« Side Hustle School

#338 - Letters-from-Santa Hustles Down Chimney

2017-12-04
A month-long, part-time project writing personalized letters from Santa Claus earns $6,000. Side Hustle School features a new story EVERY DAY of someone who started a hustle without quitting their job. You’ll learn how they got the idea, how they overcame challenges along the way, and what the results are.  Share: #SideHustleSchoolShow notes: SideHustleSchool.comTwitter: @chrisguillebeauInstagram: @193countries

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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hello? What's up welcome? My name is critical foresight. Us will school, not less, not political, in today's shout with an important disclaimer. If you are listening to the shout with any young children, especially with an affection for holiday traditions. Pneumonia skip this one for me, drawings and frozen remixes. Just let it go and save this episode. Relator cause I'm gonna get and behind the scenes about a particular workshop at the North pole, and I want to mess with whatever you got going on in your household. I want to be responsible for any premature enlightenment. That's all on you! So there's my disclaimer. You better get that paused button quickly. That applies as for everybody else, really fun story. Today. Holiday cheer is good, tell you about a special assistant of Santa Claus, who made six thousand dollars last year with her highly creative project, and I took a few weeks to do it. We are about capitalism Christmas over here and I will bring you that story just a moment. Support for this podcast comes from progressive saving,
any on your car insurance is easy with progressive. It's an average savings of seven hundred. Ninety six dollars for customers who switch and save. In fact, customers can qualify for an average of six discounts on their auto policy. With programmes save, including discounts just for starting a quota, mine or owning multiple vehicles, get your quote online at progressive dot com and see how much you could be saving national average annual car insurance savings by new customer surveyed who saved with progressive in twenty nineteen discounts very and are not available in all states in situations. Cynical might sit around get fat eleven months of the year a con December, this jolly old man becomes overwhelmed with work, he's gonna think about
it works. Social media is blown up, he's got his own snapchat filter. There are a lot of people who still communicate with Santa using an old school network called letter writing not for our millennials and is blown up, he's got his own snapchat filter. There are alive People who still communicate with Santa using an old school network called letter writing for our millennials and Genji listeners. You probably explain little that people used to actually hand right on pieces of paper and then put them in the mailbox, mainly outbox, where you click sin. I mean an actual piece of paper in an actual ample up. Then you stand not condescend envelope off to other people who receive it at the glacier the slow pace of several days later, and in fact, when it comes to writing to Santa. Despite this modern age, we live in. Some people still use this antiquated system. Now, that's. Why joy comes in our recent informed that one of his assistance is a fan of the show Loretta works in a tech start up in downtown Washington DC. She said one of the best things about working at the start up is that their employees have flexibility to take on projects outside of their daily roles. They also had it
ample of many entrepreneurs nearby to help them learn and experiment, but let's go back a little run on a college breeds author savings on a four month. Backpacking trip upon a return. Jack, o my Washington. She job as a waitress, while her boyfriend at the time work on a campaign whose only working at the Russian Part time so you know a lot of money but, more importantly, it she was also board canoes to start a psychic. But what would it be? Aubrey sat down Ask yourself what am I good at genoa, a fairly strong writer, but what and she saw that included a writing, but where people actually pay money for didn't, have time to write a book. She don't try to and running Reza Maize, which didn't go very well. So what would you do but to this day, she's not completely sure how the idea first showed up, but somehow she began advertising handwritten letters from Santa she posted on Craigslist spoken Tumblr and got no traction at first no response capacity, pictures of the one she had drafted, but it looks great. She learned quickly that parents wouldn't paper something they can easily do themselves. The brain
dont once again discouraged but determined and mapped out how she could differentiate the letters she focused on a few key things. The first was personalization. She would learn key facts about a child from a list of questions. Then personalized the letter making sure they knew Santa was watching and that he was proud of them at least most of them. The parents also got to prove the letters which was a huge comfort for them has made you wanna, be on the hook for something Santa promised, but here's what a true social success where people started pay re began to advertise it. These deluxe letters included reindeer food. What parent, who loved Chris I didn't want to watch their child leave out magic reindeer food on Christmas Eve since you're learning or secret you're the reindeer food was discount birdseed from her local pet store with a little glitter mixed it, All of a sudden she had hit the Santa letter jackpot. The first year she sold around three hundred letters at ninety five, each or a deluxe package, one thousand one hundred and ninety five. The letters cost you about a fifty each to write and package, so she made around four thousand dollars the second year twenty fifteen. She sought about four hundred letters and raise the price is slightly to eleven.
Five and one thousand three hundred and ninety five over this year, she outsourced the writing of the letters using upwork dot com to her profit margin was slightly less this time they caught three dollars each to write and package. Not last year. Twenty sixteen something interesting happened at risk, thinking, but she wouldn't do it again, because even with the outsourcing, it was a lot of work. She finally decided to go for it, but she started late and did very little marketing. However, it here's this priced. She raised their prices in nineteen, ninety five and two thousand six hundred and ninety five. So in doing less work, she actually made a lot more money by selling just two hundred and fifty letters instead of order the year before this time she made just under six thousand dollars. This is less than a month's part time work? She begins the process, On November fifteen, in a letter sent by December fifth, the tent. I often ask people what, greatest thing about your hustle. We had an interesting answer. She said that's easy aside, I sought gives you extra purpose. I left focusing my extra energy on something I built from the ground up, I loved my work makes others happy. I get hundreds of emails from parents each year with pictures of their children. Beaming with letters from Santa and baggies of reindeer fruit is fulfilling to know that the work you
complete ownership of mean something to other people. Not that I couldn't say it any better myself. Congratulations brie on such an awesome, capitalist Christmas project Santa Claus has pretty good name recognition. Like you say, Santa Claus, love people can what you're talkin about? Maybe somebody Oh, come along at some point and disrupt that process, but it's gonna take a lot of start up capital in a lot of time. To do that, he's pretty well entry! in that market, he's gonna, like the electric company, based like a one man market and its wealth, I was tradition, at least in a lot of marks the world for parents. You want to nurture and encourage this belief among their kids, at least for a few until reality had snapped to start paying the mortgage h, seven and industry, take her idea to outsource the writing was a key part of her being able to continue cuz. It was very labor intensive, a special that first year, writing all those letters or self. I'm sure they're still show copy and paste action going on. It's not like everything is one hundred percent personalized, but that's okay, because the pair
obviously still love it. So it's a funny story of course, but because its school. It's also a money making project about how to cite us. What gives her extra purpose? She feels this ownership. She feels pride and while she hears back from the parents again first year, she did. Four thousand dollars is part time work on the side. Second, I think it was something similar to that and then the third year she changed a few things up. Razor prices didn't market very well by our own admission, by still made close to six thousand dollars to definite love, interesting things to take away from that Santa Claus, hustling down the chimney story, and my friends, you better watch out you better, not pout, you'd, better get to work on your us all. The time is now in it is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. They show notes are online at sight of school. Dotcom, slash three three: eight! If you enjoy this let me say milk and cookies or even better operating in review unoccupied casts doubt would be awesome and your awesome too. I am critical of for science.
Transcript generated on 2020-08-06.