This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? This is Chris Guillebeau with Cytosol School. It is a new week and I am excited. Every day on the show, there's a new story and encouragement for your journey, something to get you thinking and taking action. What do these stories have in common?
Well, first of all, they're all about regular people who 90% of the time have regular jobs. And they are busy with lots of stuff just like you, but somehow they find a way to create an income generating project for themselves. And that's what Cytosol School is all about. And to go a bit deeper, most of these stories are about following up on curiosity and being willing to experiment. Today's is a great example of that.
It's all about a car enthusiast who follows up on his curiosity and creates a project that earns $5,000 a month on average. And over the course of a bit more than a decade has produced more than $1 million in net income. I'll tell you all about it in just a moment. [Music]
[Air whooshing] Today's story comes from John Skirka in Ithaca, New York. John works full-time as an engineer for an automotive supplier, but he's also a serial side hustler.
As a self-described car guy, many of his hustles have evolved from his love of cars. He's had an e-commerce business for tools and auto electronics, and presumably unrelated, at one point he even designed and prototyped a splashless dog bowl, but he couldn't manufacture it at a price point that would generate a high enough margin. You could say that John is always looking for the next big thing, or even just a small one. But way back in 2003, John's side hustles hadn't yet made it to the internet. At the time, he was busy printing resumes for college students, but that project was winding down as laser printers became more common.
For his next endeavor, he knew he wanted to expand his reach and sell something on this new thing called the internet, but he wasn't quite sure what. Around that time, he received a free sample of dry wash and guard, a form of waterless car wash. He took it home, tried it out, and was impressed by how well it worked. So he decided to see about becoming a distributor. He set up a one-page website hosted through Yahoo and accepted payments only through PayPal.
It was very basic, but because he was one of the first people to sell this product online, he was soon making $1,000 a month, so he chose to invest more time and attention in the hustle. He applied for a merchant account so he could accept credit cards in addition to PayPal. He worked on search engine optimization with the goal of getting to the first page of Google search results, and ultimately the number one position. Thanks to this extra effort, he was soon selling between 2,000 and $5,000 a month, depending on the season. John's original startup costs were very similar to his ongoing costs.
He had to buy the product from the manufacturer, and he had to buy shipping supplies to send it out, including boxes, packing peanuts, tape, and shipping labels, but that's pretty much it. As time went on, he chose to invest a bit more in marketing, especially as more distributors entered the market. So now he has ads on Facebook, Instagram, and also uses Google AdWords and influencer marketing on YouTube. He also expanded beyond his own website to sell directly on Amazon.com and eBay. Last, he negotiated with the manufacturer to receive a referral bonus for any other distributors that he recruits.
So John also gets 10% of their sales in addition to the profit he makes from his own sales, and all these strategies add up. More than a decade since starting, John still makes anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 a month on the dry wash hustle. After all those years with the project, he recently crossed the seven-figure milestone and realized he had made more than $1 million from it. He still works his day job, but this impressive, sustainable hustle has done things like funded the car hobby that got him into selling dry wash in the first place. He's currently rebuilding a 1965 Barracuda, and perhaps more impressively, John and his wife have adopted two children, and his wife has been able to quit her job and be a full-time caregiver.
All thanks to John's decision to follow up on his curiosity. So congratulations, John. I love how recurring this business has been for him, and the point of the story that I want to focus on is that decision of his to follow up. [Music]
This whole question actually came up in a side-of-school workshop I was doing recently in Los Angeles, someone was asking, how do I become a distributor? And the answer is, it really depends on the industry, but usually the first step is to go to the manufacturer and ask, hey, how can I resell your product?
And they may have some information available online, or you may have to dig a bit deeper and make a couple of phone calls. And again, depending on what it is, it may be more or less complicated, but it can often be as simple as placing a minimum order. And so that's what John did. He went to the manufacturer and said, hey, I'm a car guy. I got this sample, I really like it.
What do I need to do to be able to resell it? And it sounds simple, but not everyone would have done that. In fact, most people wouldn't have. And even the people who thought about it, maybe they said to themselves, I should sell or market this item. I bet a lot of them got stuck.
And that's how it is with any item or really any hustle idea. A lot of people get stuck, and I don't want you to get stuck. I want the lessons from these stories to remove obstacles, help you deal with the challenges you encounter. So for example, if you're trying to be a distributor for something, and you go to a manufacturer, and they have some question about whether you're a real business, it's very easy to get a tax ID number. It's called an EIN.
And you can do that online for free. Then you are essentially a registered entity. And if you run into the problem of a high minimum quantity, it doesn't hurt to ask for your first order to be less. You can say, hey, I'm thinking of doing this. I want to try it.
And if all goes well, then I can definitely meet that minimum order quantity for my second order. But for now, is it okay if we do 50% or whatever the number is? And that may work or it may not. The point is you have to be curious and you have to be willing to follow your curiosity. If you do that, if you apply these lessons to your hustle, just like John experienced, you'll see results over time.
Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. If you would like to find the show notes for today's episode, just go to sattleschool.com/86. You can also see where I'm going for the next "Sattleschool" workshops, where we spend two and a half hours working together, creating this step-by-step process for your hustle. I hope to see you at one of those workshops sometime, but until then, I hope to see you every day right here on the show. I'm Chris Guillebeau, this is "Sattleschool." [Music]
