This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Lutheran Pastor sells and ships consecrate subscription boxes. Welcome friends. Welcome to Satasil School. This is one of my favorite first $1,000 stories of all time. I think we actually had a throwback story from this person a while back, but this is the original or at least a remixed version of our first feature with her.
Her name is Ruth. She sells clergy subscription boxes, basically subscription boxes that are often purchased as gifts for clergy. She has built a surprisingly sustainable business from this. At least at the time of our feature, she's sending out more than 500 boxes each month, which are really great numbers for a subscription box business, especially one run by one person. And I also just love the niche market of it.
She's like, nobody else is doing anything like this. And I believe there's a market for it. So she goes out, proves that to be true. And now she's shipping out a lot of boxes. All right, let's hear from her, how it happened.
How did she in fact go from idea to income? How did she make her first $1,000? What has she learned? And how might this inspire you, our listeners? All right, gonna pass the microphone to Ruth Hetland.
I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
Hello, my name is Ruth Hetland and I am the creator and owner of consecrate subscription box. My business was featured on side hustle school, episode 1599. I began consecrate in the summer of 2020. I had tried numerous side hustles that earned a little money here and there, but nothing that really took off.
And I was so wanting to build a business of my own, but I wasn't sure at all what to do. After being a pastor in the Lutheran church for over two decades, I was needing new creative outlets and wanted to learn how to do something new. So when I got the idea for consecrate, a subscription box for ministers, I decided to dig in deep. I researched about how to set up a subscription box and what to put in the first box. I researched about how to send boxes that were attractive and lightweight to save on postage.
I decided that I wanted to put items in the box that corresponded with the church seasons and whenever possible to include items that were made by other ministers. At the end of August in 2020, I began taking pre-orders. I didn't want to put any of my own money into starting the business. I wanted to raise the money I needed to get going. And this was easy to do by taking pre-orders for three months while I got ready for the first box to go out.
My husband is a great woodworker. And so he offered to make a unique advent candle holder for the first box, thinking that he'd maybe have to make 20 or 30 to fill all the orders. When I received 175 orders for the first box, he was very busy making candle holders. So by the time the first box went out, I had already made my first thousand dollars because I had very low initial cost to start the business, just the $39 fee to join the Crate Joy marketplace. Crate Joy is great to help share, consecrate with interested people.
And it was by far the easiest way for me to set up the sale of a subscription box while still working on my full-time job. I did have to pay for the items that went in the first box and the actual boxes and labels and postage, but I was very careful to make sure I could buy those things and still have a good amount of profit left over. Immediately, I did have to put some money back in to start sourcing for the next month's boxes, but it was clear from the start that this was going to be profitable. It felt really good to finally have an idea that made real money and have people be excited about it. Within a few months, consecrate grew to about 500 boxes a month that I send out.
And that's about where it has stayed. The size where it is at is still something I can handle while I do my full-time job. I have never paid for advertising. It grew through social media, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. However, I would like it to grow more, and it feels like I will need to do some different things to get to the next stage.
I'm expanding consecrate so we can provide gift boxes for conferences and retreats. We also have a selection of gift boxes that people can buy for loved ones who are being ordained or who are beginning a new call at a church. These are becoming very popular. I'm also working on designing some more items to sell on my website that will be of interest to women in ministry. I have also begun being a vendor now and then at various conferences for ministers.
It's a great way to sell any excess inventory and also tell people about consecrate. I have loved being a pastor, but it's very rewarding to be building my own business and to be dreaming of ways to expand this new ministry of care and comfort for ministers. My small business has been great, and it's mostly very fun and rewarding, but at times it's been overwhelming because I've never had a single business class in my life. And as time has gone by, it becomes more apparent that there are things I need help with in order for my business to stay healthy and grow. I have sometimes felt very lost and not sure who could help me or even how to ask.
Fortunately, I was told about West Central Minnesota Small Business Development Center. They provide business mentors and business consulting free of charge. The mentor I was given has been in successful businesses of different sizes his whole life and now helps small business owners like me with their businesses. It has been such a relief to be able to ask him questions and receive his insight as I move forward. I'm so thankful this organization exists in my area, and I think many areas around the United States have these small business development centers, and I highly recommend it if you're feeling lost or could use a little guidance.
I wish you all the very best of luck as you work on your side hustles and ideas, and thank you so much to Chris and everyone at Side Hustle School for all the inspiration and wisdom. [Music]
Well, my friends, check out consecratebox.com. The business features items made for smart, progressive, and slightly irreverent ministers. If you know somebody who might fit that description, she's also got one-off gifts. I see that she's added those.
Perhaps since our last feature, you can buy a mug that says seminarian Barbie or liturgical Barbie. You can buy t-shirts, you can buy other products. A bunch of cool stuff there. Again, consecratebox.com. Thank you so much, Ruth, for coming back to give us that update.
Again, 500 boxes a month. Those are great, great numbers in this industry, especially from a small business. Listeners, what are you working on? What are you taking action on? What's the goal you have?
How do you wanna get closer to that goal? I hope you take at least one small step today in that direction. All right, that's it for now. Of course, we've got new episodes coming out every day, seven days a week, more than 3,300 days and counting. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
