This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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An Australian cyclist shifts into gear, opening his own online shop that resells cycling clips, straps, and racks. It's inspired by a painful breakup and he uses the opportunity to invest in himself, which is something I'm always encouraging you to do. That is what today's featured story is all about. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School, the only podcast bringing you daily stories of real people who have real jobs and find a way to invest in themselves. Now, what do I mean by investing in themselves?
I mean, they're creating some kind of asset, some kind of second income, even if they love their job. So what might be some other ways to invest in yourself, because I often use that phrase, you could invest in yourself through your health, through exercise or other wellness, maybe take a 15 minute nap today, maybe do a five minute meditation. You can invest in yourself through reading or other learning, like listening to podcasts like this one. Maybe through taking 10 minutes to do something you've been putting off, because that thing is just kind of taking up psychic energy, it's just bothering you. And once you get it out of your mind and off your plate, you'll probably feel a bit lighter.
Now, what do all these things have in common? They are all about being intentional with your time, which is your most precious asset. The time that you're spending today can't be recovered, so it's in your best interest to be wise with it. This whole concept is what I talk about in various ways, particularly in regards to creating a new source of income for yourself, so that you're not always dependent on a corporation or an organization or a government, once again, even if you're perfectly content in your current role. So I'm gonna say a quick thank you to our sponsor, they allow the show to be completely free to you, and then I'll tell you all about this account manager in Australia who becomes a new spokesperson for side hustling by reselling bicycle gear, stay tuned.
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Ryan Tierney's side hustle idea came to him on the heels of a painful breakup, while he was staring at the bottom of his second pint of chocolate ice cream. Ain't no judgment, we've all been there. It's like a regular Tuesday night for me. Ryan is a 28 year old account manager for a bicycle wholesale business from Brisbane, Australia, and he'd been saving up money to buy Christmas presents when he received the news of his girlfriend wanting to move on. A helpful friend suggested that instead of wallowing with a third pint of ice cream, he should perhaps go out and spend that money on himself.
Ryan, an obsessive cyclist, had his eye on some premium bike gear from the US, but was held back by the outrageously expensive shipping cost. His next thought was to start a distribution business and get the products at a cheaper price while bringing a sought after brand to Australia. That was of course quite a leap in thought, and it sounded great while he was drinking beer with his friends the next night, but when Ryan looked into it a bit more, he realized he would need to spend more than $15,000 to get started, which was a lot more than he had budgeted for a few Christmas presents. But not to be dissuaded, Ryan began researching other products he could sell within Australia. He'd been getting into adventure cycling and camping trips, and he had discovered a brand that sold straps that bind various items and gear together.
Ryan was also a fan of another company which sold 3D printed bike racks. With these two products and a personal connection to the cycling community, Ryan decided to take the risk and get the wheels turning on his side hustle, which he called Urban Dwellers. And he didn't spend $15,000 to do it, he spent about $3,000. Ryan had discovered Shopify's free trial, which you can get through side hustle school at Shopify.com/sidehustle. He signed up, created his storefront, and learned his way around the platform.
He ordered a small stock of 100 straps and 50 new bike racks, investing much of that $3,000, and then got to work on building relationships with other cyclists to promote his new store. In his first month, Ryan thought he'd be selling mostly through bike shops. He contacted over 500 stores and only had one store purchase anything, not the greatest conversion rate. But if we know anything about Ryan, besides the fact that he really likes that chocolate ice cream, it's that he's not one to be deterred. He realized he'd be more successful selling to individual cyclists.
And he began to gain momentum when he joined groups on Facebook. As sales began to trickle in, he doubled down by creating targeted Facebook ads to promote his small product range. Two years later, he brings in 60 orders a month, resulting in about $5,500 in sales. Of that, he typically takes home $1,200 a month in profit. That take-home earning is conservative because he uses a lot of his profit to reinvest into the store.
Now that he's built up a safety net, Ryan says he feels a lot more confident whenever there's a slow month. And remember, he's got a day job, so he's not relying on this for his full-time income. Speaking of that, Ryan's nine to five job has been helpful to his success because he gets to see the business operations of a bigger company in action. However, he says it's the lessons he learned through trial and error, like sustainable pricing and customer interactions that have helped him the most. There's one big challenge he continually faces.
Ryan is limited in his stock options because he's found the most traction with products that are small, under $50, and not being replicated in China. That last part might be the most important because products that are being produced in China are sold for significantly less than what he could charge. So if he tried to sell them, he probably wouldn't get very far. In fact, you could say he'd just end up in a vicious cycle, or would it be a chain reaction? In any case, Ryan is always on the hunt for new products to distribute, especially if he gets to put them through their paces on one of his own many bike adventures.
He's also been trying to grow his side hustle by reaching out to different kinds of stores beyond the cycling industry. His main motivation for putting the pedal to the metal is the ability to travel. Ryan's been saving his side hustle profits so he can automate his business more and travel the world with his new girlfriend, not the one who dumped him before Christmas. She's out of the picture. He has shifted into a new gear, getting a grip on his life, and climbing to the top.
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So here is an important lesson that this story sets up so well for us here today. The lesson is you're not gonna be Amazon, and you're not gonna be China. So don't try to compete with either one of them. When I say you're not gonna be Amazon, I mean, of course, amazon.com. There's no way that anybody out there, myself included, literally every single person listening to this podcast, could ever try to compete with what Amazon has done.
Similarly, you're not gonna be able to compete with manufacturing in countries like China. And it's not just China. That's kind of shorthand for other Asian countries that have really focused a lot on manufacturing and building factories and so on. But the point is they're able to do that with really low costs. And in both of these examples, you could say, well, that's not fair.
Well, like, I don't like Amazon, or I don't like overseas manufacturing. I have moral, ethical, philosophical objections. And if you do, I completely understand that. I'm probably sympathetic to some of those concerns. But this isn't really about fairness, it's about reality.
And so if you want to be successful with some kind of online business, especially a part-time business like what Ryan's doing, you have to follow his example. What Ryan and other people have done is say, okay, I recognize the reality. If something is produced in China at a pretty low cost, I'm not gonna be able to be profitable, sustainable in the long-term selling that, but what else can I do? So in his case, he sets out to sell a bike here. And at first he looks and says, oh, it's gonna cost $15,000 for me to do that.
Well, I'm not gonna do it that way. Then he finds another way selling these accessories, really specializes in these items that cost less than $50. And again, are not being manufactured in China. So don't try to compete head-on with reality, create your own reality, create your own reality by finding something a little bit different, finding something to specialize in, telling a good story and providing great customer service, which is what he's done, which is what so many other people that we have featured are doing again in their own way. So just a little reality check there for you.
It's not meant to be discouraging in any way. In fact, it should be encouraging. There are things you can do. You don't have to give up. There are still lots and lots of ways you can make money.
And every day on the show, I'm telling you about a different one. I'm highlighting a different, just regular person, not a celebrity, not a social media influencer for the most part, who has just found a way to be creative and smart and experiment and then follow the results of that experiment and then double down when something is working. It is my hope that you'll have a success story like Ryan's, like everybody else that we've featured this week and all the weeks on "Side Hustle School." We're actually winding down this week. Tomorrow is the weekly recap, going into an all-new set of stories next week. Also, "Happy Year Labor Day" is coming up.
A reimagined, reinvented holiday created by Gretchen Rubin, the founder of the Omri Project. So more on that is coming up real soon. You'll be able to follow along on social media with the hashtag #HappyYearLaborDay. And as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. If you're in Australia, or actually if you're anywhere in the world, because the way the internet works is, you can access it from anywhere.
If you want to check out Ryan's shop or learn more about what he does, just come and see our show notes. Those are at sidehustleschool.com/609. That is for episode 609. I hope you've had a wonderful week. I look forward to sharing the next one with you, at least a small part of it.
Don't forget to invest in yourself. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School."
