30 Days of Focus Can Change Your Life

Each week I'm sending you a side hustle idea, stories of entrepreneurs who’ve executed successfully, and resources to learn how to do the same

THIS WEEK'S THOUGHTS:

I saw this post from Katelyn Bourgoin on LinkedIn this past week and it stuck out to me.

Not just because of the imagery and the business (though, it's a compelling scroll-stopper). It was more about the message behind the business.

You see, Katelyn broke down that people don't buy because of WHO they are, but rather a "buying trigger".

Now, the 1.46 billion global iPhone users would disagree with the front half of that statement. This is a prime example of purchasing based upon identity.

That said, the latter half of the statement is a goldmine for marketers. There's always a buying trigger. Think about it:

Hungry
Tired
Angry
New Job
New House
Divorce
Death
Celebration
Commiseration

Instead of just building your buyer persona, you should target the life event that primes their purchasing behavior.

Let's assume you sell power washing services like this 17-yr old who earns $100/hr. cleaning houses and driveways.

You could think that since your target market is homeowners in the area that your message would be the same for each.

However, your message should be specific to the event, the "buying trigger", in each of their lives. For example:

• New Homeowners: "Just moved in? Make your new house feel like a home with a thorough exterior clean."
• Pre-Sale Preparation: "Boost your home's curb appeal before selling. Our power washing can increase your home's value and attractiveness to buyers."
• Post-Storm Clean-Up: "Has a recent storm left your home's exterior looking less than perfect? Restore its beauty with our power washing services!"

If you build your direct marketing offer around the events that compel someone to buy, you can reduce your spend by 80% (according to Craig Elias, creator of Trigger Event Selling).

Every event, micro to macro, drives purchasing decisions. And, the better you can market to those events over the standard idea of persona, the more likely you are to shorten your path to your fortune.

As always, I'm sharing my thoughts as a way to help you. If it helps you, it could help someone else. So before diving into this week’s side hustle idea (below) feel free to share:

SIDE HUSTLE IDEA: GAG GIFTS

As is always the case, I see something and it creates that "need to know" itch, so I roll up my sleeves and get to scratching.

In this case, Kate Bourgoin's post was about "trigger events", but it also highlighted a business called Dicks By Mail and that was like a brain wedgie... an idea that I couldn't help but dig into.

I immediately wondered if there was a larger opportunity with gag gifts and if there were examples of others doing it successfully.

And, what I found was juicy.

Gift, novelty, and souvenir sales is a nearly $20 BILLION industry and, aside from 2008 (housing collapse) and 2020 (COVID), it's been growing steadily for the past 30 years.

This says to me that if you are able to lean into the "buying triggers" from above, there's a ripe opportunity to sell based upon the different events in a person's life.

Let's use Dicks By Mail as our example.

- Someone ticks you off? Send 'em a bag of dicks.

- Fraternity induction? Send 'em a bag of dicks.

- Sibling's birthday? Send 'em a bag of dicks.

And, it looks to be a fairly decent business for a solopreneur / small team.

SimilarWeb has the monthly site traffic at 51K:

Given the eCommerce benchmark of 2.5% conversion rate (according to BigCommerce) then that would mean they'd have 1,280 purchases on average each month.

Let's assume the average customer only purchases one item from the store. With the average product price being $20, that grosses the company $25,600/month.

This is a $300K/yr. business!

Not too shabby.

And, as you can see, $300K isn't even a rounding error in a $19+ Billion industry. There are boundless opportunities.

If you're looking for additional examples of companies laughing their way to the bank, I got you, boo boo:

Identify funny responses to life events and your silly side hustle could net serious results.

Side hustles can eventually become your main hustle.

With a serious desire and a focused effort, you can eventually build something of value for yourself.

It may not be this week's example, but there are as many interests as there are people on the planet. And, there are as many ways to make money as there are interests.

Let's uncover yours together.

You got this!
Mark