This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Friends, community, listeners, welcome to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau. We have just finished week number 33 of season three. This week featured a sports writer who wins big, gambling on his own book, a British family who sells political tea towels, and a high school bootlegger who grows up but never loses his entrepreneurial spirit. And no, that high school bootlegger was not me.
I never actually made my own beer. I had lots of issues, but never did that thing. Probably just 'cause I didn't know how to, but still, it wasn't me. Now, in today's recap, I've got an audio update for you from a previously featured Sadduceler who has since gone full-time. Interesting news from her.
But first, let's talk about retail arbitrage. Okay, so I read an article recently that I will link up in the show notes. It's from The Verge, and it's called "Nomads Travel to America's Walmarts to Stock Amazon's Shelves." It's about this new side hustle/career of people earning money by buying stuff from retail stores, then selling it online for a higher price. Now, when I say new side hustle/career, in some ways, the more things change, the more they say the same. Because the first thing I thought as I read this article was, "Wow, people are paying attention to this now, but this is exactly what I did 20 years ago." Okay, I used to 20 years ago go to retail stores and then buy products and then sell them online.
As I mentioned from time to time, reselling is probably the easiest business model for anyone to jump into. It's not necessarily the best thing. It's not necessarily what everybody should be doing all the time. But if you're looking for the easiest, simplest thing to start, if you need to make money tomorrow, or if you wanna understand how this world works, it is a great direction for a lot of people. However, one key thing that's different, one thing that has changed actually over the years is the role of Amazon.com and its fulfillment by Amazon program.
Several of the people featured in this article are minimalists or nomadic, living in a van or an RV, traveling the country, or otherwise just don't want to own a lot of stuff for whatever reason, which I respect. Now historically, the way you've been able to be a successful reseller is by stocking a lot of inventory, which isn't really aligned with those values. I remember when I was reselling, I would get excited about when I would go and see, here's a particular Lego set that I know I can resell for $20 more than it costs. Or here's a video game that's popular and it's discounted here, but I know I can sell it more online. Well, if the store had five of those Lego sets, I would buy all five, which was fine, but then my apartment is filling up with Lego sets and pretty much stuff is stacked from floor to ceiling.
So the way that you're more successful is by having more inventory, but now you can buy a bunch of stuff, you can buy all five Lego sets or whatever it is and send it off to Amazon and it's their problem to store it, thus enabling you to continue living in your van, your RV, or otherwise just not dealing with it, just not dealing with the problem. But that is what is interesting or notable, I think, because reselling has been around for a long time, even buying stuff from stores and selling it online through auctions or elsewhere. But what is interesting or different is the role of fulfillment by Amazon. A couple other fun facts from this article, which as I said, I'm gonna link up in the show notes, I'm gonna check it out. That would be sidehustleschool.com/960960.
When Toys R Us went out of business, some of these resellers, I guess you could call them retail arbitrageurs, I don't know if that's a word, but they are doing retail arbitrage. They traveled across the country, going to all the Toys R Us stores that were going out of business, and buying up inventory at discount prices. So I just picture this caravan, people like roaming around, trying to go to every last Toys R Us store. Who knows, maybe some of our listeners are doing that. Let me know if that was you.
Also, there is an app you can use to identify desirable products that will sell well using this model. And I thought that was pretty cool because when I was doing this stuff, no such app existed. In fact, no such smartphone existed. So that definitely helps give more people an advantage. And then from that information, one of the most desired items, one of the items that people are really looking for, that they can sell for a big profit, is the bounce dryer bar.
The bounce dryer bar is basically like fabric softener or something, it's like a $5 plastic oblong that you affix to your dryer, rather than adding a dryer sheet to each load. For whatever reason, the bounce company stopped making these, so it's discontinued, and a two-pack sells on Amazon for up to $300. So some people are really into fabric softener. Hey, don't judge, everybody's got a thing. Let this be a reminder, this whole story, this anecdote, et cetera, that we are living in the new economy.
Opportunities are everywhere. And also, if you have any bounce dryer bars in your laundry room that you never got around to using, you just might be able to turn $5 into up to $300. Who knows, anything is possible. [Music]
All right, let's go on to the audio update. This one features Charlotte, who books surprise vacations for clients, in addition to other trips, as you'll hear in her update.
So here is Charlotte. - Hey, this is Charlotte McGee from Charlotte, North Carolina. My side hustle is Wistaway Surprise Travel, and it was featured on episode 346. No longer a side hustle, I took Wistaway full-time in June 2018 and left teaching for good. Since Wistaway was featured on Side Hustle School, I've made some changes based on what repeat clients were saying.
They loved the easy booking process, but they wanted to go to a specific place. So Wistaway is a surprise travel company, which means our clients don't find out where they're going until a week before they head to the airport. Initially, I started planning these non-surprise trips on the down low, but then I figured I should give the people what they want. This is now a major component of our business. One piece of advice I have is to listen to what your valued customers want and try to make it happen for them.
For a long time, I didn't want to provide non-surprise trips because I thought it went against what Wistaway was all about. However, I soon realized our real mission was to get more people traveling without the hassle of research and planning. Adding the service has grown Wistaway and fulfills our mission. For the future, I'm looking into how Wistaway can offset the environmental damage caused by flying. I'm currently following Rick Steves' model by supporting eco-friendly projects around the world.
For each trip booked, a new project gets a donation from Wistaway in that client's honor. As Wistaway grows, we hope to expose more people to the magic of traveling and do some good. - Awesome, Charlotte, thank you so much. Congratulations, appreciate the update and I'm so glad the business is going well. It's fantastic that you've been able to take it from a side hustle to now your full-time venture.
I also appreciate that perspective about how you should give people what they want. I thought this was interesting because I think you could also have an alternative perspective here. Like obviously, it's working for Charlotte and give people what they want. I say that a lot myself, I think it's generally good advice. But I think what was interesting about her service is the actual surprise vacation part of it.
And so another perspective to have is instead of becoming a full-service travel planning agency or whatever it is, we are just going to focus on this surprise vacation thing. And I featured Charlotte's story in the "100 Side Hustles" book recently. I think I said something about how a lot of people are not into surprise vacations. And a lot of people don't like the idea of somebody saying, here's a week that you're gonna go and spend in a country that you haven't really thought about or whatever. But that's okay because her customers are into it, right?
So I think it's also possible to kind of have that exclusionary perspective and saying like, we know who our customers are and who they aren't. So it just goes to show there's a lot of creativity in this process. And the key point as always is to figure out, first of all, what works? Because of course, we're trying to make a profit here. This is not just a hobby.
But secondly, how do you want to make it work for you? So good example there. And everyone, you can follow along with Charlotte or book your surprise vacation or your non-surprise vacation. Go check out explorewhiskaway.com. That's Whisk, W-H-I-S-K-E-D.
We will link it up in the notes as well. [Music]
We'll have more updates like these for you every single week. And if you have a question or comment of your own, do let me know. You can call the Hustle hotline, 844-9HUSTLE, 844-948-7853. Or you can email podcast@sidehustleschool.com.
Since this is the final episode of the week, I want to say thank you. First of all, thank you so much to you, the listener. You are the reason we make this show 960 episodes and counting. I said 959 days ago that if you make the commitment to make this part of your routine, I'm gonna be here. Like every single day, I'm gonna be bringing you a different story.
And I wanna support you as well in your quest to create that new source of income. If you've been thinking about a project for a while, but have not taken action, or if you've taken action, you've struggled, you've encountered some kind of challenge or obstacle. Hey, that's normal. And the people who succeed in this are the ones who are willing to keep going. Not just doing the same things all the time, but keep going in a sense of regrouping, tweaking, making changes, learning more, applying more, et cetera.
So don't let go of that dream of yours. Don't stop believing. Hold onto that feeling. And I also wanna say thanks to a few other folks working on the program, including producer Chuck Reed, content manager Whitney Karinek, community liaison, Jed Chang, Cat Herder, Tina Hart, and the official show cat, Libby Gillibow. We're all part of the Onward Project, which is led by Gretchen Rubin.
Check out her show, "Happier with Gretchen Rubin," as well as "Happier in Hollywood," and a program from Melissa Urban, "Do the Thing." Hey, here's a super quick request from me. If you wanna help, tell your friends about side hustle school, show them how to subscribe. Like it's free, there's no catch. Okay, if you know somebody who needs another source of income, tell them about side hustle school, show them how to subscribe. We will take care of them.
I often say inspiration is good, but action is even better. It's because I hope that you'll take action, but mostly I wanna be here to support you in whatever way is best for you. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow every day next week for more stories and actionable ideas. Consider this a short daily investment in yourself. Our episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern Time.
Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
