This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Side Hustle School friends and listeners, welcome to episode 238. Hey, how many times do I tell you, when I'm talking about the background of somebody we feature on the show, so-and-so has a business degree, or so-and-so went back to school and got their MBA? It's basically never, or at least rarely. Business degrees, especially MBAs, really don't prepare people for the kind of micro-entrepreneurship that Side Hustle School is all about. That education usually shows you how to be a corporate manager, which is fine if that's what you want to be, but it's definitely not the same thing as starting a side hustle.
If you do have an MBA or if you studied marketing or something as an undergrad, that's fine, like here you are. I believe that everything you learn can help you in some way, but I actually think that some other subjects are more interesting to prepare you for learning all the things that I talk about on the show, like the power of observation, choosing between different ideas, turning your idea into an offer, getting your offer out into the world, basically everything associated with creating this new source of income in a limited period of time. Now, if you study sociology or anthropology, among other topics in the social sciences, you actually already know a bit about these things, at least indirectly. My undergrad degree was in sociology, and I actually feel that that prepared me more for what I do now in kind of a random, indirect way, but still significant way, than anything I ever actually formally learned about business. Anyway, I thought about this because today's story features a woman with a political science degree.
She's originally from Minnesota and then marries into a Moroccan family, learns the language, and then uses these skills to finance a project importing jewelry from Morocco to the US. This side hustle then finances her trips back to Morocco, in addition to providing a savings fund and other benefits. That story and some more observations about using cultural knowledge coming right up. [Music]
The Moroccan journey of Erika Francis L. Halali started back in 2006 when she first studied abroad there as a college student.
She loved the country and especially the style of vivid colors and fashion. But as a political science major, she never thought about starting her own Moroccan-inspired business. After she finished college, she took a job in IT management and corporate banking. But Morocco called to her and she made many trips back and forth over the years, eventually falling in love and marrying a Moroccan man. She soon learned that she had actually married into an entire Moroccan family and that she needed to learn Arabic so that she could communicate with her in-laws and the rest of the extended family.
And that's how she spent a big part of the last 10 years of her life learning Moroccan Arabic, as well as immersing herself in the culture, cuisine, and fashion. With one foot in America, Minnesota to be specific, and one foot in Morocco, Erika realized that she was perfectly situated to facilitate cultural exchange in the form of bringing Moroccan style and fashion to the US. And that's what she's been starting up for her new side hustle. With the help of her sister-in-law, who lives in Morocco, Erika said about sourcing jewelry that would be in the Moroccan tradition, but that any Western woman would also feel comfortable wearing. Erika decided on the styles that she liked and provided this information to her sister-in-law, who then went out and found different suppliers.
Erika handled the paperwork on the US side, business registration, bank accounts, and so on. And her sister-in-law took care of everything on the Moroccan side. Erika spent about $1,200 getting set up. The biggest investment was the first round of inventory for $500. She also spent $250 on a logo and some stock photography, $150 on the business registration, and $300 for shipping supplies.
After that, her only recurring monthly costs are the hosting for her online store at about $30 a month. She called the new project Casablanca Exchange. And while the logistics of this business are fairly straightforward, it was the business connections in Morocco that took a bit more finesse. Speaking Moroccan Arabic definitely helped her immensely in setting up business relationships, even from afar, but understanding the culture and more specifically the business culture was another huge component. And for that, her husband and her new extended family were critical in immersing her in that culture and helping her make strong connections.
Moroccan culture is very relationship-oriented, as opposed to some Western countries that are very transactional. Moroccans rely on personal connections to facilitate business. They want to know that you're a good person with good values so that they can trust you in the business dealings. Therefore, building new relationships with craftspeople took some time. Once she had the relationships established with several craftspeople in a couple of different cities, she was ready to start getting inventory to sell.
Since she works a full-time job and lives in Minnesota much of the time, the main way that she would decide on her inventory is by going back and forth with her sister-in-law using WhatsApp to share and view potential jewelry pieces. Then if her husband was visiting the country, he brought the jewelry back, otherwise her sister-in-law shipped everything to her. Erica took all the photos herself, just using her iPhone, and then put everything on that new website. With that, Casablanca Exchange was officially open for business. She's only done a small amount of marketing so far and mostly on Facebook with both ads and post-promotion, but it's working.
After a few weeks went by, she was able to place a repeat order with those craftsmen, and now she's reordering almost every month. Like most side hustlers, Erica definitely appreciates the extra money that her side business brings in. She plans on using the profits for some extra trips to Morocco in addition to a new savings fund. But in addition to the finances, she's also enjoyed getting this business experience, especially since she works in the entire supply chain with sourcing, operations, marketing, accounting, business filing, and fulfillment. And by the way, if all of that sounds overwhelming, remember that she set up the process to be pretty simple.
So there's not a ton of administrative work all the time. Casablanca Exchange has given her a much more holistic worldview and deepened her skillset in a way that she says has already benefited her in her day job. Even though this hustle is new, Erica is looking at expanding into home decor, beginning with handcrafted wooden jewelry boxes and handmade pillows. [Music]
Just a couple of quick observations for you. Culture and language are not the same thing.
And that's important to understand that if you're working in other countries or in any kind of cross-cultural context, especially if you're coming from a place like the US or Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and then you go and work in a place like Morocco or like China or anywhere else that's not a Western country. We touched a bit on one of the main distinctions between these cultures, that concept of relational values versus transactional values. There's also very different thinking and expectations in terms of resolving conflict or having some kind of disagreement, different beliefs or even different definitions of trust and mutuality. So being successful in a business of importing something from Morocco like you hear in the story definitely relies on a lot of local knowledge and experience. But if you are interested in those things, if that kind of cultural analysis is interesting to you, if you have traveled or perhaps taught English abroad or been in the Peace Corps or similar, those skills are valuable.
I would encourage you to utilize those skills in thinking about and starting your side hustle. In my opinion, they're more valuable than hard business skills. When I say hard business skills, I mean like setting up a website or building the app or whatever it is you're trying to do, because those are fairly simple to master or at least not to master, but to gain a working knowledge of, or even if not to gain a working knowledge of to figure out what you need to do about it. So as always, I encourage you to think about all the skills you already have, all the life experience you've had, maybe if, or let's say especially if, you don't see an immediate direct connection between what that experience was or what those skills are and what your side hustle could be, because some of the most creative projects come through creative life experience. [Music]
Anyway, I enjoyed learning how Erica has applied her knowledge to her new side hustle.
I'm glad that Casablanca Exchange is starting well. Before I sign off, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/238. Thank you for listening today and every day, the weekly recap is coming up tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
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