This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Only four months into starting, today's side hustler transitioned her project into a full-time income. She also did this by following a different approach than we usually talk about. We often encourage people to keep their job, like don't quit your day job right away. But in her words, she jumped off the cliff, closing off her other sources of income, so she would be hyper-focused, making this new business venture work for her. So you could say it's side hustle hard mode, but she won the challenge and it's worked out very well.
We're gonna hear about how this self-taught manufacturer of home decor begins earning up to $8,000 a month from her woodworking. Pretty cool. There's also a little bit of a twist in that she begins the project with her partner. This person is no longer her partner. So it's an amicable separation.
But of course, in addition to the relational issues, that brings up some business issues as well. So we'll look at that a bit too, along with some tips for anyone interested in taking a hands-on project like woodworking to the next level. Lots of stuff in this story. Rustic wall hangings rack up worthwhile profits. Stay tuned.
[Music]
In Spokane, Washington, C.J. Morrison runs her own business handcrafting unique items made from wood. She builds her pieces in her garage, typically wooden wall art, geometric shelving, and tables, then sells them online and through wholesale accounts. Now this is now a very successful endeavor, bringing in a full-time income. But of course, it wasn't always that way.
Before starting this side hustle, C.J. and her former partner, Joe, were working on other projects, including reselling vintage furniture. While meeting up with people and selling out of her car was fun, it was also unpredictable. She also didn't wanna just be a reseller, she wanted to make something. Drawing on their vintage furniture arbitrage exploits, C.J. and Joe started thinking
about ways to use their creative capacities to enhance people's homes. The idea they chose sprang to life after visiting a friend who had a handmade geometric inlay coffee table. Upon seeing that tabletop and thinking they could pull off something on par with it, they bought a couple of saws and converted their one car garage into a wood shop. They found some reclaimed wood at a lumber yard and got busy designing. Then they created their first collection of 12 pieces, art hangings, trays, and tabletops.
Now it's worth noting that C.J. had zero experience with woodworking, outside watching her dad work with tools when she was younger. Joe, again, her partner at the time, grew up with a dad who was a contractor and learned woodworking from him, but he'd never built any furniture or home goods either. Together, they learned to use some tools as C.J. jumped right in with drawing and creating designs, basically learning on the fly.
Serendipity arrived when a woman who owned a gallery came to buy a set of vintage side tables and noticed C.J.'s collection of wooden wall art panels. This encounter led to their work being displayed at the woman's gallery. It was key exposure in their very first month of starting. Then they participated in their first craft fair and made $1,000. C.J. said at the time,
they didn't know how to price their work and discovered they were underpricing because they didn't know what to compare their work to. Still, it felt huge for them at the time. And just as they'd learned to use those tools and design their own handcrafted art, they learned about running a business. They called this business Roaming Roots Woodworks. It cost a grand total of $700 to get off the ground.
That was mostly the cost of those tools and materials in addition to setting up their first website. They traveled to art festivals and craft fairs across the state, as well as neighboring states. They also posted on Instagram to show people that what they were creating was desirable. And those people took notice. In fact, it seemed the more they displayed their work, the more they were booked out with orders.
As they continued to make, share, and sell, they gained confidence and raised their prices. Whenever demand was too high, they'd raise their prices again. The strategy has worked out well as a business model with C.J. saying the market will let you know when you're overpriced. The business grew from strength to strength, but as time went on, there was one big problem that resulted in a major change.
Because they both lived and worked together, C.J. and Joe were almost never apart. Their relationship didn't make it through the stressors of a home-based business and the intensity of the schedule. There was a time when they were working seven days a week, 10 hours a day, just to keep up with demand. They eventually went their separate ways and she took over the business completely, doing everything from creating to shipping, to all the behind the scenes technical work.
She says now if she could go back, she would set more healthy boundaries around her schedule and change how much time they spent together. But she's also made peace with the breakup and believes they're both on better paths now than if they'd stayed together. The business is now earning up to $8,000 a month, depending on the time of year. C.J. is learning new techniques to create more forms of art and wood decor.
She eventually plans to return to school to become a licensed counselor. Perhaps that'll be the third act. But for now, there's a new collection of wall hangings and an interview with her local newspaper requires her attention. [Music]
Well, first I wanna encourage you to check out C.J.'s site, roamingroots.co, roamingroots.co or .co. It's still in business several years after we first featured her and looks great.
Really cool, custom art. Glad to see she's still going strong there. I'm not sure if she has yet gone back to school to start the third career. But in any case, the art looks great. And then a practical tip, C.J.'s price points are determined by a few different factors.
Number one, the size and difficulty of each piece. Number two, the materials needed. And three, her time. So they have some cool calculators online you can look at to help you determine the wholesale price of handmade goods. And so she would do that and then double the wholesale price for retail sales.
Just a good little tip if you're trying to figure out how to actually get started with this and how do I decide what the pricing should be when I don't have a good comp. That's gonna help you do that. All right listeners, thank you so much for being out there. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Hope you enjoyed this story.
Tomorrow we're gonna talk about Merch by Amazon, very different business model. Later in the week or early next week, I should say, we're gonna talk about pierogi, Boston pierogi, these delicious Polish snacks and so much more coming up. I love making this show for you. New episodes out every day, always free. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
