Stay-at-Home Mom’s Side Hustle Made More Than $500K in Sales

In the summertime of 2021, former stay-at-home mother Gina Van De Voorde was working remotely for a psychological well being facility — and the gig was “satirically destroying [her] personal psychological well being.”

“I simply hated the job,” Van De Voorde tells Entrepreneur. “I dreaded it each single day. And that is what sort of led me into searching for completely different side hustles or businesses to start.”

Van De Voorde scoured YouTube for hours each day in the hunt for inspiration till she discovered a tutorial for print-on-demand. Print-on-demand providers enable side-hustlers and business owners to create and ship their merchandise as orders are available in — which implies fewer expensive minimums and fewer threat.

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From there, “it form of clicked,” Van De Voorde recollects. Regardless of having “zero” expertise in ecommerce or graphic design, she was capable of open her Etsy clothes store that very same day.

“Fortunately loads of easy designs promote very well.”

She opted to work with the print-on-demand platform Printify and create her designs on Canva.

“I am undoubtedly nonetheless not a graphic designer by any means,” Van De Voorde says. “I nonetheless do not actually even assume I am that good, however fortunately, loads of easy designs promote very well. Textual content-based designs promote properly.”

For the primary few months, Van De Voorde “was simply form of guessing” which designs would resonate with clients. The technique wasn’t all that efficient to start with, she admits. However the extra time Van De Voorde spent on Etsy, conducting research from 9-5 alongside her full-time job, the extra she realized which types and developments would promote.

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“With print-on-demand, it’s a must to do loads of area of interest analysis.”

Van De Voorde started by promoting T-shirts and sweatshirts, which stay her top-selling classes right this moment.

“With print-on-demand, it’s a must to do loads of niche research,” Van De Voorde explains. “At first, I used to be simply testing a bunch of niches till I examined the Western area of interest that proved to be very profitable. In order that was just about my first area of interest that scaled very well.”

Van De Voorde additionally provides her designs on Shopify now however says it is “completely completely different” from promoting on Etsy. With the latter, she would not have to fret about driving her personal visitors, because it’s “extra like a market.”

Associated: How This Seller Makes $12,000 a Month of Passive Income on Etsy

“So long as you are constant, posting each day, you will see success.”

Van De Voorde’s consistent trial-and-error strategy paid off — huge time. These days, not solely does she work on her store “only a few hours every week,” however she’s additionally carried out greater than $500,000 in gross sales.

And her finest recommendation for different side-hustlers who hope to take a web page from her guide and run their very own profitable print-on-demand companies? Do not assume it is some overnight “get wealthy fast scheme.”

“It is loads of work upfront,” Van De Voorde says. “So simply be ready that it’s a must to front-load the work to start with as a way to get your store off the bottom — then you may form of pull it again. However so long as you are consistent, posting each day, you will see success.”