How I stumbled into a six figure part-time income… setting up simple postcard campaigns for businesses
I’m pretty sure I found the perfect side hustle.
And I’m convinced anyone can copy what I’m doing.
In October of 2017 I was part owner of a powdered green juice company. We were doing 6 figures a month in sales. I had a great team. Customers loved our products. And even though I didn’t love working 10 hour days, everything was going my way.
Then my two investors (who owned 51% of the business) got into a squabble and sued each other. It was a mess.
By summer of 2018 we were out of business.
I had no idea what I was going to do next.
But there were a few things I was clear about.
So I wrote myself a list.
- No more grinding. I did NOT want to work more than a couple hours a day.
- I had a lifestyle to maintain. I needed to make at least 250k a year.
- I wanted to be able to shut off. I didn’t want something I had to think about 24/7.
- It couldn’t be a big investment to get started because I only had about 5 grand to work with.
- I didn’t want to manage a team. So, no employees.
A few weeks into trying to figure out my next move I get a text from someone I hadn’t talked to for while.
We knew each other because he’d gone through a postcard marketing course I taught years before.
He asked me if I had a few minutes to talk.
So we got on the phone and after a little back and forth he asks if I’m still doing direct mail at all.
I say, “Not for a couple of years, why do you ask?”
Then he asks, “Do you think you can create a postcard campaign to sell self directed IRAs?”
If you want to read the long version of the IRA story go here.
I had no idea if postcards would work for financial products like that. Up until then, I’d never sold anything over $500 with postcards.
Turns out they do work for selling expensive stuff… the campaign ended up being a massive hit. And the experience totally changed my perception of what you could sell with postcards.
That project put a few dollars in my pocket but it still didn’t solve my “what am I gonna do for a living” problem.
It did give me a pretty good idea though.