This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there listeners, what's going on? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau, episode 2,207, 2,207. So excited to bring you today's episode. It's part of a feature called your first $1,000.
We've been doing this, I think 55 times or so at this point, pretty much every week since last year. And as you might guess, it's all about how someone made their first $1,000. How did they get to that point? Not their first $100,000, that's pretty cool, but it's also a long story. How did they get going?
How did they get that first $1,000? We've heard some really interesting stories over the past year, and I'm excited about some of the ones coming up this year as well. So thanks for being out there. With that in mind, today's feature comes from Jenny in Florida. She has got her own Etsy shop, which is sold to more than 1,500 customers and counting.
But of course, what about her first $1,000? Not her first 1,000 customers, that's usually like a long story. Again, what about her first $1,000? How did she make it happen? What did it feel like?
What did she learn? Let's hear it from Jenny. [Music]
Hi there, this is Jenny calling in from Tampa, Florida. As a creative person, I had always been interested in making and selling my own products. So when I discovered Etsy, I knew it was the perfect platform for me to try my hand at selling my handmade crafts.
I spent hours carefully crafting my first batch of products and setting up my shop. It was a lot of work, but I was determined to make it a success. My first sale came surprisingly quickly, and I was over the moon. It felt really amazing to see someone value my creations enough to actually buy one. And as the orders started to roll in, I was thrilled to see my little business start to grow.
But it wasn't all smooth sailing. I quickly learned that running an online shop was a lot of work. I had to manage my inventory, take high quality photos of my products and handle customer service and shipping. I also had to constantly come up with new and interesting products to keep my shop fresh and exciting. Well, despite the challenges, I was determined to make my shop a success.
And after months of hard work, I finally reached my goal of making my first $1,000 in sales. It was a huge accomplishment and I felt incredibly proud of myself. I'm now earning that amount every couple of weeks. So it's picked up as well. But the biggest lesson I learned was probably the importance of perseverance.
Now running a small business while working another job and also raising a child isn't easy. And there will be plenty of challenges and setbacks along the way. But with hard work, dedication and a little bit of creativity, it's possible to achieve great things. Looking back at my journey as an Etsy seller, I'm grateful for the experience and the valuable lessons I learned along the way. And I'm excited to see what the future holds for my little shop.
[Music]
Jenny, thanks so much for telling us about your first $1,000 and listeners. I hope you find it encouraging for everybody out there who's trying to sell something, sell a product or a service. I'm telling you, once you begin to do it, everything just changes. You can be thinking about ideas for a long time. You can be working on something.
Once you start making money, even small amounts of money, your whole perspective shifts and it gives you so much momentum to move further. So further forward, onward, farther, whatever the case may be, it's momentous. It is inspiring. So that's what I hope you will experience this year if you have not done so before. Let's all get to work on what's important to us, right?
It's the first month of the year, always a good time for momentum. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions, come say hi. I'm gonna be doing a tour later this year, so hopefully we can meet in person as well. But for now, keep hustling, keep listening. It's all completely free.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
