This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau, bringing you a new episode every single day, all about making extra money without quitting your job. Now for this year, 2023, we are doing all sorts of stories, focusing on how somebody made their first thousand dollars, focusing on what has changed in the past couple of years, different case studies, tips, questions and answers, of course, all kinds of fun stuff. So be sure you're subscribed or follow wherever you get your podcasts.
It is all completely free. Without further ado, let's jump into today, Throwback Thursday, Throwback Thursday, also known as Where Are They Now? Where we take a look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now, last week we heard from a career advisor who sells resume templates and coaching. She's got a really inspirational story.
It's now bringing in at least $4,000 a month part-time. So that's pretty cool. But today we're gonna hear from a pottery maker who sells her dishes and bowls using fulfillment by Amazon. Now that service is usually for mass manufactured items. So her product and her process is a bit different.
Her name is Leah. So let's hand the microphone over to Leah. I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
- Two years ago, I had just retired from my job and was looking for something to keep me busy. I'd always loved pottery and had been dabbling in it as a hobby for years.
One day I decided to take the plunge and started selling my dishes and bowls online. I wasn't quite sure where to start, but I had heard about fulfillment by Amazon and decided to give it a try. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the process of setting up my account and getting my products listed. But with the help of some online tutorials, I was able to get up and running. I started off small, listing just a few of my pieces at a time to see how they would sell.
Now to my surprise, they started selling right away. I was thrilled to see that there was a demand for my unique and handcrafted dishes and bowls. As my sales grew, I invested more time and money into creating new pieces and expanding my product line. One of the biggest lessons I learned along the way was the importance of good product photography. When I first started, I had taken my own photos of my products and they just didn't do them justice.
I soon realized that if I wanted to stand out and attract more customers, I needed to invest in professional images. It was a bit of an upfront cost, but it was well worth it in the end. As the months went by, my business continued to grow. One of the highlights of my experiences using FBA was the day I received my first order from a customer who had found my products through a Google search. All I was a great feeling to know that my business was reaching a wider audience and that my dishes and bowls were being enjoyed by people all over the country.
If someone else wanted to start a business like mine using FBA, I would tell them to go for it. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but with some time and patience, it is definitely worth it. I would also recommend getting some professional photography done like I did and to have a fast response time to inquiries. Lastly, I'd recommend you remember why you're doing this. It's easy to get caught up on administrative details, so take a step back and reflect on why you started the business or side hustle in the first place.
Good luck. - Leah, thank you so much. Thanks for sharing those updates with us. So glad that fulfillment by Amazon, I should say, has been working out for a non-mass manufactured product. As I said in the introduction, we usually hear stories about manufacturing something in China or elsewhere in bulk and then shipping that to a warehouse with Amazon.
So it seems it's not just Etsy where you can sell handmade items or some version of handcrafted items. Anyway, thanks, Leah. And listeners, let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than a thousand stories over the years. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. That's it for today.
Thanks so much for tuning in. Take care of yourself out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
