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#597 - Six-Figure Beekeeping Biz Buzzes for Minnesota Couple

2018-08-20

The buzzworthy journey of Minnesotan bees and their keepers. These hardy bees don’t mess around—last year they produced $150,000 in sweet profits.

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: @chrisguillebeau

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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
No one likes to feel stack, especially by your cloud, but the IBM cloud is the most open and secure public cloud for business. It can manage all your absent data anywhere. Smart loves problems, IBM, let's put smart to work. IBM Dot, com, slash flexible Let's go on a buzz worthy adventure. Ass we get the weak started, I'm here to tell you about the stinging side, hustle of Minnesota couple. This couple makes a sweet six figures, keeping bees and selling their honey. That's correct, six figures and beekeeping, there's golden them. Bees and not just any bees. We are talking about Minnesota bees had enough, you know much about Minnesota, but it is called their Minnesota is now
traditionally known as a beekeeping state. But these bees are hardy they're out there eating hot dish for fun. They go docks letting in the middle of winter, before shopping at target. They are bred to survive and there also bread to make a hundred and fifty thousand dollars just last year for their keepers welcome dishonest school at my name is critical about and whether you are interested in bees or not, because you know it's a pretty small market of people who are really into bees. You might be interested in this story, because what I'm trying to do every single day is show you different ways to make money, or at least show you how other people have done it, how they get their ideas and how they follow up on those ideas to make them reality. Today, story is, as I said, Buzz worthy and I'll. Tell you all about it after this quick. Thank you, too, are sponsor
common invites from those who, with chief success, is to follow your passion. The idea is that if you do something you love you'll, eventually find out how to make money from it. But I've refer a modified version, follow the right passion and transform it into a valuable offer. Today, we're looking at two people from in a soda who did just that Travis Pankey are a Bolton, took their love of keeping and turn it into a successful business. This is a business that eventually allow them to quit their full time jobs. So, let's talk about the beautiful story up their business Bolton these. You see either key are nor Travis grew up around these I mean who does really again limited market. They certainly didn't have any childhood fantasies about becoming beekeepers, hey Travis, what you want to do when you grow up. I want to be a beekeeper. Ok, let's try something else. No, nothing like that to see where it all began. Let's buzz back to two thousand and five we are key are still in college, move to China,
two further. Her education in international relations can an upstanding several years, learning the language, and while she was there, she was invited to help on sustainability project in a mountain town in the Himalayas that project that sustainability project was all about, be hives password to two thousand eight when she returned home with a lot more than a cultural experience. In our years away, she had developed a passion for what would eventually become her life's work like a true worker, be she didn't waste any time. Turning this passion into a real hobby, she bought her very first hive and commenced her grandfather to let her house it in his yard. It was a hobby that would soon consumed not only her life, but that of future honeybee and husband.
Enter. Travis Bolton at First Travis had no interest in bees, but that in Bother Kara, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder he didn't want to get involved. That is until key. I decided to buzz off to Texas to visit an ape harry for a week. Maybe area is a kind of bee city. She left Travis in charge of the Bee hive and it turns out the responsibility, didn't sting him at all. You could even say he was bewitched. The absence of his queen Bee had a positive effect of kick starting his own passion for beekeeping. When he returned, he had dozens of questions for her about the hive and it wasn't just lip service. A week later, they returned to Texas, together to work at the ABS Travis, took a day job in construction to pay their bills instead of payment for the beekeeping services when they left, they asked to be paid in bees next to it,
Twenty beehives, which are not cheap, behaves, can cost up to foreigner dollars each when they returned to Minnesota. They had those twenty behaves in tow, quite the colony for an amateur operation. They hope to turn these southern bees into northern bees, but the initial results were not promising. They learn quickly that bees bred in Texas couldn't survive the brutal northern winters. They forgot to bring their winter coats and nearly half the bees did not survive the first winter. This was, of course, a stinger in their plans, so to combat the problem, they began to breathe the bees using a survival of the fittest, a true, be smack down the bees that produced more honey and show they could survive. The called were bred with others who did the same. This resulted in
can only be described as super deluxe. Castro eating would shopping Minnesota bees. These bees were so hardy that the next year, ninety three percent of them survive the winter and improvement of over forty percent good work. These it was in the same year the Travis Ankara felt more confident in their breeding operation. They started selling some of their hives to other aspiring beekeepers in Minnesota. They figure. This could be a nice little side, business to supplement their incomes. Travis was still working in construction, and here I had taken a job magic, a nursing home and come as welcome as I've spent over ten thousand dollars, setting up their hives and transporting their original bees up from Texas. Apparently, they tried to take them on a united flight as emotional support bees, but other passengers kept complaining. The good news was that, while conducting all this breeding, they were producing a lot of honey so much so that they needed fifty five gallon drums to store it in the original plan was just to sell, queens and hives. They quickly realized, they could actually make more money from selling honey.
Started. Selling to a few gift shop in the turnover was fast, two thousand and sixteen with the year they decided to go all in on Bolton bees, both Travis and Kiara, quit their full time jobs and became full time beekeepers. It was a combination of years at work and passion, but things were slowing down. Both of these was becoming a hive of activity. Two thousand and seventeen was the first six figures a year. They brought in a total income of one hundred. Two thousand dollars hundred fifty thousand. That is a lot of honey. Additional income came about mostly through being featured in several high in grocery stores, throughout the state where they doing with this influx of income. Naturally they are buying more height, so stay tuned for a future episode. Minnesota couple make seven figures from beats, don't believe it pay Travis and curious. Success is proof that if you stick to something you believe in and be positive, anything can happen
One thing I forgot to mention in the episode these both in bees are also read the Minnesota nice. They almost never sting you because that's just written answer, if you ever need to borrow a cup of sugar, you can just pop up to the hive and say: hey guys. Gonna get some help and I like well, you know you dont, have sugar because reveals that we might have a good substitute. Okay. This is an example of the kind of project that you need to motivation to do aside from just making money. I get is fantastic that they are able to make
figures on a bee keeping business. I mean this is status bar. That's why I'm talking about this stuff, because you can make money too in all kinds of different things. However, I don't think anybody should go into the business simply because they want to get rich if it is just your motivation to get out of debt or make some extra cash, not the wrong that, maybe you want to start an online project instead of being responsible for twenty hives had bees but hey. This is the thing if you are passionate about something other is away most likely to connect that to something that is valuable and useful to other people, so well done. Trap.
Think you're really fun story. I appreciate you letting us share it with our community. I also we had a previous episode long ago episode, one oh for about a Houston, beekeeper, Nicole mergers. That episode was titled. Show me the honey Hughes tonight buzzes to four thousand dollars a month, so she's also able to do pretty well in the world of bees taken out. If your interested in learning more and if you like to learn more about both in these, I will just come and see the shone out for today's episode. This is episode five hundred and ninety seven, so those notes are satisfied. Schooled outcomes, five nine seven. You can also get a free, biceps, a hustler course. There say how to me on social media or are we to some other stuff, because it's a whole website. There are no bees on that website, but there are some other features. Thank you, for this Today you are rockstar, don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. My name is about only back again to Morrow, and this is side us
Transcript generated on 2020-04-28.