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What It's About
A side hustle featuring a magazine that tells personal stories and empowers everyday women.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
During her pregnancy, Sarah wrote about her own struggles on a personal blog in a very real, vulnerable way. The grateful responses that she got from her readers encouraged her to keep writing and engage in conversations, and it was this experience that shaped what kind of magazine Sarah decided to start.
Really ask yourself what is missing in the things you love. If you're noticing it, you're likely not alone!
Fun Fact
Recently the magazine helped reconnect two friends. A woman found a copy at her local library and in reading through it became intrigued by a particular advertisement. As she checked it out and learned more about the brand, she discovered the owner of the brand was her long lost friend.
Notes from Chris
Episode 231
Sarah Hartley had three lifelong goals: create a magazine, write a novel, and own a clothing boutique. As a marketing coordinator for an architectural firm, she wasn’t making any progress on any of these goals. So when her son was born in 2014, she decided that she needed to get going on at least one of these goals. She picked the magazine, thinking that it would be the easiest goal to check off the life list. The first issue of Holl and Lane came out in June 2015. Initially, the magazine was published every other month and the first four magazines in 2015 were totally free for readers. But at the end of 2015, Sarah took stock and realized that she needed to start charging something for the magazines, or otherwise, this passion project would never become self-sustaining. Around this time, Sarah also got some much-needed help. Three women joined the team, which helped spread out the responsibilities. All these women help for free and as Sarah said, “And the fact that they do this for free is absolutely incredible. They believe in this magazine and its mission as much as I do and it is no longer just my magazine, it's all of ours.” The print issue was popular enough that Sarah decided to keep doing it. But starting in 2017 she made a strategic decision to move to quarterly issues, instead of every other month. All of these factors combined to increase both revenue and costs while reducing the total number of hours she poured into the magazine. Monthly costs went up from around $250/month to well over $1,000/month, while revenues average around $2,000/month.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Holl and Lane: Interested in reading Sarah's magazine? Check it out!
- Pixartprinting: The digital printing service that Sarah used to print her magazine
- MoonClerk, Cognito, & G Suite: The trifecta that Sarah utilized to manage and run her new magazine
- Miserable Day Job Turns Into $100,000 Side Income: An education district employee follows her passion for writing and creates an online side hustle raking in over $100,000
- Finance Employee Sells 200,000 Self-Published Romance Novels: When she can’t find anything good to read, a finance employee starts writing romance novels of her own. The books go on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and pull her family out of debt
