The Art of the e-Commerce Side-Hustle with Ben Jacobs: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like I Digress. Today, we're pulling a timeless EO Fire episode from the archives, so the giveaway may not be active, and we'll be breaking down the art of the e-commerce side hustle. To drop these value bombs, I brought Ben Jacobs into EO Fire Studios. Ben worked at successful tech startups like Jet.com, Bird Scooters, and Salted. He has run a successful e-commerce drinking game side hustle biz for a long time now and left his full-time job to build new retail e-com ventures.

0:38And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about getting out there and doing it, about how life is a constant battle between what's good for you now and what's good for you down the road, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Ben and our sponsors. The Hustle Daily Show, hosted by Juliet Bennett-Ryla, Rob Litters, Ben Berkley, and Mark Dent, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Hustle Daily Show brings you a healthy dose of irreverent, offbeat, informative takes on business and tech news, like a recent episode on hackers versus casinos, where the hosts talk about MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment and the devastating potential of cyber attacks.

1:16Listen to The Hustle Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Many EO Fire listeners have launched non-food franchises and Fran Bridge Consulting has guided them. Fran Bridge's founder and frequent EO Fire guest, John Ostenson, has done more placements than any other in the country and his service is free. Sign up for a consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at franbridgeconsulting.com. Ben, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know. What's up, Fire Nation? Ben Jacobs here. Super excited to be on the podcast.

1:53Something interesting that people don't really know about me is how I actually fell in love with entrepreneurship. And I think it's a pretty funny story. So when I was about 15 or 16, I'm from Westchester County, New York, about 45 minutes north of the city. And my older brother was living in New York. and I went to go visit him and he lived on like the edgy St. Mark's street, which if you've been in New York and you've been on St. Mark's, you know, it's a funky street. And I saw everyone was wearing these bracelets, like almost like Livestrong type bracelets that said, I love boobies on them that were pink bracelets that said, I love boobies.

2:32I was like, oh my God, those are cool. And then I went home and I went online and I was like, I think I could sell these to people in my school. And so I went to my mom. I was like, hey, mom, can I borrow some money to buy like 500 of these bracelets and buy them at a bulk discount? So I got all these bracelets. And then I went into school with like a backpack stuffed of these pink I Love Boobies bracelets and started selling them. And I started to learn about entrepreneurship. I hired little sub salesmen who hit their grade. I was selling bundle packs. and after doing it for a few months, I was able, because I wanted to do it for a good cause, I took all the profit, paid my mom back and then donated the rest to the Susan G.

3:19Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer. So that was kind of my first taste of the entrepreneurial life and kind of living this salesman, business development type mentality and taught me a lot, taught me about bundling, taught me about having other people help you do your work. And most importantly, what I think it taught me is that even with every entrepreneurial endeavor, you get some ancillary benefits that are unexpected. I actually wrote my college essay about that experience and I got into the college I wanted. And now 10, 12 years later, I'm telling that story again on this podcast. So every time I've done something entrepreneurial, it's always had benefits beyond just the profit earned.

4:07A lot of cool angles to that story, Fire Nation. And actually, Ben and I were chatting a little bit to pre-interview about just like taxes and the benefits of living in Puerto Rico and only paying a 4 % total tax, no state, no federal. And I really like how he kind of tied that in where he was doing this entrepreneurial venture. you know it was for like a philanthropic it was for a philanthropic cause and he was doing it for a good thing and you know that's kind of one um mentality and mindset shift i've had over the years where a lot of people just love throwing that phrase out oh money can't buy you happiness and i can guarantee you everybody that says those words and thinks those words are true has never been able to give a large sum away to a cause they believe in because i can tell you like when kate and i donated over a hundred thousand dollars of pencils of promise to build four schools in developing countries, like, man, that brought me happiness.

4:57I can tell you that. So that was the vehicle that brought me happiness. And just like, you know, Ben was able to learn that he could really impact some cool philanthropic change through the Entre Roe Venture as well. I'm sure sparked kind of a lot of what he's done over the years too. Because as we shared at the beginning of the episode, this is all about the arts of the e-commerce side hustle. I mean, Ben's worked at Jet.com, Bird Scooters, Salted, other full-time, you know, kind of corporate structure businesses. But, you know, he's always wanted to have this side hustle going on that, you know, is eventually going to be turning into this full-time thing that we'll be talking about.

5:33So, let's talk first and foremost, Ben, for Fire Nation, about the concept of coming up with an idea in the e-commerce space. Where does one start? Find something you like and to find something you're uniquely suited for. So the e-commerce business that I've been running for the last few years is called Power Hour Tower. And what Power Hour Tower is, is it's an adult party game, a drinking game that is an iteration on Jenga. So I was going to bars in New York City as I recently graduated, and I kept seeing Jenga all over the place. Any of those in the Upper West Side? Because those are always my favorite ones.

6:14I was hitting Upper West Side, Lower East Side, everywhere in between. And I kept seeing these Jenga blocks all over and people playing Jenga. And then I saw people scribbling on the bottom of each of the blocks. And it would be like, kiss the person to your left or chug your beer. And if you pulled that block from the tower, it would say that on the bottom. And I was like, wow, that's super cool. I wonder if I could buy one of these online. And I went online and I didn't really see anything of high quality. And everything that I did see that was high quality seemed to be manually made on Etsy.

6:48So I was like, huh, I wonder if you could create a pre-made funny version that could be sold online. And I had no idea what I was doing. I had to figure out the whole supply chain, where to cut wood, where to sand the wood, where to get it printed, what type of packaging. hired a graphic designer to do all the graphics had to come up with all the rules and bit by bit um I was just spending my weekends and nights and probably some time during the work day when I probably should have been doing some other stuff um but I I kind of just got it off the ground and the most important thing I did was to get my best friend from high school involved and someone who I thought had an adjacent skill set um then we could complement each other well and so we kind of stuck with it and bit by bit.

7:34We did about 30 ,000 sales our first year just doing it in 2018 and then have doubled and tripled. And now we've built it where it's gotten large enough that both of us have left our full-time jobs to pursue that among some other endeavors. So it takes years. It takes a lot of mistakes. It takes a lot of time. Things don't happen at the speed you want them to, But by having an awesome co-founder and someone who's a buddy and you can stick through and laugh through the horrible times and the frustrating times, it makes it all so worth it at the end. And it does take the time. And then once you've done it, I feel like I can replicate that success now for other endeavors.

8:20So Fire Nation, there's a lot to take away here. But the biggest thing is you've got to have your eyes open, your ears open when you're just walking out into this world. I mean, think of that idea Ben had just from looking around him and seeing what people were doing and saying, hey, there's a better way. There's a better way in doing some research. I mean, that's the foundation of Entrepreneurs on Fire. I couldn't believe when I found out there was no daily podcast interviewing successful entrepreneurs about their stories. So eight years ago, I made that. I did that thing. So keep your ears and your eyes open and say to yourself, like, hey, what do I want to take on as a challenge?

8:56What do I want to create that isn't currently in this world as a solution to a very specific problem? And just to add on that, I've had a notepad on my phone with just various horrible ideas. And if you have hundreds of ideas, I wanted to reinvent the salt shaker. I wanted to develop tools to help people apply for jobs. But ultimately, you'll find one that sticks with you and that's good enough to pursue. And that's one of those things too that I think is really important is that not every idea that you see or you hear, you think up should be pursued. I mean, they have to check off a lot of blocks.

9:33Like, do you have passion for it? Are you excited about it? Are you fired up by this? Do you have some skills and expertise? Is there improvements you can make to that thing? Like it has to go through a little bit of a gauntlet first, Fire Nation. But you know, you have to have all these bad ideas, you know, first and understand what a bad idea is before you can identify what a great idea is. So let's talk about that e-commerce side hustle, like building this up while working a full-time job. Because like I said, you were at Jet.com, Bird, Salted, these other places. So how were you actually growing and building this while you were working a full-time job?

10:09There's so much time in the day that you can allocate to these side hustle ventures. You could do 30 minutes prior to work. You could do 30 minutes during lunch. You could do 30 minutes that night. And then I was, I love going to coffee shops on Saturday mornings and just kind of putting in two hours of work then two hours on Sunday, because that slowly adds up. And, you know, like it does take a lot of work and like, it can be frustrating and you can be like, what's the point of this? And I think you will learn so much through the process. Like I learned digital marketing. I learned about how to build a supply chain that imports from China.

10:50I learned about how to correctly brand your products and how important content is and high quality imagery and really crafting a message around your product. All of that requires effort and time and conversations with people, but ultimately you'll develop this skill set where you feel confident to then build your next product or scale this business or consult people on how to do that. So just by starting that first venture and putting in the time, other doors open. Every job interview I had since starting Power Hour Tower, Power Hour Tower has been the only thing I've talked about. That's the only thing that people who interview me are interested in.

11:36They don't care about my previous traditional full-time work experience. They care about the side hustle, the things that make you different. So it's worth putting in that time and in those odd hours. And there's plenty of resources online, Twitter, this podcast. I mean, it's an unbelievable amount of information out there. So just rip the Band-Aid off and do it. So we all make mistakes on our entrepreneurial journeys. So talk about learning our craft while making these mistakes. What's the benefit there? I can't even tell you how much money I've wasted running ads without putting forth the effort to truly understand how Facebook works, how Instagram works, how Google works, how Amazon PPC pay -per-click ads work.

12:25Because there's a science to this. And if you think that just by turning things on, like putting a picture with some copy and just turning on the ad is going to start yielding not only sales, but profitable sales, then you don't really know what you're doing because there are people who have full teams dedicated to this and you're competing with them for this space online. And so you need to have a tactical strategy with different targeted campaigns at different layers in your marketing funnel from prospecting new customers to retargeting to reengaging all the way to retention. And if you're not thinking through, OK, how am I going to hit this demographic for retention?

13:11And you're just using like one solution for all of them. You'll be like me. And that's fine. You kind of have to do that to learn. But my mistake is I should have had mentors and been working with someone to know all this stuff earlier on because I would have saved myself a lot of pain and definitely some money. But it's all good now, but definitely took some time. Fire Nation, just accept the fact that you're going to make mistakes along this journey and you're going to learn from those mistakes if you're going to succeed. And that's why I'm a huge believer when it comes to finding mentors, you want to find somebody who's currently where you want to be in this world because that person has been on your journey.

13:55They've made mistakes. They can help you avoid or maybe take a shortcut or just fast track on certain things. And that could be a huge, huge help for you. So understand it is a journey. It is a process. And we have so much more to talk about when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Can you believe we're already in Q4. This year has flown by, but Q4 is an exciting time and not just because the holidays are right around the corner. Something magical happens when the third quarter ends and the fourth quarter begins. The energy changes. The fourth quarter is where games are won, where champions are made.

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16:15More and more entrepreneurs and investors are discovering the awesome franchise opportunities that exist outside of food. Franchising can simply be the better path and interest in franchising is at an all-time high. Lucky for you, John Ostenson, founder of Frambridge Consulting and a frequent EO Fire guest is here to help you explore the premier franchise opportunities. Today, John and his Franbridge consulting team are part of the largest brokerage in the US and have vetted the market thoroughly. Franbridge is hands down the premier source for the best opportunities in the non-food franchise world.

16:46They represent every type of non-food franchise from healthcare to dumpsters, youth sports to business services, specialized senior care to pet grooming to insulation and floor coatings. John has served as an Inc. 500 franchisor, a multi-brand franchisee, and he does more placements than any other in the country. Sign up for a free consultation call with John today, or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising, at FranBridgeConsulting.com. That's FranBridgeConsulting.com. So Ben, we're back and I want to talk about building a network, the value of that, and how you've used your network to uncover some of the best learning resources that have helped you on your journey.

17:28I am down to talk to anyone. I will have any call with any single person who reaches out to me because you learn something from every single phone call. And not only does that come from just networking, but also reaching out to companies. Companies will chat with you, say you're interested in learning more about social media management, or if you're interested an SEO or whatever it may be, where you want to talk to an Amazon seller expert, you can find those resources and companies that focus on that and just connect with them. And the more conversations you have, you're asking the experts in those fields.

18:11So you can ask your most pointed questions and start having this bank of knowledge that you can then take to your next conversation. and you're starting to ask more thoughtful, more developed questions that kind of get to the true, like, hidden secret sauce of that particular problem you're trying to solve. So I'd say, like, through that, I've gotten to know a ton of people in the industry in this e-commerce world because I'm just down to hop on a call and I'm down to seek out these calls and not just wait for them to come to me. And by always checking Twitter and following what these people are saying and reading blogs and doing all that, it's been amazing the amount of resources that I can now lean on and tap into this network.

19:05Let's talk about the benefits that you've found with a side hustle that you've been doing. I mean, again, you've worked full time for a very long time. You still had this side hustle going on because you identified and spotted this opportunity. But what are the benefits of it? Like, why would you do something like this instead of, you know, using your free time to do fun activities, maybe exercise more, do X or Y or Z? Talk to us about that. I mean, I would love to exercise more. I think I do a decent job. I want to say I'm in that good of shape. I'd say the benefits are that you feel so accomplished.

19:41You feel like it's something that you have ownership over. You're proud of it. I mean, I sell an adult party game, a drinking game, but I'm proud of that. I built that from scratch with my best buddy. I'm 27 and there are so many people who say they're going to do things and they just don't. And so I know I can always hang my hat on being able to say like, I've done it. And now I have the confidence from having done it to think like, okay, I've built and scaled this. Like, what's the next thing that I think like is a stretch for me that I think I can do? And I don't know how to do it now, but I know that I'll figure it out along the way.

20:24And I don't know exactly what that is now. But I'm confident that my ability to get things done, whether it be on the side or whether it be a full time thing, hopefully, eventually, is why I think you do it, why you start the side hustle, because it builds that muscle memory, that confidence, you know how to do all the annoying admin work, you know, how to cut from A to M as opposed to start from A to B. So I think it just helps you have the confidence to take on bigger challenges, whether it be on the side and maybe starting a Airbnb hustle or whatever it may be. You now have the confidence knowing that you've been able to get something off the ground and really see it through.

21:14Fire Nation, all we have in this world is time. And listen, if you're listening to Ben and myself today and you're happy and you're satisfied with where you are in life and like you've achieved what you want to achieve, then guess what? You're spending your time fine and wisely. Yeah. If you're playing video games, cool. Because again, you're happy. You're where you want to be. If you're watching Netflix for two hours a day, that's awesome too. If you're doing whatever you want to be doing, that's great. Personally, I spend sometimes between eight to 12 hours a week playing pickleball. And guess what?

21:41I love doing that. So that's my choice. I didn't do that years one through five of my business, but I am doing that now. But the reality at the end of the day is if you're not happy or satisfied about where you're at right now, well, look and actually take account and study how you're using your time because it probably could be used better. And Ben's used his time to try some different side hustles. Some have worked, some have not, but he's learned every step of the way. So how you use your time is going to dictate your future. Not necessarily today or tomorrow, like financially or whatever that might be, but in the long haul for sure.

22:18So Ben, with all of what I just shared and everything that we've just talked about, what does entrepreneurial freedom mean to you? Entrepreneurial freedom to me means that I get out of bed and I don't need a coffee. I am researching, thinking, writing, talking to people that I think are bettering me and helping better my businesses that in turn will help my family, my friends, my community. And I think there's plenty of value in working for a company and learning from the people above you and seeing how to operate. But if you have that fire in your belly, where you want to be an owner, you want to be the one making the decisions.

23:05You have to earn that you got to put in the work. And to me that it's worth putting in that work, because it gets you what you ultimately want. I feel like life is a constant battle between what's good for me now and what's good for me down the road. And that could be all the way from like, you know what's good for me now probably eating an ice cream that would that would make me very happy but is that good for me later in the day when I'm trying to be productive probably not and the same goes for for business it's like do I want to spend a Saturday instead of watching college football working on this side business probably not but in a year if I add up 12 Saturdays where I'm doing um working on a side hustle I'll be happy the next year when I have a business going and I'll be happier and it'll be that longer term benefit than any of the short term benefit I got from watching college football or whatever it may be.

24:06By the way, quick call out, I absolutely love pickleball and I will gladly fly to Puerto Rico and take you down. Okay. Well, I live in Palmas Del Mar, as you know, and we actually have a WhatsApp group called Pickle Del Mar because we are that into pickleball. We play every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. and I actually owned a lot next to me here in Puerto Rico. And I've literally gotten a quote to build out my own pickleball core. I'm not 100 % sure I'm going through that yet. It's probably more like 20 or 30%, but I've literally gone that far to get a quote for lights, the whole nine yards.

24:39So pickleball is so much fun. Fire Nation, reach out to myself and or Ben about pickleball if you are one of us for sure. So Ben, let's just share with Fire Nation the one major takeaway that you really want us to walk away with from everything that we've talked about here today. I know that you have a direct call to action and even a little bit of a gift for us here. So give that as well. And then we'll say goodbye. Yeah. Well, first off, thank you so much, Sean. This has been awesome. Two quick things for Fire Nation. Power Hour Tower, it is the best party game for any adult, anyone 21 and up.

25:18Definitely check it out. It is the best thing since Cards Against Humanity. So if you go to powerhurtower.com and you use the promo code FIRE, you will get 50 % off a Power Hour Tower. And secondly, I write a weekly newsletter covering tech, business, and culture. Sign up at benjacobs.substack.com. It's called Benny for my thoughts. And final takeaway, I'd say just get out there and do it. I know you've been thinking about it. I know you've had some ideas and there's always these random circumstances that pop up, but whatever one you have the most faith in, just chip away at it day by day and you'll be proud six months down the road when you have a little bit something and then even more proud six months down the road from there.

26:08Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and you've been hanging out with BJ and JLD today. So keep up that heat and head over to eofire.com, type Ben in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. Links to all that jazz, best show notes in the biz. And of course, you got a couple calls to action. Number one was the Power Hour Tower, 50 % off. Ben, one more time, where do they go for that? So go to powerhourtower.com and use the promo code FIRE to get a Power Hour Tower, 50 % off. And then I love that phrase, Benny, for my thoughts.

26:48One more time, how does Fire Nation get over there? Yep, check out my weekly newsletter. It's the coolest thing you read all week. It's benjacobs.substack.com. I promise you'll like it. Yes, Fire Nation, awesome stuff. Glad you stuck around to listen through the end. And Ben, thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we will catch you on the flip side. Thank you, guys. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Ben. And if you're ready to rock your own podcast, well, I have a free, I said free, podcasting course where I teach you how to create and launch your podcast.