This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Today's episode is part of a feature we're doing called Your First Thousand Dollars. This feature, you might guess, it's all about how somebody made their first thousand dollars.
How did they get going? How did they go from idea to income? Maybe how they grew the business a little bit after that, but mostly about how they got started. Because so many people out there are trying to, in fact, get started making real money. And a thousand dollars is real money.
It often turns into 2,000, 5,000, $10,000 from there. So this has been a really fun series to work on. And with that in mind, today's feature comes from Ruth Hetland. We first featured Ruth back on episode 1599. Pastor keeps the faith with clergy subscription boxes.
Ruth is in fact a Lutheran pastor. She started this very cool business, a subscription box for fellow pastors and clergy, ministers of all kinds. Now, interestingly, this story is quite similar to one we featured three weeks ago from a woman who sells boxes for military spouses. So different market, but very similar strategy. They each use the same pre-launch strategy that the first person, her name was Becky Hoy, mentioned in the previous business, and that Ruth describes here just a bit differently.
So, you know, the key point is that each of them wanted to start without spending much money at all. So they used a pre-launch strategy to effectively sell a product before they had it. And this can work for much more than just subscription boxes, okay? So keep that in mind as you hear Ruth's update, I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
Hello, my name is Ruth Hetland, and I am the creator and owner of Consecrate subscription box.
My business was featured on Side Hustle School, episode 1599. I began Consecrate in the summer of 2020. I had tried numerous side hustles that earned a little money here and there, but nothing that really took off. And I was so wanting to build a business of my own, but I wasn't sure at all what to do. After being a pastor in the Lutheran church for over two decades, I was needing new creative outlets and wanted to learn how to do something new.
So when I got the idea for Consecrate, a subscription box for ministers, I decided to dig in deep. I researched about how to set up a subscription box and what to put in the first box. I researched about how to send boxes that were attractive and lightweight to save on postage. I decided that I wanted to put items in the box that corresponded with the church seasons and whenever possible to include items that were made by other ministers. At the end of August in 2020, I began taking pre-orders.
I didn't want to put any of my own money into starting the business. I wanted to raise the money I needed to get going. And this was easy to do by taking pre-orders for three months while I got ready for the first box to go out. My husband is a great woodworker, and so he offered to make a unique advent candle holder for the first box, thinking that he maybe have to make 20 or 30 to fill all the orders. When I received 175 orders for the first box, he was very busy making candle holders.
So by the time the first box went out, I had already made my first thousand dollars because I had very low initial cost to start the business, just the $39 fee to join the CreateJoy marketplace. CreateJoy is great to help share, consecrate with interested people, and it was by far the easiest way for me to set up the sale of a subscription box while still working on my full-time job. I did have to pay for the items that went in the first box and the actual boxes and labels and postage, but I was very careful to make sure I could buy those things and still have a good amount of profit left over. Immediately, I did have to put some money back in to start sourcing for the next month's boxes, but it was clear from the start that this was going to be profitable. It felt really good to finally have an idea that made real money and have people be excited about it.
Within a few months, consecrate grew to about 500 boxes a month that I send out, and that's about where it has stayed. The size where it is at is still something I can handle while I do my full-time job. I have never paid for advertising. It grew through social media, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. However, I would like it to grow more, and it feels like I will need to do some different things to get to the next stage.
I'm expanding consecrate so we can provide gift boxes for conferences and retreats. We also have a selection of gift boxes that people can buy for loved ones who are being ordained or who are beginning a new call at a church. These are becoming very popular. I'm also working on designing some more items to sell on my website that will be of interest to women in ministry. I have also begun being a vendor now and then at various conferences for ministers.
It's a great way to sell any excess inventory and also tell people about consecrate. I have loved being a pastor, but it's very rewarding to be building my own business and to be dreaming of ways to expand this new ministry of care and comfort for ministers. My small business has been great and it's mostly very fun and rewarding, but at times it's been overwhelming because I've never had a single business class in my life. And as time has gone by, it becomes more apparent that there are things I need help with in order for my business to stay healthy and grow. I have sometimes felt very lost and not sure who could help me or even how to ask.
Fortunately, I was told about west central Minnesota small business development center. They provide business mentors and business consulting free of charge. The mentor I was given has been in successful businesses of different sizes his whole life and now helps small business owners like me with their businesses. It has been such a relief to be able to ask him questions and receive his insight as I move forward. I'm so thankful this organization exists in my area.
And I think many areas around the United States have these small business development centers and I highly recommend it if you're feeling lost or could use a little guidance. I wish you all the very best of luck as you work on your side hustles and ideas. And thank you so much to Chris and everyone at Side Hustle School for all the inspiration and wisdom. [Music]
Ruth, thank you so much for that update. I love this business, as you heard from Ruth listeners, she said it was clear from the start, it would be profitable and 500 boxes a month.
I mean, that is a very sustainable level. I mean, that's a great little business and you know that the boxes are gonna keep coming, right? You know that the orders are gonna keep coming. Obviously with subscription boxes, one of the huge things you have to deal with is churn like people don't subscribe forever. So you wanna make sure you've got new subscribers coming in but still there are a lot of benefits to having that expectation that each month I'm gonna be shipping out so many boxes and I have to curate this many products.
And it's just a wonderful business once it gets going. You know, the challenge is getting it going. So that's why I like to focus on that part here with this series. Listeners, if you happen to know a pastor or a minister, if you're in that world, check out consecrate.createjoy.com. Maybe sign them up, subscribe them as a little gift.
And if you're not in that world, still an interesting business to learn from, still an interesting case study because you can take these lessons and apply it to lots of other industries or topics or target markets. All right, that is it for today. If you have a question or an update for us about your hustle, www.sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you'll subscribe, follow, listen again tomorrow.
New episode coming out every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
