Swipe Some Inspiration From This Sticky Side Hustle

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

[Music]

Do you ever feel guilty about not having enough time to work on your side hustle? Well, listen, my whole life is a collection of side hustles. I have a lot of projects and I often experience angst or guilt or just kind of frustration at myself in not being able to spend as much time on them as I would like or as much time as I feel that they deserve. And apparently I'm not alone because today's story is fun and crafty and creative all on its own. It's about a product design manager who creates reusable paper.

That's right, a reusable paper. It's pretty cool, I'll tell you how it works. She then sells it to brands like Airbnb earning up to $10,000 a month. Now as a bonus, she's got a great quote on that topic of feeling guilty about not having enough time for a project you love. So I'll try to let her words serve as a lesson to me and perhaps they'll do that for you too.

In fact, there are multiple lessons in this episode. We're calling it Swipe Some Inspiration from this sticky side hustle. And I'll bring it to you in just a moment. Oh, and by the way, my name is Chris Guillebeau and this is the daily podcast, Side Hustle School. Can't forget that.

[Music]

Hailey Betts knows a thing or two about time management. A New York City based product design manager balances her day job with a blossoming side hustle along with a penchant for photography, taking design commissions and another side project that saw her build an app that connects recreational soccer players. More on that one another time. It seems we can thank one of her many side projects for being the catalyst for her latest dose of inspiration. She stumbled upon the idea almost by accident while designing restaurant menus from her design shop.

The restaurant asked Hailey to help them make a laminated menu because they wanted to cut down the damage to their paper menus. Once the project was over, the rest of the laminated samples were still in Hailey's office and she had an urge to write on them. She bought some markers and began using those laminated samples for note taking, illustrations and to-do lists. Every time another designer stopped by her office and saw her unofficial prototype in action, they asked about it. Then when Hailey and her husband had some downtime after moving to New York from Seattle in 2016, she decided to see if she could earn some money from this lamination project.

It took her about a year to go from prototype to sellable product. Most manufacturers she approached weren't interested in working with her and the core material was also unexpectedly expensive. She invested $600 into her first production run at a cost of $4 to $5 per sheet. And she described this product as a reusable, durable, synthetic paper made for creative, productive people. It's designed to be used with wet erase pens, allowing your work to stay put until rinsed with water.

She calls it swipes, the perfect companion in the home and the office. She ended up working with a manufacturer in Seattle to produce her products. The manufacturer ships to her house, which is now in New York, where she assembles the kits in her living room about three times a week. She then mails out orders on her way into work. After launching her online shop, sales weren't gangbusters, but it didn't take long for a series of orders to begin trickling in.

That trickle became a flow and 12 months later, her monthly sales hovered around $800. She also had a lot of revenue spikes, including a $10,000 month after running ads on a popular design podcast. That led to custom partnerships with companies that range from a thousand to $5,000. Her first partnership was with Moz, an inbound marketing service. Airbnb was her next partnership and more than anything, it served as a sign that with consistent effort comes consistent sales.

The majority of those sales have come through word of mouth or from customers who bought their own personal kit and then wanted to share their product with their work team. The ups and downs that she has with Swipeys tends to depend on how much time she puts into the project. And she says, that gives me a lot of hope, knowing that if I wanted to give it a go at some point, I should be able to recreate and grow from another $10,000 month. In other words, she feels like if she had more time to reach out to more companies, she could have even more consistent revenue. Even though she gets a lot of positive feedback, Kaylee still admits to feeling guilty about her lack of free time to invest in building the business.

She balances that guilt with the satisfaction of seeing orders come in every week from countries all over the world. Above all, she says that the best part of the side hustle is making something she loves and something she uses herself. And here's this quote that I love. She says, if I had forced things along the way, I'm not sure I'd be where I am with it now. I didn't put pressure on it to sustain me and that's allowed it to grow in different ways.

So what are those different ways? Well, she's branched out into other supplies like pens and spray bottles and is introducing a new size of boards to the Swipeys range. She's also getting some professional product photography done to go along with her recently rebuilt website. By the sounds of it, she might not have to go back to the drawing board for new ideas anytime soon. Or if she did, she could just erase what she wrote and start over.

One more time with that quote that I really liked. Kaylee said, had I forced things along the way, I'm not sure I'd be where I am with it now. I didn't put pressure on it to sustain me and that's allowed it to grow in different ways. I feel like that's gonna speak to somebody out there today. And if you feel guilty about not having enough time to work on your side hustle, well, like I said at the beginning, first of all, I do too sometimes.

So I don't have a magic solution except to say you're not alone, I empathize. I guess hearing stories like Kaylee sometimes makes me realize, first of all, I am really grateful. I'm grateful to be able to do these different kinds of projects. And if I can't give them all the time that I would like to, well, it's still a good thing. Like I'm still really glad that I've started this project or another project or whatever it is.

And I also believe since I make this show for busy people, if you're a busy person, you're my target market, that's why it's less than 10 minutes a day. I also believe that being busy can be a benefit. Like you've got so much to do, you have to be efficient, you have to spend your time wisely. You don't have a lot of free time for side projects, you have to choose to invest in meaningful ones. And having limited time can help you be more intentional.

Or at least I think that's a good value to live by. Now, as for the application, perhaps that's something you have to work on along with me. But for now, I'll say inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. And the show notes for today, if you wanna check out Swipeys, learn more about how that works, it really is a fun project. I might have to order some myself.

Just go to sidehustleschool.com/614, that is 614. Last but not least, if you have not picked up a copy of the Side Hustle book yet, from idea to income in 27 days, it really does give you that 27 day step-by-step guide to starting your own project. Whether it is a service or a product, or being a reseller or something else, all kinds of different case studies and very practical information. Ask for it in bookstores everywhere or shop online at your preferred retailer. And yes, if you do prefer, it's also available as an ebook or an audio book.

I wanna make it as easy as possible to get you helpful resources that will support you in your quest to create a new source of income, just like Kaylee did, just like every person, every single day on the show does. And of course, I'm always cheering you on. That is my role here, founder, CEO, janitor, chief cheerleader, and I'll be back again tomorrow with another story. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.