This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Hey there friends, listeners, side hustle school community. Welcome back, my name is Chris Guillebeau. You know, every day on the show, I'm bringing you a different true story of somebody who starts a side hustle. And of course, most of the time I'm telling you the stories, it's because they're a success. Like something has worked out.
I get a lot of questions from people who wonder, okay, what about the ideas that don't work? And I have a couple thoughts on this. My first thought is in just about every story that we feature, I would say at least the majority, the project is not a huge success from the beginning. There's usually some kind of tweak or change that needs to be made. There's usually a false start or two.
Sometimes there's a big failure that precedes success. So yes, ultimately I'm trying to show people that the side hustle method works. There are all kinds of people all over the world doing this in different ways, as you know, if you've been listening to the show for a while. But I also don't wanna shy away from those mistakes or false starts or just experiments that don't go the way that you hope. And I also try really hard to not use the word easy too often, at least when it comes to making money.
What I try to do is take complex concepts and simplify them so that you can focus on what is essential. That's a big part of the side hustle school method. But something that is worth doing, like creating freedom in your life is worth doing, at least a lot of us believe that. It's not always gonna be easy. And in fact, if one part of it is easy, there's probably some other element of it that's gonna take more work.
So today we have a print on demand success story. And the thing about print on demand where you can make t-shirts and all kinds of stuff without stocking any inventory, is that it really is easy to start. Like it's extremely simple to upload a design and have it available for purchase, but that doesn't mean it's easy to sell a lot of your designs. Because the barrier to entry is so low, so many other people are doing the same thing. So in a situation like this with print on demand, differentiation is key.
You really need to think about, okay, what can I do? That is unique or is otherwise gonna stand out. And today's featured side hustler finds a way to make that happen for himself. Our story is called, "The Snuggle is Real." Architect moonlights by selling designer onesies. Pretty fun story.
I'll tell you how he does it and how he manages to stand out in just a moment. [Music]
Gerald Lau is an architect by day. He's a fan of clean lines, lots of white, and simple typography. He also liked the idea of a side hustle. At first, however, he tried a couple of projects that didn't quite work.
One was selling designer stationery and homeware, and he found it was hard for him to keep up with the stock, fill orders himself, manage the customer service, and do all the marketing required. He already had that busy day job, which required a lot of hours. So then he tried doing interior design gigs on the side, but that felt like overtime. He took on too many projects and just felt burned out. Gerald is a regular listener to Side Hustle School and an episode about print-on-demand caught his interest.
It inspired him to develop an idea he had to create timeless, minimalist t-shirts for his kids. He named his side hustle, "The Type O.T.'s." Startup costs were only the domain name and a Shopify subscription he got through the Side Hustle School promo link, which helped keep his running costs low. All his products are made in the USA and they ship worldwide. Shopify handles this through a partner called Printly, and he decided to specialize in selling alphabet onesies, meaning that on the onesie, he would print a letter that usually corresponded to a kid's first or last name. And guess what happened?
Was it a huge success? Most definitely not, at least not at first. The initial results were as promising as his previous Side Hustle attempts. In fact, nothing much happened at all. Once his Shopify store was open, it took a few weeks before Gerald even got his first order.
That order was for six shirts, which he thought was a nice proof of concept, but not really proof that the Side Hustle would make it long-term, especially when that first customer wasn't happy with the quality of the shirts and wanted her money back. In the case of that first order, the supplier wouldn't give Gerald a refund, so he had to take it from his own pocket. Plus, he didn't think to ask for the shirts back before refunding the customer, so she never actually returned them. Whoops. Gerald learned from this experience, put it in perspective, and moved on.
He was worried about the quality of the fabric, but in the end, he decided this was just an unhappy customer. It wasn't his fault. He had done his best in choosing a manufacturer and decided to keep going with them. He could always choose a different one later if he changed his mind. One of the best things about print-on-demand is that there is no inventory.
Products are printed only when people order them. This gave Gerald the ability to expand his designs without any cost. He added simple, edgy, typeface-inspired graphics that featured fun and playful messages with a clean aesthetic. As he broadened his designs and experimented, a crazy thing happened. People began buying them.
Not only that, these buyers were happy with their orders. They loved dressing their kids with something that was personalized. Gerald also added companion onesies and shirts to encourage multiple product purchases. One customer favorite is a onesie that reads, "The Snuggle is Real." You can also purchase a companion t-shirt from moms and dads that reads, "The Struggle is Real." Next, he added a customizable feature to his site. A customer can choose from any of five fonts and put in any message they would like to add.
Thanks to the wonders of print-on-demand, the turnaround time is only 24 hours. Finally, the Type-O-T site has just undergone a renovation, reflecting Gerald's growing understanding of what he likes to design and what his customers like to buy. Sales have grown steadily, and he just reached his first four-figure month with the help of a special promotion. He says the best part of having a side hustle like Type-O-Ts is getting photos from happy customers and seeing their kids wearing those onesies and t-shirts. It's fulfilling to see his designs being appreciated by others in a very different medium than what he's used to at work.
He advises anyone thinking of going into online clothing sales or print-on-demand in general to be sure they have a unique differentiator in order to stand out. It is a very saturated market because that barrier to entry is so low, but it also offers a lot of potential, just like he found. His last suggestion is if you wanna do something like this, be sure you're in it for the long run and don't expect to return overnight because "The Struggle" or "The Snuggle" is real, but the rewards can be worth it. [Music]
So let me just highlight this once more. False starts are normal.
Not every experiment you conduct is gonna be successful. In fact, it's quite likely that your success over time is gonna come from trying different things and learning through experience what people respond to. So if you think about this story, in this example, Gerald could have just done those first designs and put them out there and said, "Okay, that was easy. Now I'm gonna wait for people to purchase them." And then when they didn't come to purchase them, he could just get frustrated and give up and say, "Well, okay, there's not really much to this print-on-demand thing, must be overrated." But instead, he knew that it had potential despite the challenges, despite the saturation of that market. And so using his skills as an architect, thinking about the aesthetic that he preferred, and then matching that with the idea of doing onesies for kids, which he didn't see a whole lot of people doing, at least not in this space, that's how he ended up creating differentiation for the type OT site.
So false starts are normal, not everything is gonna work, but if you keep taking action and pay attention and adjust as you go along, don't just keep trying the same thing, expecting different results, you should listen and observe and then try different things. That is the side hustle path, at least the most common one. So yes, not every idea works, but don't give up over there. There's something out there for you too. If you haven't found it already, I hope you'll discover it this year.
I hope that side hustle school can be a big part or even just a small part of making that happen for you. And I'll be here every day to cheer you on, offer whatever support I can give. And of course, I would love to know what happens, because just like this story with Gerald, a lot of our stories are coming from listeners who were with us in the first year, got an idea, went out and experimented, and now they're seeing these results, which of course makes me happy. So with that, I'll leave you to your day, I'll sign off for now. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.
If you wanna learn about print-on-demand or see the type OT site, just come to today's show notes. Those are at sidehustleschool.com/389. Thank you for listening. You're a rock star. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
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