This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Want to give a shout out to all the firefighters and other first responders out there. I do hear from you guys from time to time. I really appreciate all that you do. In fact, today we're going to hear from one of them, our listeners will as well. That would be a firefighter.
And this guy, I think his name is Robert. He wants the same thing everybody else wants who listens to this podcast. He wants extra income on the side, preferably passive and stress free income. All good things, you know, and you might as well ask for what you want. That's what I think. So as Robert notes, firefighters have an unusual schedule that consists of
peak action when they're out on a job. And then a lot of time to just chill, you know, when they're sitting around the station, you can't always schedule when the fires occur. So you've got a lot of downtime. And then those, you know, moments where you're really got to focus. But during the downtime, he's got an idea to put some of that time to use.
So let's hear from him and see if we can offer anything helpful. Detailed question and my response coming up in just 30 seconds. The thing is, we have a lot of downtime when no calls are coming in. Lots of guys play Xbox or lift weights. I spend time reading about side hustles and studying for my real estate license. This brings me to my question. I'd like to develop some print on demand,
support your local firefighter merch. It looks like I can do this with Amazon and a few other platforms. Though, of course, Amazon is the biggest. What's the best way to make this more targeted? And how do I find customers? Thanks and stay safe out there.
All right, Robert, sounds like a good start to me. I really respect the ambition to create some extra income. So last month, actually, we had a first thousand dollar story from an Amazon merch seller. She was doing really well. I think that was episode 2088. If you
want to go check it out. She was on track to earn $4,000 a month from the platform and doing this kind of print on demand stuff. Now, most sellers, just to be clear, are not at that level. There's a lot of people trying to do that, but it's not too hard to get to a few hundred dollars a month, which is certainly a good start. So we have two questions here from Robert, how to make the target audience more specific, more narrow, more niche, let's say, and where to find customers. So the second one is actually
pretty easy. If you're using merch by Amazon or Amazon Merch on Demand, I think it's called now. That's what they do. Amazon, when you're listing your designs there, nobody is better than Amazon in terms of customer acquisition and closing the sale. So your task is to think, okay, who's going to buy these t-shirts? Who is the market? That's the first question.
T-shirts or other merchandise, it could be something else as well. And how can I focus on what that group wants? So that then the shoppers on Amazon are going to buy a lot of these. So I would go and spend some time looking at what currently exists. There are thousands more than thousands. I mean, I was going to say tens of thousands. I think there
are hundreds of thousands of t-shirt designs currently on Amazon. But like I said, a lot of them sell. So I would look and see what seems to be selling, right? Like see the items that have a lot of reviews. Does it look like it's friends and family? Like I saw a lot
of like, I was just looking quickly. And I saw a lot of shirts that were like my son is a firefighter. And then also like some puns, firefighters are hot. You know, that would be like from a partner, I assume. Or is it firefighters themselves? Or is it some third
audience? I'm not sure. But with Amazon's program, at least, you don't want to overthink this too much. Because it is a numbers game to be successful. You really want a rapid fire approach of uploading as many designs as you're allowed. And Amazon imposes a limit
on you. The limit increases over time as you sell. So it's different for each person. And that's why getting those first sales are so important. So one more tip here for the first sales, you want to discount the product as much as possible. Don't worry about making
a profit. Just kind of cover the cost so you can get some initial reviews, have those sales, and be able to increase the limit of designs you can upload. So that's the strategy there. Good luck, Robert. Listeners, if you've got a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Let me know what's going on, what you're working on. We'll continue to feature them each week, along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects. That's it for today. There's a new episode coming out tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle
School.
