🧠 Expired Flower Pop-Up Shops

and I sold my first company!

Today’s read time: 3 minutes

What’s up party people! We’re back with another side hustle idea!

Before we dive into today’s idea, let’s connect on Twitter!

1. Business idea of the Week: Expired Flower Pop-Up Shops

Generating revenue from a business’s waste is a win-win.

You generate income for yourself.

And a business makes money from something they would normally throw out.

Like turning cooking oil into fuel or turning chopsticks into furniture.

And that’s what today’s idea is all about.

The idea: Sell expired flowers at weekly pop-up shops.

A few weeks back, I was at the grocery store buying flowers and noticed an expiration date on the flower packaging.

And it got me thinking… what happens to expired flowers?

Even if they’re “expired” they still look good for a few days, and they’re still valuable to someone.

So what if we sourced all of the expiring flowers from local shops and sold them at a discount at a weekly pop-up shop?

You get paid for your service and the business makes money on something they were gonna throw away.

How could they say no…. right??

How to get started:

1. Source the flowers: This is the lifeline of the business. Call local florists and grocery stores and pitch them your service. You can offer to buy their expired flowers at a deeply discounted price (that still allows you to sell for a profit) or pitch them on a consignment deal (revenue split on the sales).

2. Find a location: You can start out by renting booths at local farmers' markets or try to find a space to host the pop-up shop (like a church parking lot).

3. Advertise You’ll need to get the word out about your business/service and sell your story. Post in Facebooks groups or post signs around town and pitch the discounts you’re offering, how you’re reducing waste, and how you’re helping the community.

This is an idea that can easily be started as a side hustle with the pop-up shops taking place on weekends.

And can also be replicated in multiple locations to build a scalable business.

And that’s a wrap!

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2. Things I’m Reading.

How to write better as a Salesperson - by The Follow Up

How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis (founder of Maxim Magazine)

Growing Up - How to get more customers and grow your marketing career.

Why your Marketing Email will Land in my Spam Folder? - by Aymen El Amr

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I Sold My First Company!

Last week I officially sold my first side project, Subshark.io!

The sale price is nothing to write home about, but I learned a ton.

In just over a year, my co-founder and I turned an idea into a sellable asset.

And here’s the quick story of how it went down.

• On December 12th, 2021 I posted my first newsletter on Substack and began searching for new ways to grow my subscriber list. I stumbled across an article about The Morning Brew growing their list by 30% using a referral program and figured I could do the same.

• I searched for a way to run a referral program on Substack, but every solution was too expensive for new writers and not built to work with Substack.

• I decided I was going to figure out how to build a referral program tool for Substacks growing user base, but ran into one big problem - I don’t know how to code.

• This led me to 3 options - 1) try to learn how to code 2) try to build it with no-code tools or 3) find a technical cofounder.

• I posted my dilemma on the r/SaaS subreddit which led to a DM from a software engineer interested in what I was trying to build. And this is how I met my co-founder.

• Over the next few months, my co-founder built the web app on nights and weekends while I began creating content about the product.

• In mid-2022, we launched our first “beta” version and grew to 60 beta users. This allowed us to get feedback on the product and build a list of potential customers.

• In November we officially launched our paid product and got our first paying customer on launch day. (this was an awesome feeling)

• After growing to 160 users and a few paying customers, we decided to list Subshark on MicroAquire at the end of March 2023 and closed on the sale last week.

While it wasn’t the outcome we imagined when starting the project, it felt great to get a small win under our belts and we learned a ton in the process.

Here’s some of my biggest learnings/takeaways:

1. If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way.

2. You’re not limited to the people you know right now. The Internet allows you to meet and work with talented people anywhere in the world.

3. The saying “If you build it they will come”, is a lie. Find 5 to 10 customers that are willing to give you money for your product before you build it. You’ll save yourself a lot of time.

4. Customer acquisition will make or break your product. Before you start building, decided where and how you’ll get your customers.

But most importantly, you’ve just gotta get in the game. No book or video is going to teach you as much as doing the thing.

And that’s a wrap!