Questions and answers on this Side Hustle Spotlight article Alchemical Goods owner Greg Kerr, who was working as a musician in 2015 when he began selling custom pins. Today, Alchemy Merch is a full-time company that creates custom merchandise for corporations equivalent to Apple, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, Nike and others, in addition to independent artists in search of recent ways to monetize their art.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Alchemy Merch. Greg Kerr.
When did you begin your side business and what inspired it?
I ran a literary-inspired clothing brand called Miles to Go and began making enamel pins as considered one of the products we offered in 2015. Some friends began asking me for help make them due to the confusion foreign production can have. Around this time, my wife and I made a decision to try for a baby, and the day we came upon we were pregnant (Father’s Day in 2016), I purchased the domain for Pin Game Strong. I saw that the art community needed help and initially thought that if we could contribute just a few hundred dollars to our daughter’s Model 529, we might achieve success. The original idea was to proceed running the clothing brand and help people make enamel pins on the side. I quickly realized that there was an enormous gap available in the market for offering retail quality goods. It was all about promotional products, and given my experience running a brand, I assumed it was necessary to concentrate on products that individuals could be proud to bring to market. It was needed to transcend promotion and go completely custom.
Image Source: Alchemy Gadgets
What were the largest challenges you faced in constructing your side team and the way did you overcome them?
When things began moving fast, I had plenty of issues with time and the way to balance it with the brand that had been paying my family’s bills for the previous couple of years. We went from $0 to $1 million in sales in 18 months and it was just me. I handled all of it: managing the business, handling all of the orders, communicating with the factories and all of the art. There was quite a bit to absorb. We didn’t spend a cent on promoting for the primary two years. Word of mouth spread and kept me as busy as I could. My first step was to get help with image files so I could proceed working on customer interactions. I wish I had sought help sooner, but after I finally got it, it freed me as much as focus more on sales.
You have since turned your side hustle into your full-time business, Alchemy Merch. What was the important thing to this growth and what do revenues appear like now?
We reached a degree where I had to go away my previous business in order that I could focus all my time on creating products for others. We began as Pin Game Strong and were always adding recent products: patches, acrylic key chains, washi tape, etc., and the name seemed too limiting. We gained solid recognition, but we knew it was time to maneuver beyond heels. Growth has been a challenge over the previous couple of years. When Covid hit, we were turned away twice. First, we had delays in getting factories back to work, which resulted in lots of refunds for scheduled events. Then in March they returned and the US was hit with lockdowns. Much of our business is driven by events. Artists sell at fairs, fairs and other events, and corporations will do it [make items] for conferences or team events. We were just on our toes before the pandemic, and since then we have worked hard to actually concentrate on improving what we do and the way we do it to face out. While we have seen growth during the last two years, it’s only this yr that we’re seeing people have the energy to create again. We have achieved sales of lower than $2 million annually for the past two years and hope to eventually exceed that and proceed to grow.
What do you enjoy most about running this business?
I like helping people create. Creating not only products, but in addition retail-ready goods can present many obstacles for creators, and our goal is to remove these obstacles and help them make it occur. It’s always inspiring to work with other creative people all day long. Our goal as a team is to collaborate and improve the client’s project.
As you concentrate on the long run of the corporate, what are you most enthusiastic about?
I’m very completely satisfied that we are able to expand the range of products we provide and proceed to assist creators. In our industry and at our size, there is not much direct competition, so the prospect that somebody will wish to take us over is low. I hope to proceed to construct an organization that continues to offer for my family and our employees and help people.
Image Source: Alchemy Gadgets
What is your advice for others who want to begin their very own successful side hustle?
Although I wasn’t actively enthusiastic about it on the time, Alchemy Merch was a mixture of all my skills and hits on what I actually desired to spend my time on. It’s hard to run a business after hours should you’re working a 9-5 job, but should you actually need it, you’ve got to place within the work. If you are enthusiastic about starting a side hustle, really take into consideration what you would like to do and whether there’s a requirement for it or a spot available in the market so you may improve on what’s available in the market. The market told me how much Alchemy’s goods were needed, and I responded. Once it became clear that it had legs, I never looked back. I actually have been self-employed for 20 years, so I gained the clarity that I could act with momentum and recognize that what we were doing had real value.
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