This is the Side Hustlers podcast. I'm your host from my Heart Radio, Carla Marie. Now, if you're listening to this as it posts, it is Monday, March six, and we are in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, if you're listening to this in the future, I am hoping everything is cleared up and we're all fine. Now, if you're in this right now, I know how tough it is for small businesses. So I am putting together an episode this week. It will post next week of how we can all help small businesses, and we're gonna hear from some of your favorite side hustlers. They're gonna come on, let us know what they're doing to keep their business alive, what they're hearing from friends in the small business community. So we will have a really great episode next week on how you can help support these businesses while you are sitting at home right now. But this week's guest kind of timed out perfectly. His name is Stephen and he is the owner and creator of Cutie Ties, a dog bow tie company. But Stephen has a ton of other side hustles and he does a lot of them from his computer and one of them. You can literally start right now as you're sitting on your couch. I want to make some extra cash right now. It's really cool. So this is Stephen's story for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait? Do you know what you want to do? And this is what you want to do? Do it. I'm a hustles side side hustle do it. I'm a hustle side us do it. I'm a hustle side show. Come on, ask about me, yo yo. It's the side Hustless podcast we call the Roof. Today I am joined by Stephen coming to us from part of them, Florida. I see the palm trees behind you. Are you're really trying to rub this in right now? I am? I know, I know you've been to Florida before, so I want you to see everything and get a little jealous. And I'm looking out my window here in Seattle and it is can you guess? Oh yeah, raining and cloudy, so outside right now in sunny Florida. What has your day like been so far today? Because you're currently side hustling and I know you've got a million ideas, but it's a Monday. As we were Cord this What has Steven's day been today? So I woke up at about five thirty in the morning. I drove into work and uh, I did my day job in the day. Uh got off of work about four o'clock, raced home to do this. Uh. After this, I'm probably gonna go back check emails for work and then I'll get into the side hustle. Okay, so quite the day. Let's talk about your side hustle. So people know why you're on this podcast. It's cutie ties. Cutie ties are bow ties for your pets. Now it's is it only dogs? Right now? It's only dogs, But our logo has a dog and a cat on that so you've seen. So the goal is to have bow ties for all pets. We started out with dogs. Hopefully cats will come later on in the year. I hope so, because my cats are a little angry right now that they don't have. They look like they need some boots they do. Okay, why dog bow ties? Like, where did your love for dog bow ties come in? So? I've always been a huge animal lover and I've always wanted to do something with animals, just never really knew what to do. So about about a year ago, I was one of the largest chains brought in a line of my favorite clothing to their chain. They weren't selling clothing, but they were selling random items at their store. So I went over there and I saw a pink and blue plaid dog bow tie. Immediately bought it. I put it on my I've never owned a boat tie for my dog. I put it on her and she looked so cute in it, and I said, she for the rest of her life, she's gonna wear dog bow ties. So fast forward two weeks later, I go, I take her out, and she comes running back inside, and I noticed that the bow tie was already looking a little dilapidated on the sides. And Uh, I realized that the boats I just wasn't made of great quality. So I hopped online and said, I'm gonna order another boat tie. I ordered it and it was the exact same quality. So I I said to myself, I wonder what else is out there? So I literally ordered about twenty different bow ties and wanted to see. Yes, I want to see what the quality was like. And I could not find a bow tie made of high quality fabric that I liked for my dog. So I said, I need to do this. So that's really why I got into it. I I did some research online, looked at what the market was like, saw there was definitely a market for it, and dove right in. So are cut ties like human grade quality bow ties? I would say they are. I like to think that we have the highest quality bow tie out there. But the biggest thing about our bow ties, I think is that no matter what color your dog is, no matter what your dog likes, we have so many different designs that will will fit well. It'll really fit any dog's personality. So that's what I really think sets us apart from others out there. So now you yourself, Steven, You're not the one designing and using photoshop and illustrator to come up with these ideas. So you have the idea for the business model, how does the rest happen? What I did was I if you where your listeners aren't familiar, There's a website called upwork dot com. Up work is a great website that you can go. It's it's basically like a five er dot com but to find in my opinion more. I don't want to say people on five aren't professional, but people out there that are really doing this full time and just looking for some side work. So instead of paying five dollars for a design, you may be paying fifty an hour for someone. So basically what up work allows you to do is you're hiring freelancers. So I posted an ad. I said, I'm looking for people that are love pets and I need dog bow ties. Um. I got a bunch of resumes. I interviewed a few people, and I found someone that I felt fit our business the best. So you've worked with the same designer from when you launched, correct and you officially launched November from when we're recording this, that's what, not even six months ago? Correct? Oh my god, I didn't even realize how close that was. Okay, so you picked this designer, now you it's a guy or goal, it's a girl. So she is doing photoshop design or like, if she's physically working with bow ties, she is physical. He is physically drawing things out. So we started off with a vision board. Um, I learned how to download Pinterest and learned what pinterest was all about. So we created a yok it to the basic white girl world. No, I'd say it's a great site. So We made a vision board on Pinterest of things that I like. She put things that she likes. So we basically came up with ideas that we think would look cute on dogs. You guys ever met because Upward obviously is online. Yeah, no, we haven't. I think she lives in New York, but yeah, we we've talked, but we haven't actually met. It is wild to me how you have launched this business model with And I am not discrediting you at all when I say this, but I don't even know how. I don't want to say you don't do anything, because you clearly do. You run the entire business, but you just had such a great idea and you knew your strength and you knew, well, I can't design the bow ties, so I'm going to outsource that. And it's such a different way of doing because a lot of people on this podcast, they are like, they need to be in it. They're doing this side hustle because they physically need the creative outlet. You're doing it because you have this great idea and you love hustling, and you love coming up with ideas and watching them grow. And if I'm wrong, tell me no, you're you're a percent right. You know. The best thing about starting a business in two thousand and twenty is if you if you rewind back to the nineties and I wanted to launch a line of dog bow ties, it was a lot harder to do. I mean, you had to fly over to China, you had to get someone that could speak Chinese. You it's a fine factories in a phone book, Um, I mean you, it's a fine people to make your designs. It's so much. I don't want to say it's easy starting a business, but it's a lot easier in today's day to find people that can help you do it. And right now I'd love to be doing every single thing, but with my full time job, I don't necessarily have all the time. So I send off emails when I can, get things done when I can, and I do what I'm best at and have people do what they're best at. And what is your full time job exactly? So I work for one of the largest job site construction delivery companies in the United States. Basically to do with designing bot nothing, nothing at all. So basically what they do is you see all these high rises going up downtown. You see buildings being built, warehouses being built. We have forty two locations across the United States that will drive to your job site and they go back to the warehouse, they pick up whatever they need and they bring it to the job site. We have forty two locations across the United States, and I'm in charge of the promotions that helped drive the sales for the company. So I create national promotions for all forty two locations. I create individual promotions for all the different locations the individual locations. UM, basically, anything I need to do to help with sales. Is there anything from your job at all, any skill set that does spill over into owning your own business? So it does well. First of all, I guess, rewinding three years ago, this was a family business that we had. So my grandfather started a business in nineteen seventy. He was selling extension cords out of a van to job sites and people started asking for other products and he ended up opening a tool store. So my dad ended up going into the business, My uncle ended up coming into the business. I mean my aunt, my cousin, my sister. Yeah. No, to be honest, there were times where it could be a little bit of a disaster, but uh we we made it work and we were we were coming off one of our biggest years. We got approached by a competitor, which is the company we I worked for now, and they offered us a great opportunity. We weren't doing job site delivery though. We were actually an e commerce based business selling power tools online, which is how I got to the cutie ties with the website. So yeah, so I ended up we ended up selling the business to them. They acquired us. But I'm able to take I mean, we're running the business, so I'm able to take all the skills I learned from that, but also running a website, coming up with promotions, so all of that, even though it's a different product, it all plays into what I'm doing today. It's incredible and it's wild that your day job is really nothing like your side hustle, but you're able to take skills from there. And it's clearly it's obvious that the hustle runs in the family, like it's clearly in your blood. And I know that you've been side hustling or doing some sort of hustle since high school. And I want to talk about that because it's kind of wild. So in high school, what was your first hustle? Okay, so I guess before getting into the my first hustle, I started hustling because I got my first job at sixteen. I was I was a manager at a laser tag and uh, and to be honest, although I of it, I wanted to run my own business. I didn't like having my I didn't like having a boss. Yeah who does Yeah. So after after that, I ended up leaving that place and I said, you know what, I don't want to work for somebody. I want to start my own side business. So the first thing I was, I'm a huge sports fan. Uh. This might sound very uh it might sound like I'm a stalker when I say this, but uh, what my first side hustle was was I was getting autographs from celebrities and athletes. And what I was doing was waiting outside hotels, waiting in airports, waiting outside of games. But the whole stalker thing, how that comes into play is I would literally look online memorize faces because when players are leaving hotels, they're in their regular clothes, so they don't have their jerseys on. I'd have to know what people look like. And then pop up out of a bush and say, Oh, Derek Jeter, can you please feel like? Yeah? I was literally TMZ for autographs. So it was an awesome business I was meeting. I mean there were times where I was able to get eight baseball signed by a this baseball player, six basketballs by this player. And there were days, at seventeen years old where I was bringing in thousands of dollars in one day. Stop. Well, did these players think it was weird that you had eight basketballs that you wanted them to sign? So some of them would just laugh and turn away, and they would be in they would be a little rude, as I mean, I'm I'm being a little rude. So I wasn't ever offended. But some people, some people would refuse to sign. But but some people appreciated the hustle. They said, you know what I've seen when we when our bus pulled up at seven in the morning, I saw this kid waiting outside. It's now eight o'clock at night. I'm coming back from dinner and he's still waiting outside for me. So they and they would sign six things. So, uh, some players were better than others. Unfortunately, this was at the time when the economy kind of took a turn. So what I was seeing was this player's autograph that sells for two hundred dollars now is starting to sell for one fifty and now a hundred, and now seventy five, and it just it wasn't working anymore. So my first this was all on eBay, but I was also linking up with local sports memorabilia stores locally and selling wholesale to them. They knew I was at the events, they saw pictures of me with the athletes, and they knew what I was doing was real. They trusted me. So I was selling wholesale to uh sports memorabilia companies as well. Okay, so then what was the next Because I know there were more hustles that happened after that. So the next one is pretty crazy. I was buying things on eBay and I was reselling them on eBay. I know that sounds that sounds nuts at this point. I was in college at this point, yes, and that's probably why I was a terrible student, because I was so I was so into selling things in business that I was I wasn't focusing on school. So when I say I'm buying things on eBay and selling things on eBay. For example, I would type in Michael Jordan's autograph, but I would spell Michael Jordan's wrong, and you would not believe how many people will list something on eBay and they would spell it wrong to the point where people where people don't find your listing. So if this item normally sells for five dollars, I might be able to get it for three hundred dollars and then I'll list it right and I'll advertise it and I'll sell it for more. So that was my next side hustle, and I was doing that for a long time. You were basically making money off people's stupidity or they're like just a technicality, that's yeah, that's fine, that's exactly That's exactly what I was doing. Honestly, I could probably still do that today, but that definitely took a lot of time because you had a lot of research to do. I mean, you had to come up with what you were going to type into eBay and then spell spell it wrong and see if it pops up. But I mean from there, I started selling emoji pillows. I was I was the first person selling emoji pillows on Amazon. But the problem was four weeks later, there were a hundred people selling emoji pillows on Amazon. So really, any time I saw an opportunity, I just said, even if it was only to make ten bucks here, twenty bucks there, I was just doing it. And and why were you just doing it then if you knew it was only gonna be ten bucks twenty bucks? Like, what was the reasoning behind it? It was fun, it was a game. It was it was a game. It was it was And it was also that I didn't want to work, you know, from that from that high school job at the laser tag arena to the time I graduated college, I didn't work. This was my this what was my work. It was a lot easier in college because you only needed a couple of hundred I mean, you can live off a hundred bucks. You just buy Rama noodles and drink Mattie Light beer. There wasn't much you needed. But I was just doing what I needed to do to make an income so that I could live my life. You have cutie ties. It is a real business. You're not making stealing, not stealing, but buying things from people who are selling it with the wrong word. This is your actual business. You have dog bow ties. You want to come out for cat bow ties? What else is there for you and us? So we also have bowls now bowls. Believe it or not. Started before the whole bow ties thing. I was picking up my dog's water bowl. She just has a standard water bowl, and I went to go pick it up and I couldn't get my fingers underneath it, and I kind of dropped it and got splashed in the face with water. And I said, I need a bowl that has holes on the side. So I went, I went to the store. I didn't see any. I went online. I saw some, but I said, you know what, I'd rather just make them myself. So so I went to on this business. I went to Ali Baba and I found somebody that makes bowls. I told them exactly what I wanted. I wanted just a bowl that had basically finger holes molded in the shape of a finger on the side of bowls. And I got the mate. But I'm glad I did this before the bow ties because what I realized was dealing with Ali Baba, dealing with people overseas, it's not the easiest thing. It's it takes a ton of time. So by the time I got the product in and I launched the dog bow ties. I want a whole another direction. I didn't use Ali Baba and I did everything using a sorcerer, which was the best decision I've ever made. But I have known that if I didn't do the bulls Okay, So what does that mean a sorcerer because I'm thinking like wizard when I hear that, and that's not right. Sorcers basically do everything for you so you can focus on growing your business while they deal with all of the work that's behind that. So so thankfully, a buddy of mine from college, he has a company down in Miami that does exactly that. He has an office in Miami. He also has an office in China. So basically, what you do with a sorcerer is you go to them with your idea and they then call their office in China. They say this is what I need and they make it. So we went through a round of prototypes. So all I did was I told him what I wanted. They then sent a bow tie to me. In two weeks. I looked at it, told them what I don't like the changes I want They submitted that. They sent me another bow tie, and we went through about four or five different bow ties before we finally said, this is exactly what I want. I then sent the designs from the designer over to him. He sent to the factory. They printed one of each design to see if I liked it, made some changes with colors, and next thing you know, I have thousands of bow ties showing up at my doorstep. So you also sell you sell the both sides on cuti ties dot Com. There on Etsy as well. They're on Etsy. I just listed them on eBay. I hope to have them on Amazon this year. And I'm also in what currently one retail store in South Florida, and I'm on seven various websites on the web right now as well. I don't think I've ever had anyone on the podcast that lists on eBay. Now, obviously you've got quite the background on eBay. But if you've got yourself on your own website and etty, I mean, what is what is the point the business idea behind that. The big thing about that is it is very difficult getting people to come to your website. You have to spend a lot of money, and honestly, the first month of doing this, I lost a lot of money because my my cost per acquisition on Google was over three dollars and I'm selling a product for eight ninety nine. So I had to find other ways to get people to my products. Now, when you're using a site like Amazon, a site like eBay, a site like etc. They have millions of shoppers that go there on a daily basis to buy products. So the the idea is get it on all these third party sites. They then purchase it. It comes to you, they see the bow tie it had it, says cutie ties dot com, right, and hopefully that next purchase now they come to my website. That's smart. So even if you are losing maybe some money to eBay, it's kind of it's worth it for you. It's essentially less than what you would be losing to advertise to get that person to your website exactly. And I I actually, before I launched this, I ran a study on survey Monkey actually, and I asked a bunch of questions to find out about consumers. And one of the things I asked was, would you pay a dollar more for a product to buy it on Amazon? Would you pay a dollar more to buy it on Etsy? And I had of people for all of those questions say yes, I will pay one dollar more. So I will I will admit to all the listeners. If you go to a third party site, it will be a dollar more. I get charged pretty astronomical fees to list on those sites, but we are still selling them on those sites. And then they find out where they purchase it from, they go back to the website and they're able to then shop on the website. And I feel like a lot of that is it's it's just so convenient to buy from a place like Amazon. You know, they they have all of my information and I'm and I know when it's going to get here. And the good and bad thing about Amazon is that they are such a big company that if something goes wrong with my order, I just tell them and I get a new one for free, whether whether I'm lying or not. And as a consumer, that safety net is great to have. As a seller, you know, on your end, and maybe it's not always the best, but like you're saying, it's just almost a different way or a backwards way, but still a great way of advertising and getting your product in someone's hand. You're gonna lose that money either, way exactly. Just hopefully they do come back to your website the next time. In your notes to me, you said that you use a print on demand drop ship model for CUTEI ties. What does that even mean? So that's actually not for cute ties, that's actually for another another side. Okay, so then let's get into that. So now, I we've talked about how you've kind of side hustled through high school through college. You're now side hustling with your day job. There's more. I know that there's more for you. So what is the next aside from CUTI ties? Okay, So another project I'm working on I launched it about a month ago is I sell I do prints on demand. So basically what that is. There's various sites that you can find online that will allow you to design shirts, tumblers, sweatshirts, really any single pet beds, anything you could think of. And the best part is you don't have to pay any money for inventory. So you go on, you design. You're saying you not the consumer? Correct? Correct? I go on, I just mind products. I can get people on five or to make designs. I could play around on Photoshop. I can coup with designs. You can just type out words and put it on a shirt, and then I list those on a third party site like an Etsy, and if someone buys the products, the order automatically gets sent from Etsy to the drop shipper. They automatically print the order, they automatically send tracking number to the customer, and they deduct the funds for that product from my bank account. But at the same time, the money from Etsy comes into the bank account. So it's really a way for anyone listening to start a business today without any investment, and it has been extremely successful. One of the things I learned way back in the day from my early days side hustling, is there's no product too silly for consumer. Well, what can people find, like what you're talking about right now, Like, if I want to go talk about go buy whatever you're talking about, what is the website or where do I go? So it's gonna be hard for me to tell you the website because you can't search for or the store name on the third party site. You have to just find one of the products. You are blowing my mind right now. Yeah, So I wish I could advertise it. I can't advertise it because I just don't know how to advertise it. But I'm advertising the listings on Etsy, so you know, if you type in children's one piece body suits, you might find a bunch of my listings on there. But it's it's such an awesome way too. If you don't have if you want to start aside hustle and you don't have the money to start one, or you don't have the time to start one, if you take ten hours of your time and just design a bunch of items on their platform, you can start a business tonight if you wanted to, which is really awesome. Well, so a lot of people who are guests on the really everyone who's a guest on this podcast, it's because they have a passion. And we talked about this a little bit earlier. But it's like I have a passion for making cool T shirts or cupcakes, or I've always like loved doing this. Now in that case, in that case where you're using the print on demand drop ship model, what is your passion. Is it just you want to make some extra money to fund other things, or you just like you do that. It's a little it's a little bit of two things. The first thing is that I just love business. I mean, business has always been my hobby. Nothing gets me more excited in this world than getting an email notification saying you just sold blank. It's it's I mean, it's a thrill for me. But but the other thing is I link all of even though I'm not selling bow ties and dog apparel on these sites with the print on demands, all of those side businesses. I have about five or six stores that are doing this on demands, but all of that is under the LLC of Cutie Ties. And I made a I made an agreement with a charity organization to donate a portion of every single sale I do to their charity. So do yep, the Magic Bullet Funds. I actually when I started the Dog bow Tie Company, I said that I want to do something to help dogs. I didn't know what to do, though, and I was on Instagram just doing some marketing, and I stumbled upon the Magic Bullet Funds Instagram account, so I clicked it. I was just looking at what it was and I saw a picture and it was a guy holding his dog, and he introduced his dog. He told us about his dog when his dog likes Then he told us about the day he found out that his dog had cancer, and then he went into details about how he can't afford the treatment. And I'll be honest, I'm not an emotional guy. I got tears in my eyes. He went and read every single post of theirs, and uh, I was I was destroyed inside, and I said, wow, I want to help this company. So this organization. So what they do is if you can't afford the cost of treatment, they provide the funds so that your dog or poor cat has a fighting chance at beating cancer. So a portion of every sale, whether it be through our clothing or through our bow ties or our bulls, goes to their charity. And then I was just able to I I just linked up with them actually two weeks ago, and I was able to go back and donate for every single sale from the beginning. So I went back made that and it's I I said, you know, I do this because I love business, but at that moment, I said, it's more than just business. I want to help people. You know, I'm very fortunate to have a really good day job and if I'm able to help somebody, and you know, I can't imagine what it would feel like if my best friend, my my Golden Doodle Riley had cancer and I couldn't afford to give her the treatment for cancer. I don't I don't know what I would go through. I'd be a disaster. Well, you've taken your passion for business as a whole and you're doing good with it, Like it's really cool. I mean, you've been doing this for how many years now, and you're you're found your niche and you've been like, Okay, look, I can do good with your love of just hustling exactly. And I'll be honest, it started about them. It was always about the money when I first started, but now it's I want to I want to be able to help, you know. Obviously I want to be able to make money as well so I can reinvest and put it towards the next business. But then that next business, how can I help society? You know? So it's it's really the awesome that I was able to stumble upon this, this organization um and being just being a you know, they say something on their website that just absolutely moved me, and it's that any dog or cat that has cancer survival is a miracle. But the biggest miracle for us is just being able to give that dog or cat and that family a fighting chance, and uh, just being able to donate to them is awesome for me, and I'm glad I'm able to do it. Okay, so you've obviously found I can do good by doing all this extra work that you've been doing. You know it's paid off at this point, all these years of of hustling. But you still have your day job. You've got CUTI ties dot com, You've got all the million other ideas you're gonna come up with. I'm sure in the next few months. Do you ever want to leave your day job or what is the goal there? Let me first backtrack and say I absolutely love what I do and I have a huge passion for it because even though now I worked for the company's corporate office, they've acquired our family business, so I'm always gonna have a huge passion for that. If I were to ever leave, it was it would be because I am just spending so much time on the side businesses that I can't really do it. But I don't see myself ever wanting to leave. I absolutely love my organization. I work with incredible people that have taught me a lot, and my role is a big role for the company. Um, I can't see myself leaving. Maybe thirty years from now, I say, you know what, I'm gonna retire and just do SIS. But yeah, but but for right now, I'm very happy doing it. You know, there's twenty four hours in a day. Obviously, I work about ten to twelve hours a day for my regular job. I like to sleep seven hours and all that extra time four or five six hours. I can side hustle if I want to, And right now, that's all I really need. So are your friends at this point like, oh, what idea to Stephen have now? Yeah, it's it's pretty funny. Uh. I would say. I have a list of about thirty different businesses, apps, websites that I want to move forward with, and I've accumulated those ideas over the last four or five years. I haven't moved forward on any of them because they're very expensive. I might, I might, I might need a hefty six to seven figure investment for each individual one. They're just very complex ideas, so I never moved forward on them. And I said, I want to start small and I will then not take any money out and reinvest into the current business and then the next business. So as CUTI ties gets bigger, and as the bank account obviously gets bigger, I can then move on to the next idea and then go to the next idea. And I'd say at least every single week I say to my wife, Hey, I have another million dollar idea, and she, oh, god, whatnot. So it's uh, I'm constantly coming up with ideas. I mean, I love it. It's like I said, I love business. So is she fully supported her? She also there to like keep you grounded a little bit with these crazy ideas. She definitely is there to keep me grounded. She is a great support system. Originally, when I was doing that, she kind of thought it was I mean, as most people thought, if that's a very silly idea, why dog bow ties? But she's grown to love it. You know when when we she helps out on our social media and when we get tagged in a photo of a dog wearing our bow tie, she gets all excited. She's gets dog lovers, So yeah, she she definitely has been extremely supportive. But she has been there to say, you know what, don't move forward on this next business, do this one for a little bit. And uh, I think that's my biggest thing. You know. I I have a d h D, but I also have a d b D, which is a tension definite business business disorder. So I'm constantly thinking of other ideas, wanting to move forward on other ideas, and she's there to say, hold on, don't start that yet, finish this one, wait to move to Then I get it. Listen as someone who's creative and comes up with ideas all the time, I get being on both sides of it. Working with my co host Anthony, he starts rattling off ideas. I'm like, dude, I am still writing down the first one you said and trying to figure out how to do that. Slow your role. So so I get it. I fully get it. But it is fun having a brand that works like that because it's wild. You never know what's going to happen. Well, Stephen, thank you for sharing your insight and your your passion and your different than any other guests I've had on this podcast. So it's been a lot of fun to talk to you. So thank you, thank you. I really appreciate opportunity to come on here. It's been a lot of fun and uh, thank you, thank you. So much for listening to Side Hustlers. You can go to cutie ties dot com to support Stephen. Thank you so much for being here. And like I said, next week, we've got that episode that's going to post putting it together this week of how you can help small businesses. You can reach out to me Side Hustler's podcast at gmail dot com if you have any questions for small business owners, if you are a small business owner, any tips you've for hear it right now Side Hustler's Podcast at gmail dot com until next week, Keep hustling

This is the Side Hustlers podcast. I'm your host from my Heart Radio, Carla Marie. Now, if you're listening to this as it posts, it is Monday, March six, and we are in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, if you're listening to this in the future, I am hoping everything is cleared up and we're all fine. Now, if you're in this right now, I know how tough it is for small businesses. So I am putting together an episode this week. It will post next week of how we can all help small businesses, and we're gonna hear from some of your favorite side hustlers. They're gonna come on, let us know what they're doing to keep their business alive, what they're hearing from friends in the small business community. So we will have a really great episode next week on how you can help support these businesses while you are sitting at home right now. But this week's guest kind of timed out perfectly. His name is Stephen and he is the owner and creator of Cutie Ties, a dog bow tie company. But Stephen has a ton of other side hustles and he does a lot of them from his computer and one of them. You can literally start right now as you're sitting on your couch. I want to make some extra cash right now. It's really cool. So this is Stephen's story for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait? Do you know what you want to do? And this is what you want to do? Do it. I'm a hustles side side hustle do it. I'm a hustle side us do it. I'm a hustle side show. Come on, ask about me, yo yo. It's the side Hustless podcast we call the Roof. Today I am joined by Stephen coming to us from part of them, Florida. I see the palm trees behind you. Are you're really trying to rub this in right now? I am? I know, I know you've been to Florida before, so I want you to see everything and get a little jealous. And I'm looking out my window here in Seattle and it is can you guess? Oh yeah, raining and cloudy, so outside right now in sunny Florida. What has your day like been so far today? Because you're currently side hustling and I know you've got a million ideas, but it's a Monday. As we were Cord this What has Steven's day been today? So I woke up at about five thirty in the morning. I drove into work and uh, I did my day job in the day. Uh got off of work about four o'clock, raced home to do this. Uh. After this, I'm probably gonna go back check emails for work and then I'll get into the side hustle. Okay, so quite the day. Let's talk about your side hustle. So people know why you're on this podcast. It's cutie ties. Cutie ties are bow ties for your pets. Now it's is it only dogs? Right now? It's only dogs, But our logo has a dog and a cat on that so you've seen. So the goal is to have bow ties for all pets. We started out with dogs. Hopefully cats will come later on in the year. I hope so, because my cats are a little angry right now that they don't have. They look like they need some boots they do. Okay, why dog bow ties? Like, where did your love for dog bow ties come in? So? I've always been a huge animal lover and I've always wanted to do something with animals, just never really knew what to do. So about about a year ago, I was one of the largest chains brought in a line of my favorite clothing to their chain. They weren't selling clothing, but they were selling random items at their store. So I went over there and I saw a pink and blue plaid dog bow tie. Immediately bought it. I put it on my I've never owned a boat tie for my dog. I put it on her and she looked so cute in it, and I said, she for the rest of her life, she's gonna wear dog bow ties. So fast forward two weeks later, I go, I take her out, and she comes running back inside, and I noticed that the bow tie was already looking a little dilapidated on the sides. And Uh, I realized that the boats I just wasn't made of great quality. So I hopped online and said, I'm gonna order another boat tie. I ordered it and it was the exact same quality. So I I said to myself, I wonder what else is out there? So I literally ordered about twenty different bow ties and wanted to see. Yes, I want to see what the quality was like. And I could not find a bow tie made of high quality fabric that I liked for my dog. So I said, I need to do this. So that's really why I got into it. I I did some research online, looked at what the market was like, saw there was definitely a market for it, and dove right in. So are cut ties like human grade quality bow ties? I would say they are. I like to think that we have the highest quality bow tie out there. But the biggest thing about our bow ties, I think is that no matter what color your dog is, no matter what your dog likes, we have so many different designs that will will fit well. It'll really fit any dog's personality. So that's what I really think sets us apart from others out there. So now you yourself, Steven, You're not the one designing and using photoshop and illustrator to come up with these ideas. So you have the idea for the business model, how does the rest happen? What I did was I if you where your listeners aren't familiar, There's a website called upwork dot com. Up work is a great website that you can go. It's it's basically like a five er dot com but to find in my opinion more. I don't want to say people on five aren't professional, but people out there that are really doing this full time and just looking for some side work. So instead of paying five dollars for a design, you may be paying fifty an hour for someone. So basically what up work allows you to do is you're hiring freelancers. So I posted an ad. I said, I'm looking for people that are love pets and I need dog bow ties. Um. I got a bunch of resumes. I interviewed a few people, and I found someone that I felt fit our business the best. So you've worked with the same designer from when you launched, correct and you officially launched November from when we're recording this, that's what, not even six months ago? Correct? Oh my god, I didn't even realize how close that was. Okay, so you picked this designer, now you it's a guy or goal, it's a girl. So she is doing photoshop design or like, if she's physically working with bow ties, she is physical. He is physically drawing things out. So we started off with a vision board. Um, I learned how to download Pinterest and learned what pinterest was all about. So we created a yok it to the basic white girl world. No, I'd say it's a great site. So We made a vision board on Pinterest of things that I like. She put things that she likes. So we basically came up with ideas that we think would look cute on dogs. You guys ever met because Upward obviously is online. Yeah, no, we haven't. I think she lives in New York, but yeah, we we've talked, but we haven't actually met. It is wild to me how you have launched this business model with And I am not discrediting you at all when I say this, but I don't even know how. I don't want to say you don't do anything, because you clearly do. You run the entire business, but you just had such a great idea and you knew your strength and you knew, well, I can't design the bow ties, so I'm going to outsource that. And it's such a different way of doing because a lot of people on this podcast, they are like, they need to be in it. They're doing this side hustle because they physically need the creative outlet. You're doing it because you have this great idea and you love hustling, and you love coming up with ideas and watching them grow. And if I'm wrong, tell me no, you're you're a percent right. You know. The best thing about starting a business in two thousand and twenty is if you if you rewind back to the nineties and I wanted to launch a line of dog bow ties, it was a lot harder to do. I mean, you had to fly over to China, you had to get someone that could speak Chinese. You it's a fine factories in a phone book, Um, I mean you, it's a fine people to make your designs. It's so much. I don't want to say it's easy starting a business, but it's a lot easier in today's day to find people that can help you do it. And right now I'd love to be doing every single thing, but with my full time job, I don't necessarily have all the time. So I send off emails when I can, get things done when I can, and I do what I'm best at and have people do what they're best at. And what is your full time job exactly? So I work for one of the largest job site construction delivery companies in the United States. Basically to do with designing bot nothing, nothing at all. So basically what they do is you see all these high rises going up downtown. You see buildings being built, warehouses being built. We have forty two locations across the United States that will drive to your job site and they go back to the warehouse, they pick up whatever they need and they bring it to the job site. We have forty two locations across the United States, and I'm in charge of the promotions that helped drive the sales for the company. So I create national promotions for all forty two locations. I create individual promotions for all the different locations the individual locations. UM, basically, anything I need to do to help with sales. Is there anything from your job at all, any skill set that does spill over into owning your own business? So it does well. First of all, I guess, rewinding three years ago, this was a family business that we had. So my grandfather started a business in nineteen seventy. He was selling extension cords out of a van to job sites and people started asking for other products and he ended up opening a tool store. So my dad ended up going into the business, My uncle ended up coming into the business. I mean my aunt, my cousin, my sister. Yeah. No, to be honest, there were times where it could be a little bit of a disaster, but uh we we made it work and we were we were coming off one of our biggest years. We got approached by a competitor, which is the company we I worked for now, and they offered us a great opportunity. We weren't doing job site delivery though. We were actually an e commerce based business selling power tools online, which is how I got to the cutie ties with the website. So yeah, so I ended up we ended up selling the business to them. They acquired us. But I'm able to take I mean, we're running the business, so I'm able to take all the skills I learned from that, but also running a website, coming up with promotions, so all of that, even though it's a different product, it all plays into what I'm doing today. It's incredible and it's wild that your day job is really nothing like your side hustle, but you're able to take skills from there. And it's clearly it's obvious that the hustle runs in the family, like it's clearly in your blood. And I know that you've been side hustling or doing some sort of hustle since high school. And I want to talk about that because it's kind of wild. So in high school, what was your first hustle? Okay, so I guess before getting into the my first hustle, I started hustling because I got my first job at sixteen. I was I was a manager at a laser tag and uh, and to be honest, although I of it, I wanted to run my own business. I didn't like having my I didn't like having a boss. Yeah who does Yeah. So after after that, I ended up leaving that place and I said, you know what, I don't want to work for somebody. I want to start my own side business. So the first thing I was, I'm a huge sports fan. Uh. This might sound very uh it might sound like I'm a stalker when I say this, but uh, what my first side hustle was was I was getting autographs from celebrities and athletes. And what I was doing was waiting outside hotels, waiting in airports, waiting outside of games. But the whole stalker thing, how that comes into play is I would literally look online memorize faces because when players are leaving hotels, they're in their regular clothes, so they don't have their jerseys on. I'd have to know what people look like. And then pop up out of a bush and say, Oh, Derek Jeter, can you please feel like? Yeah? I was literally TMZ for autographs. So it was an awesome business I was meeting. I mean there were times where I was able to get eight baseball signed by a this baseball player, six basketballs by this player. And there were days, at seventeen years old where I was bringing in thousands of dollars in one day. Stop. Well, did these players think it was weird that you had eight basketballs that you wanted them to sign? So some of them would just laugh and turn away, and they would be in they would be a little rude, as I mean, I'm I'm being a little rude. So I wasn't ever offended. But some people, some people would refuse to sign. But but some people appreciated the hustle. They said, you know what I've seen when we when our bus pulled up at seven in the morning, I saw this kid waiting outside. It's now eight o'clock at night. I'm coming back from dinner and he's still waiting outside for me. So they and they would sign six things. So, uh, some players were better than others. Unfortunately, this was at the time when the economy kind of took a turn. So what I was seeing was this player's autograph that sells for two hundred dollars now is starting to sell for one fifty and now a hundred, and now seventy five, and it just it wasn't working anymore. So my first this was all on eBay, but I was also linking up with local sports memorabilia stores locally and selling wholesale to them. They knew I was at the events, they saw pictures of me with the athletes, and they knew what I was doing was real. They trusted me. So I was selling wholesale to uh sports memorabilia companies as well. Okay, so then what was the next Because I know there were more hustles that happened after that. So the next one is pretty crazy. I was buying things on eBay and I was reselling them on eBay. I know that sounds that sounds nuts at this point. I was in college at this point, yes, and that's probably why I was a terrible student, because I was so I was so into selling things in business that I was I wasn't focusing on school. So when I say I'm buying things on eBay and selling things on eBay. For example, I would type in Michael Jordan's autograph, but I would spell Michael Jordan's wrong, and you would not believe how many people will list something on eBay and they would spell it wrong to the point where people where people don't find your listing. So if this item normally sells for five dollars, I might be able to get it for three hundred dollars and then I'll list it right and I'll advertise it and I'll sell it for more. So that was my next side hustle, and I was doing that for a long time. You were basically making money off people's stupidity or they're like just a technicality, that's yeah, that's fine, that's exactly That's exactly what I was doing. Honestly, I could probably still do that today, but that definitely took a lot of time because you had a lot of research to do. I mean, you had to come up with what you were going to type into eBay and then spell spell it wrong and see if it pops up. But I mean from there, I started selling emoji pillows. I was I was the first person selling emoji pillows on Amazon. But the problem was four weeks later, there were a hundred people selling emoji pillows on Amazon. So really, any time I saw an opportunity, I just said, even if it was only to make ten bucks here, twenty bucks there, I was just doing it. And and why were you just doing it then if you knew it was only gonna be ten bucks twenty bucks? Like, what was the reasoning behind it? It was fun, it was a game. It was it was a game. It was it was And it was also that I didn't want to work, you know, from that from that high school job at the laser tag arena to the time I graduated college, I didn't work. This was my this what was my work. It was a lot easier in college because you only needed a couple of hundred I mean, you can live off a hundred bucks. You just buy Rama noodles and drink Mattie Light beer. There wasn't much you needed. But I was just doing what I needed to do to make an income so that I could live my life. You have cutie ties. It is a real business. You're not making stealing, not stealing, but buying things from people who are selling it with the wrong word. This is your actual business. You have dog bow ties. You want to come out for cat bow ties? What else is there for you and us? So we also have bowls now bowls. Believe it or not. Started before the whole bow ties thing. I was picking up my dog's water bowl. She just has a standard water bowl, and I went to go pick it up and I couldn't get my fingers underneath it, and I kind of dropped it and got splashed in the face with water. And I said, I need a bowl that has holes on the side. So I went, I went to the store. I didn't see any. I went online. I saw some, but I said, you know what, I'd rather just make them myself. So so I went to on this business. I went to Ali Baba and I found somebody that makes bowls. I told them exactly what I wanted. I wanted just a bowl that had basically finger holes molded in the shape of a finger on the side of bowls. And I got the mate. But I'm glad I did this before the bow ties because what I realized was dealing with Ali Baba, dealing with people overseas, it's not the easiest thing. It's it takes a ton of time. So by the time I got the product in and I launched the dog bow ties. I want a whole another direction. I didn't use Ali Baba and I did everything using a sorcerer, which was the best decision I've ever made. But I have known that if I didn't do the bulls Okay, So what does that mean a sorcerer because I'm thinking like wizard when I hear that, and that's not right. Sorcers basically do everything for you so you can focus on growing your business while they deal with all of the work that's behind that. So so thankfully, a buddy of mine from college, he has a company down in Miami that does exactly that. He has an office in Miami. He also has an office in China. So basically, what you do with a sorcerer is you go to them with your idea and they then call their office in China. They say this is what I need and they make it. So we went through a round of prototypes. So all I did was I told him what I wanted. They then sent a bow tie to me. In two weeks. I looked at it, told them what I don't like the changes I want They submitted that. They sent me another bow tie, and we went through about four or five different bow ties before we finally said, this is exactly what I want. I then sent the designs from the designer over to him. He sent to the factory. They printed one of each design to see if I liked it, made some changes with colors, and next thing you know, I have thousands of bow ties showing up at my doorstep. So you also sell you sell the both sides on cuti ties dot Com. There on Etsy as well. They're on Etsy. I just listed them on eBay. I hope to have them on Amazon this year. And I'm also in what currently one retail store in South Florida, and I'm on seven various websites on the web right now as well. I don't think I've ever had anyone on the podcast that lists on eBay. Now, obviously you've got quite the background on eBay. But if you've got yourself on your own website and etty, I mean, what is what is the point the business idea behind that. The big thing about that is it is very difficult getting people to come to your website. You have to spend a lot of money, and honestly, the first month of doing this, I lost a lot of money because my my cost per acquisition on Google was over three dollars and I'm selling a product for eight ninety nine. So I had to find other ways to get people to my products. Now, when you're using a site like Amazon, a site like eBay, a site like etc. They have millions of shoppers that go there on a daily basis to buy products. So the the idea is get it on all these third party sites. They then purchase it. It comes to you, they see the bow tie it had it, says cutie ties dot com, right, and hopefully that next purchase now they come to my website. That's smart. So even if you are losing maybe some money to eBay, it's kind of it's worth it for you. It's essentially less than what you would be losing to advertise to get that person to your website exactly. And I I actually, before I launched this, I ran a study on survey Monkey actually, and I asked a bunch of questions to find out about consumers. And one of the things I asked was, would you pay a dollar more for a product to buy it on Amazon? Would you pay a dollar more to buy it on Etsy? And I had of people for all of those questions say yes, I will pay one dollar more. So I will I will admit to all the listeners. If you go to a third party site, it will be a dollar more. I get charged pretty astronomical fees to list on those sites, but we are still selling them on those sites. And then they find out where they purchase it from, they go back to the website and they're able to then shop on the website. And I feel like a lot of that is it's it's just so convenient to buy from a place like Amazon. You know, they they have all of my information and I'm and I know when it's going to get here. And the good and bad thing about Amazon is that they are such a big company that if something goes wrong with my order, I just tell them and I get a new one for free, whether whether I'm lying or not. And as a consumer, that safety net is great to have. As a seller, you know, on your end, and maybe it's not always the best, but like you're saying, it's just almost a different way or a backwards way, but still a great way of advertising and getting your product in someone's hand. You're gonna lose that money either, way exactly. Just hopefully they do come back to your website the next time. In your notes to me, you said that you use a print on demand drop ship model for CUTEI ties. What does that even mean? So that's actually not for cute ties, that's actually for another another side. Okay, so then let's get into that. So now, I we've talked about how you've kind of side hustled through high school through college. You're now side hustling with your day job. There's more. I know that there's more for you. So what is the next aside from CUTI ties? Okay, So another project I'm working on I launched it about a month ago is I sell I do prints on demand. So basically what that is. There's various sites that you can find online that will allow you to design shirts, tumblers, sweatshirts, really any single pet beds, anything you could think of. And the best part is you don't have to pay any money for inventory. So you go on, you design. You're saying you not the consumer? Correct? Correct? I go on, I just mind products. I can get people on five or to make designs. I could play around on Photoshop. I can coup with designs. You can just type out words and put it on a shirt, and then I list those on a third party site like an Etsy, and if someone buys the products, the order automatically gets sent from Etsy to the drop shipper. They automatically print the order, they automatically send tracking number to the customer, and they deduct the funds for that product from my bank account. But at the same time, the money from Etsy comes into the bank account. So it's really a way for anyone listening to start a business today without any investment, and it has been extremely successful. One of the things I learned way back in the day from my early days side hustling, is there's no product too silly for consumer. Well, what can people find, like what you're talking about right now, Like, if I want to go talk about go buy whatever you're talking about, what is the website or where do I go? So it's gonna be hard for me to tell you the website because you can't search for or the store name on the third party site. You have to just find one of the products. You are blowing my mind right now. Yeah, So I wish I could advertise it. I can't advertise it because I just don't know how to advertise it. But I'm advertising the listings on Etsy, so you know, if you type in children's one piece body suits, you might find a bunch of my listings on there. But it's it's such an awesome way too. If you don't have if you want to start aside hustle and you don't have the money to start one, or you don't have the time to start one, if you take ten hours of your time and just design a bunch of items on their platform, you can start a business tonight if you wanted to, which is really awesome. Well, so a lot of people who are guests on the really everyone who's a guest on this podcast, it's because they have a passion. And we talked about this a little bit earlier. But it's like I have a passion for making cool T shirts or cupcakes, or I've always like loved doing this. Now in that case, in that case where you're using the print on demand drop ship model, what is your passion. Is it just you want to make some extra money to fund other things, or you just like you do that. It's a little it's a little bit of two things. The first thing is that I just love business. I mean, business has always been my hobby. Nothing gets me more excited in this world than getting an email notification saying you just sold blank. It's it's I mean, it's a thrill for me. But but the other thing is I link all of even though I'm not selling bow ties and dog apparel on these sites with the print on demands, all of those side businesses. I have about five or six stores that are doing this on demands, but all of that is under the LLC of Cutie Ties. And I made a I made an agreement with a charity organization to donate a portion of every single sale I do to their charity. So do yep, the Magic Bullet Funds. I actually when I started the Dog bow Tie Company, I said that I want to do something to help dogs. I didn't know what to do, though, and I was on Instagram just doing some marketing, and I stumbled upon the Magic Bullet Funds Instagram account, so I clicked it. I was just looking at what it was and I saw a picture and it was a guy holding his dog, and he introduced his dog. He told us about his dog when his dog likes Then he told us about the day he found out that his dog had cancer, and then he went into details about how he can't afford the treatment. And I'll be honest, I'm not an emotional guy. I got tears in my eyes. He went and read every single post of theirs, and uh, I was I was destroyed inside, and I said, wow, I want to help this company. So this organization. So what they do is if you can't afford the cost of treatment, they provide the funds so that your dog or poor cat has a fighting chance at beating cancer. So a portion of every sale, whether it be through our clothing or through our bow ties or our bulls, goes to their charity. And then I was just able to I I just linked up with them actually two weeks ago, and I was able to go back and donate for every single sale from the beginning. So I went back made that and it's I I said, you know, I do this because I love business, but at that moment, I said, it's more than just business. I want to help people. You know, I'm very fortunate to have a really good day job and if I'm able to help somebody, and you know, I can't imagine what it would feel like if my best friend, my my Golden Doodle Riley had cancer and I couldn't afford to give her the treatment for cancer. I don't I don't know what I would go through. I'd be a disaster. Well, you've taken your passion for business as a whole and you're doing good with it, Like it's really cool. I mean, you've been doing this for how many years now, and you're you're found your niche and you've been like, Okay, look, I can do good with your love of just hustling exactly. And I'll be honest, it started about them. It was always about the money when I first started, but now it's I want to I want to be able to help, you know. Obviously I want to be able to make money as well so I can reinvest and put it towards the next business. But then that next business, how can I help society? You know? So it's it's really the awesome that I was able to stumble upon this, this organization um and being just being a you know, they say something on their website that just absolutely moved me, and it's that any dog or cat that has cancer survival is a miracle. But the biggest miracle for us is just being able to give that dog or cat and that family a fighting chance, and uh, just being able to donate to them is awesome for me, and I'm glad I'm able to do it. Okay, so you've obviously found I can do good by doing all this extra work that you've been doing. You know it's paid off at this point, all these years of of hustling. But you still have your day job. You've got CUTI ties dot com, You've got all the million other ideas you're gonna come up with. I'm sure in the next few months. Do you ever want to leave your day job or what is the goal there? Let me first backtrack and say I absolutely love what I do and I have a huge passion for it because even though now I worked for the company's corporate office, they've acquired our family business, so I'm always gonna have a huge passion for that. If I were to ever leave, it was it would be because I am just spending so much time on the side businesses that I can't really do it. But I don't see myself ever wanting to leave. I absolutely love my organization. I work with incredible people that have taught me a lot, and my role is a big role for the company. Um, I can't see myself leaving. Maybe thirty years from now, I say, you know what, I'm gonna retire and just do SIS. But yeah, but but for right now, I'm very happy doing it. You know, there's twenty four hours in a day. Obviously, I work about ten to twelve hours a day for my regular job. I like to sleep seven hours and all that extra time four or five six hours. I can side hustle if I want to, And right now, that's all I really need. So are your friends at this point like, oh, what idea to Stephen have now? Yeah, it's it's pretty funny. Uh. I would say. I have a list of about thirty different businesses, apps, websites that I want to move forward with, and I've accumulated those ideas over the last four or five years. I haven't moved forward on any of them because they're very expensive. I might, I might, I might need a hefty six to seven figure investment for each individual one. They're just very complex ideas, so I never moved forward on them. And I said, I want to start small and I will then not take any money out and reinvest into the current business and then the next business. So as CUTI ties gets bigger, and as the bank account obviously gets bigger, I can then move on to the next idea and then go to the next idea. And I'd say at least every single week I say to my wife, Hey, I have another million dollar idea, and she, oh, god, whatnot. So it's uh, I'm constantly coming up with ideas. I mean, I love it. It's like I said, I love business. So is she fully supported her? She also there to like keep you grounded a little bit with these crazy ideas. She definitely is there to keep me grounded. She is a great support system. Originally, when I was doing that, she kind of thought it was I mean, as most people thought, if that's a very silly idea, why dog bow ties? But she's grown to love it. You know when when we she helps out on our social media and when we get tagged in a photo of a dog wearing our bow tie, she gets all excited. She's gets dog lovers, So yeah, she she definitely has been extremely supportive. But she has been there to say, you know what, don't move forward on this next business, do this one for a little bit. And uh, I think that's my biggest thing. You know. I I have a d h D, but I also have a d b D, which is a tension definite business business disorder. So I'm constantly thinking of other ideas, wanting to move forward on other ideas, and she's there to say, hold on, don't start that yet, finish this one, wait to move to Then I get it. Listen as someone who's creative and comes up with ideas all the time, I get being on both sides of it. Working with my co host Anthony, he starts rattling off ideas. I'm like, dude, I am still writing down the first one you said and trying to figure out how to do that. Slow your role. So so I get it. I fully get it. But it is fun having a brand that works like that because it's wild. You never know what's going to happen. Well, Stephen, thank you for sharing your insight and your your passion and your different than any other guests I've had on this podcast. So it's been a lot of fun to talk to you. So thank you, thank you. I really appreciate opportunity to come on here. It's been a lot of fun and uh, thank you, thank you. So much for listening to Side Hustlers. You can go to cutie ties dot com to support Stephen. Thank you so much for being here. And like I said, next week, we've got that episode that's going to post putting it together this week of how you can help small businesses. You can reach out to me Side Hustler's podcast at gmail dot com if you have any questions for small business owners, if you are a small business owner, any tips you've for hear it right now Side Hustler's Podcast at gmail dot com until next week, Keep hustling