This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Did you know that everyone has a pierogi story? A pierogi story? Yeah, that's right. That's something I learned in today's episode. You're going to hear all about it. If you don't know what pierogi is,
you're going to learn that too. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau. Today's episode is part of a feature we've been doing all year. It's called your first thousand dollars. How did someone get to that point? Not their first hundred thousand dollars,
not their first million dollars. That's good stuff, but we want to hear about the first thousand dollars. One thing I've learned is that once you begin to earn real money, the steps required to go to the next level, whether it's a thousand to two thousand dollars or even to five thousand or ten thousand, whatever the number is, it's often easier than that first real paycheck. So I hope that you listeners will take action. I hope that you will move forward on your ideas. And that's
why we have all these different stories and features every single day. With that in mind, today's feature comes from Casey White in Massachusetts. This is actually a tag team project together with her sister. Their background is Polish, Polish Americans, and they had noticed that there was nowhere in the Boston area to get decent pierogi, which is, if you didn't know, a delicious snack popular in Poland and some other Eastern European countries. I've had them, they are in fact, yummy. Now we first featured Casey and her sister back on episode 1137,
Polish American sisters cook up pierogi profits. But what about their first thousand dollars? How did they make it happen? What did it feel like? And what did they learn? So let's hear it from Casey.
I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. Hello, my name is Casey and I am co-owner and co-founder of Jaju Pierogi. We specialize in the production of handmade Polish dumplings, which are called pierogi. Every culture kind of has their own. We're based in Lynn, Massachusetts, and we started our business about six years ago. When we started our business, we realized, well,
we started our business because we realized there was an opportunity in the market for pierogi. No one in the Boston area could find a good pierogi, a handmade pierogi that tasted just like their grandmother's. So my sister and I took it upon ourselves to take our grandfather's recipes, tinker around on our kitchen table for a few months in the winter of 2015. And when we were doing that, we were having all our friends taste test the products and we're getting feedback and we were getting some pretty good feedback. And we realized at that point in time, what's the worst case scenario? What can happen here? We have to go back to our corporate jobs
if this doesn't work out. And so we kept tinkering around and we kept our corporate jobs while we were tinkering around, which I think is a very important thing to mention because you want to prove a concept and you want to see it succeed before you kind of jump all in. So in January of 2016, we attended our first farmer's market after getting permitted at a local deli to make the product on weekend days. And we went to a farmer's market, didn't know what to expect, brought 50 bags of pierogi and within an hour we sold out. So then, because we had no idea, we would go this way. We started taking people's phone numbers and
addresses down and we're telling everyone that we would hand deliver pierogi. So within the first few weeks of getting permitted, we went to our first farmer's market and we made our first thousand dollars and quickly realized that people are excited about pierogi. If they don't know pierogi, they're intrigued because it's a different unique product. You don't see that every single day at a farmer's market or on the store shelves. And we also realized that it's a very nostalgic product. So people walk up to your booth and they tell all their stories, how their family made them,
how their friend from college brought them one day and they've been hooked ever since and it's been 30 years and they haven't had a pierogi. Everyone seems to have a story and a nostalgic tie to the product. So after that first market, we signed up for a few more and also added additional farmer's markets that season and that was 2016 and it's 2022. We've been full-time for about four years and we are in over 500 specialty grocery stores throughout New England and four supermarket chains and are working to increase our distribution. But what I will say, looking back at 2016 and that first thousand dollars, we really did not know how it was going to go.
But if you don't try, you'll never know. And we kept it as risky as not as risky, you know, as it could have been because we kept our full-time jobs and we tested this on the side and and it was successful. But we didn't dive completely in initially, which I would recommend now looking back that we kind of went the right way about it. But the first thousand dollars is pretty sweet. If you don't try, you'll never know. That could be our motto for so many things,
right? If you don't try, you'll never know. I hope that you listeners will take the first step or the next step. Also some really good advice from Casey there on keeping your day job, at least at first. That's what Side Hustle School is all about using your limited amount of time, energy, and maybe a small amount of money to start an income generating project that can potentially give you many options for the future. Also, great security, also extra money, which is cool.
All right, listeners, check out their website. Oh, thanks, Casey. Appreciate you. Thanks, Casey. And listeners, check out their website, jajuprogi.com. Jaju is grandfather in Polish, J-A-J-U.
We will link it up in the notes page, of course. And if you happen to be in the New England area, they are, as you heard, in hundreds of grocery stores. I was looking at their website. The packaging is really beautiful. Unfortunately, I'm not in New England, so I can't try them myself, at least not at the moment. But flavors include classic cabbage and mushroom,
along with spinach and feta, and also some modern or fusion flavors, such as sweet potato and caramelized onion, which is an original creation of these sisters. Man, I'm getting hungry. This is not an ad, I promise. It just sounds like something I want to eat. Okay, I'm going to sign off and go eat something else. If you have a question or an update for us about your hustle,
sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know what you're working on and do one thing today to get closer to a goal you believe in. Oh, and also join me again tomorrow. New episode every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
