She Makes $100K/Month Selling Magnets⏐Ep. #280

August, we did $233,000.

Holy cow.

This month, $104,000. Last year, $1.63 million.

Holy cow.

Yeah, it was—

first full year.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy. And that's just online. So we do weddings, we do markets.

Okay, can I recap? You went from really broke to pretty broke and never seeing your husband while pregnant with your first child and sick and in a car accident. And you just started thinking about side hustles.

I was like, what could I do on the side from home that could just bring in like an extra couple hundred dollars a month?

Meet Soraya. What makes Soraya special? Well, her and her 24-year-old husband were broke. She was pregnant. Her husband was stocking shelves and training to become an electrician. And she said, enough, we are not making enough money. We're broke and I never see my husband. I wanna start a business. So with under $1,000, she started a business that was doing over $100,000 a month within 6 months. This is a new industry, incredible story, something that anyone could start. Definitely a banger. Please enjoy.

I was in school for cosmetology and I was actually a manager at an apartment complex and my husband had a pretty good job on base and we both decided we wanted to take a turn and go different directions in our careers. My husband started an electrical program, which when you start in the electrical industry, you start really low. So I think he was at $14 an hour starting out and I was pregnant with my daughter at about 23 weeks. We were in a pretty serious car accident and I had to stop working and my husband had a $14 an hour job. And so my husband actually picked up a second job working nights and he was gone. We never saw him. When my daughter was born, he had a few days off, went back to work, and then it was just like he never got to see her. We never got to see him. And after about a year of that, it was like this has got to change.

I'm just trying to get a sense of the timeline. What year was this and what was the other job that he had?

Yeah, so my daughter was born in 2023 and this was 2024. He was willing to keep working, but it just wasn't what we wanted. So it's actually really unusual, but I quit his second job.

Oh, I got to hear this.

He got home, he'd get home at like 11:30 at night. And so we, a family member was actually his boss. And I told this family member, I was like, he's done. Like, I'm going to figure out something else, but it's just, we need him. He, his health matters too. He needs to be home. And so he got home at like 11:30 one night and I was like, that was your last shift. And he was just like, what? It's like, how are we going to afford this house? It was just at a local grocery store stocking shelves. And so he didn't like it. He would much rather be home. But it was kind of from that moment on, I was like, okay, I need to find a job. I was super sick the year after my daughter was born, and that's why I wasn't working up until then. But I was like, I could find something I could do from home, you know? And so I started looking into things and I'd made a goal at the beginning of the year to print more pictures because I'm definitely the person who will take 1,000 pictures and then I never go back and look at them. And I was like, I'd love to look back on those, on those memories more, but I don't want to cover my walls in picture frames. And so I was like, what could I do on the side from home that could just bring in like an extra couple hundred dollars a month, maybe $200 a month. And so I started looking at things that would match my goals, and I was like, I wonder what I can do picture-wise. So I just started Googling, looking for different ways to, you know, put pictures in your home to display them that's kind of unusual. And I came across the magnets, and I found a machine that made them. And I was like, well, if I buy this, then maybe I can turn this into a little side gig.. And so I did that and it just blew up in my face.

In a good way?

In a great way. And so in a way that I didn't need to get another job. And so that first month, I think I made a little over $1,000. Not that that's a crazy amount, but like to us, that was a lot. That was probably—

Was that profit or revenue? Profit.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And so in this business, actually, the profit margin is very high. Um, for our smallest magnets, it's like 91%. So it's, it's pretty up there. So we just started— I started finding new ways to sell them just because getting started was a little tricky. You know, you can't just start selling online and expect people to visit your store. So I, um, I had the idea to do some markets. So we went to some markets and everybody in the community loved them. And so we just kind of grew from there.

So, okay. Can I recap? Yep. All right. So you're newly married, pregnant, you're sick. Your husband's working a job making $14 an hour. It's not enough. He gets a job stocking shelves. He's basically working all the time. It's not sustainable, but it's necessary to pay the bills, right? Yeah. You kind of still feel broke. Like you went from really broke to pretty broke and never seeing your husband while pregnant with your first child and sick. And in a car accident.

Yes. So at that point, our daughter had been born. She was almost a year at that point when I had started the business.

But yes. And you just started thinking about side hustles in like the, the picture industry because you just, you personally love that. Is that right?

Yeah, it was a goal of mine to print more pictures. And so when I was trying to fulfill this, this goal, I came upon a business idea and it allowed me to actually stay home with my daughter, which was a job I was seeking.. I didn't want to put her in daycare because it's so expensive and I want to be there with her. And so it was just like a win-win, um, on all ends.

So yeah. So what gave you the idea to do magnets? And if I'm understanding this correctly, let me pull up your website real quick so we can see what we're talking about. Yeah.

What is your website?

It's memorymagnetsco.com. Did you see like an Instagram reel or something of a magnet, or like, how did this idea come to you?

So I actually Googled it first, just looking for different ways to display photos. And I just came across like these photo magnets that were being sold like on Etsy or something. And I was like, I wonder how I could make these. Like, I want these, but I'm— I probably can't afford to buy all of these. But what can I do to make these and then also sell them? And so then I started researching the different machines that produce these kinds of magnets. And we put it on a credit card and went from there.

How much was the machine?

When I bought it, it was, it was a very cheap machine. It was $700. Um, but when we started going to events, it was funny because we'd sell magnets, but it was so surprising the amount of people who asked to buy my machine. They're like, where can I get this? I want, I want this. I want to do what you're doing. And so that's kind of what started the other side of our business is like, well, If people want the machine, I'd like— I'm happy to share. But the thing is, that machine that I had in the beginning was not reliable. It was super frustrating, especially at live events when they wouldn't come out right and we'd have to reprint the picture. So that's where I kind of started digging, finding manufacturers, working with them to produce something that I myself expect in a machine and would want in a machine. And so now we have our own brand of machines that we we can rely on, so to say. But yeah, that's kind of how that started as well.

When you found this first machine, was it just on Amazon or did you go look on like Alibaba and AliExpress?

Yep, it was AliExpress. We were just so desperate to get as cheap as possible, which in the beginning, it might work for some people. You just have to fight through all of the wasted material and whatnot. But it worked. I mean, it worked for the time being.

Yeah. Not really like commercially, it, it worked kind of for your own use case. And then you went to the markets and you realize, okay, at scale, this is just not the machine for us. Yes.

Yeah. And it adds up like with wasted material. It just added up. I was wasting so much material and I was like, this is costing me money. Like, you know, everyone wasted. I mean, although they're cheap to make, it just kept adding up.

So yeah. So is this like an electric machine? Do you plug it in or is it all manual and you're just like pulling a lever down?

Yep.

All manual. Okay. Yeah. And are they all, all manual or just the first one you got?

All that we have is manual. TakeRei actually sells an automatic machine, which I just barely got a couple of months ago that looks like this.

Oh, cool.

Yeah. Our production has just been out the wazoo. And so it's like I can't make every magnet by hand. So something like that is like $12,000.

Wow.

And so I definitely wouldn't start there, especially if, you know, when your orders are, here and there, or, you know, you have the time, you can spend a couple hours a day making them and whatnot.

So yeah. How much has social media impacted your ability to grow and market this business?

I would say a lot. Social media, it's trial and error. Like when I first started, I was like, why am I making an account for my business? This is going to get nowhere. But it definitely does help your reach a lot. I would say it's definitely doable without social media though, especially like what really got us going was getting out in the community and doing markets and then even the weddings. Then people, if you have a social media account, they will follow you and then they'll be reminded of your product every time they see that. And so we have so many repeat buyers from markets or from weddings. And so I would say it's definitely something a smart person would do, but it's not necessary to get sales.

Was there a big unlock that you had in your like short-form video journey, like a style of video or something that really changed the game for you?

No, I just played with a lot of different things. Consistency and testing things. Consistency, for sure. Yeah, consistency can be really hard. I think we do a lot of different kind of videos, but a lot of just showing us making the product is probably what we do most. I think people just like to see the process, but, but yeah, I think they all do pretty well, but definitely consistency is like the main thing when it gets hard or when it gets slow. That's the one thing that I think sets you apart from other businesses is consistency. Like if you are willing to outwork your competitor, you will succeed. If you keep going where a lot of people burnout is real and then they just stop. But when you get to the point of burnout, you need to give yourself a break, then you just got to keep on going. So I think that's what really sets different businesses apart, especially in this industry.

So, so I have a bunch of other like kind of logistical questions, but how long ago was that first month then where you made $1,000 profit?

That was May, May to June of 2024.

Okay, so almost 2 years ago. And between all of your business lines, your machines and your magnets, what are you making per month now in both revenue and profit?

I would say average. So last year we did $1.63 million. Holy cow.

Yeah, it was the first full year.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy. And that's just online. So we do weddings, we do markets. I'm not even sure how much we brought in that way just because we don't do it through the website. But like, you can do weddings from anywhere from $1,200 to $3,000, you know, depending on where you're located. Wow. And there's— it's what, 2, 3 hours, maybe a 4-hour reception. It's so much fun too. Like, it's, it's a dream job for sure. But yeah, that's what we did last year. That was revenue. Profit, we probably did About $600,000.

Wow. Okay. So like 40% margins. Yeah. 30 to 40% net profit margins. That's incredible. I would imagine since you're new-ish, you're not even 2 years old yet. Are your months kind of lumpy? Do you have like big months and then smaller months, but overall you're growing or—

Yeah. So I would definitely say it's seasonal for sure. So warmer months where markets are prevalent and things like that, I think we do better. This month we did $104,000 in revenue. Holy cow. But all— let's see, I think it was February. Yes, that was February.

So in the shortest month, in the worst time of year, off-season, you did over $100,000 in profit— or sorry, in revenue.

Yeah, we did. Wow. But like, I'll show you, I think it was September or August, I think August. We did $233,000 in revenue.

So in, in August? Yeah, that was August. Holy cow. And that was like your best month ever, I imagine? Yeah, I think so. So 15 months after launching, you did over a quarter million in revenue in one month and about 30 to 40% of that being profit. Yeah. Wow. Good for you.

But thank you.

There's a lot of stuff I want to ask. We're not done here yet, but like, you have a lot to be proud of. Like, That is incredible. Your backs were up against the wall. You quit your husband's job. I've never even heard that sentence before. I quit my husband's job, but it works. I can see my wife doing the same thing. I used to make $14 an hour at the county jail working midnights, and it was miserable. She didn't have to quit for me.

I quit for myself.

That's good. Okay. Wow. All right. So that's incredible. So with a wedding, how is someone making, you know, $1,300 to $3,000 at a 2 to 4 hour wedding reception? Like, are they bringing a machine and like stamping pictures for free? Like they're, it's for free for the guests, but the wedding pays them?

Yes. And anybody could do it however they wanted, but how we structure it is, so the couple basically pays, pays us and then the magnets are free. So we will typically ask about how many magnets are you wanting? Per couple, per person, and then we'll kind of gauge how many magnets they want. Based on that, we charge a bulk rate. Yeah, so the more the magnets, the cheaper they are. Um, and then we also charge like an hourly rate for like per person. We typically do a bit higher at like $50 an hour. Some people just give a flat rate fee, you know, we're gonna— it's $2,500 for 4 hours, and this includes setup, backdrop, all the labor, the drive time. Like, there are just so many factors that go into it. Um, so it's It's kind of a personal preference, but like mileage can make a huge difference, you know, depending on where you're at, travel time for how many people, um, things like that. But we just did one wedding. We quoted where it was, I think it was 3 hours. Um, it was about 40 minutes away from our house. We quoted them $2,000 and it was just me, my mom and dad, my husband, and we basically set up a big backdrop. They chose which one, one of us would take the picture and send it to us. We found a better way to do it now. And so that's kind of how we went about it. But there, I mean, if you look at in the wedding industry, vendor fees for unique, special, you know, different things, they're pretty pricey. So, but people are willing to pay it, especially because it's like their one day, you know, so. Really, it just depends where you're at, how much you want to do it for. But people are willing to pay the price for something that's— oh yeah, like this.

So it's a price-insensitive event. Like, people go into weddings knowing, like, I'm going to be broke after this. Oh, flowers, $3,000, done. Videographer, $9,000, whatever. I've never bought that before. I'll never buy it again. I have no idea what an average price is for that. Like, I've budgeted X thousand dollars for this, and that's what I'm going to spend. Yes. So for the wedding you just did, now this is a real example, not hypothetical, $2,000, 4 people total, you, your husband, and your parents. Is that right? Yeah. And what was, what would you say your hard costs were on that? And hard costs being photo paper. And is that it? Your hard costs? I mean, you have the fixed cost of the machine, so I'm not counting that, but what were your hard costs on that?

Yeah. So we have magnet supplies. So like I said, it's about 35 cents a magnet. And that includes the cost of the paper, the ink, the metal, Mylar, all of the different materials there. So we, I think we made 300 magnets.

So $100. Yeah. Wow. Plus gas, an extra $5.

Yeah. Yeah. Really, that was, that was about it.

So if that were 4 employees, I know you said you're charging like $50 per employee, but what are you paying? Like $25 an hour, $20 an hour, something like that?

Yeah. So my parents just wanted to come help. Sure. They were like, don't pay me. But if you were having employees— yeah. And this is where it was tricky. This was a huge learning curve for somebody who was learning something that hadn't been done yet. Nobody had made magnets on the spot before that I know of. And so this was something that we just had to figure out on our own. And that was really tricky just because, you know, sending pictures via text and then downloading them, putting them in a template, printing them. Waiting for the printer to print. Um, it just was a long process. And so we actually, we're almost done with a software that actually allows people to just scan a QR code, upload their photo, crop it themselves how they want, and then it automatically goes into a template. So with something like this, you really only need one person, you know, if they're taking the photos and they're uploading them and you just hit print and make them. So maybe two people have somebody printing and somebody making, but yeah. I mean, we have high school kids that help with markets and we pay them $15 an hour. Wow. So it just kind of varies, depends on what technique you're using and kind of relays how many people you'll need.

So version 2.0 of this is going to look like probably one person at a table with the machine and a printer and some photo paper and a QR code and a MacBook, right? And so the wedding attendee They take a picture, they scan a QR code, they upload it to you or your employee, you print it, you stamp it, you hand it to them for free, right? Mm-hmm. Exactly. Okay. Now, on, for what you just did, let's say you were paying them $25 an hour each. How long were you all there for? 3 hours. Okay. So that's $100 an hour in cost. So $300 in labor, $100 in materials. That's $400. That's an 80% net profit margin, even at $2,000, which is probably kind of on the lower side, I would imagine. That's incredible. The only thing I, like, you clearly don't need any help, but if I were you trying to price this out, I always try to simplify pricing as much as possible because A, like customers want to know what it's going to cost. Like any friction between what the final bill is going to be is bad. And so if I were you, I would just charge this like their other vendors are charging, which is by head. Yeah. And just say like 100 people, you know, it's give or take, but we'll say it's 100. It's going to be, you know, $20 a head, $30 a head. And that way you can go work out all the logistics of how many people you need, how many materials. Like, you know, if it's 100 people, I'm just making this up, they're each going to ask for 2 magnets on average. Like, the chance of each asking for 10 magnets on average is like close to zero. And even if they did, your margins would go to like 80 to 70%, you still win. So I would just bake all that in and say either it's like we're $3,000 per wedding or, you know, we're $2,000.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah. And this is something even for like, so for people who are super broke like us, we didn't have a computer when we started. And so even now with 2.0, you can do all of this through your phone. If you have a printer and a phone, you can do it. So Wow. Obviously a computer helps. It can be a little bit easier, but it's 1000% doable. That's how we did it for probably the first 8 months.

So yeah, with this wedding system, it— there's no like special camera or anything. Like you have the printer, you have the machine, you have the paper. They're just taking pictures with their phones and uploading it. And it could be a picture of them, of the bride, the groom, doesn't matter. Like if they want it printed, you print it, right? Yeah, exactly. Are there any like logistical constraints as in like it needs to be vertical or horizontal or you want to like center the face or do you just work with whatever you get?

So when we were— when we crop the photos, we'll just center them, um, just to make it easy. We have two sizes. We have a square and a rectangle size. Um, so we've only ever done square, which just makes it easy. So however they send it, it should fit. But now with them cropping their photo, it's like they can make it exactly how they want it, and we just print it.

Oh, so they do that with the software when they scan it then?

Yep. Yeah. So they'll just scan the QR code, select the photo, it'll prompt them to crop it. They'll crop it and hit submit. And then it comes straight over to our computer, uploaded in the template, ready to print.

What type of a printer do you use?

So we use an Epson ET-8500. They're a little bit more expensive. You can find them on sale frequently for like $550, but really any inkjet printer will do. Like as long as you're happy with the quality, this is definitely the high-end quality that you do not have to start out with.

So, yeah. So inkjet plus photo paper and you're good to go. Yeah. How did you find these wedding customers? Was it just friends and family, social media, or are you doing like outbound campaigns to find them?

Yes, that's a great question. So the— it's funny because before I even got my equipment, I was talking to my parents. I was like, I would love to do this at weddings., but nobody would want this at a wedding. Like, how would we even find that? And so that idea, I just threw it out the window. I was like, we'll go to markets. So it was my second market ever. We had some customers come, they probably bought 40 magnets. They just kept coming back with more pictures.

Sorry, what are you selling them for at the market? Like, what is that in revenue?

40 magnets? I sell them in 9-packs for $25. So they spent It was about $225. Wow. So they just kept coming back throughout the whole market. And at the end of the market, I was cleaning up and they walked up to me. They're like, we have a question for you. And I was like, okay. They're like, we're getting married in a couple months. Would you ever consider being a vendor at our wedding? And I was just like, dream come true. So we did the one wedding. Um, we obviously did a lot of just recording on our phones. Um, we posted on social media that this was something that we did and we'd love to do it again. And that's just when people started, you know, reaching out to us.

Oh, and Sariah, I know we're going to get to this in a minute, but from what I understand, you grew a lot of your business through content. And I just want to give a quick plug to this little community I have called Plans of Grandeur, which is linked in the description below. We've got about 1,000 people in there working on going viral, growing a brand, growing an audience, all with dozens of hours worth of training that I made. It's basically everything I've ever done to grow from 0 to 5 million followers within 2 years.

Okay, sorry, keep going. We've had people just email us that haven't seen those reels just saying, hey, I'm getting married, would you do this at a wedding? So really the outreach, we haven't really done any outreach other than posting about it once or twice. It really all comes from people coming to us about it. So I know there are quite a few people now that do. There's like the wedding. It's like, I don't know what they're called. You go to it if you're a bride and there's all these vendors and you can find different people for your wedding.

And so that's a great way. Like a wedding expo.

Expo or something? An expo, yes. Yeah. And so I've heard quite a few people have had success going to expos, things like that. But for us, we just—

people just reach out. So yeah. Now I have to know what you said to them when they asked that. Were you in the camp of like, I don't know, I have to figure that out? Or was it like, yeah, we can do weddings? Or was it somewhere in between?

Oh, I was so ecstatic. I was like, absolutely, we'd love to do your wedding. And so they got my contact info. They emailed me that night. And that night we kind of started throwing some numbers around, playing with it. The first wedding I did, I think we quoted them $1,400 just because, I mean, it was the first wedding we'd ever done. It was going to be kind of a trial and they were happy to pay it.

So yeah, well, it makes so much sense that this would work at weddings. Like, it's honestly kind of shocking that this hasn't already been a thing at weddings. I think it's safe to say, like, you kind of invented this micro industry of, you know, magnets at weddings. But it makes so much sense. Like, If I'm a newlywed or if I'm engaged and I'm at a farmer's market and I see this, it's like, babe, like we could put these on the fridge. Like we're starting a life together. Like, wouldn't this be so cool to start our life together with these pictures? Like they are in the perfect stage of life and the price point is right. You know, it's very profitable for you, but it's still approachable to almost anyone. So it just makes sense that they would be a big customer at a market and that they would become your first wedding customer as well.

Yeah, yeah. And from there we've done baby showers, we've done parties. We just did a huge baby shower actually at our Hill Air Force Museum for military moms, and it was like 100 moms, and the event had paid for us to come in there. They had a big backdrop, and so they got their picture and then they could take it home with them. And so that was really cool too. But like, this industry is so non-restrictive. You could go so many different ways with this, like Graduation parties. We've had somebody who got a kit from us did a graduation party recently. They did, you know, people have done just all sorts of different things. And so it's kind of cool to see what people come up with and, and how they're working with them.

So, yeah.

What did the, the Hill Air Force Base event pay and what do like baby showers pay? Yeah. So because it was for a military event, I basically, I charged them very little. I think they paid $300 and we made 100 magnets. So we still made profit, but it was just something local. But I think somebody could easily charge— it was, it was 2 hours and then obviously set up and take down. It was just me and my dad. And so you could easily charge $500, you know, for something like that.

But yeah, I've done a lot of content about wedding businesses, particularly wedding rental businesses. Oh, cool. There are guys out there that they, they build or they built a wedding arch and they just rent out that arch for couples to get married under for like $400 a wedding. And they spend like $200 in lumber to build this thing and they rent the same thing over and over for $400 to $600, right? Yeah. Like photo booth rentals at weddings or charcuterie carts at weddings or cannoli carts or a pizza guy that sings Italian songs. Like there's so many businesses you could build up just around weddings and just around wedding rentals. And this isn't even rental. This is just like a wedding service, but there's 2 to 2.5 million weddings per year. Wow. And like most of those are going to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wow. That's why. So this is just one minor line item on their entire wedding. And you being where you are in Utah, like you have one thing for you and one thing against you. Now for you is there's a ton of weddings. Per capita. Per capita, there's probably more there, more weddings and births than anywhere, but that's per capita. In a bigger state, there's more weddings, right? Just fewer per capita. So you have that for you. But what you have against you is that Utahns, and I say this as a former Utahn, are so cheap. We are so cheap. Yes. You know, like I would never say on air how much I spent on my wife's first engagement ring. I would never admit that publicly. Yeah. She's still married to me.

That's all that matters.

That's great. I'm cheap too. I get it. So. You probably butt up against that a lot. And then the other thing you have working against you are copycats, right? I imagine you've seen a lot of copycats locally. So as well as this has worked in Utah, I can see this working even better somewhere else. You know, I think if you can make a business work in Utah, especially off I-15, you can make it work basically anywhere.

Absolutely. And that's the other thing is the reason I even started offering help. Like, this changed my life. The magnet end changed my life. Um, and so it's been so cool. Like, I can't tell you how many, like, single moms, new moms, jobless moms have just reached out to me, and they're just like, I'm in a similar position.

Like, how—

I would love to do this. And so it's been so fun and so cool to be able to share exactly how to do the business, what they all need. And the reason I share is because I don't think it will ever be oversaturated. I truly do not believe that. Even here around me, there are a ton of people now that have these kits, but how many weddings, like how many events? There's just so much room in this industry for, for how, for however many people want to be in it. And so the other cool thing is like we'll have people reach out from Florida, like from across the country, from other countries that want us to come do their weddings. But like we don't really have the time and way to get all of our equipment there. So we need somebody in Florida doing it. We need, we need multiple people in Florida doing it. We need multiple people in every area doing it to even touch, I think.

Yeah. So yeah, I mean, you need multiple people in every city of like 30,000+ to do it, right? If you think about it. Yeah. And I'm glad you grasped that because for every person I have on my podcast that's willing to like share the secrets, so to speak, there's another 5 to 10 people that aren't. Right? Because they hold their cards close to their chest and I get it. But like I could point to a dozen examples of people that have come on here, you know, decorating porches with pumpkins, renting out appliances on Facebook Marketplace, building shelves on Facebook Marketplace that have just opened their books and showed everything. And then they became like the expert in the field and it created a lot of copycats, but they were at like the top of it. An interesting thing happened. I posted this video with another guy in Utah. About appliance rentals and it went viral and you open up Facebook Marketplace the next day and there's hundreds of listings for appliance rentals. Wow. Yeah. And so people started showing up in the comments saying, I tried to do this, it's oversaturated. And they didn't even try. They just looked at Facebook Marketplace and got discouraged and never even posted. And so to like prove them wrong or right, I, I didn't know yet. I had the owner fly back to Texas and we looked at all the Facebook Marketplace pages in all the cities and Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the most saturated. And we did a video on like, is this truly oversaturated? And we launched it again here and it was great. Like we crushed it. And that's awesome. We went so far as to ask the people that we visited when we dropped off the appliances, we said like, why did you do this? Like, who rents an appliance? Who rents a washer and dryer? Why did you do this? Did you know this was even a thing? And they were like, no, I searched on Facebook Marketplace to buy a washer and dryer. And then I saw a listing for renting and I thought, I might move. It's only $60 a month. I don't want to have to get the tools to do it. It's, you know, insured. If it breaks, you'll fix it. I didn't realize this was a thing. And once I saw the listing, then I reached out. So yeah, what interviews like this does is it grows the whole market. So like after this goes live, there will be that much more demand for it because, you know, it's just, it's a rising tide raising all ships situation.

So. That's awesome. Yeah, it's just been really cool and honestly, I love it.

Okay, so weddings are big, magnets are big. Are you still doing markets yourself?

Yeah. Yep. We just signed up for our first one this year. We like outdoor markets. We just think, you know, we, well, unless they're really big markets. Um, but yeah, we just signed up for our first one for this year and I'm excited to get going on them again, even though we probably don't need to with what we're making. It's just a way to get in the community. Like we share on obviously our social medias, we're going to be here. So a lot of other people who do this business will come and see how we do it. Or we have a lot of people that like our magnets and they're like, when's your next market? And so just to kind of keep that relationship with customers who are buying magnets, who want to come and see us and, and watch them be made live on the spot. It's just kind of a perk for, for all of us. For me, it's fun to see these people. Our very last market, I had a lady come in and she gave me the biggest hug and started crying. And she's like, you have actually changed my life. And she just told me her story about how she bought a kit and now she's making X amount a month and it's— she's able to be home with her kids now. And it was just like this emotional roller coaster of like, this is really helping people. This is really making a difference in people's lives. And so it's just cool to be able to connect with them in real life from time to time and things like that. So. There's a few reasons we still do markets, but we still do them.

Yeah, they're really fun. I just have this dream, and maybe I'm just too optimistic, but like this dream of a future utopia where it can go back how it was in like the 1800s and before, where like we're buying bread from our neighbor, we're buying wheat from our other neighbor, we're buying chickens from the other neighbor. Even though it's like the most inefficient thing in the world, it's so effective at connecting each other. And I think we are getting back there. Like I, I bought sourdough from someone on Facebook Marketplace. I can order sourdough on the internet with DoorDash or Costco or anywhere, but it's like, I'm supporting a local entrepreneur. Yeah. And I think we can get back there. Like, there's no reason why there should be a mega corp that sells magnets to everyone. Like, there should be 100,000 people selling magnets to each other. Yeah. Like, that's the future that I want to see. And I love that you're helping enable that. What does an average day look like at a market if don't include like any other like machines or educational stuff. Like if you're just selling magnets, what can someone expect to make at like a 4 to 6 hour market?

It greatly depends on, for one, location, and two, how many people are expected to be there. I've made anywhere, like the least I've made at a market was probably like $150 and the most I've made was over $3,000 and that was an all-day market, but So, I mean, it kind of just depends really. Like if you sign up for a market, it costs $20 and it's on the side of the road, you might not get as many sales as you would if it was an established market where there's advertising and things like that. So it, it widely varies for sure.

And what's an average booth fee for the markets you go to?

Average would be anywhere from, I would say they are pretty widely ranged as well. I would say $50 to $300 is what I do. Wow, it's not bad. The ones that I pay $300 for are the ones that I make the most at, you know, after you take away the expenses. Yeah, just because the traffic is so much more.

So it's almost like an expensive booth fee is a signal that it's a market you want to be at, right?

Yeah, not always the case, but I would say most of the time.

So you made $3,000 in revenue just from selling magnets at one market, like an 8-hour or 10-hour market?

Yeah, and that was actually a 2-day market.

So that was 2 days. Still, I mean, you may have had help, but that's something you could do yourself, right?

Yeah, especially with, with the new software. Um, without the software, I tried once to do it myself and it was so stressful. I would never do it again. So you've got a line of people and they're trying to pay, they're trying to order.

Exactly.

Yes. Yeah. So the software, they pay through the software, they do everything through the software, and you just make it.

Okay. So for the 2-day market, how many hours per day was it?

I think it was 10 to 8.

So 10-hour market. 10 hours. So 20 hours total.

Did you have help? I did. Yes. I had 2 high school girls and 1 other lady. So Yeah, I was paying the high school girls $12 an hour and the other lady, I think I paid her $20 an hour.

Okay. So let's say $50 an hour in labor for 20 hours. That's what, $1,000? And then your costs were probably 10%. So, you know, $300. So call it $1,500, your booth fee $300. So your net profit on that was like $1,300, $1,400. Almost 50%, probably. Yeah. That's crazy. So to you, that's, that's like $75 an hour. Yeah.

Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. And I mean, and now looking back on it, like, if we would have had the, like, something, the software, I definitely could have done it myself. And then all of those costs go away. So yeah, it just, it just depends on how you're doing it.

So, and so nowadays, when you go to a market, it's like, you're gonna make some money on the magnets, but You'll hopefully make a lot more on the machines, right?

I actually don't take anything like that to markets.

I just do masks.

Interesting.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. But are you like handing out business cards, like generating leads and stuff for higher ticket stuff at the markets?

Yeah. Yep. We always take business cards and that is actually a huge way to get revenue is handing your business cards at markets because people will pass your booth and they will think it's so interesting and they want your product, but they're in a rush. They don't have the time to stop and scan it and then wait for you to make it. Typically they'll go shopping and come back to get it when it's done, but sometimes they just don't have that time, or they don't have time to look through their photos, or they want to take the time to choose the photos. So they'll take the card, and then every single time after a market for like the next 5 days, we just see all of these orders coming in, and we notice that they're from around the location of where we did that market. So people people do come back.

They do remember. Yeah. Do you do any sort of ad or marketing on the back of your magnets?

Yeah, I will show you one. So they have these kind of these like words on the side. This is just our website, but we changed it to have like our name, our website, our social media handle, and then our business name. So that's kind of how we do that.

Are you able to print on the magnetic part if you would want—

wanted to? I don't think so. I've seen people put stickers on, like they'll do a business sticker and then they'll stick it to the back of the magnet so the magnet still sticks but there's a sticker on it. So I've seen people do that before, but I don't know that there's a way to print on the magnet.

So there is something— there it is, Eufymake, E-U-F-Y-M-A-K-E, eufymake.com. There's this new type of printer and this They don't know who I am. This is not an ad. They can print anything on anything. Wow. And I'm like mentoring some guys at church that are, they just bought one and they're going to like be like customizing their friends' water bottles and their track t-shirts and stuff like that. So you can print on t-shirts, on curved surfaces. Like you could print stuff as long as 30 feet. Yeah. So I'm just picturing like what the interaction would look like if someone had your magnet on their fridge at home and they had friends over and they saw it and they're like, oh, this is cute. And they pick it up. The first thing they do is going to be to turn it over in their hands, right? Like, yeah, it is like how— and if you had a QR code that didn't interfere with the magnetization at all, I have to think that like a double-digit percentage of people would scan that.

Yeah. You know, and that's actually— we, we do that on a separate magnet with each order. So this one hasn't been pressed yet, but this is our logo with the QR code inside it. So each order comes with a magnet. Granted, some people might throw it away instead of putting it on their fridge. Um, so your idea is probably a lot safer, but my only thing would be once for businesses that aren't doing as high scale as us might be great, but for us when we're making thousands of magnets a month, I just like, I can't see the time would just, you know, if that makes sense, like the time to do it, but I think it's a great idea.

I think you should use like a tracking link. You can use, um, tiny URL for this. You can basically take your normal URL and put it through a tracking link. Oh, wow. And then make a QR code out of the tracking link. So if I were you, I would do like a 100 or 1,000 magnet test. I would print the same QR code with the same tracking link beforehand, like before a market or a wedding, and then you've already done the work beforehand and you can just slap all those on there. And then just over the preceding month, like just see, is anyone scanning it whatsoever? Yeah.

If not, that's a great idea.

At least you know. You know, and if so, like, that could be transformative to you.

For sure. That's a great idea.

Thanks. When you're selling the machines, is there any recurring aspect of your business? Are you like, are you selling them the printer paper or anything else or just the machine one time?

Yeah. So we sell them the machine and then we also sell refill supplies. So anytime they need more supplies for magnets, they'll come back. So that has been nice. We don't make a ton on it, but It's there for convenience, but yeah. And we've actually been testing paper to do our own paper line. It's just, I'm so picky and it has been kind of like none of them have lived up to what I want. So we're not there quite yet, but, but yeah, that's something we've looked into.

Yeah. And what are your margins like on the machine?

They're probably said and done about 30%.

That's awesome. Yeah. And it's a higher price point.

So, mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So they do pretty well. I find it so interesting how much opportunity there is simply to like buy things from manufacturer or to import things from China and to resell them. And I've done that for almost 2 decades of my career. And the number 1 question I get is like, why don't people just buy this from China? Like, why don't they just buy it themselves? They get it for cheaper. And it's like, because that's friction, that's confusion. Like they don't, trust it, they don't know it. Like, is there a return policy? Is there a warranty? What if it breaks? Like, people, myself included, even though I do it as a consumer, I'm willing to pay a surplus to get something from an American just because I feel like there's going to be more support there.

Yes. Yeah. And that's something we've kind of— we've maybe lost money on it, but it's something that I take a lot of pride in. We have like a lifetime warranty on all of our kits. So it's like if their machine needs to be replaced We'll pay to replace it, but, and we might lose some money on it. No, like we'd rather have customers that, you know, they trust us and they have a good product than to not, you know, then in that case they could maybe go buy it from anywhere else. But yeah, just definitely the support, especially around the business aspect, has been huge for a lot of people, I think.

Yeah. That's awesome. So how many months did it take you to go? From zero to your first $10,000 a month?

And then how many months to your first $100,000 a month in revenue, not profit?

Just like altogether? Like, when was your first $10,000 a month? Okay. Yeah. Right.

How far into your journey? It was July, July of 2024.

So like 2 months, 2 or 3 months? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Wow. And then what about your first $100,000+ month?

It was November of 2024.

We did $100,500. You just barely. Yep. That's amazing. So like 6 months. So like 2 or 3 months to your first $10,000 and 6 months to your first $100,000 month. Yeah. That's incredible. What is your husband doing? Is he still doing the electrical path or is he with you now?

Yep, he is. He's in his last semester of school for his last license and he actually has loved it, but It's a lot. It's been a lot to run a business and have a toddler at home and get everything done that I have to do. So I put her in daycare 2 days a week and that's been nice, but it's like we don't see him. He, you know, he's at school and then, or he's at work and then he's at school. So we see him on the weekends and we're just excited for that to change. So we're looking forward to maybe hiring somebody to come and make magnets for us so we have some free time to do other things. That's amazing.

So. Yeah. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, you and your husband? Oh, we're 27. That's amazing. So the big golden question is, if someone wanted to start a business doing what you do, specifically like making and selling magnets either online or at markets or at weddings, etc., what advice would you give them?

How could they copy you? It's easy. I would say just do it. The biggest thing for me, it was scary because I'm like, do we have the money to do this? Do I know what I'm doing? No and no. You just have to jump in and then you learn as you go. The cool thing though is like there's such a good community now around this that like Facebook groups and even just social media accounts that are so willing to help with things when you run into it. But it's so easy and it's just like you just need to start and then you'll just take off running. But starting is the hardest part.

It's just You just need to jump in. Yeah, I agree. So yeah. What's next for your business? Like what, what are your big goals?

What do you look forward to? Yeah, so something that, like I said, I've taken a lot of pride on, just like being willing to share and helping people. It's just gotten to the point where there's so many people that reach out every day and with little questions, and I'm kind of to the point I can't— I don't have the time to respond to everybody and help everybody. So right now we're working on a course that goes over literally everything. So like we already have a Shopify course for people who don't know how to build a Shopify website. We already have like a live events course on how to do live events, but something that I think people are struggling with now is like, how do you even start a business? How do you get an EIN? How do you even get going on that end of things? And then how do I grow? Like, how, how are you making sales? How are you doing these things? So we're working on just like an overall course that walks through literally every aspect we have gone through in this business and how to do it. Um, and so I'm hopeful that that will help people not only start but like be successful in the industry, if that makes sense. So that's a big one that we're working on. And then we're making more sizes of machines, which is fun and trying to— we've like, we just recently released a new product that instead of a magnet, it's like a restickable backing. So it can stick to any surface and it's restickable up to like 20 times and you can even like wash it and restick it. So just like new products like that, like we're working on a a round machine now that does like pins and does like bottle openers. It can do like, you know, just different products like that. So just always thinking of new products that the machines can make. And then we're just kind of going from there with the course and the new products.

Um, that's kind of where we're at right now. That's amazing. Well, can people reach out to you if they have questions? Absolutely. Yeah.

Where's the best place to find you?

Instagram, probably. Her email. Amazing. Well, Soraya, you're incredible. Thank you for sharing your story. Well, thank you.

You've inspired a lot of people today. Well, thanks.

I appreciate it. All right, what'd you think? Please share it with a friend, and we'll see you next time on The Kerner Office.