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We currently live in the age of the side hustle as more and more people are forced to figure out a way to bring in some secondary income to make up for the fact that they’ve been screwed over by older generations who grew up during a time when you could go to college and graduate without crippling amounts of debt. It’s not always easy, but plenty of people have been able to supplement their main job by driving for Uber and cross-stitching rap lyrics and selling them on Etsy to people who like the irony.
After making a living covering ways other people make money, CNBC reporter Zack Guzman decided to dip his toes in the side hustle game to see what happened. With a budget of $500, he set up his own online store selling apparel inspired by cryptocurrencies in an attempt to capitalize on the craze.
He documented his journey, which required him to spend $500 upfront to establish an LLC, purchase a domain and set up a website (among other miscellaneous costs). After doing some research on internet marketing, he decided to first target the Reddit users who are a little too into Bitcoin and managed to rack up a number of sales in the first few days.
After the first week, he had managed to bring in $1,200 in revenue— which amounted to a 40% profit margin (he used third-party services to process the orders and print the shirts, who take a cut of every sale).
Guzman also tried out Facebook ads to target his main demographic but didn’t see any returns. At least he doesn’t have to worry about losing money if the crypto bubble explodes.