This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello there friends, listeners, Side Hustle School community. Welcome back, my name is Chris Guillebeau. You know, the other day we talked about, I think this was episode number 450 on Monday, in a world of uncertainty, you should build your own security. In that episode I told you about a guy who had this little side hustle slash hobby, making a couple hundred dollars a month, and then he loses his job and uses that side hustle to grow a full-time income. So in other words, even though his project wasn't making that much money, he had taken the time to build a foundation so that when this other situation occurred, he did have something that he could go and focus on, wasn't starting from scratch, and it ended up being a huge success for him.
Having a side hustle as your security, I think is one of the greatest reasons for having a side hustle in the first place. But hey, what if you don't want to make your side hustle your full-time gig? I try to be really clear about this point, but I still get a lot of emails about it. People who are like, you know, I like the show, but I don't know if I'm like most of the listeners. I don't actually want my side hustle to become full-time.
I like my job. For some other reason, I just, I don't want to do that. And I'm always surprised because I say, well, if that's your situation, then it sounds like you're like about half of our listeners, roughly about half of our community. They're not trying to make their side hustle full-time. That's why it is side hustle school.
It is about creating freedom and establishing new sources of income so that you have options, you have that security. But again, those options, those choices are your own. So my whole goal with the show is to get you to that point of having security. And then if you deliberately choose to just keep your side hustle relatively small, well, that's fine because relatively small is still significant. Today, I'm going to tell you a story of a Canadian sports enthusiast who earns $1,000 a month selling apparel.
And he kind of goes through this process just like a lot of our stories of figuring out how to do that. And in his case, as you'll hear, he's created this modest success and he probably could make it more of a success, but for now, at least he doesn't want to. So for now, he's enjoying this extra income that's coming in. He's learning a lot along the way. And he is building a foundation so that at some point if he so chooses, he could do a lot more with this.
Just a reminder that your goals, your motivations, those are your own. They shouldn't come from anybody else. You should decide for yourself what's important to you. So let's say thanks to today's sponsor and then I will bring you this story. [Music]
Born in Toronto, 32-year-old Matt Williams has always enjoyed Canadian action sports.
As a teenager, he developed a love for skateboarding, preferring it to other team sports that his fellow high schoolers traditionally favored. Today, his day job involves managing a Canadian action sports publication where he gets to cover not only skateboarding, but also snowboarding and surfing to his heart's content. It's truly a high school dream come true, but it wasn't always smooth sailing. At the end of high school, Matt realized that money was a problem. No one else was gonna pay for his college, so he had to find a way to come up with a significant sum of cash.
His first side hustle idea was to sell his own skateboard-inspired sweatshirts, which combined a subject he was interested in with a skill he had developed as a child. Armed with a few hand-drawn designs, Matt started knocking on the doors of screen printers, most of whom turned him down after learning he was making an extremely small order. Eventually, he managed to convince one printer to go along with it, and for $200, Matt acquired his first batch of printed tees and sweatshirts. These shirts sold out quickly, albeit mostly to his friends and family, which prompted Matt to head back to the supplier for a second run. The printer was not expecting him to be back and was shocked that he had sold his inventory.
He did a few more print runs, then eventually abandoned that side hustle to focus on other opportunities. After graduating college and landing a full-time job, Matt gave away his remaining inventory to charity. But the itch for creating never went away. Even though Matt enjoyed his job, he would spend his weekends and free time designing things. He learned about silk screening and other techniques.
He eventually decided to set up an Etsy shop, which he saw as a no-brainer, since the Etsy platform allowed him to put himself on the map in the digital space without having to build and host his own website. Since by that point, he already owned most of the equipment and materials he used for his designs, startup costs were negligible. Orders trickled in at the start, and Matt would usually average a sale or two a week. He didn't really need the money since he had that full-time job, but he found himself getting oddly excited each time he sold an item. He would check his Etsy shop, which he called Matt Made, each day after work without fail.
This went on for a while until he realized he could do a lot more than just passively collect payments for the occasional order. So he thought about how he might sell more. By now, some of his friends had begun to get married and start families. So Matt got the idea to create matching daddy and baby t-shirt sets and baby jumpers. This was such a hit that it quickly outsold his other designs.
And to spread the word, Matt reached out to those who'd previously purchased his work to ask them to leave a review. That flurry of reviews gave him more recognition on Etsy, and he got a boost in search results. Aside from those efforts, Matt never made a further attempt to market his shop. The reviews alone were sufficient to drive sales, although he says he could have done more. The thing is, since Matt holds a day job, he makes it a point to keep his side hustle simple and fuss-free.
He initially sourced his materials from different suppliers, but now he just works with those who either provide the best service or are the best priced. He says cost is important, but so is customer service, shipping times, and availability. To minimize risk and volatility, Matt is also extremely cautious about expanding his inventory, and he never purchases any equipment until he's sure he can offer something new. Most of his income is followed the Pareto Principle, where 80% of the sales come from only 20% of his listings. No matter how tempting it could be to keep expanding, Matt knows he has to be focused.
Looking back at the past two years, he attributes the success of his Etsy shop to the skills he developed in his first side hustle. From balancing inventory to understanding the margins of each product, what he learned while trying to pay for college is still helping him now. The Matt made shop now averages over $1,000 a month in net income, and he only spends two nights a week on this project. Several of his friends have urged him to go all in, but he likes it better this way. At this pace, he gets to enjoy his work and experiment with designs on the side, knowing that he isn't dependent on his shop for income.
Moving forward, he says, "I just want to keep making things that people enjoy with little to no pressure and in my spare time." So he's not just making products, he also wants to make his own schedule and determine his own priorities. [Music]
All right, so here's the thing. At the core level of Side Hustle School, like the reason why I make this show, it's all about improving your life. There are lots of different ways to improve your life, and I'm focusing here on economic empowerment. It's not so much about making the most money in the world or making more money than your friends do, it's about, again, creating that security.
So that whether you are trying to reproduce, replicate a full-time income, or just do something for yourself, do something that brings in this extra money, like what we have here with Matt, you can do that, you can have that option. And so my question for you today is, is what can you do right now? Like if you've been listening to this show for a while, I'd like you to think about what your next step is. Maybe not your next step for the rest of your life, maybe not your long-term plan, but what can you do to get started with something? What can you do to buy and resell something?
What can you do to start your own Etsy shop? What can you do to create a really simple website? What kind of offer can you create? In the Sada Soul book, I talk a lot about going from idea to offer, because when people are getting started in this world, they often think about ideas, but they don't think about offers enough. An offer is something that people can respond to and say, yes, I want to buy that, like here's my credit card.
And the reason why I share all these different stories with you is to show different approaches, to show how people have kind of walked through this process, learned it on their own, adapted it to their own needs. And then often, like we see with Matt, being really intentional about what their goals are. So personally, even though I love telling stories about people who go off to make six figures or whatever the number is from their Sada Soul, I honestly think it's just as inspiring when somebody's able to create this recurring $500, $1,000 a month, $2,000 a month source of income. Because again, it can lead to so much more, but even if it doesn't, it's still very empowering. And I want that to happen for you.
I want you to feel empowered in that way. That's what we're about. I'm gonna keep bringing you stories every day. I've got the weekly recap coming up tomorrow. Lots of other stuff for the months of April, May, looking forward into the summer and beyond.
I hope you will continue to join me as we continue to improve the show for you. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/455. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
