355: 16 Year Old Makes 1K/Month Selling Opossum Products With Erick Strider

00:00
You’re listening to the My Wife Could Her Job podcast, the place where I bring on successful bootstrap business owners and dig deep into what strategies they use to grow their businesses. Today, I have very special young guest who we are going to refer to as Eric Strider to protect her identity. Eric’s only 16 years old, a full-time high school student, and she created an e-commerce business that makes over $1,000 a month. Now she started with nothing and no experience, and in this episode, she reveals a very simple to execute strategy

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to quickly grow an e-commerce business. But before I begin, I want to thank Klaviyo for sponsoring this episode. Now I’m super excited to talk about Klaviyo because they’re the email marketing platform that I use for my e-commerce store and it depend on them for over 30 % of my revenues. Now you’re probably wondering why Klaviyo and not another provider. Well Klaviyo is the only email platform out there that is specifically built for e-commerce stores and here’s why it’s so powerful. Klaviyo can track every single customer who’s shopped in your store in exactly what they bought.

00:55
So let’s say want to send out an email to everyone who purchased a red handkerchief in the last week. Easy. Let’s say I want to set up a special autoresponder sequence to my customers depending on what they bought, piece of cake, and there’s full revenue tracking on every single email sent. Klaviyo is the most powerful email platform that I’ve ever used, and you can try them for free over at klaviyo.com slash my wife. That’s K-L-A-V-I-Y-O dot com slash my wife. I also want to thank Postscript for sponsoring this episode. Now if you run an e-commerce business of any kind,

01:22
You know how important it is to own your own customer contact list. And this is why I’m focusing a significant amount of my efforts on SMS marketing. SMS or text message marketing is already a top five revenue source for my store. And I couldn’t have done it without Postscript.io, which is my text message provider. Now, why did I choose Postscript? It’s because they specialize in e-commerce and e-commerce is their primary focus. Not only is it easy to use, but you can quickly segment your audience based on your exact sales data and implement automated flows like an abandoned cart at the push of a button.

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Not only that, but it’s price well too and SMS is the perfect way to engage with your customers. So head on over to postscript.io slash Steve and try it for free. That’s P O S T S C R I P T dot IO slash Steve. And finally, I wanted to mention a brand new podcast that I recently released with my partner, Tony. And unlike this podcast where I interviewed successful entrepreneurs in e-commerce, the profitable audience podcast covers all things related to content creation and building an audience.

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No topic is off the table and we tell it like how it is in a raw and entertaining way. So be sure to check out the profitable audience podcast on your favorite podcast app. Now onto the show.

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Welcome to the My Wife Quitterjaw podcast. Today I have an extra, extra special guest on the show, Eric Strider. Actually, that’s not her real name, but that’s the name that she uses when she sells her products on Etsy. And Eric is only, I have to make sure I remember to say that, she’s only 16 years old. She is a full-time student, yet she has a side hustle that makes over a thousand dollars a month on Etsy. Now I get almost 400 emails per day.

03:00
And a large percentage of those emails that I get are actually from grown adults who claim that they can’t make any money online, that it’s impossible and that they’ll never be able to succeed. And it’s actually quite depressing sometimes for me to hear some of these stories to be quite honest, because I know for a fact that everyone has the potential and they just don’t realize it. So enter Eric. And the reason why I asked her to be on the show is because Eric has no experience running an e-commerce business prior to selling on Etsy.

03:29
She started with no audience and it’s not like she spent years building up some huge email list either. But she has a very straightforward strategy that has allowed her to make over a thousand dollars selling possum pins over at Opossum Rot Studio on Etsy. And with that, welcome to the show, Eric, how are you doing today? I’m doing fantastic, how are you? I’m good. So first of all, Eric Strider, how’d you get that name? Or how’d you come up with that name?

03:56
You know, I chose it, I think it was three years ago that I chose that name and I’ve just been going by it ever since. Okay. Strider is actually this video game that I used to play when I was little. Any correlation? I have never heard of it now. Oh, okay. Okay. So tell us about what you sell. And to me, it’s kind of random. So I’m very curious how you, you know, decided to sell possum pins of all things. Yeah. So my favorite animal is a possum and it’s been a possum for a very long time, but

04:25
Possums, they’re a very small niche, but the people in this niche are so passionate about possums, they’re almost willing to buy anything that you give to them because there’s not so much product out there for possums right now. Yeah, I mean, that’s for sure. I didn’t know, would you consider yourself one of these possum fanatics? Yeah, I’d say so. So do you buy possum products yourself in general? I have a taxidermy possum, but I don’t have

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really anything else as of right now, I haven’t really found anything much. Okay. And I’m just curious because I’m a dad and I have kids that are younger than you are. What made you even want to make your own money with the business? Like, I know your mom told me that it was entirely your idea. You did all the work like she did nothing. And it’s very rare to have kids that just naturally want to do this. So what inspired you to to want to sell online?

05:19
Yeah, so I’ve been doing I’ve been selling things ever since I was so young. I first started out with a child’s entrepreneur event. And I won first place for most profitable. What’s the event? Is it nationwide or? I think it’s local, but I can’t I don’t remember the name of it. Okay. And then I, I used to have a deviantART account. And I used to take commissions on there. But

05:47
something happened with the algorithm and they moved to something called Eclipse, which was this big startup. And everybody was so mad about it because Eclipse essentially, it made smaller artists harder to find on there. So let’s back up a little bit. Let’s talk about your contest first. How did you win this event and how was it structured? It was so long ago, I can’t even remember, but I do remember that there was booths and

06:16
We had, I think it was two to three months to figure out a product. And I remember we made, I think it was chocolate covered marshmallows or something like that. And that was before that those things were even popular. Right. And so how old were you? Do you remember when you entered this contest? Ooh, I think I was like six maybe. Oh my God. So young. this, cause I want to sign up my kids for this. mean, it’s, did it, was this event, what started you off in entrepreneurship?

06:44
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it was very fun. loved it. My thing is I really loved packaging these things and making everything look pretty. So. And then after that, man, six years old. OK, that’s really young. And so you win this contest and then you decide you want to just make some money on the side. Do you get an allowance at home? I do not. You do not. OK, so everything that you spend, do you have to earn it around the house? Can you rephrase that? don’t. Meaning how do you get your money if you didn’t have to make it?

07:15
Let’s see. Oh, so well, I started up with doing commissions, which I draw things for other people and they pay me for that. Okay. This is the DeviantArt? Yeah. How does that work? Exactly? How does that site work? So DeviantArt is a place where mainly digital artists go to show off their artwork and what they can do and

07:40
The platform is a little bit weird. There’s a lot of different people on there. And I wouldn’t say it’s the most friendly site. But essentially, I posted a Google Doc of my prices and people can contact me through there. How do they find you on DeviantArt? Is it like a search engine or? Yeah, it’s it’s pretty much a search engine. Yeah. Okay. How did you even find out about that in the first place?

08:05
So my sister actually, she has been on DeviantArt for a while and she invited me onto it when I was younger. And you’re not really allowed to go in there unless you’re 13 years or older, but it was under her supervision. I see. And then people license your art and then can they use that on their own stuff? Is that how it works? So I don’t really, so there’s a small niche of people that just really, they have their own original characters and they really like.

08:33
to see art of their own character. So I don’t really sell the license to the art, but they just buy it to see their character in my art style. Ah, interesting. And just art is something that you’ve always enjoyed since you were young? Oh, yeah. OK. And what made you actually think to sell your art? mean, usually, like for my kids, I know like they want to buy something, right? And they need their own money to do so. And that provides them the incentive. What was your incentive?

09:03
So I, in this community, there’s so many people selling commissions and I actually started off, I was really inspired by that and I just thought it would be fun. I wasn’t really thinking of it for a profit. I honestly started my sales off of what’s called points on DeviantArt and one point is one cent on DeviantArt and it’s its own little currency there. But I used to only sell my artwork for like maybe

09:32
two or three points. So I was only getting like three cents and then I started to grow and as I grew I hired my prices and then I went from points to making actual money. So the points can be redeemed for actual money is that how it works or? Yeah. Okay and then how did that lead you to Etsy and selling pins? So it’s recent news that DeviantArt is pretty aware of its

10:01
audience and they don’t like it. There’s very, there’s smaller artists on there and there’s some people who are just trolls and they really don’t like that. So what they did was they changed the algorithm completely. They changed the layout completely to something called Eclipse. And what that did was it made smaller artists very hard to come by. And with that, I was getting, I used to get maybe 200, 300 likes on my pieces. And then I got

10:32
only 10 after Eclipse hit. And that’s what it was very discouraging. I went into a very low time when that happened. And I was like, I got to move to somewhere else. I was trying Instagram, I was trying everything else, but nothing else was working. So I found Etsy would be a very good thing for me because I really love to package and stuff like that. So I that would be a good fit for me.

11:00
So Eclipse is like, guess, DeviantArt’s search engine or ranking algorithm, I guess, so to speak. Yeah, pretty much. And then just kind of overnight, you lost all of your traffic and guess your sales. OK. And then you tried, you said social media and stuff and it didn’t work, you said, right? And then you found Etsy, but still with Etsy, it’s still hard to get discovered, right? Oh, yeah, definitely. So how

11:27
How did you get, so first of all, how much are these pins? How much are you selling them for? So I’m selling them for $10 each right now. Okay, so that’s actually a lot of pins in a month that you’re selling. So how does one get traffic to an Etsy site when you have no audience and presumably you don’t have a social media following either, right? Yeah, so what I did was I went on Facebook groups and specifically for the audience that I’m looking for in this case, it was Possum’s.

11:56
So I went to some possum groups and everybody loved the pins. And at first I was only like, hey guys, what do you think about this design? I’m thinking about manufacturing it. Would anybody be interested? And there was a lot of people, probably the most attention my artwork has ever gotten in quite a while. They’re like, oh yeah, I would totally buy this, maybe even two. Let’s take a step back. So how do you search for possum groups? Do you literally just go on the search part of Facebook and type in possums?

12:26
Yeah. Okay. And then are there a lot of possum groups? There is about maybe, I’d say four really big ones with, I think it’s 20,000 people in them. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Okay. So four groups of 20,000. And so do you, are they closed groups? Do you have to apply to get in or? Yeah. Most of them you have to apply to get in. What’s the application process like?

12:50
So it’s pretty basic. They just ask you, you know, do you like possums? You know, do you agree to our group rules and just simple stuff like that to make sure you’re not a bot going in there to sell products that are unrelated. Right. So I would imagine that they get a lot of spam in there. People may be trying to sell stuff, right? Oh, yeah. OK. So you go on there and presumably you didn’t just start posting your art, did you? Or what was your strategy to kind of ingratiate yourself into the community?

13:19
So I didn’t really present myself as a advertiser because that can be a big turnoff to people. So I went in there and I was like, hey, I’m new to this group. I’m really new to Facebook. I’m a small digital artist. And I was wondering what you guys think of this art. Okay. And then you weren’t asking for anything. You were just asking for an opinion and that’s it, right? Exactly. Did you go in as a, as Eric or your, or your real name? I went in as Eric. As Eric. Okay. And then, so presumably

13:49
You didn’t use your picture either, right? So it’s just a completely different picture. Well, my picture on Facebook, so I haven’t been on Facebook at all. My mom encouraged me to go there specifically for this, but my Facebook picture was a picture of my cat. Okay. All right. So you go on this group. And so that’s your first post. Yep. Okay. And then you just posted some of your possum art drawings. Yeah. And then what happened?

14:16
And then so many people were wondering when are you going to get these manufacturers? You know, when can I buy one? And that’s when I started manufacturing. So is that technically selling on the group then or no? So I only asked for opinions. And then once these pins were actually getting manufactured, I asked permission from the group admins to be like, hey, can I give these people this link to go pre-orders?

14:47
I see and they gave you permission to do so? Yeah. Did they know how old you were or just completely anonymous pretty much? No, I actually have my Facebook. My Facebook age is higher than I actually am. Okay. All right. So they think you’re an adult essentially. Yeah. Okay. What did this strategy work for all four of the large possum groups? It did actually for a good majority of them. I posted in not only those four, but also I said I have posted in maybe 15 other groups. Oh, wow.

15:16
there that many possum groups? Yeah, there’s 30 in total. Okay. Is that all you do possums? Because I’ve seen your drawings. They’re really amazing. Is that the only animal that you do? So no, I do a very variety of things, you know, it can. It’s, don’t really have one set thing. If there’s something I like, you know, I’ll go for it. Alright, so you know that people want to buy this. Can you just give me an idea of how many people wanted to buy before you even started manufacturing?

15:45
Yeah, I think there was only like 20 or 30 comments.

15:52
Okay, on that post, okay. Yeah, on that post. But even with 20 or 30 comments, I still would make a profit from selling 20 of these pins. Right, right. Did you gather their emails or did you when you’re ready to sell? Did you just post it on the group again? how did it work? I replied to these people saying, if you want to purchase one, you can find them here. Okay, did you gather emails? Or did you just tell them where they were after the fact after you made them?

16:21
No, I didn’t gather emails, but I am thinking of doing that currently. Okay. So let’s talk about the process of even producing pins. Okay. So, you know, there’s demand. Why did you decide on pins? Number one. And then how did you get them made? So enamel pins are extremely big. They’re one of the top selling things on Etsy right now, actually. And they’re just really small. They’re nice to put on your backpack and they’re really nice accessories and they’re cheap.

16:50
They’re cheap to manufacture and they’re just really convenient. Okay. And so you knew ahead of time that you wanted to make pins? Yeah, I’ve seen, I actually have a few enamel pins myself even before I started manufacturing. Okay. And then you knew on the group, like when they were offering to buy it, did they specifically ask for pins or did you suggest that you were going to be making pins?

17:13
So I suggested that I was gonna be making pins, but they were also like, ooh, this would look good on a shirt or a mug and such like that. Oh, okay. So are you selling any merchandise outside of pins right now? Not right now. I am thinking about it for the future and I’m building up funds for that. Okay. So how does one create enamel pins? Is this sourcing the US, China or?

17:35
So I started out with mine. did not know anything about pins and I went to a middleman. I did not know it was the middleman at first, but after learning a lot more about it, there is no manufacturers here in the USA because I think I’ve heard some rumors that it’s because the same machines that make enamel pins are the same machines that make counterfeit money. they’re banned. Is that right?

18:03
Yeah, they’re in here. Interesting. So how did you even find the middleman? Actually, did you just Google or? Yeah, I use Google. And there was plenty of sites that came up and I just chose the one that was convenient for me. Okay, so can you walk me through that process? So you find something on Google, they might not be legit, right? So how did you figure out whether they were for real? So

18:29
There was this one pin manufacturer or I guess middleman now, but I found them and then I looked at their they had a pin gallery on their page. I looked at that and then I also saw they had an Instagram. So I went to their Instagram and I saw all of these pins and I was making sure these are from actual people and artists and all of it pretty much checked out. OK, and then when you’re buying it, can you buy them in like onesies twosies or do you have to buy them both?

18:59
So I believe that the minimum order quantity for this one was, I think, 50. You had to order at least 50. OK, so not a whole bunch. Not a whole lot. And then what’s the process like for just getting your design and working with the company? So you emailed them, I guess? Actually, they have this little form set up on their page. And I got to pick what type of enamel I wanted, like hard enamel or soft enamel, how big I wanted it to be.

19:28
and then I submitted my art piece to them. then once I submitted about a day or two later, they had sent me back another image file of the exact dimensions and the exact colors, because with enamel pens, there are colors that you have to choose from because those are the only enamel colors available. Oh, I see. So you had to go back into your design and then choose specific colors. Yes. Did that limit your palette like

19:56
if there’s a limited amount of colors and when you’re drawing, does that make your design look a little different then? So not too much, but it can alter the color by a little bit, not nothing extraordinary. Okay. And then is there any protections from your art when you’re submitting using this form? So you, I’m not too certain about that. You worried about that basically though, right? No, I wasn’t. Okay.

20:23
I mean, you’re the producer, Supposedly, I guess you could just continue to produce other ones if they were copied, I guess. Yeah. Okay. So how did you decide on pricing? May I ask how much you paid for that initial batch per piece or you don’t have to share it if you don’t want to. Yeah, no, that’s fine. I believe I paid about $230 for a hundred of these pins. They were one inch pins with, believe, four colors. Okay. Yeah. So two bucks a piece and then you were selling them for $10.

20:53
Yes. How did you come up with $10? So I looked at the other listings on Etsy and what other people are doing and it seems like the most reasonable price was $10. There are some that list them at 13, which I think that’s what I’ll be doing for my future pins because they’re bigger and more expensive to produce. But I thought 10 was a pretty good one for this size pin. All right. And how long did it take you to get your first batch made? So I think it was about

21:23
I think it was a month. It wasn’t that bad of a wait. A month. Okay. So walk me through this process. Did you just make one design for your first batch or did you do a variety of designs? Yeah, just for my first one. So there’s something called, I think it’s a base that they have to make and that’s what costs the most. So with these minimum order quantities, you can only have one design.

21:48
Okay, and then $230 was your initial, did you just kind of have that money lying around from DeviantArt or? Yeah, I had a bit of startup money from commissions I did a little bit ago. Okay, and so you get this and were you confident that these first how many pieces of 50 pieces would sell right off right off the bat? So I was a bit worried, but I just had some faith in it. And it’s really not too much money. It is a little bit but it’s it’s worth the risk.

22:16
Yeah, I mean, for a teenager, that’s actually a decent amount of money. Yeah. Okay, so you got them in hand. And then did you post on the Facebook group once you got in? Got them in? So I posted on Etsy first to make the listing. And then I told everybody that yes, they were available. Okay. And then people just you just drove people straight from the Facebook group over to the Etsy listing. Yep. And did you create a new thread? Or was it did you just kind of post in the existing

22:44
I replied to their comments with the link, but I also did get permission to post another post saying, I have these pins available if you’re interested. Okay. And then how quickly did they sell out? I’d say it was a little bit slow in the beginning, but it started to pick up. Okay. And then, so you sold out of that 50 in what timeframe? So I

23:10
I sold and maybe the first week, I ordered a pretty fast actually. Okay. When did you reorder? So I didn’t actually reorder just yet. I believe I have about 15 of these pins left, but I don’t think I’m going to continue this design. It’s very small. And it’s made of soft enamel, which is a cheaper.

23:36
cheaper option of enamel and they are still nice but I am currently manufacturing another possum pin.

23:46
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24:14
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24:44
And if you tell Steve that I sent you, you’ll get a hundred dollar discount. That’s E-M-E-R-G-E-C-O-U-N-S-E-L dot com. Now back to the show. Okay. And then did you go through the same process? You just kind of posted on the group. Do you guys like this design? Same process? Okay. That’s amazing. So people will actually tell you that you know ahead of time that they’re going to sell essentially. Yep. And have you developed kind of like a fan base at this point?

25:12
Um, so I think I have made a relationship with the people in the group. thank them for, I made a post and thanking them for all their support and how much they put into my small business. And I believe I’ve made a connection with that group. And you said you really like packaging. So are these packaged in a special way? Yeah, I, um, I have, I send out a

25:38
handwritten letter with all of them saying thank you for supporting my business and those things along that along that line. my goodness. Okay, so what’s the response been like for that? So I’ve gotten I think it’s about 18 reviews now and they’re all five stars. So I haven’t had anybody disappointed with their order. Oh, yeah, I know. But I’m just like the handwritten letter. That’s actually quite labor intensive. Yeah, I mean, I spend a lot of time on my orders and I

26:07
As a high schooler, I have a lot of time on my hands, so I think I should take advantage of it while I can. I was just about to say when I was in high school, I didn’t have any time. OK, so in terms of the manufacturing, then you mentioned that they were a middleman. Does that imply now that you’re looking for manufacturers in China? Yeah, so I actually have a manufacturer in China that I actually just put in my first payment today to make these new

26:36
possum pins. Oh, okay. And how did you find this manufacturer? So it took a lot of research, I would say I contacted about 30 people from China. I’m very wary about people from China, because not only is there commons, and, you know, you just don’t know what’s reliable, I made sure that they had everything that I needed as a business and

27:04
I also made sure that they were reliable through asking other people in these enamel pin groups what their experience was with this person. I see. Did you find these people in Alibaba or were they referrals? So actually, there is a ton of people on Facebook who are manufacturers and if you post one post asking if there’s any manufacturers, I woke up to about 20 messages. Wow. And these are people in China? Yeah. Okay.

27:34
How’s their English? It’s it’s pretty decent for the most part. Most of them. Yeah. Okay. And so you basically sorted through those 20 people that responded and you chose the one that you wanted to work with. Yeah, I am I gave them a form to fill out my game. Okay, walk me through this form. What’s on this form? So basically, I was asking them for a quote, like what

27:58
if they offer 50 % payment upfront and 50 % after some manufacturing. And then I showed them my design, how many I wanted, the length, the type of metal I wanted, how many colors there were, if I wanted one or two back pins. And I just went through all of the pricing and who seemed more reliable. Oh my goodness. Okay, so there’s a lot to this then, right? You have to know what metal you want. And so presumably you gained all that experience from that first batch, the first couple of batches that you made. Oh yeah.

28:27
The groups on Facebook help out a lot. I’ve been posting, asking so many questions and the people there are very helpful. Okay. And then how did you sort out, like what makes like one manufacturer reliable versus the other? So that was what I was struggling with upfront. I didn’t really know how to determine, but I just saw how many people had ordered from them from the past, how many pins they have manufactured.

28:56
And I was looking for a more experienced manufacturer. you get any samples made? I did not. You did not. Okay. So this first batch actually that you just placed an order for is kind of sight unseen, right? Yeah. Okay. And then how did you have to order a lot more? So for some reason, in China, there is no minimum order quantity. Like I have all of these people that have contacted me, they said there’s no minimum order quantity, but I assume

29:25
that I would still have to be paying for the base price plus the quantity price. So typically for enamel pins, there’s like a $50, $60 base price because they have to make that mold. And then the pin quantity is about like maybe three cents to a dollar. Can you give me an idea of how much it’s cheaper? How much cheaper it is going with the Chinese manufacturer versus in the US?

29:51
So with these pins that I’m manufacturing, these are hard enamel and they are 1.75 inches. And I looked and compared it to these from the USA middleman and their prices were about 400 where this one that I’m ordering from was about 180. Okay. So half the price basically. Yeah. Okay. Wow. And then there’s no minimum order quantity. In theory, you could just order 20 if you wanted. Yeah.

30:20
But you still have that base enamel price or the base pin design that you had to pay for upfront. Yeah. So the more you order, the less each one is going to cost to make. Did you negotiate price at all? I did not because this one was actually the lowest price I’ve saw and the most reliable. Okay. And then are you doing more than one design or is it just one design right now just to test the waters? So I did actually put in two designs. There is one design of the possum pin and another

30:49
that I actually had a Kickstarter up for. Oh my goodness. Okay. We have to talk about that too. Okay. But okay. So you, you placed two designs and then did you invest the same amount of money? A couple hundred bucks or? Yeah, pretty much. And that includes shipping and everything? Yeah. Okay. And what’s the turnaround time difference? So they said it would take about, let’s see, I think they said two to three weeks to manufacturer and it would ship in five days.

31:19
Right. Okay. So they’re doing air shipping basically, because he’s a small mind. Okay. That sounds right. All right. Let’s talk about this Kickstarter. So I didn’t know you could put possum pins on Kickstarter. Yeah. So this one was actually a chicken pin, a chicken pin. Okay. Is that a different Facebook group then? Actually, I didn’t use a Facebook group for this one. People on Kickstarters are very, very passionate about enamel pins and a lot of people have enamel pins up on Kickstarter. Really? Okay. So you

31:49
Walk me through this Kickstarter and how you sold. What were you trying to go for and how much money did you end up making? So I posted this Kickstarter when I was with the US middleman, so I thought it would be about $400. So I put my goal for one pin up to $400 and it made about $550, I want to say. Amazing. So why did you decide to go Kickstarter when the Facebook group was working so well?

32:19
So I looked at chickens in the Facebook groups and there was some, these people, chickens are more popular than possums. So it tends to be like there’s so many product out there for chickens already. They’re so picky about it.

32:38
Okay, so that strategy that you did with the possums did not work in the chicken Facebook groups or? Yeah, it didn’t work as well. There were some people like, yeah, I want this, but not as well as the possums groups. Okay. And so with the Kickstarter though, you kind of have to drive your own traffic, don’t you? In a way there is people that just browse Kickstarter just because, but I also did post these on my social media. I would love to have a link to this Kickstarter. Did you do a video for it as well?

33:08
I did not know. You just posted your artworks on there. Yeah. Did you have the pins in hand so you could take accurate photos of what they would look like? No, so that’s what Kickstarter is about there. You create images to represent what they will be, but Kickstarter is all about funding the projects to get them manufactured. Okay. And then how did you get the sales on Kickstarter? So I don’t really know too much, but there are people that I just

33:38
saw the income start coming in from it. So Kickstarter doesn’t actually give you the money until it’s completely funded. So everybody who is a backer on the Kickstarter, they’re safe. So if the Kickstarter failed from when I started it to the end point, they would get their money. Like they don’t actually send it to me until the Kickstarter is fully funded.

34:06
Did you promote the Kickstarter at all? Yeah, I did on my on my Instagram and such like that. Okay. Is that it? I mean, what were the different methods you use to to promote the Kickstarter campaign? So I did post in some Facebook groups, but instead of like going directly to these chicken groups, I did go to some Kickstarter groups. There are some Kickstarter groups that people really love to fund and help these small businesses make these products.

34:37
So this is a Facebook group you mean, right? Yeah. Is the strategy the same? I’d say so. I basically just put in the link and I said, hey, I’m making these pins. And that’s pretty much it. And then a link directly to the Kickstarter? Yeah. So that’s legal, I guess, in these groups, right? Because they’re Kickstarter groups? Yeah, definitely. All right. OK. So moving forward now, so you have this traffic source of Facebook groups.

35:06
What if Facebook changes their algorithm and all of a sudden, like these groups aren’t as visible? Do you have like a longer term strategy in mind? So I do not actually, I do have a not too much of a following on my Instagram, but I could use that as a backup. I am starting to try to grow my social media, but right now I just started this, this Etsy up like a month ago. So I don’t have any longterm plans as of right now. Okay.

35:35
And are there any plans to move to your own website, perhaps? I have thought about it, but Etsy is working out for me really well right now. I think that’s something I’ll do once I grow a little bit larger. Like how much money do you have to give Etsy?

35:52
And what are like the parameters? From what I understand, you actually get emails and addresses. Obviously you have to ship it to the customer, right? Yeah. So for every listing you post on Etsy, I think it’s like you have to pay 20 cents a month for your listing to be up. But other than that, can’t think of any other expenses as of right now. Okay. And then do you know if you have repeat business?

36:20
I do. I do have a few customers who have ordered from me quite a bit. Yeah. Okay. And then I imagine they really value the fact that you do a handwritten letter each time. And I imagine that’s why they come back because they love your products. And I think so on Etsy, there’s a little star by the order that says, Hey, this is a repeat customer. So I make sure to have a lot more gratitude in the note saying, Hey, thank you so much for being a repeat customer. Nice. So how do you balance all this with school?

36:51
So I’m doing online school right now and it’s pretty nice because I’m able to work while I’m in class. Like most of the time, yeah, we’re not doing much, much anything important. There is some times where I really have to pay attention like in geometry or stuff like that. But in classes that I’m in, like I’m in a graphic design class and typically I already have all my work done for that class. So let me ask you this.

37:21
Do you plan on getting a full-time job or is entrepreneurship something that you want to pursue full-time just like your mom? So I’m hoping, I’m really hoping to pursue this as a job, but I am prepared to get a full-time job if I really need to be. Okay. But you would prefer to do this? Oh yeah, most definitely. Okay. And I kind of, this is kind of funny, but I do get tons of adults that claim that they can’t make any money. They can’t make any money. So.

37:50
As a 16 year old, want you to give these adults some advice on how they can get started, how they can figure it out, how they can get customers. So I would say when I first started, I was really anxious. I really didn’t think that I could do it. And I really didn’t know how cheap it was to start up like.

38:12
I was running off of that $230 that I made and it turned into a lot more and that money that I made, put into more product. And I think the key is finding your niche, finding your people and directly coming to them and kind of displaying your way is not being so much of an advertiser, but more of like a friend. Right. I mean, you never really tried to sell anything in the group. People are just asking you, right?

38:41
for your product. That’s what you want. And would you say that you had a big advantage here because you went so niche? So I mean, would you advise that people go as niche as possible? In some cases? Yes, I think that could work. Definitely work for me. I possums, presumably you chose those because they had demand as well, right? Not to mention that you love them too. Yeah, I haven’t seen too much product. So they definitely had a bigger demand.

39:10
Okay, and then the chickens, which were larger, did you have as much success with that as the possums or? So these are just now being manufactured, but I’d say they were pretty successful given we have reached our goal and made even more off of that goal. So what are your plans moving forward? Are you going to focus more on the possum niche or do you got other animal designs coming up?

39:34
So I think I’m going to focus on enamel pins because they’re really big and people love to collect them from smaller artists. So I think I’m going to do a big variety of pins. And right now I’m thinking of for a future project, I’m thinking of doing like cryptid pins. like Mothman and all of these cryptids. know, I’m going to actually make my kids listen to this episode because it seems like you’re a go getter.

40:04
Like most people aren’t going to go through the wouldn’t think of going to trouble posting the Facebook group, asking questions and going out and finding manufacturers. What kept you going this whole time? And are you just like a naturally driven person? So I do think I am very self driven. I really like being independent with even with my schoolwork. But I think this is something that I’ve always wanted to do. You know, I go to conventions and I see these booths set up with all of these

40:34
amazing products and I’m like, I wish that was me sitting in that chair at that booth and selling my product and feeling so confident in what I do. So I think that’s really what made me want to keep going in this and someday I really do want my own booth, something like that. Did anything go wrong in this entire process? I can’t really think of anything that went necessarily wrong. I do think I also sell things like stickers and those things aren’t

41:03
so popular as the pins, I still have them on my shop. But I think it’s really just a learning experience. Okay. And then last question here is where can people find your store on Etsy? If they want to check it out. So you can search Possum Rot Studio with the uppercase O, uppercase R and uppercase S and you can just find me through there. So just to be clear, it’s

41:39
O-P-P-O-S-S-U-M-R-O-T-S-T-U-D-I-O. Opossum Rot Studio. Yeah, I think there’s only one S in possum though. Oh, is there? Okay, you would know better than me. I guess I spelled possum wrong. Yeah. But Eric, hey, thanks a lot for coming on the show. This is really inspiring. And for even the adults who are listening, I mean, the process that you laid out, especially the one key piece of advice that you gave was to find where your people live. Right? It seems obvious.

42:02
Yeah. But most people don’t think of that, right? They might build a generic social following, but you went to where your people were, which was these possum groups. And these fanatics wanted to buy your products. Yeah. And they have been so passionate with everything that I do. And presumably they’re loyal to you as well. Most definitely. Yeah. Man, great story, Eric. Thanks again. Thanks again for coming on. Thank you so much.

42:32
Hope you enjoy that episode. Now every day I have 30 and 40 year olds complain to me that it’s too hard to make money online, that they’ve tried everything under the sun or that they don’t have enough money to begin. And then here comes 16 year old Eric who simply finds out where her customers hang out and make sales run away. It’s not rocket science and this strategy can be executed by anyone. For more information about this episode, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 355. And once again, I want to thank Postscript, which is my SMS marketing platform of choice for e-commerce.

43:02
With a few clicks of a button, you can easily segment and send targeted text messages to your client base. SMS is the next big own marketing platform, and you can sign up for free over at postscript.io slash Steve. That’s P-O-S-T-S-E-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash Steve. I also want to thank Clivia, which is my email marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. You can easily put together automated flows like an abandon card sequence, a post-purchase flow, a win back campaign. Basically all these sequences that will make you money on autopilot.

43:29
So head on over to mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIO. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash KLAVIO. Now I talk about how I use these tools on my blog. And if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.