This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, what's up? Welcome back to Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. This is episode number three. And if you've downloaded this episode, you and I are beginning an all new adventure with a very specific goal to help you start a side hustle and create a new source of income, even if you love your job and especially if you don't have a lot of time.
Every day on the show, there'll be a different true story from someone who started a hustle without quitting their job. You'll learn how they got their idea, what they did to turn that idea into reality and what happened as a result. Yesterday, you heard about someone who makes $700 a month from a project he set up a few years ago and hasn't worked on since. That's pretty cool, but today's story is about someone who creates something even more substantial and she continues to do both the day job and the hustle. [Music]
If you can't find what you're looking for, make it for yourself and anyone else who might want it.
[Music]
This classic lesson led Sarah Kaczynski to a six figure side hustle. In her case, she was looking for custom printed candy hearts to send to clients at her day job. It sounded like a fun idea and surely it couldn't be hard to find someone to do that, right? Well, Sarah searched high and low, but found little. In desperation, she started contacting candy manufacturers to see if they had any ideas.
One of them replied on Facebook messenger to say that they offered the service and at a reasonable price. But when she looked for details, she couldn't find them. The company's website was virtually non-existent. Sarah wrote to the company and explained that she worked in marketing and could help them, but they never replied. As a marketer, she couldn't resist.
Valentine's day was approaching, so she made a three page website using a template and advertised custom printed candy hearts at a price slightly higher than what the loan manufacturer would charge. No one else was competing for the space. So within a matter of days, her site was number one in Google search results. That same day, she got her first order and then three more in quick succession. Even though she was only reselling, not manufacturing, she was just entering those orders on the manufacturer's website, keeping up with all the details, it was taking a lot of time.
And it wasn't just her, the manufacturer itself fell behind. They were getting so many orders. And during peak order time, they sent her an email explaining that they couldn't keep up and wouldn't be able to fulfill all the orders by the end of the season. Womp womp. Custom printed candy hearts is a seasonal business with 90% of orders coming in during the six to eight weeks before Valentine's day.
For the next year's season, Sarah was determined to avoid being dependent on an unreliable company. But what would she do? She was good at marketing, but knew next to nothing about production lines and commercial printing equipment. Like everything else in the journey thus far, Sarah decided to figure it out. The next step led to China, where a far away supplier claimed to have a machine that would do everything she needed.
Alas, when the machine arrived a month later, it didn't work. Next, she started calling around to everyone she could think of, companies large and small. Five weeks before the new Valentine's day season began, she found a company that promised to make a machine that actually worked. It cost her all of her revenue for that year, but this was a side hustle. She wasn't dependent on that income.
And she knew if it worked out, she'd be much more prepared for next year. Orders were already arriving, so Sarah was nervous. But then the machine showed up and it worked. She ran it 12 hours a day, seven days a week. It was, as she put it, complete insanity.
She sent the final orders out via overnight courier to make sure that everyone received them in time. And now she was sitting in a good place. She had that number one page Google ranking for something that lots of people wanted. And she had the ability to fulfill all the orders herself. [Music]
So it's a year later now, and Sarah has the whole operation down to a system.
Other people do their production, and she just focuses on the marketing, which is what she's good at. And I asked her, since this is going so well, it's a six figure side hustle, why does she still have a job? And she said, "You know, freedom is really what I was after, "not necessarily more money. "I've accomplished that goal "without having to leave my day job." I will say, however, that in addition to it being nice to have the extra income, it has also allowed me to get more schedule flexibility and even higher pay from my real job, since I'm not dependent on that income, and my boss knows that. The appreciation for an employee definitely goes up when you know that that person has a choice as to whether or not they stay with you.
I really liked that. And in addition to the, if it doesn't exist, maybe you should make it lesson, there's another classic lesson that shines through this story. Sarah didn't know how to do half the things she needed to start this hustle, but she figured it out. Whenever she encountered obstacles, she searched for a way around them. Remember at first, she couldn't locate custom printed candy suppliers, so she asked candy manufacturers if they had any idea.
And then she was too dependent on an unreliable manufacturer, so she found a way to do the manufacturing herself. And then that first machine she had ordered from China didn't work, so she decided to invest her entire season's revenue in a new machine. And she was able to take that risk because she wasn't dependent on the side hustle income. At that point, she had a proven product. She knew that there were gonna be orders next year.
If she could only find a way to fulfill them, she'd be in a great place. So I think Sarah is skilled at many things, but perhaps the most important is resourcefulness. She decided what she wanted to do, and then she found a way to make it happen. Well, it may not happen exactly like that for you, but if you listen to these stories and begin applying them to your own hustle, you will see results over time. Remember, inspiration is great, but inspiration combined with action is so much better.
So I hope you do one thing today to bring you closer to the freedom you want. And I'll see you tomorrow with another "Side Hustle" story. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
