This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Let's talk about a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor who gets a vision to manufacture a workout tool that's used by fighters, acrobats, ninja warriors, and other hardcore fitness enthusiasts who want to be able to train wherever they are. This jiu-jitsu instructor/visionary follows the path of designing this tool, getting it in the form of a template that manufacturers can use, finding the right overseas factory, raising money through crowdfunding, and, well, there's more, but the story ends with him doing really well, bringing in over $20,000 a month. He's also really smart in how he responds to the challenges he encounters, even flying to China to meet with his outsource manufacturer when something goes wrong. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name is Chris Guillebeau, bringing you a daily story of a real person out there, somebody who creates a new source of income without quitting their job, without spending a ton of money, and by using the skills they already have. Now that we have well over 600 plus episodes in the archives, one of our goals at Team Side Hustle School is to get better at grouping our episodes into themes.
For example, if you have just started listening recently, and you might not want to go and listen to all 600 episodes, even though they are all awesome, it would be great if you could look and see, okay, what are the episodes that have to do with crowdfunding? Like this one, for example. What are the episodes that have to do with a physical product? Like this one, for example. So thinking through the architecture is something we are working on as we want to continue to improve.
Do a better job serving you as you pursue your own goals, the things that are important to you. It's my hope that you'll learn something in every single story you hear. So here's 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 that jiu-jitsu instructor and his mobile workout tool.
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Jason Gulati still remembers the moment he saw the most amazing training tool. He was a teenager in a gymnastics class, and his coach wheeled out what can only be described as a contraption. It was a large, flat block of wood, which lay on the floor, with two metal poles standing out up to waist height. Each pole had two smaller, but thicker wooden blocks at the top. His coach began to balance his weight on the blocks and contorted his body in strong and powerful ways.
Handstands, dips, levers, and v-sets. He could do them all using only this simple tool. And when Jason finally got his turn to play with it, he knew it could help him. But being a teenager, he didn't quite have the money to get one, so he'd have to wait a few years. Fast forward to adult life, where Jason is now working full-time as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor, had a little money in his pocket.
He decided he wouldn't just buy one of these training contraptions, which he discovered are called handstand canes. If you're in the fitness industry, you might know what that is. If you're not, it doesn't matter. But instead, he would build his own and improve on the design. He wanted to replicate the same tool, but make it suitable for home use, meaning it would have to be lightweight and collapsible, so it could easily be stored under the bed or transported to your favorite workout spot.
He found some DIY YouTube videos on how to create handstand canes and spent his free time tinkering with the design. When he finished, he showed his fitness friends what he'd made, and they liked it. A handful of them even asked if Jason could make one for them too. That's when he was struck with his business idea. As he was whittling away pieces of wood, he thought if his friends were asking him to make this product, there could be other people out there who would want it as well.
So he began to look at how he could create this product at scale. The first step was to find an industrial designer. This was someone who could help Jason lay out his back of the napkin idea into a more precise blueprint form, which manufacturers could then use to replicate the design. This step was important because it allowed Jason to design the product, which he now called base blocks, the way he wanted. He could shop around for a factory which would make it to spec instead of compromising the product based on what the factory said they could produce.
Next, he looked for a manufacturer in China. He sent his industrial design to multiple factories to see who would provide the best quote. By sending it to a lot of them, he was able to gauge what the true price to manufacturers was and thus eliminate the people or companies who were asking for too much money. Now, one tip on this from Jason, he says, if you're going this route, have a set of questions ready to ensure that you're working with a real factory and not just a third-party company who's out to take a commission. Asking to see videos of the factory and asking how many employees they have can be enough to discover that.
You should also dig deep into the reviews on sites like Alibaba to see what other customers think. After a few weeks of back and forth, Jason found a manufacturer who could create a sample version for $600 and ship it to his home. When it finally arrived, he was impressed with the quality and felt ready to take this idea to the public. The next step was to create a Kickstarter campaign. He figured if people would invest in the campaign, he knew he was onto a business idea that could be successful.
But if it fell on deaf ears, at least he had a $600 base block he could use at home. His goal for the campaign was to raise around $12,000, enough for his initial run of products and to cover shipping. To create that campaign, he invested $4,000 in making videos for his page. This included the initial product video and some training videos in the event it was successful. He then invested the rest of his budget in Facebook advertising, it was about $5,000 to get the product out in front of a targeted audience.
That audience is people who are really into their fitness. After a few weeks, he had smashed his target and raised $84,000 for base blocks. There was a clear market out there, eager to get their hands on this cool piece of equipment. He then requested a production sample from his manufacturer. Now here's another good tip, a production sample is different from the previous one he received because a production sample is based on how it looks when it comes off a mass production assembly line.
The first sample is handmade or the production sample is made with machinery. So it's worth asking for that before giving your final go ahead. And it was good that he did, because here the base blocks biz hit its first major snack. In comparison to the original sample, the production sample looked awful. Jason knew he couldn't send that version out to his backers.
It was such a punch in the gut that he decided to fix the problem himself by booking a flight to China for the next day. Feeling the pressure, he took his blueprint with him and began to visit all the relevant factories he could. Eventually he found one which had the machinery to create the product, and he'd now seen it firsthand without charging more per unit. That December, Jason was ready to place an order which would be finished in February. Using Google, he found a fulfillment center who would handle the base blocks shipping and handling.
That meant he could drop ship his product without filling his garage full of stock. But when February rolled around, his product wasn't even close to ready. The factory pushed it back to April. When April arrived, Jason decided he would fly to China again to see the first base block roll off the construction line. He got off the plane, went to the factory, and found all of his stock unassembled on the floor.
They were waiting on one final part, and delivery had to be pushed back once more. It was frustrating, especially since he'd already apologized to his Kickstarter buyers multiple times. Still, when the process was finally over, Jason shipped 500 units directly to the fulfillment center, which then went out to the buyers, and the rest stayed on the shelves, ready to be sold in real time to new customers with a retail price of $170. The struggle was real, but it was also worth it in the end. He's currently selling around $20,000 in stock per month at around a 40% profit margin.
That means he's making $8,000 a month in profit. His orders from China are now much more frequent and reliable, and he's got it down to a formula. Jason is now looking outside the US and toward developing markets for more sales. He does this by offering cheap international shipping. He basically pays the difference from his profits to see where the next buyers are coming from.
He's thinking long-term, betting that if he finds a market with high demand, he'll be able to figure out a way to make money from it. By facing those challenges head-on, he persevered and saw his fitness product earning sweat equity and a lot of cash month after month. [Music]
So earlier in the week, we had another story of a Washington DC doctor who learns to make plush toys in the shape of human organs. So she was following a similar model of learning to work with a factory overseas, import the products, figure out shipping, get a fulfillment center and so on. I don't recall if she did crowdfunding or not.
The point is at the time I said, this is not an easy path, but it's doable. It is a well trodden path at least. Like there is a series of identifiable steps that you need to go through to see something like this through. In Jason's case, in this story, there are two things that stood out in particular. One was that he really kept his eye on that manufacturing process.
And a couple of things went wrong, which is not abnormal. And unfortunately, this happens with a lot of crowdfunding campaigns. There's something that really takes off, but the person behind it hasn't thought through the manufacturing. They end up having problems. They can't get the supplier to provide the goods, or it's gonna be much more expensive, or the quality is not there.
And they just kind of fizzle out. And the campaign isn't able to fulfill what it promised. Or if it is, it's not able to transition to a sustainable business later. So in this case, Jason, when he encountered those challenges, he's like, I'm gonna get on a plane and go and sort it out myself. And not everyone can do that, but he was taking it really seriously.
That's the point. And the second thing was he devoted his campaign budget to making good videos and driving paid traffic. So what does that mean? First of all, he realized with a fitness tool, what this was, it really required a visual demonstration. Like if you've never heard of this kind of thing, you might not even understand what it is from listening to this episode.
In fact, I went to go and look at the videos and I was like, oh, that's really interesting. I think I've seen those before, but I had no idea there was a name for them. So if you really wanna sell somebody on a vision in terms of supporting your project, it needs to look really good. And then the driving traffic thing, he used a tool, which we're gonna link up. I didn't talk about it in the episode.
It's called Unbounce. And this is a tool that sends buyers from Facebook ads to a series of different landing pages. And over time, you kind of see which pages convert the best, which pages are best for which people. And basically it's a tool that allows you to make more money, have a higher conversion rate so that the money you spend on Facebook or wherever you spend it is not wasted, but rather it's invested. So that gets a little bit technical, but the point is there's a series of identifiable steps.
It's not easy, but it's doable. To use a running metaphor, since over here, I'm getting ready to run my first marathon in many years, it's not that complicated. All you need to do is put one foot in front of the other. Like that's pretty much it. Like there's a race, you have to keep running.
But of course, most people don't run marathons. Most people don't sell $200,000 worth of their fitness tool in the first year. So there is some knowledge you need to acquire as well as the ability to adapt and respond to challenges. But even more important, I think is the discipline to do it. The belief in yourself, the commitment to your goal and the confidence that when you encounter those difficulties, you're gonna figure it out.
You're gonna find a way around those obstacles. Take that with you as you leave today. I hope you enjoy this one. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to the base blocks and the Unbounce tool and everything else I mentioned are at sidehustleschool.com/637.
That's episode 637. I'll be back again tomorrow with the weekly recap and much more to come next week. Thank you for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
