After completing his music production degree in 2017, Francisco Rivera’s career aspirations hit a snag when he couldn’t secure a job in the music industry. To make ends meet, he worked odd jobs, including at an Apple Store and as an online tutor. In 2023, he ventured into selling candles on Etsy. At first, he worked four to five hours a day and only brought in a couple hundred dollars a month. Two months later, Rivera was on a date when his side hustle catapulted into popularity.
Now that Rivera’s shop has become a lucrative endeavor, and has garnered over 5,000 reviews on Etsy, he only has to work 20 minutes a day to manage customer relations. Last year, he brought in $462,000 in sales, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. That averages to roughly $38,500 per month.
Rivera estimates that 30% to 50% of each sale is profit. The remaining cash pays for Etsy fees and marketing and Printify, the service he uses to connect with manufacturers. The success of Rivera’s Etsy shop allowed him to quit his tutoring job in December. This year, he’s used his extra time to travel the world.
Here’s how Rivera honed his skills from past jobs to open a successful shop, and how he stands out in a saturated print-on-demand market.
- After college, Rivera worked in Apple stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for three years. There, he learned how to multi-task, build relationships, and solve customers’ problems, even when people yelled at him.
- He moved to Orlando, his hometown, in 2020. There, he took a job with Outschool, where he taught 7- to 12-year-olds how to build social and critical thinking skills on the popular online game Minecraft.
- When demand for online tutoring waned after the pandemic, that’s when he stumbled on a YouTube video about print-on-demand. The popular side hustle has a simple concept: Sellers create designs for products like T-shirts, tote bags, or mugs, then list the designs on online marketplaces. After an order is placed, a manufacturer prints the design onto the product and ships it directly to the customer.
- He scoured Printify’s catalog for more ideas and landed on candles — a relatively new and less popular product.
- His customer service skills also likely helped his shop quickly accumulate positive reviews and bolster his reputation on the platform.
Rivera experimented with strategies, learned through trial and error and YouTube tutorials, to help his Etsy store stand out. He altered his product descriptions, updated product photos, and invested in internal marketing on Etsy to get his candles in front of as many users as possible.
Rivera’s side hustle model is simple as well. He starts with a photo of a candle with a blank label and adds a phrase — like “Smells like a Promotion,” which is popular for other sellers — on Canva. Then, he uploads the design to Etsy, and his linked Printify account sends the design to a manufacturer who ships the final product directly to customers.
The research phase is time-consuming but crucial to his success, Rivera says. He spends that time figuring out how to appeal to hyper-specific groups like hockey moms, new parents who hate dirty diapers, bridal parties, divorcees, and people in long-distance relationships.
