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What It's About
A desire for a French Bulldog leads a Shopify employee to a highly profitable side hustle.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
When we asked Liz what her best practices for running an e-commerce store are, she said:
"When communicating with customers, respond in a timely matter and be human because no likes speaking with a copy and paste robot. Ask for feedback in order confirmation emails, listen, and learn from it. Be available by email as well as social accounts and make any contact information easy to find. Nothing drives me crazier than not being able to reach a shop owner. Big red flag right there!"
Fun Fact
Liz didn’t realize that she could have called it quits and bought her long-awaited “batpig” after three months (fun fact: with her revenue from November of 2016, she could have purchased three French Bulldogs), instead she just kept making bigger goals.
According to her estimates, she could have been sharing her household with more than 50 by the end of her first three years (yes, she only ever does mathematics by referring to French Bulldogs now), but she settled for one though, and her name is Olive.
Notes from Chris
Episode 417
In 2014, Liz Bertorelli of Toronto, Canada had pretty much everything she could possibly want in life—a good job with a stable income, a roof over her head, and a loving and supportive friend and family base. But still, something was missing—you could say that there was a French Bulldog shaped hole in her life. Now, this was nothing new for Liz who had been wanting a French Bulldog since the dawn of time, and anyone who knew her was well aware of her obsession with the adorable little pups. The only problem with this long rooted obsession was that the precious little “batpig” of Liz’s dreams cost more than almost all of her Apple products combined. Since she had already started “adulting” by this point, her days of selling lemonade at a stand on the street corner for extra cash were no longer a viable option anymore. Determined to find a way to make her French Bulldog dreams a reality, she did what she’d do when faced with many of life’s tough questions—she turned to the internet. But despite having an abundance of information readily available for get-rich “opportunities” or multi-level marketing, her options boiled down to her making pennies answering surveys or possibly selling a kidney and calling it a day. Unfortunately, this was a hard pass for Liz, but one day, (as she says it) something magical happened—she started working for Shopify as a Social Media Content Producer. This opened her mind to a whole new world of money-making ideas. Plus, it didn’t hurt that starting an e-commerce shop could actually help her be better at her job since it would effectively put her in the shoes of a merchant and help her see things from a customer’s perspective. As a member of the LGBTQ community, it seemed only natural that she would create apparel that would be right at home in a Pride parade. On the morning of May 1, 2014, her site was built, and Bobo Academy, an LGBTQ apparel shop was born! She didn’t even realize that she could have called it quits and bought her long-awaited “batpig” after three months (fun fact: with her revenue from November of 2016, she could have purchased three French Bulldogs), instead she just kept making bigger goals. Bobo Academy is still going strong and will be four years old in May of 2018.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Bobo Academy: Make a statement—head on over to Liz's website to check out her LGBTQ clothing shop!
- Printful: The Shopify partner that Liz uses to fullfill and dropship all of her orders
- Shopify: Liz used Shopify to set up her store for Bobo Academy, and they're offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!
- Florida Man Earns $100,000 Selling T-Shirts with No Inventory: There’s more than one way to make a lot of money designing and selling t-shirts without actually keeping them on hand. In today’s story, an app designer earns six-figures with a print-on-demand service
- Successful Artist Adds $1,000/Month to His Income: An artist uses his love of whimsical drawing to create a side hustle selling everything from autographed prints to coffee mugs with his designs on them
- The Snuggle Is Real: Architect Moonlights by Selling Designer Onesies: An architect creates minimalist onesies and t-shirts for his own kids—then turns it into a profitable side hustle
