One driven entrepreneur more than doubled his income by quitting his full-time job as a web developer to launch a side hustle selling t-shirts on Amazon.com Inc AMZN. The best part is he only has to work one hour each day.
Printing Money: Ryan Hogue got the idea to start a print-on-demand side hustle when he stumbled upon a Reddit post about how to make money online. By 2020, the side business became big enough that Hogue gave up his $85,000 salary to focus on it full-time. Now it brings in $14,600 each month on average, and he only spends an hour working each day, per a CNBC report.
Hogue outsources all of the printing, packaging and shipping, so he doesn’t have to mess with any of the physical work or manage inventory. He really just has to come up with print ideas, and he doesn’t have a background in design.
He originally tried using Adobe Inc’s ADBE Photoshop, but it wasn’t very user-friendly with his lack of experience, he said. Instead, he started using online platforms that allowed him to download illustrations with commercial licenses, so he didn’t have to start from scratch.
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He spends most of his time coming up with design ideas by doing keyword research or planning around pop culture and upcoming events.
About half of what he makes is driven by Amazon’s merch on-demand platform. Amazon makes it easy for creators to upload their artwork and choose their product types before automatically generating product listings and handling production, shipping and even customer service.
“I like this platform because you don't have to pay money upfront for inventory,” Hogue said.
Sellers on the platform make between 13% and 37% depending on the product and price, and Amazon takes the rest. Hogue even expanded his offerings beyond t-shirts, selling sweatshirts and hats as well as accessories like mugs, phone cases and stickers.
Averaging a little less than $15,000 per month means Hogue ends up making more than $175,000 per year, which is more than double what he was making working 40 hours per week as a developer.
“I want people to know that they don't need a degree in graphic design to succeed in the print-on-demand business. They just need a little bit of creativity and a lot of drive,” Hogue said.
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This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire. Some elements of this story were previously reported by Benzinga and it has been updated.
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