5-Year-Old’s Frustration Leads to Modern Day Piggy Bank

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Let's talk about piggy banks. Did you ever have one of those? Not sure I ever had a real one. I had lots of little savings tools and toys, but in my reporting for this story, I learned that traditional piggy banks come with a feature that is not always desirable. That feature is it's hard to get the money out.

So when a five-year-old starts earning money, taking out the trash for neighbors, his mom comes to the realization that piggy banks are more style than function. She then reinvents this classic tool as a piggy box that won't get stuck in the mud. It's a fun story that anyone can appreciate. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

Let's say a quick thank you to today's sponsor and then on with the show. [Music]

Jacob Diaz was five years old and already a side hustler. After the city dumpster trucks would empty the large garbage cans, he would walk down the street and bring them in for the neighbors. Sony was hauling in 12 cans every Thursday night, the beginnings of his garbage can empire. For a kid, he was raking in the cash and his parents figured this was a great chance to capitalize on a so-called teachable moment.

His mother Esther went out and bought three piggy banks, one for spending, one for saving and one for giving. Spend, save, give. The idea was to instill the values of careful saving, generous giving and hard work. The investment paid off. Jacob was filling up all three of his piggy banks at record speed.

There was, as they say, just one problem. The teachable moment started to fall apart when it came time to retrieve that money. The piggy banks were great at receiving cash, but they did not want to pay up. Esther even tried to get the dollar bills out with chopsticks using what she calls Mr. Miyagi style, but to no avail.

That cash was stuck, like really stuck and it didn't make sense to teach good stewardship by breaking the piggy banks to get it out. The short-term trick was medical forceps. They got those bills out with only minor surgery on the pig. But the long-term solution was to build a better piggy bank. Esther began to assemble her idea, a three drawer box.

Give, save and spend would each have their own drawer for dollars and coins. No more tiny piggy bank holes or not being able to count your cash. It would all be easy to access. The first step was to find a designer for her box. She had a vision but needed someone to put it into professional graphics.

So she looked for that someone on Craigslist. It ended up taking longer than she hoped. She went through more than one designer and many revisions with her pig stuck in the mud. While waiting on designs, she also started creating her own website on Wix. But that turned out to not be a strong suit either.

She asked around and found a web designer who could help her turn her Wix site into a professional e-commerce store. Once the designs and website were finally nailed down, it was time to find a manufacturer. She started her search with hopes of manufacturing in the US. The prototypes came out well, confirming that her designs were functional. But every US-based manufacturer told her she should probably make her product overseas.

Their minimum order cost was $75 a box, way too high for a kid's toy, and their order minimums were astronomical as well. So she used Alibaba to find a manufacturer in Asia. Several months later, the products were delivered to a stateside warehouse, which Esther also had a referral for. The order arrived on schedule, but with a huge error. The movable dividers that allowed kids to customize their organization system in each box had been glued in.

Whoops. The factory eventually sent over more inventory to fix its mistake, but that mistake was costly because her warehouse fees jumped dramatically to house all those good and bad products. Finally, after lots of twists and turns and now a finished product, Esther launched the Piggy Box. It was a huge relief to go from concept to manufacturing to inventory, but the work was just beginning. She tried buying ads on Facebook, but that was a bust.

She also tried buying local ads in her Los Angeles area, but that didn't work either. Then she started pitching her brand to bloggers in the parenting space and got more traction. Seeing the value of those partnerships, Esther joined a lead generating group that helped her identify and reach out to potential media partners. Through that group, Esther hit two jackpots, Buzzfeed and the Family Fun magazine. Sales were now coming in on a regular basis, but challenges remained.

In particular, Esther's warehouse and shipping costs were high. Thankfully, she had an idea to solve both problems. The initial Piggy Box design was bulky and unable to be reduced in size. This increased the required warehouse space and also resulted in a bunch of damaged product during shipping. She has a new design going into production soon that should allow the product to be sized down for storage.

She doesn't want her pigs hogging all the storage space. This also should result in it being more protected during shipping. She's taking her time to find the right manufacturer for her next big order, puffing around to different manufacturers to stop up their proposals. Getting a lower minimum order quantity will also help her business be more successful because she'll be able to spend less on big batches of product and more on marketing and sales. But while the profit she's bringing in has been great for Esther, the greater joy of the side hustle has been growing it with her family.

Trips to UPS with her son, family assembly lines for state fair demonstrations. Those special moments have been the most rewarding of all. This little Piggy has gone to market. [Music]

Well, what a fun story. Congrats to Esther and to her son Jacob and everyone else in the family.

I love the idea of reinventing the piggy bank, turning it into a piggy box. And here are two important side notes to the story. First of all, while all this was happening, Esther's brother-in-law had been developing a basic app that kids can use to keep track of their finances. This was released alongside Piggy Box. And second, a special offer for some of our listeners.

Remember those Piggy Boxes that first order she did that were glued together and couldn't be sold. Esther says they can still be used. It just takes some work and she would hate to throw those glued and unsellable boxes away. So if any of our listeners who have kids would like a free Piggy Box, head over to thepiggybox.com and email Esther. This is a first come, first served offer and we'll link it up in the show notes as well.

Those notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/558. Thank you for listening today. You're a rock star. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I hope you're saving your pennies for a rainy day or whatever is important to you.

I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.