This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, hello and greetings. Welcome to Side Hustle School, where every day, seven days a week, I'm bringing you true stories of people who create a new source of income without quitting their job, without borrowing money, and using the skill they already have. These are regular people, perhaps just like you. Now, one of the beautiful things about Side Hustle School is that we have a community of amazing people all over the world, even in rural Australia, where today's story comes from. And I think you'll like this story.
It focuses on the side hustle of reselling, which in some ways hasn't changed in a couple thousand years. People have always been buying and selling with the goal of making a profit on the difference in price, and the internet has enabled all kinds of trading on a much greater scale. We've featured a number of stories of people sometimes making a lot of money part-time through some form of reselling, but today's story is completely offline. It takes place in a schoolyard, and in the hallways of that school in rural Australia. And it's about a 13-year-old who is building a lollipop fortune selling to her peers.
How does she do it? What has she learned? And can you really make money selling lollipops? We'll get to the bottom of this sticky situation right after this quick message. [Music]
Lucy My Freddy is only 13 years old, but already has a second job in addition to her school duties.
That second job is getting paid $20 a day driving tractors and cleaning equipment on the family farm. Lucy's family lives in a rural area of North Queensland, Australia, where they spend many hours in the car each week listening to podcasts, including side hustle school. Because homework and driving tractors is not enough for this enterprising teenager, Lucy decided to make some extra cash. Using startup capital from her farm gig, she purchased lollipops in bulk, which she then resells to eager customers at her high school. How did she get this idea?
Well, it's pretty warm in North Queensland and most chocolate melts. At the same time, the school canteen does not sell any sweets. So Lucy knew there was an opening for that kind of product. Students in this area traveled by bus from up to 50 kilometers away and a delicious lollipop makes the trip home a bit less boring. And that lollipop lasts for a long time.
So the kids feel like they're getting good value from their purchase. As for Lucy, buying the lollipops in bulk, she can get them for about 19 cents each. She then resells them for 50 cents, making 31 cents profit on each one. But how many is she actually selling? Well, she sells between 50 and 75 a day with very little effort.
Her teachers are aware of what she's doing and have told her that if litter becomes an issue, she'll have to clean it up. But otherwise they have no problem with her doing it. How does she market these lollipops? Well, these days Lucy said she jingles as she walks with all the coins in her pocket and her friends always know she's coming. But how did it start?
Well, the first day she sold lollipops, she put a post on Instagram early in the morning. The kids all came to school with their money and it went from there. Now all the kids know that she has lollipops in stock each day. She's just in her first year of high school, but she says even the seniors come to her because she's got something they want. I had a lot of questions about this.
This story came to us by email. When I got it in, I sent it to AC, our producer, Whitney, my assistant. We all thought it was cool, but there were some things that we wondered about. So we talked with Lucy and her mom, Alyssa, to dig deeper. What about competition?
Is there any? Well, at first a few of her friends were a bit jealous. They questioned her about where she gets her lollipops from and for how much. She told them she's not gonna give away her business secrets and that was the end of it. All right, now what about credit?
Does she ever offer credit to students who don't have cash on them? Lucy says she allows some close friends credit, but she said most kids would just borrow the 50 cents off someone else and then owe them the money. For any debts she's owed, she sets a reminder on her phone about who owes her money, how much, and when they said they pay her back. This tracking system has ensured that so far, everyone has paid her the money they owe because she's not gonna get suckered. Also, fun fact, Lucy is health conscious and rarely eats any of the lollipops herself.
If she does, she always pays for it by adding 50 cents of her personal funds to her business account. And she also makes her younger brother, age 11, and sister, age four, pay for them too. In fact, she has never given out a freebie. Way to hold that line, Lucy. You start giving out lollipops one day, the next day it's communism.
Her discipline also extends to finances. She puts all of her profits in the bank and has chosen to not get a debit card for that account so that she can't spend the money. When she gets to $5,000, which is not that far off in the future, she's gonna put it into a Vanguard Index Fund as a young investor. She also plans to live debt free and pay cash for her first car. While doing this and going to school, she still has that main job at the farm.
Remember, don't quit your day job. She's also thinking about getting another retail job next year, probably for extra money, but mainly for the experience. And there's also an expansion plan ahead. So far, she has around $1,000 saved from the introduction of the lollipop hustle and is looking at purchasing some products like pencil cases and earrings that she can sell at school using her Instagram account. Lucy knows that every kid has 50 cents to afford a lollipop.
She's happy with her more than 100% profit margin. Her new products will be purchased for around $2 each, and she hopes to sell them for $5, which is still affordable for her fellow students. She's also looking at selling glow sticks, bubble solution, and wands. With no shortage of ideas and ambition, Lucy has a goal of making around $6,000 a year from her school side hustle, for the next five years, on top of the $2,000 she makes from her daily farm job. Now, I think that's pretty awesome, but guess what?
It's not just about money. Listen to this. At this point in our conversation, Lucy's mother jumped in to say, "As her mother, I have seen a total change in her attitude towards everything. She has become very focused and driven, and her schoolwork has improved dramatically. She has sometimes struggled in the past, but her newfound confidence has seen her become more involved in class, and I couldn't be more proud of her." Look at that.
Melissa and Lucy, you guys are making my case for me about why everyone needs a project like this. Now, one more thing. I always like to talk about struggles or difficulties that people go through in starting their side hustle, and this lollipop hustle is not without challenges. That's right, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. The major downside, Lucy said, is that her pants are always falling down from all the change in her pocket.
Fortunately, this seems like a problem that might be easy to solve. Perhaps an investment in a belt or a change purse might be an appropriate startup expense. [Music]
Congratulations to Lucy, the lollipop merchant of North Queensland, Australia. Now, this is not just a cute story, as awesome as it is. You heard at the end from Lucy's mom what a difference this is making in her life, and that's because a side hustle has more than one benefit.
In people of all ages, it increases confidence and creativity. Once you start working on one idea and you see some initial success, you often get more ideas, just like you can see in this story. There are so many good things about this, so many reasons to do it, and let's not forget it's also about making money. And the principles of reselling, this kind of business they apply no matter the cost of the item. So if you can learn to do this with lollipops, you could do it with other things.
Consider that more than 100% profit margin she has, which is great, but also not unusual. Lucy is already thinking about what else she can buy and sell. What if in the future she's able to purchase something for $10 and sell it for $20? Or for $100 and then resell it for $200? Or what if you could do that?
This is not something that's difficult to jump into. You can do it without taking a lot of risk. It's mostly a matter of spending some time, identifying what it is that you can sell and to whom you're gonna sell it. Then learning a few basic things about marketing, perhaps some logistics about how to take payment, since most of us aren't gonna walk around the hallway with a pocket full of hundreds of coins, but all that stuff is simple. If you choose to invest just a bit of time and attention in this process, I think you'll find it rewarding.
I also hope you found this episode rewarding. If you're new to the show, be sure to subscribe. You can do that right on your phone in a little podcast app, or just search for Side Hustle School directly in Apple Podcasts or any other podcast player. And you can also come to sidehustleschool.com to get a free five steps to hustle course. I'd love to send that to you so you can get started on your lollipop fortune, or maybe some other kind of fortune.
Doesn't have to be lollipops. Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. Today's show notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/310. That's for episode 310. Thank you for listening.
I'll be back tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
