This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Thanks for tuning in today. You are listening to "Side Hustle School." My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. I've been bringing you this podcast every single day since January 1, 2017. It is my great honor to continue making a new episode every day.
And one of the things that we have done over the years, as we've kind of remixed and refined different segments, launched different things, experimented, one of the segments that has gone over particularly well is this one known as "Throwback Thursday." It's so cool because you get to hear directly from someone who we have featured before in the past, but now you get to hear their voice and you also get to hear some updates, what they've learned, what their greatest challenge is, and so on, and all in a short, brief, action-packed episode. Now today in our latest feature, we'll hear from the owner of Just My Type, a creative bookbinding business based in Missoula, Montana. She is 70 years old and makes around 800 unique upcycled journals every year. And as you'll hear, in fact, her greatest challenge is slowing down. We first featured her way back in episode 853.
Retiree makes extra income with upcycled journals. What has happened since? Let's hear directly from Donna, and I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap-up. [Music]
- Hi, my name is Donna Erickson, and I live in Missoula, Montana. My side hustle business is called Just My Type, which is a creative bookbinding business.
I was featured in episode number 853 of Side Hustle School. I make one-of-a-kind handmade journals with covers made from upcycled materials, and that upcycled materials part is kind of the unique niche that I fill in the bookbinding world. I use 1960s interior paneling, 100-year-old leather law books and old cowboy boots, for instance, as cover materials. My journals, sketchbooks, and planners are refillable with moleskin inserts. Each one is unique, featuring a cover graphic and plenty of room for people's lists, sketches, doodles, and plans.
I sell my work through my website store and at retail stores in Montana, summer wholesale outlets, others I pay commission. About half of my sales are made through juried art shows that I enter, where I usually display a couple hundred books, mainly summer through early December in the holiday season. Missoula is a pretty progressive place for Montana, and it has a little store called Upcycle. 40 or 50 artists display wares there, all made from at least 50% reused materials. I started selling in a modest way a number of years ago, and my work sold well, and the business really blossomed from there.
When Just My Type was featured on Side Hustle School in 2017, my income from it was about $10,000. Now it's about $27,000. Of course, 2020 was a slow year, no shows during the height of the pandemic, but there seems to be pent up demand for local handmade wares. Business was very good last year, and in 2021, I started taking wholesale accounts, and I'm also doing better at the stores and the shows better than ever. A note about the income, and this relates to the kind of retirement side hustle aspect.
My husband and I live on our retirement income and do not rely at all on what I make through Just My Type, but the extra income gives really nice flexibility. If I wanna spend a bunch of money on a grandchild, buy some new art supplies or take a big extra trip in a year, I can just do it. My biggest challenge is knowing when to stop. I turned 70 this year and may wanna move toward a more truly retired lifestyle. I'm not ready yet, but I'm doing more art than ever, not for sale, but just art for me, and I want time for that.
I'm also very active with gardening, hiking, traveling, writing, so I feel that I could sell far more of my product than I'm willing to make. Currently, I make and sell about 800 journals a year. I have to be careful that it does not become a full-time gig. That's not what I want. I try to make most of my inventory in the winter and early spring months so that I can have flexibility in the summer and fall.
I take January off other than planning and financial stuff to recover from the holiday show season. My advice to side hustlers making a creative product like I do, I have several points here. One is to keep track of costs very closely so you know what you're getting for your time. Track your time periodically so that you can monitor what you're really putting into the endeavor. Second, I guess I would give advice to listen to your gut about what collaborations and opportunities you take on.
I've declined a lot of art shows, for instance, as well as some wholesale requests. You'll know when to jump on it or when to decline. And then lastly, be sure you have other motivations than the money or it will probably not be a lasting thing for you. I mean, it has to be kind of a passion. One of my favorite things about this whole side hustle is going to a show and a customer comes up and says, "Oh, I bought a journal from you two years ago and I love it.
I used it as a travel journal. I filled it up on a trip to Iceland." Or somebody saying, "I'm tracking all the microbreweries I go to across the country as I travel." All kinds of ways. I've heard the gamut of how people use them and love them. And that's really one of my big motivations is just delighting people with what I make. So be sure you have that other motivation beyond just the money.
[Music]
Donna, thank you so much. Congratulations. I just love that work ethic and the creativity, making all these really cool upcycled journals. Listeners, if you want to check them out, see it for yourself, go to Donna's website, justmytypedesign.com. Justmytypedesign.com.
We'll link it up on the notes page as well. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than a thousand stories. If you've got a question or an update for us, you can send us a note from that same website or just go to www.sidehustleschool.com/questions. That also works. And I hope you will subscribe or follow and come back tomorrow.
Thanks again. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project. Subs by www.zeoranger.co.uk
