This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey there, what's up? Thanks for tuning in today. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. And also, this is our weekly segment known as Failure Friday.
One of my favorite things to work on, Failure Friday, a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure, all the things that go wrong. And we started this because I believe we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. And in fact, through the years, almost 2,000 episodes so far, we've heard all these great success stories, but I always try to highlight the challenges and what's difficult, what doesn't go well. But I thought, let's just highlight them even more. Let's pull them out and kind of focus on how it feels when you encounter one of these difficulties that's often more than just a difficulty, but something potentially more serious.
So these stories have varied quite a lot, but they often begin with an idea or a plan. Here are the steps I'm gonna take, and then here's what happens along the way. Often, your plan meets reality and you have to adjust in some way. Today's short story features James Brands from North Wales. James sells what he calls rude offensive greeting cards and gift wrap.
He also calls it an undiscovered popular niche. His business has actually done really well, but now as what tends to happen at this part of the story, it was all going so well. James had even gone full time. He had begun working with an overseas supplier, and well, let's just hear the rest from him. [Music]
Hi, everyone.
This is James Brands from Lima, Lima. We're an online greeting card and gift company based in North Wales in the UK. Back in 2014, I started a side hustle selling rude greeting cards and gift wrap working from home. To my surprise, it really took off. At the time, there weren't many cards and gift wraps available with rude and offensive messages.
I'd found a popular untapped niche. As the business went from strength to strength, our home was becoming more cluttered. The kids were using the boxes of envelopes and card as footstools and eating their dinner next to a very large printer. A year and a half after setting up the business, I went full time and signed a lease on business premises. I also started importing from China as I now have the space to store more stock.
Finding good Chinese suppliers on Alibaba or other wholesale platforms can be challenging to say the least. It's important you do your due diligence and get samples and make smaller test orders before placing a larger order. Even then, things can go horribly wrong as I was about to find out. In 2018, I ordered 20,000 packs of Christmas wrapping paper from a supplier in China. I had done my due diligence, made sample and test orders and placed the order in plenty of time for the Christmas run-up.
The shipment was very late in arriving and upon opening it, we discovered the print on 80% of the header tags had been badly smudged and couldn't be sold. We were looking at 16,000 dud packs. It was an absolute disaster. Christmas, as you can imagine, is an important time of year for us. We make about 35% of our yearly turnover in six weeks.
Although wrapping paper doesn't account for all our sales, it makes up a large part. Staring at thousands of packs of unsellable wrapping paper made me sick to my stomach. Not only were we looking at a huge loss of the stock we intended to retail, but we also had trade customers who had pre-ordered and waited patiently for their stock to arrive. Fortunately, I made the decision to stop feeling sorry for myself and we got to work. I ordered plain-headed packaging from a local company who were brilliant and delivered the next day.
We spent the next week working day and night repacking the wrap. We still had the day-to-day operation of the business to run, so progress was slow at times, but thanks to my brilliant staff, we got there in the end. I made groveling phone calls to trade customers explaining the situation, and thankfully, they were understanding. The main thing I learned from all this is that importing from China is often not the best policy. This disaster forced me to find alternative suppliers and look closer to home.
Although the price is locally a little more expensive, I now use two local printers whose quality and reliability is second to none. They were more than happy to negotiate on price, and I have the option to order smaller quantities, which helps with cash flow. I also get the orders within two to three days. Thanks so much to Side Hustle School for featuring this story. It's a fantastic community with brilliant, actionable advice.
Starting my own side hustle has literally changed my life, and for that, I am forever grateful. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That is the theme of "Failure Friday." I really love what James said here. "Fortunately, I made a decision "to stop feeling sorry for myself and get to work." I always end up taking notes when I'm working on these episodes, especially this particular segment, "Failure Friday," just because I end up being inspired or feeling like something applies to me, and I'm like, "Man, I need to stop feeling sorry for myself "when something goes wrong. "I need to get to work," right?
Because I can't control the circumstances of the manufacturer in China, but hopefully I can control my own circumstances. I can decide what to do at least. And then it's no small thing. 35% of James' sales from his business, Lima Lima, occur during the holiday season. But of course, he regrouped and moved forward.
Thanks to James for sharing this transparent and truthful story, and thanks, James, for those kind words as well. I appreciate that. Listeners, check out his website, limalima.co.uk. Lima, Lima, just like it sounds, capital of Peru. I think it is the capital of Peru.
Anyway, it is limalima.co.uk or limalima cards on Instagram. If you've got a question or an update for us, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Hope you take care of yourself. I hope you do one thing today to get closer toward a goal you believe in, and I hope you'll subscribe, follow, and come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
