Flimsy Notebooks Inspire Crafty Construction Worker

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

When a safety supervisor's genuine leather notebooks keep falling apart, he begins to investigate. He finds his answer and a side hustle that brings in up to $8,000 a month. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Are you crafty?

Are you a good detective? And are you willing to experiment? Well, these are the qualities that allowed this construction industry employee to succeed. It is now a full-time business, allows him to look after his family, and when I say detective, I'm just referring to the power of observation that we have looked at a lot over the years, but in particular in week two and three of the new classroom series. We've got this new series coming out once a week, and the power of observation, it's just about paying attention.

It's about paying attention, finding problems, deficiencies, just things that could be done better. And when you find something that is particularly inefficient or something that bothers you, maybe more than other things do, especially if it's something where you realize you're not the only one with this problem, you're not the only one that finds this inefficient or difficult or poorly made in this case, well, you might be onto something. So even if you don't wear a hard hat, anyone can improve their skill in this area. Let's talk about it. Today's story is called "Flimsy Notebooks Inspire Crafty Construction Worker." [Music]

Anthony Gonzalez was working in construction, his career from more than 10 years.

It wasn't a bad job. It helped him support his family, including five kids under the age of nine, and he enjoyed working with his hands. But over those years, Anthony also had an irritation that just wouldn't go away. As a safety supervisor, he was always taking notes in the field, and none of his notebooks would last very long. Between the water, heat, and wear and tear, those notebooks would start splitting at the seams almost immediately.

He was especially frustrated that the notebooks deemed to be genuine leather still didn't hold up. He had leather boots for work that could withstand the elements. Why weren't his notebooks capable of the same thing? Anthony turned to the internet and quickly learned that the best and most durable leather is full grain leather, which is what saddles are made of. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any notebooks made from it.

Well, you know what happens next. If he was going to find that notebook of his dreams, the holy grail notebook, he was going to have to make it himself. He had no experience in leather crafting, but he thought that with all the information available, there was nothing holding him back. After all, he was handy. For about $100, Anthony ordered some basic tools, leather, and waterproof paper.

While he waited for them to arrive, he decided to take some leather from a pair of old work boots and practice hand stitching. A week later, when those materials came in, he launched himself into the project. The first night, he got the dimensions down. Then he cut, stamped, and dyed the leather. The next night, he stitched it together.

He also added some of the waterproof paper to the inside and stamped the phrase, "Make it happen," on the front. On January 21st, 2017, Anthony finished his notebook. When he took it to work, the enthusiasm from his coworkers was astounding. They loved it. By the end of the week, Anthony had his first 16 orders.

Without meaning to, he also had a new side hustle. From there, he began to dive right into fulfilling orders. Although he was inexperienced in leather crafting, that didn't suede his confidence. Suede his confidence, right? Okay.

He got to work believing that if he was precise enough and took the time to make a quality product, he could get paid to learn. Quickly, he adopted "Make it happen," the same phrase on his original notebook, as his business mantra. At first, he charged $35 for each notebook. He quickly realized this wasn't enough for the amount of time and the high quality materials he was putting into it. Taking into account that he was hand stitching each product, Anthony bumped the price up to $50.

As time went on, he was able to invest more into his business and he bought a sewing machine. Not only was he then able to make more notebooks in less time, he was also able to drop the price from $50 to $40, which is where it is stayed. In his first year, Anthony made $10,000. By the fall of 2019, with a website up and running, he was bringing in close to $8,000 in profit each month. That amount is slightly higher than average due to the holiday season, but the point is, his sales have grown exponentially since starting.

He attributes the bump to using organic social media. Ad campaigns haven't worked for him, but the normal Facebook and Instagram post really increased his following, especially when he posted pictures of his kids with him in the shop. He also gets a lot of personal referrals. Not only that, but 84 leather, named for the year he was born, now sells far more than just notebooks. Anthony makes everything from belts, wallets, knife sheaths, key chains, business portfolios, and more.

He's expanded his audience for making products for people both out in the field and those in the office. The crux of this success has been his willingness to solve one of his own problems. He was bothered on a daily basis by those flimsy notebooks. Rather than accept this irritation as a fact of life, Anthony took the problem into his own hands. He figured out why it wasn't working and had the confidence to teach himself a new skill in order to solve it.

[Music]

Are you practicing your investigative powers? Are you using that skill of observation? Are you noticing what could be improved? What is inefficient? And have you decided on an idea yet?

That's what we're talking about this week, deciding on an idea, choosing to commit to it, maybe not for life, but at least for a time, at least for 30, 60, or 90 days, let's say, so that we can move forward and see what happens. Tomorrow, we've got a question from a listener who is deciding on her idea. She actually has a pretty clear idea, but she's not sure how to reach her target market, so we'll talk about that. And then several other things coming up the rest of the week. Today's show notes are at statusllescool.com/1123.

One, one, two, three. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.