This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Bow taxidermy turns heads on home decor. This is one of my favorite side hustle school stories of all time. A Pennsylvania couple turns a difference in home decorating taste into a bustling business. This woman, well it's a couple but they kind of work together. I think she's the artist and he does some of the business stuff. It is truly an amazing story. I don't like to over promise but
in this case it's just such a fun one. It came out on day 472 of the podcast. We're now on day 3,091. So it's been many years. I figured this was a good time to revisit it and I said when I started the show I wanted to tell you stories that you wouldn't hear anywhere else and my point was to show you that there are so many different ways to make money. Many of them ways that you've never
considered. So today's story has kind of this wow factor to it. It is the story of faux taxidermy artificial animal home decor. What happens when a PETA supporting animal-loving woman falls in love with a gun-owning animal-hunting man and they decide to start a business together that somehow merges these values. How is this possible? Well as I said it's a it's a pretty cool story.
Truth is stranger than fiction and it also pays better too. So let's hear about the business known as near and dear. That's the story for today. You don't want to miss this one. Stay tuned.
When Lindsay and Rick Boblitz first started dating there was a big difference between them that caused a few disagreements. You see Lindsay is an avid animal lover and PETA supporter who would rather take a spider outside than step on it. Rick on the other hand is an avid animal hunter who loves going deer, goose, and duck hunting. They eventually worked through these minor issues and got married but the topic reared its head again when Lindsay and Rick started looking for a house and talked about how they wanted to decorate. For some reason the idea of having trophy animal heads peering down at her like they did at Rick's family home did not appeal to Lindsay. But she had an incredibly crafty
idea for getting around this. She decided to surprise Rick by decorating a resin deer head with fabric. In other words an artificial arts and crafts replica. It was a completely cruelty-free way to bring his love of hunting into their home without hurting so much as a fly, let alone a deer. She was nervous about what he would think of the faux decor but not only did he love it he encouraged her to make more and sell them. Would anybody buy this? Well just
wait. Lindsay made a second fabric covered faux deer head and set up an Etsy shop called Near and Deer. She was so excited when it sold within a week confirming that she wasn't the only person in the world who liked artificial animals hanging over her mantle. She immediately bought more supplies to make more and eventually expanded the line by adding different patterns selling them for $200 each. That first year she sold six pieces and was excited to have a little extra income. But they were just getting started. Soon Rick joined in. He
helped by painting the resin heads solid colors. They also introduced other faux animals into the lineup including moose, antelope, cow skulls, unicorns, and even a dinosaur or two to expand their options. Because one challenge of hanging traditional animal heads has been hunters always have a hard time finding unicorns and also dinosaurs. Lindsay and Rick were slow and deliberate about building up their hustle. It took them a while to buy their materials wholesale with a minimum $700 order but this is something they now do several times a week. In fact after six months of selling on Etsy they made their own e-commerce
site. The following year they added eBay and sold around 200 pieces in total. After business started to pick up they made the decision that Rick would quit his full-time job as an HVAC technician to work on growing the business. They were so busy keeping up with demand that one of them needed to do it and Lindsay liked her job as a business appraiser. That year they sold 1,200 pieces six times as many as they had sold the previous year. After Rick quit his job
they continued to run the business out of their home but when fake dinosaurs and resin fabricated deer heads started taking up every nook and cranny they decided to look for a new space. They first rented a warehouse space to store their inventory at and then they added a nearby workspace for the assembly portion. The caution continued as they expanded their e-marketing platforms. It was almost two years after starting the business that they had the time to add their products to other sites. They then added products to one platform at a time every three months or so. At one point they were selling on 13 different sites
including Amazon Walmart and Wayfair. Amazon was in fact their largest source of revenue. Those newer sites they started listing products on do take a larger percent of the revenue so they find that sometimes they're working harder for less money and people now expect shipping to be fast and free thanks to Amazon which also cuts into their margins when they have to offer the same thing. Despite that business is booming. In the year we feature them they sold over 10,000 pieces and besides Rick working full-time they now employ a production manager and a painter along with one to three part-time seasonal workers. They've even been able to start some other side hustles because of the
extra money the business brings in. Isn't that what you do when business is going well? You start a new project that's what I do anyway and all this from trying to make a little cruelty-free compromise not wanting to be stared at by real deer head on the wall. Goes to show you never know what kind of ideas can lead to life-changing side and main hustles. For Lindsay and Rick they really are turning unicorn heads and selling them worldwide. Well I took a look at the website or the
websites for this business to see if it's still up and running and in fact it is they are selling cow skulls and faux angel wings bison skulls all kinds of stuff at nearandear.com it's also on Etsy at Etsy.com slash shop slash near and deer and deer is spelled D E E R you know like the animal deer. Also here's a fun fact they were once asked to create a human skull with fangs and a unicorn horn. This was a commission but due to the client's budget constraints they did not create the piece. I guess sometimes it's better to mass manufacturer. So as I said pretty incredible story. Definitely take a look at the visuals and to me it
just goes to show there's so many different ways opportunities ideas out there including one for you there's something you can do to create a new source of income create financial freedom in fact that's what it did for this couple it sounds like along with some creative goals as well perhaps whatever you're into there is a side hustle for you I hope you find it I hope you do one thing today to get closer to that goal and I hope you'll continue to listen of course new episodes every day always completely free follow subscribe wherever you get your podcasts my name is Chris Guillebeau you're listening to side hustle school from the onward project
