This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Here is a little known fact about Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos actually got his start selling Christmas trees. Did you know that? True story. Why didn't he stick with it?
Because he found something just a bit more profitable. You might've heard of his other little business. Maybe one problem was that Christmas trees did not ship well. Also, no one wanted Christmas tree prime. It was a total flop.
And then of course, you know, he changed things around and did pretty well for himself. But also, you know, the other problem is, and this is also true, Christmas trees are a seasonal business, right? You don't tend to sell many Christmas trees in June or pretty much any month other than December, maybe November, I don't know, depending on how early you get the holiday thing going. So if you're not trying to be Jeff Bezos and sell either Christmas trees or build a giant e-commerce platform, you still might want a business that only operates one part of the year because there are some advantages to that. So in that situation, when you're looking at a seasonal business, when is the best time to start ramping up?
When is the best time to start a seasonal business? That's what our caller wants to know. I'll see if I can provide some helpful advice to, I think her name is Melissa, right after this quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
This is Melissa from Bloomington, Indiana. I have an idea for a side business that's probably too late for this year, but I'm thinking ahead.
I actually thought of it while listening to one of the archive episodes about a woman who wrote personalized letters from Santa. Like I said, I think I'll need to wait a while, but being too late for this year means I can plan for 2023. Without getting into the details of the specific idea, imagine I had to have everything ready to go by November 10th. When should I start working on it to hit that deadline? [Music]
Hey, Melissa.
So there are a few different parts here. When you say ramping up, I'm gonna assume you mean the announcement and promotion marketing, just the general opening for business of this seasonal endeavor. And I mean that instead of, actually all the preparation you have to do. Because the cool thing about a side hustle like this is you could prepare for it at any time. You could work on it, as I said, any time throughout the year.
Even though you're not doing Santa letters, that's not what this particular project is. Like if you were, what I mean is you could work on the website and the backend process. You could develop the email templates, all that other stuff in March or in July or September, just whenever you had time. So don't forget that you don't have to save everything for a crunch period. So that's why I think the more important question is, when is that rollout date?
When is the date that you're actually going to announce and begin marketing this project? And there's probably a sweet spot. Like there's a range. It's not just like there's this one magic date that you must hit. But I would imagine if it were those Santa letters again, you couldn't sell them too early or too late, you know?
Or actually now that I think about it, maybe there is a market for selling it really late, you know, as a last minute kind of thing. But even technically like, you couldn't sell them after Christmas, right? You couldn't sell them in January. So again, most likely there's an acceptable common sense range and it won't matter too much, you know, which particular date you hit, as long as you're in that range. So just think about the business, you know, when do people buy what it is you're selling?
And maybe you want to be ready to roll out a couple of days before that. Maybe you want to do some testing, although of course that could be done sooner as well. I would just make sure I had as much ready to go as possible beforehand. So then I could focus fully on that marketing piece and not be combining the marketing and the development at the same time. Especially since it's a side project, you know, you don't have a team for this, I assume.
It's just you or maybe you've got some help, but it's a pretty small team if there is a team. So I would have as much as ready possible so I could focus fully on that rollout. So Melissa, anybody else out there, good luck with your seasonal business, whether it is this year or planning for next year. I am cheering you on wherever you are in the world, whatever you're up to. And I hope you'll continue to listen.
New episode every day. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
