This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Rosary Beads, Count Off, Extra Income. This story features Maria, excited to bring it to you today in our Throwback Thursday segment. Welcome, friends, welcome to Sidusville School. Chris Guillebeau, your host here in this segment, we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. We've had more than 3,300 episodes of the show thus far, and counting, new episode every day.
So we have a wealth of archives that we can pull from. And sometimes we like to go back to people and say, "Hey, what has happened since we first told the story of you making $1,000 or more from your side hustle?" Today, we're gonna hear from a Chicago-based maker of rosary beads and other faith-based jewelry. She has a definite market, she has a definite skill, and she has learned to apply that skill to that market. Pretty cool business. She's also expanded since we first featured her with lots of new adventures and a few challenges.
So let's, without further ado, hear directly from Maria about some of those things. I'll come back at the end with a few words of wrap-up, but for now, here's Maria. [Music]
Hi, my name is Maria Lauren. I'm from West Chicago, Illinois. The name of my business is Willow and V, and my side hustle episode was 8-0-7.
I make faith-based jewelry with my main focus being first communion pieces. I got started selling jewelry when I was, my kids were going to school at St. Mike's, and it was a religious school, and I was creating rosaries and bracelets. So after a while, I was being asked and approached by parents if I could provide some pieces for them and make something for them. At that point, I decided maybe I should go ahead and create a store, so I opened up an Etsy shop, and after years of doing that, through some encouragement from my mom, she suggested, you know, why don't you go and ask if you could sell these at a retail store?
So I wasn't sure how you did that, but I went ahead and just sent out an email, got in touch with a buyer, and my pieces are being sold also now at Von Mar. So I saw, you know, that started the whole ball of wax going from selling at a retail store to boutiques, and, you know, I still sell on Etsy and Amazon Handmade. Since I was last featured on the show, I have increased my product line at Von Mar, and I've started outsourcing more of my items. I'm also gathering information to launch a subscription box. I have noticed that it's a lot easier to serve my current customers as opposed to creating new pieces and trying to branch out into different things.
So my main focus is gonna be to stay with the customer base that I currently have, but find other ways of serving them. The biggest struggle that I'm currently facing is having to outsource, because I'm getting to the point where my pieces are just, it's too much for me to make, and I do have help locally, but I had tried outsourcing, and, you know, I had kind of a bad experience with that, and I ended up having to remake all the pieces that were made. So I find that it's one of those things where, you know, we're all hoping for that grand slam. You know, you hire somebody and it works out perfectly, but, you know, I just took it with a grain of salt. I have to keep looking and trying to find the right person to help out, because I won't allow this.
So it's imperative that I find somebody that can help. I'm even considering maybe hiring locally, maybe college kids, or even retired workers, because I feel like that would help them a little bit, and it helps me. My specific advice for somebody wanting to do something similar is to really test the market with the pieces that you're making. So what I like to do is I create one piece, and I put it out on Etsy, and if it seems to be a good seller, then I'll buy a lot of product to create those pieces, because I have to admit that in the beginning, you know, you get excited, and you start buying a lot of pieces, a lot of components, and then you realize that this item that you made isn't really moving. So in order to keep your costs low and not to have a whole bunch of things that you're having to give away or resell or whatever, so I think it's important to really understand your market and also make sure that you're not getting overzealous with the idea of creating and buying all these things before you test each piece out.
One of the most important things I've learned, which I kind of touched on a little bit before, is that it's really difficult when you're trying to make sales to focus on just the sales that you've already made. So, you know, if I wanted to make more, what I would do is create different pieces, and I would even vary from my line. But what I noticed is that if I focus more on what's already selling and finding another way of serving that customer, it's really been the best way for me to grow my business and gathering that information is really gonna be the thing that I think is gonna make a subscription box of success once that's launched, because I have the same customer base. So in other words, I'm not reinventing the wheel, trying to find different products that they may or may not like. So I would say the most important thing is really to try and focus on your current client base and how you can serve them deeper.
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Awesome, well, listeners, you can check out Maria's website willownb.com. Going strong, she's actually been going since 2010. That's pretty incredible. Well done, Maria. So check out willownb.com, also on Pinterest or Instagram at willownb.
And I believe she has a podcast as well. Listeners, let me know what you think, who you'd like to see featured from our archives of well over 3,000 episodes. Of course, if you have a question or an update about your hustle, you can leave that for us as well. The notes pages for every single episode, all those episodes, thousands of them now at sidehustleschool.com. Everything's completely free.
New episodes out every day. Thank you for being there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
