LOCAL WOMAN'S COUCHside SIDE HUSTLE TURNS INTO Thriving E-COMMERCE BUSINESS
In a remarkable rags-to-riches story, Emily Odio-Sutton, a 36-year-old mother of two, has transformed her casual side hustle from watching reality TV on her couch into a lucrative e-commerce business generating over $236,000 in revenue in 2024 alone.
Odio-Sutton's journey began as a response to the demands of her full-time job as an operations manager for a children's book publishing company. With two young children and a hectic schedule, she sought a flexible way to balance her career and family life. This motivated her to experiment with print-on-demand models, where designs are created for products like mugs, T-shirts, and tote bags, and then manufactured and shipped by a third-party once an order is placed.
Using platforms like Etsy, Odio-Sutton began creating designed targeted at niche markets, such as podcasters and speech pathologists. Initially, her designs did not gain much traction but switching focus to more personalized products like candles and journals made her sales skyrocket. By October, she earned $5,000 in profit, equivalent to her full-time monthly salary.
What set Odio-Sutton's shop apart was her ability to identify and capitalize on niche trends using tools like Google and ChatGPT for brainstorming ideas and Canva for bringing designs to life. As her store grew so did the income, with peak months yielding as much as $54,900 in a single month.
To maintain flexibility and diversify her earnings, Odio-Sutton also opened a second Etsy store selling downloadable event templates and managed Pinterest accounts for other businesses. Her multiple income streams allowed her to pay off student loans, take family vacations, and even save for her daughter's futures.
Despite the success, Odio-Sutton remains grounded, prioritizing "fun and responsible" bills. She has scaled down her publishing job to part-time but is not ready to leave it all behind. If she could still be there for her daughters as much as possible, she would consider making her business full-time.
Odio-Sutton's remarkable transformation serves as an inspiration to others who seek flexible work opportunities to balance their careers and family life.
Source: CNBC Make It