart was feeling the effects of coronavirus lockdown.

He was already accustomed to video calls with himself, his sister, and their mom living in three different cities. So that was fine, but the social isolation from everyone else made things rough. Of course, life itself had changed dramatically. Among other things, everyone he interacted with outside his home wore a mask, and it's this mask that uncovered his side hustle story. Hank is a diligent mask wearer, and so is his mother and sister.

But they found most mask designs pretty bland and boring. Of course, there were the custom designed ones, like those sold on Etsy, but those were often very expensive. So the trio devised a way to brighten up your average mask that was simple, cost-effective, and interchangeable between masks. The idea was magnetically-backed charms, the kind you stick to a shirt or a backpack. They envisioned a range of designs with different colors, shapes, and logos, making them custom and personal for the wearer.

They were positive this idea would work and moved quickly, springing into action. The first thing they needed was a name, and they settled on mask mags. Luckily, Hank had some technical skills, so he took charge of building a website, using Shopify as the platform. Sourcing the magnets, on the other hand, wouldn't be so easy. They first had to come up with those designs.

For that, they sat down and brainstormed, eventually landing on 10 favorites. Their thinking was the simpler the better, so they chose designs like the American flag, a snowflake, and a wine glass, things they thought would have broad appeal. Once they had their designs, they needed to get their magnets manufactured. To do that, they searched for businesses that made similar items like swag for events and companies, pens, badges, that sort of thing. Once they had a list of five of those companies, they reached out to get quotes.

They looked for the right mix of cost, quality, and timeliness, eventually finding all three in one supplier. They invested $2,000 and had their products in hand in just two weeks. An additional $500 was set aside for packaging, and a bit of it for marketing, which they intended to start right away. But since they weren't experts, they weren't sure what to do. So they turned to their own network.

They told anyone who'd listened about their new business, and the sales started to trickle in. On top of that, they tried Facebook and Google ads, but while those channels drove traffic, they didn't convert many sales. To improve the momentum, Hank tried something he'd heard about, social media influencers. His tactic was to contact those with followings in the five to 20,000 range. He thought they probably weren't inundated with offers, the way more popular influencers were, and could therefore be more receptive to Mass Max.

Turns out he was right. For the most part, influencers with that size following five to 20,000 were attracted to the idea of getting some free product in exchange for promotion. Since the cost of it all was very minimal, it was a big win for the Mass Max team. Once again, this all happened very quickly. We started in August, 2020.

By the time September rolled around, they'd sold $500 worth. In October, they were presented with a new and surprising opportunity. The company Hank's sister works for heard about Mass Max and asked for the option of a custom order. Since the team already had the manufacturer and knew the costs involved, they agreed and were able to produce a fully customized mass magnet in a matter of weeks. More importantly, it opened their mind to the potential of customization.

They spread the word in their local community and ended up with custom orders from schools, salons, and clubs. It all helped the bottom line, which continued to grow. The customization pivot was incredibly beneficial because it solved another problem, which was excess inventory. When ordering the magnets, there was no way to know in advance which would sell which wouldn't, meaning that they have a lot of unpopular designs left over. By adding more customization revenue, they can rely less on pre-order designs and guarantee they aren't raising money, which is good since they have no intention of flying half mask.

[Music]

So this is an example of a project that you can start quickly, like really quickly, in a response to a problem you notice. And guess what? First of all, great example. Congratulations to the mass mags team. And guess what?

We're all gonna be wearing masks for quite a while. Like I think it's pretty clear at this point. Fortunately, help is on the way. Hope is on the way in the form of the vaccine and everything else. But at least in a lot of parts of the world, we're going to be wearing masks for at least several months.

So this has the potential to really ramp up. And I also think even though it's smart that they did this pivot of, you know, going from the pre-designed options to the customization for various schools and such, I think that's smart for them, but I still think there's actually room for somebody to do the pre-designed ones. So if you're looking for an opportunity, maybe think about face masks one form or another, because as I said, I think it's going to continue to be a thing. So we will check back in with the mass mags team in a month or two, see how it's going. Hopefully we'll check back in with you as well.

Listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I tell you these stories because I hope you find them interesting and enjoyable, but also to challenge your thinking a bit, perhaps get you thinking about what your next project is going to be, whether it is a more creative project or something you do just for fun or something that makes money. All good things, of course. Today's show notes are at sidestalescool.com/14661466. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Be sure you're subscribed because much more is coming up. You can also leave a comment or question for the show at sidestalescool.com/questions. All right, that's it for today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.