The Most Overlooked Side Hustle You Can Start From Home

Okay, so you started this as a stay-at-home mom.

Yeah.

How long have you been in business and how much have you made every year?

Last year it was $357,000.

And that's working 20 hours a week?

Yeah. We have grown organically, which has been amazing. I haven't had to invest any marketing dollars into growth.

So give us the secret sauce. What's the framework for starting this business?

Okay, this is really all it takes. It does not have to be that complicated.

Would you believe you can make 6 figures a year With this of all things? Meet Rayma. That's my neighbor. She is a stay-at-home mom of 4 that makes 6 figures a year working 20 hours a week doing corporate gifting. It's a $250 billion industry growing like crazy, and it can be started for under $1,000. So let's go meet Rayma and see exactly how we can copy her. Okay, so Tell me exactly what corporate gifting is.

Okay, so my way of doing corporate gifting is all about relationship building and the people that are actually going to be receiving the gifts. I think it helps build relationships, it gets open doors. You, if you're doing a prospecting campaign, it gets people's attention, which is what you want when you're in sales to get that cold call answered, and we do that through gifting.

Okay, so is more of what you do for prospects that haven't yet signed, or like a thank you gift for people that have signed whatever deal?

I do all of them. I would say I— my niche would be prospecting. Okay. And a majority of my clients are actually in the tech space. And in Dallas, we've got a ton of companies moving here and headquartering here, so we have a lot of local big corporations in the tech space that do a lot of prospecting. But We also do, hey, thanks for signing this deal, invitations to events, all across the board. And then at the very end of the year, we do holiday gifts for their clients.

Okay, so if I'm like Salesforce and one of my account managers has a sales call, maybe it went well, maybe it didn't, I wanna reach out to you to send something like this to the prospect to increase their chance of saying yes from like 20% to 30%, something like that.

So on that call, I would ask you a series of questions because the objective is to actually know the recipient a whole lot better. Because if you can put together a gift that is tailored specific to that person, they're going to feel, oh my gosh, this person thought about me. Maybe in the conversation, the sales rep heard something. Where'd they go to college? What hobbies do they have? What are things that are really meaningful and important to that person? And we will build a gift specific to that person. We'll handwrite a card and make it as personal as possible to get that callback.

Okay, so your business is built around that personalization then?

Very much so.

Okay. So if, if I'm Salesforce and I come to you and I say, hey, I need 10 boxes sent out.

Yep.

This guy has a kid going to TCU.

Yes.

This guy has a kid going to Columbia. You can make all that work?

Absolutely. We handle all of the logistics. But if you come to me and you're like, I just need to get their attention. Here's what schools they go to. We could put together a gift similar to something like this where we hone in on their alma mater and we build a gift around it. Well, what goes with maybe a coffee mug? Coffee does. And we could brand popcorn. And there's so many smaller elements that we could put into a gift to make it substantial, but to also make it feel personal with little elements of where did they go to college. Yeah. What hobbies do they have? Some prospecting gifts I've received are they're avid runners. Okay, let's build a gift around that and we can put your logo on a running vest. We can get them nice running socks. Sometimes you can brand running socks. Is it a tumbler that we can get the logo on it? You know, so that brand awareness is also a part of the gift. So there's so many directions that we can go with putting a gift together for their client.

Okay, or for gifting might not be your thing, so please share this with someone who might like it. And two, just hit subscribe. You might not believe it, but you're probably not subscribed to this channel. So thank you. I won't be surprised if you don't have exact numbers around this, but play around with me for a second. So let's say I have two prospects. One of them I know nothing about.

Sure.

I just had a call with them. The other one, I know that their kid just, you know, plays soccer for TCU. So you're going to send one that's just kind of generic and then one that is totally decked out for TCU soccer.

Sure.

In your opinion, what is like the potential close rate for either one?

One of the things I have seen in the corporate gifting space in general is you'll see a lot of generic gifts that are used, and those don't get a lot of attention because these prospects are getting hammered with gifts that are generic all day long because everybody wants their attention. They're the decision maker. I think there is a way to make a generic gift memorable, but for sure something that is way more intentional. You have put a lot of thought and you've done your homework. Where did this person go? What are the things that they like? Do they drink? Do they not drink? Like, you have to be really careful with something like that as well. As curated and personal as you can get them, the more attention that you're definitely going to get.

Okay, what would something like this cost me if it were generic, no personalization, if I wanted to send it to a prospect through you? What would I spend on something like this?

So this box is $100.

Okay. Shipping included?

Nope, shipping is not included. Shipping differs. What we do is these clients a lot of times have their own shipping platforms that they use. And so we'll use their accounts. That way they can identify, okay, what was the shipping? And sometimes they can get better deals on shipping than I can because they have a corporate account. $100.

For the non-personalized one, right?

Honestly, I work within the budget of what my client is. And so a lot of the prospecting gifts I do is about at $100.

$75.

That is on average what those are. Now, this client in particular, they found these mugs on Etsy before they reached out to me and asked, oh, you do this, can you help me? So they actually found these mugs on Etsy, had them shipped to me, and I put everything else together and built it out for her. This part of it was $75. I'm not sure what she spent on the mugs, but yeah.

Okay, so you don't really differentiate between personalized and not You're usually around $100 regardless?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So something that I do is I will laser engrave a lot of the things. We actually made an investment in a laser engraver so we can bring that in-house. And that is an additional thing that we can offer our clients. I have a ton of really amazing vendors that we can get your decal on something like the boxes that are personalized, like gift bags that you want your logo on. We have found some really awesome vendors here locally that we can pretty much personalize anything.

Okay, so if an average box like this, uh, you charge $100 for, break down how much of that is profit typically.

Our goal is for it to be 50%. At the very beginning when I started this business, I was really doing like B2C, and I was buying stuff off the shelf and trying to mark that up, and it just was not profitable. And so I knew immediately I need to get a wholesale account and a reseller's license. And so we are able to buy things wholesale to protect that margin and also to not upcharge these clients even more than what they're already paying for.

Mm-hmm. So $100, $50 of that being profit, is that gross profit as in like just what you're spending on like the products or does that include your labor and your overhead and everything?

That's net. Okay.

Wow.

That's awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Now that's not the case all the time.

Sure.

Like our goal is nothing less than 30%. Our goal is to always hit 50%.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. If you remember, like what were your startup costs in this business?

So I remember starting and not really knowing what I was doing. How do you, how do I become an actual business? And I just Googled how to become an LLC and it was complicated and it was messy and I didn't really understand the process, but I knew I needed my LLC quickly in order to get things done. And so that honestly cost me $800 to get an expedited fee.

You didn't use, did you?

I did.

Okay.

Who do you use?

Busy. Have you heard of Busy?

No.

Okay, well, they're, they're like, but much better.

Okay.

Much cheaper. It's actually free. You just pay the state filing fees.

Okay.

And they manage like all of the deadlines for you because like I said, I'm terrible at attention to detail. And if you miss those state deadlines or you don't file your EIN, your tax identification number, you could really be in hot water. Yeah. So Yeah, next time. Next time.

Yeah, next time.

Busy.

Dang it. Okay.

I know your startup costs. There's probably a lot going on there. So can we talk about that when we get to the whiteboard?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay.

Yeah.

Over the last 17 years, I've started over 80 businesses and I've done one of 3 things when starting those businesses. Number 1, don't file any paperwork whatsoever. I don't suggest that. Number 2, I used like one of the big guys to do it. They charge a ton of fees on top of the state filing fees that you're gonna have to pay no matter what. And then when I was like, I don't know, 37, I discovered Bizee, B-I-Z-E-E.com. And it's like the big guys except free. You still pay the state filing fees 'cause you can't get around those, but you don't have to pay them anything for filing. They'll take care of your EIN, your tax identification number, the deadlines that you have to file, your registered agent documents. And if you don't know what that is, that's probably not a good thing. Bazzi handles all of that for you so you don't have to worry about those things and you can spend all of your time growing your business.

Now, because of the size of these boxes and because of the contents in them, you have to always be conscious of how are you shipping it because these are glass. And even the way things are put in the box is strategic so they don't smash against each other and break in transit. That's also where we're positioning and how we're positioning crinkle paper. So there is a lot of detail that goes into something that looks simple, but—

This is just like filler space then, right?

That is filler to also protect because these are glass that they don't get smashed on impact as they're being shipped.

You're probably thinking about what will they see as soon as they open it?

Absolutely. And that is actually one of the more important parts. The packaging is just as important as the contents inside, because if it shows up just in a brown box, it's not visually appealing and people aren't very like— like they don't open it and they're like, wow. So even the kind of box it's shipped in, if it's not branded and custom, what kind of white is it? Like just those kind of details matter in my opinion.

Yeah.

Because when it's delivered to you, you're like, oh my gosh, a present, you know?

Yeah.

And you're, you're more excited to open it. And then when you open it and you're like, holy crap, what is this? You know?

Yeah, yeah.

They're way more excited to, I don't know, do business with you, reach back out. They do get a lot of responses just saying thank you. Even if it doesn't get a meeting, you got a response. And sometimes that's the hardest part is just getting somebody to respond. So if you want to fill your box—

Yeah, I mean, think about packaging. Apple is famous for this, right? The Apple unboxing experience is like a religious experience. And they know what they're doing. They're a multi-trillion-dollar company. It reminds me, I had a fulfillment business and I had an employee that was very sharp when speaking with other employees. And I used to tell her, like, how you say something is even more important than what you say. And in that case, that's like an analogy for this. How you present something is even more important than what you're presenting. Oh, absolutely. It's the very first impression.

And what I love about what I get to do is I get to think outside of the box quite literally when we send gifts. It doesn't always have to be packaged in a box. For example, this client client. This was actually an internal gift for their team. They wanted almost like a survival kit because it was their busy season. And so we had it branded, but it's a little first aid kit.

That's awesome.

That has a bunch of, you know, hydration packets, tea, and then it's customized with a tea diffuser with their initials on it. So, and it's packed tea in, in a little emergency kit for, you know, getting through the hard, long days. So thinking creatively, when they take this out of the box, they're like, what is this? You know, it just makes the, the opening process just exciting.

Yeah. Now, where do you even begin to source something like this?

So we do a lot of research and digging on different wholesale websites. Sometimes if they're merch, we will reach out to them because a lot of times these vendors have wholesale programs. So we're able to get a wholesale price and then charge retail for our clients.

Okay.

Yeah. So it does take a lot of time to dig the internet to find things that fit. But in my opinion, it's really worth the time because of the impact that it makes. Yeah. So working off of just the template of what this one looks like, when putting something like this together, like we said, we're looking at making sure in shipping things don't break. So we put something in between it so that they don't smash together. And I'll grab you. And what this client wanted is they actually wanted the same colleges on either side. So how we are presenting it is Alma Mater and business logo.

Okay.

So you're seeing both because their brand is obviously very important that they see it. And then you can put this in between both of those mugs. If you feel there's a little pushback and just bring it down a little bit because of the other elements that are going in it, the coffee fits above this space right there. And then we have a little basketball chocolate. This is a March Madness gift. Oh, cool. So that's what the little nod to basketball are, these little chocolates. Okay. And so after you kind of place everything, we will pack it real tight with crinkle paper to make sure it'll look like this when it gets to the recipient's house.

Yeah.

And so I'll always pack, especially if it's glass, around it to also be mindful of it may shift to the side. And fun fact, crinkle paper is actually pretty expensive. I would say that this is one of those pieces of a gift that you have to be really mindful of how much are you putting in a box. I think that's also why you have the paper in the bottom because this is one of those costs that kind of sneak up on you. When you're wanting to fill a whole box this size with it.

Yeah. Have you explored getting like a machine to make your own crinkle paper?

I haven't.

Because I bet a lot of the cost is just in the volume of shipping it to you.

Oh, for sure.

If you could just order like construction paper and run it through like a—

Well, Uline is making a killing. Oh, sure. Because if I don't want to drive to their location to pick it up, just to ship maybe boxes and crinkle paper, I'm paying a $75 shipping fee. And they're right down the road.

That's why.

So yeah, they, they really kind of cornered the market on packing supplies.

So I already know a lot of people are going to be watching this thinking, this is a perfect business for me. I'm a stay-at-home mom. I only have 10, 20 hours a week. Do you have like a framework that you use, like a way to look at this business so people can copy you?

I do. I actually did it on accident because it's so replicable and just easy to use.

Okay, well, when we get to the whiteboard, I want you to show that to me.

Okay, I will.

All right. Okay, so you started this as a stay-at-home mom.

Yeah.

4 kids.

Yes.

Tell me about the numbers. How long have you been in business and how much have you made every year?

Okay, so 2022 is when I started. And like I had mentioned before, I really started with just doing baby shower gifts. So there was no corporate and—

Is that a good place to start?

For me, it was a good place to start because I had no experience in corporate.

Yeah.

So I didn't know the language, I didn't know what things looked like, you know, so it was, it was good to kind of get into that slowly. But I do also think I had an advantage in not having been in corporate because I didn't know, oh, gifts don't look like this, like, oh, this is unique. And so I kind of had an advantage for things looking and feeling so much more unique than your standard tumbler with a logo and just a pen, you know, with a logo. So I like that I started where I started. Yeah. Because I was able to continue being really, really creative but in a corporate space. But that year I grossed about $75,000.

Wow. Your first year?

But my net— my net was $7,800.

That's okay.

So because I had no clue, I didn't know how to price things like I was very much learning.

Yeah.

And then year 2, we increased about $100 grand in our gross profit.

Okay.

And then we were at about $25,000 net. Year 3, we— so we've grown year over year about $100 grand gross. Wow. But 2025 is when we really honed in on the corporate gifting and we were really more strategic even with our pricing. And so last year it was $357,000 and my net was $119,000.

Wow. So over $100,000 profit.

Yeah.

Your third year and that's working 20 hours a week?

Yeah.

4 kids at home?

Yep. Wow.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

And so half of your time is at home and you only come to the warehouse a couple days a week?

When we need to fulfill, I'll do all of the like proposals and stuff from home. I prefer to be at home and available for my family. And then we'll come here and work from maybe 9 to 3 and fulfill. Fill and call it a day.

That's amazing. Now, are you even like trying to grow? Are you out there like hustling to find customers or are you just waiting for them to come to you?

No, they have all been referrals and word of mouth. And, um, I tried running some Instagram ads, but nothing ever really took off. And I would say Instagram's not even my platform. It's LinkedIn. That is where I get the most lead generation from. Um, and when I, my clients post something on their LinkedIn, their whole network can see it and they're seeing the success that they have. So they'll reach out to me. And so we have grown organically, which has been amazing because I haven't had to invest any marketing dollars into growth.

Well, you sell a product that people naturally want to photograph and share. Yeah, right. So they're your best marketers.

Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Okay. So you didn't start in a warehouse, right?

No.

You started at your house.

Correct.

Um, what would you recommend people do if they wanted to start this business?

Well, I think you need to know who is your market, who are you marketing to? I made the unfortunate decision to try to market to both B2C and B2B, and that really caused me a lot of troubles financially because I was buying product off the shelf. I wasn't buying it wholesale when I was going B2C. The profit margin just wasn't great. Yeah. For what I was trying to do.

You didn't really know like who your customer was yet.

No, no.

It was anyone that would say yes.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that also helped you kind of stay scrappy and figure things out. And it just, it really reinforced what I really wanted and then what I didn't because I tried it and it didn't work. And so I think one of the things I did at the very beginning is I knew you needed to separate your money. From your personal account. And so I, you know, got an LLC and then I got a bank account and then I got a wholesale and reseller's license. And that is where I was able to really find better deals on the products that we were using. And so I would say those are the things you definitely want to do. Start looking for local vendors that you could partner with to do your customization. Those vendors come in clutch during the holiday season when you need maybe something turned around really quickly or you need to bring something in-house to customize something. And I think also you've got to do the nitty-gritty digging through the internet to find— it could be international stuff. Like we get our boxes, our custom boxes for our clients made in China. You also have to take into consideration how long does it take for that to get here and the cost difference if you have to get it here faster than 20, 25 days, you know, just by sea. So those are all the things that I didn't know about and I learned the hard way. And it also dipped into my profit because I didn't anticipate an expedited shipping cost from China because of deadlines. You know, being really intentional with your deadlines. And saying yes to the right things, but not being afraid to say no to the things that don't make sense.

Yeah.

Or the things that don't bring you joy or peace, you know, and not being afraid to stop working with a customer if they're just not a good fit for you.

Yeah. How did you find your first corporate client?

So when I started this business, it was with baby shower gifts and just personal gifts, birthday gifts, and started really small. And I did a post on LinkedIn that was like, I'm just, I'm doing this business. And because of the, um, the job my husband has in corporate, he reshared my post, which went to his whole network. And I had some other friends in corporate that also shared their post to their network. And next thing I knew, I got a message from a girl that was in sales. For a company my husband works with. And she said, would you be interested in helping me with my prospecting gifts? And like you said, I just said yes to whatever would come around. I, at that time, I didn't know what that meant. So I had to research like, what does prospecting mean? You know, I'd never been in that space before. And she's the one that I really owe a lot to because she got my foot in the door. She introduced me to other sales reps. And it just really domino affected after that.

So is it safe to say that like you, you kind of went to school for this business by doing business to customers, right? The baby showers. That's kind of where you cut your teeth, you learned, and you're actually paid to do this. Not as well as you were later, but like it was a, it was a paid education. And then is it safe to say that like you basically launched the corporate gifting business with one LinkedIn post?

Yes.

Like that one post.

That one LinkedIn post.

It's not that you got all of the customers you've ever gotten from that one post, but it, it started, it started that journey for you.

Yeah. And I don't, don't downplay showing up online in social media. Um, Instagram isn't necessarily the platform that does the best for me, but LinkedIn does. And I think there's a lot of people that will start businesses and are afraid to put themselves out there and to share, but you never know sharing one post may open that door for you.

Yeah.

And so not being afraid to just try.

Yeah.

Like, what happens if you don't try?

Yeah. Well, I would think, you know, a lot of times we think of competitors as people that do the same thing we do, but I'm guessing in this business, a lot of your competition is just education, like teaching a sales team that they don't have to do that annoying process of shipping out these gifts. Like they could outsource it. Sometimes they'll even save money and headache by outsourcing it to you.

Very much. I did the numbers of how much it takes or how much time it takes me to put a gift together and how much that costs. And then how much it's going to take them to do the same exact thing. And it is a significant financial difference if they're in sales and they're investing their time in going online, finding boxes, finding the products, going, standing in line at UPS where we've, we can fulfill all of that here easily. Their money or their time is extremely valuable.

Yeah.

And it's probably not best used putting a gift together, but partnering with a business like mine where we do it, we do it well, we do it quickly, and we get results for you.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just, it, it's a no-brainer in my opinion. Yeah.

Well, someone in tech sales might make $250 grand a year. That's $125 an hour.

Yeah.

And if they spend 3 hours or half their day researching, that's $500 to send a gift.

Yeah.

And you're gonna charge $100 for the same gift.

Yeah. Yep.

So it's a big jump to go from a house to a warehouse. How did you manage that?

We outgrew my house exponentially. It was causing a little bit of friction in my marriage because there was just gift bags everywhere and I just couldn't do it anymore. You just kind of wanna separate work from home life. And I started researching where can you even, I can't afford to buy 20,000 square feet of just warehouse space. And I came across this shared warehouse workspace and I started with 400 square feet. And I was, that was about a year and a half after I started the business. And about a year after that, I had to upgrade to a larger unit. So that one's 600 square feet. Couple of months later, I had to add another unit because of how much we grew. So that gave us 1,000 square feet. And then we just added another unit, taking us up to almost 1,500 square feet.

And are they flexible lease terms or are they like long-term leases?

They do have flexible lease terms. However, I do a year lease because that also helps with the price negotiations of the units.

Well, I know before COVID like shared workspaces or shared warehouse didn't even exist.

Yeah.

But because of like the boom in e-commerce, these places are all over. Oh yeah. And it's a great way to like transition into having your own full-fledged warehouse.

Yeah.

And if you want to start a business like a corporate gifting business, check out tkowners.com. It's where people start and grow businesses with my help. tkowners.com. All right, let's talk startup costs.

Okay.

The reason we're talking today is because we like to cover businesses that are approachable to as many people as possible.

Yeah.

So What is the way that anyone could start this business for as little money as possible? How can people buy things at wholesale? Do you have to do that right at the beginning or can you work your way into that? Okay.

The only way you can work wholesale is you have to have an EIN. And the only way you can get an EIN is if you have an LLC and a bank account linked directly to your EIN.

Okay. What do people need to be able to sell wholesale?

Well, you have to get an EIN, which comes with your LLC, and then honestly, you have to start—

Like a resale certificate?

Mm-hmm. Which you need your EIN. That all is included in that $800 fee that I paid.

Okay.

And so then you really start looking for what type of products are you needing that wholesale price on. So I use Faire is a wholesale kind of website that businesses can—

F-A-I-R-E?

Yes.

Okay.

You can buy their products from that site, or you can go directly to some of these websites and ask them if they have a wholesale program. And a lot of them do. There are some who you have to have a storefront. You have to like, there's a lot of criteria in order to even become a reseller for them. And I'm just not there yet. Okay.

So what else do you need? I mean, a free LinkedIn account, shipping supplies from Uline.

I think shipping supplies, it depends on obviously what you're shipping. If you're just going to do a simple brown box, those run, let's just average it at $5 a box. And if you need bubble wrap, things like that, those are pretty inexpensive. Let's just round up to $2 for bubble wrap or packing peanuts even.

Do you recommend that people try to get a corporate client first or to start with consumers, like with baby showers?

I think you need to cut your teeth on doing some reps in what works for you and who your ideal client is going to be. I do think in the corporate gifting space, you need a lot of trust from those corporate sales reps, whoever. And in order to have that trust, you have to have a history of doing really good work and getting results. So if you have the connections, I jump in.

Yeah.

But I would say you don't want to make some of the mistakes with a corporate client that you're gonna make with smaller gifting. Yeah, the stakes are much lower with a baby shower gift because if I make a large mistake with my, one of my corporate clients that could ruin my whole reputation.

Yeah.

Therefore my whole business.

Okay. It's funny. Cause I'm like trying to pull startup costs out of you, but there's really not a lot.

Cause you can do this from your home. And if you are able to get reseller or wholesale prices, it's really based on what gifts are you putting together? Is it a $50 gift? Well, times— so if it's a $50 gift gross, uh, your profit is $25. How many gifts are you doing? Are you going to set a minimum? I have minimums now where I don't do gifts, um, under $50. It's just not— it doesn't make sense financially. And then we don't do less than $10. So that's okay. You're looking at a $500 profit gross, and then, you know, $250 Med.

Yeah. How many hours of work would that represent?

5, maybe.

So $50 an hour.

Yeah.

For your first couple of clients is realistic.

Yeah.

That's incredible. Okay, so give us the secret sauce. Give us the goods. What's the framework for starting this business?

Okay, well, first and foremost, you have to connect with people. And this sounds really easy and it is. But connect with people, be networking, put yourself out there on social media, respond quickly to people who are asking you questions about your business. So you wanna be connecting with people. Number 2, we are collaborating.

Perfect.

So we are working with our clients. What do they need? What are they looking for? How can we partner with them? How can we help them?

So let me just rehash. So connect is just like you're putting yourself out there. Yep. You're unafraid. Yep. You're putting your sign on the wall saying, this is who I am, this is what I do.

Yeah.

I help sales teams close more deals.

Yeah.

With thoughtful personalized gifts.

Yes.

Whatever it is.

Yeah.

Right. And then you're just sharing that with the world.

Correct.

Probably on LinkedIn, most likely.

Yes.

Okay. Then collaborating is, is just, you're like, you're finding suppliers, vendors, potential customers, referral partners, and you're just like, getting them in the same room, so to speak.

So I would say collaborating more with your client. So I'm working with you to pick your brain to figure out what do you need this gift to do? Who do you want it to reach? So I am connecting with a client, then I'm learning about the client and I'm learning about the recipient, which leads me to 3, which is what you were saying, which is the curation.

Okay, I got ahead of the game here.

It's okay. Which that is where we are figuring out where are you getting best prices? What products do we even want to put in the gifts? What options do we want to present to our client that's going to get the most bang for their buck, but also the best response rate from the prospects. And then number 4 is just simply fulfilling it, which that is just where what we did before, you're putting the pieces together. You are getting the shipping information. You are are checking things twice to make sure that names are going to the right people. And it's really just this simple. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. As long as you are excellent in all 4 of these things, growth will just happen.

Yeah, it's funny because I think people, they look at these frameworks and they want something complicated because they're assuming it's much less approachable than it actually is. But really, like, the hard thing to do is just to do the thing.

Yeah.

It's just to put yourself out there and to do the thing. And every business has two parts to it. Like if you really boil it down, there's the find the customers and fulfill the customers. And it sounds like the first 50% of this is how to find the customers. And then these two are about how to fulfill the customers.

Yeah. Okay.

Also pro tip, if people want like cheaper shipping there, you can use ShipStation, you can use Shopify shipping rates, you can use Pirate Ship, You could even just— stamps.com. You can go to FedEx or UPS and just say, I want a wrap. And all you got to do is say, I want a wrap. And whether you're shipping 1 a month or 100 a month, they'll give you a wrap with like 60% off retail discount. So I think you would agree the last thing people should do is pay like full retail for their shipping. There's no need to do that.

Yeah. And I would say shipping is going to always be a large part of your cost in your gifts.

Do you think that people should always like tack that on to the fee? Like kind of it's almost like a way of like absolving yourself of that responsibility. It's like, hey, I can't charge shipping because I don't know, like, do you want it overnight? Do you want it to Alaska? Like, this is my fee. Shipping is what it is. If you have rates, we'll use your rates. If you don't have rates, I'll use my negotiated rates. As a range, you know, that could be as low as $9, could be as high as $50 if it's heavy and you want it there overnight in Alaska.

Yeah, in this collaborating process where we're talking about those details, I do have that conversation. I don't even know how much this is going to weigh or the size box that this is going to be in. These are just the things that we're going to put in the box. We won't know shipping price until we get down to actually putting a sample together and sending it for approval. So that is a conversation. Shipping, we don't know yet. It could be, like you said, it could be this. Or it could be this depending on where you're— if you're going international.

Yeah.

$600, you know, so.

Yeah, but don't bake it into your prices or you'll sell yourself short.

I learned that the hard way.

I bet. It's the best way to learn though.

Ouch. Yep. And this is really all it takes. It does not have to be that complicated to get something like this up and running. You need to connect with the people, you need to collaborate with them, you need to curate, and you need to Fulfill, and it's, it's really that easy.

Okay, well, thank you for having us today.

Oh my gosh, it was an honor to meet you. Thank you for coming.

Absolutely. If people want to learn more, where can they find you?

Okay, so you can find me on my website, it's giftygal.co, and if you want to contact me personally, I think you're going to link those in the description.

Yeah, we'll put them below. Thank you.

Thank you.