Buckeye Pride Designs

TL;DR

I started a small business making buckeye-related items. We focus on making high-quality products that people can use to share their pride in being a Buckeye (i.e. an Ohio native).

Lessons Learned (Top 3)

You get out of it what you put into it.
Your time is more important than ever
Starting a small business exposes you to as many challenges as you're willing to take on.

Fun Fact

Like many large tech companies, BPD was started in a garage. Unlike many large tech companies, BPD does not generate billions of dollars a year.

Background

"We should start a side hustle."

It wasn't uncommon to hear Lindsey (fiancée) use this phrase or a variation of it, and she was serious. From the time I met her, Lindsey had always been looking for ways to produce additional income beyond her role as an HR consultant. It seemed like every time we'd get together she had a new idea. T-shirts, mugs, printables, they just kept coming. In full transparency, I'd never even heard about some of the things she was talking about, so it was interesting just hearing about the research she was doing. At the same time, I was happily employed at a software company where the compensation was more than sufficient for my basic lifestyle. Making additional money wasn't unattractive, it just sounded like a lot of work and I was already spending most of my time on a large project at work. I was transparent in that I wasn't sure how much time could be committed to something like this.

As time passed, my opinion towards the side hustle idea would start to change. I'd spent the last two years building a business in the form of a corporate website (read the story here), and the role of being an owner was starting to grow on me. Whether it was the unique set of challenges that came with the position or the fact that I could now make meaningful decisions on behalf of the company, there was something that I genuinely enjoyed about it. I can truthfully say I didn't mind working extra hours if it meant improving the product and seeing the rewards that came with it.

It'd now been several months since the idea of starting a business came up and my position on the topic had shifted. While we weren't sure about what it would be, Lindsey and I agreed that maybe we should consider starting something. Oddly enough, the main motivation at this point wasn't even money. We'd both recently discussed what we wanted long-term in our lives and what we never wanted to regret looking back. Lindsey expressed her passion for life coaching and the idea of eventually starting her own business. I had a similar goal of building a product that people would genuinely enjoy. It wouldn't have to be anything elaborate, just something that you could see being used and think "Hey, I built that." With both of us looking to do something with a business in the future, we figured this could be a great starter project to get our feet wet. The challenge was figuring out what business to start.

Lindsey really liked the mug dropshipping idea. The general concept is to give users an avenue to design, view, and buy the mugs, and then link that to a print-on-demand service that makes and ships the product. It removes the challenges associated with inventory and shipping, and you're left with the business/marketing decisions. While it didn't sound complicated in concept, it wasn't for me. There was already a hoard of websites doing the same thing, and quite honestly, it didn't feel very creative.

As nothing was jumping out immediately, I started listing out the things that I thought an ideal starting business would have. Below were the main requirements:

Simple - It should be easy to start with a relatively low amount of time and money invested.
Flexible work schedule - We both had day jobs that we didn't want this to interfere with. It would need to be able to be done on nights and weekends, and we should have the flexibility to put as many or as little amount of hours into it.
Unique - I wanted to find a niche, not something that would return hundreds of Google search results. It would be a bonus if we could introduce a new product or idea to the world.
Product-based - I wanted to make something, not provide a service.

Even with the requirements listed out, however, it wasn't obvious where to go next. That would all soon change with the opportunity coming from the least likely of places.

It's now the middle of August when I found myself scrolling through Facebook Marketplace. I don't use the app other than for this purpose, and in most cases, I'm just interested in seeing the things that people sell (or at least try to) on the platform. It's wild. What's even more wild are the suggestions and recommendations it proposes once you start using it more frequently. One of these wild things that'd popped up in the feed was a 55-gallon drum of buckeyes. Buckeyes are the seeds of Ohio's state tree, the buckeye tree, and they're also the unique mascot of the Ohio State University. They're poisonous to everything but squirrels, and quite honestly, there isn't much you can do with them outside of crafts. However, to people in Ohio, the Buckeye is borderline sacred. In fact, many proud Ohioans even refer to themselves as Buckeyes.

While the full range of possibilities with this amount of buckeyes wasn't quite clear, I did know that one common use of buckeyes was to make necklaces. Buckeye necklaces are a popular accessory people wear while attending sporting events, and with the football season soon approaching, it seemed like a timely opportunity. Sure, the prospect of making a lot of money was low, but the idea certainly checked all of the other requirements and was low risk. According to the math, there were significantly more buckeyes than what would be needed to make our money back. A few other ideas had popped into my mind and it was enough to convince me to reach out to the seller. Within the next few hours, we'd be meeting to pick them up.

55 gallons of buckeyes was more than I envisioned, even having seen a picture of them. I met a woman in a Target parking lot where she transferred the buckeyes from her storage tubs to the ones I had in my hatchback. Bucket after bucket, they just kept coming. After a few minutes and the last bucket being transferred, I paid the woman and was on my way back home. The whole drive I was only thinking about different ideas for what to do with them. After all, we only had a week until the start of the football season and we needed to move quickly.

Getting Started

The first 24 hours were the most exciting. We made a list of items needed to start selling necklaces which included materials and an Etsy shop. Etsy was decided on as it had low selling fees and it was also where we figured our buyers were most likely to be. We also needed something quick and found the platform to be pretty straightforward. The last thing step was to start setting up an LLC and open a business bank account. This project wasn't expected to generate much income, but I did want to make it easy to separate my personal finances and the LLC would also protect us from any unforeseen events that may come with the shop. We were on our way to legally becoming a business.

Getting the materials was easy. Between a couple of craft stores, we were able to find the beads and hemp cord to string the necklaces. Getting Etsy set up was a different story. It wasn't that it was technically complicated, but rather the fact that we didn't have the things that most people would already have before starting this process. Shop Name? We didn't have the necklace idea 24 hours ago, so we certainly didn't consider a name for it. Shop Logo? Nope. Tagline, Company Overview, Shop Story? It was an eye-opener that there was much more to do than originally anticipated.

We took some time to brainstorm ideas for a shop name and decided that it should be representative of what we wanted to be. Our vision was that we would focus on attention to detail and great product materials to set us apart from other vendors. Also, we wanted to show people that we took pride in what we made and to offer customers something great to share their Buckeye pride. After throwing a few different ideas around, we selected Buckeye Pride Designs as moved forward.

With the name selected, we could start filling in the other details. Lindsey started working on the overview and taglines while I started looking at ideas for a logo. While we didn't have high expectations for a logo, we wanted to at least add something so that we didn't have to use the default Etsy logo. Anything we could add that made the shop seem more legitimate was positive, and the omission of something simple like a logo was viewed as a potential red flag to buyers. After all, we had no sales, no online presence, and nothing that a buyer could use to even verify our existence. We were starting from scratch.

I'll admit, I'm not an expert when it comes to graphic design. I've worked in software companies for all of my professional career, but my work has mostly revolved around process automation and technical sales. The good news is that there were plenty of tools available to create a logo without too much effort. The tool we ended up selecting offered templates, an easy-to-use editor, and most importantly (at least for me), an easy way to find the original creator of the images and verify its use for commercial purposes. We figured we could always revisit this later if we wanted to update it, so I quickly put something together and moved on.

While we'd underestimated the effort required to get a digital footprint setup, we did fairly well when it came to making the necklaces. I'd converted an old cart used to hold a DIY pizza oven into a buckeye drilling station, and drilling the buckeyes by hand was turning out to be quite easy. It was also easy to find great-looking buckeyes since we had such a large supply of them. There were quite a few people selling necklaces online, but not many that seemed too concerned with the quality of the buckeyes. Since this is one of the things we would use to set ourselves apart, we placed some strict rules around which buckeyes were usable.

We'd go on to make several variations of the necklaces which we figured would help us appeal to a wider audience (this would turn out to be a total flop), and we figured we were close. The only thing we had left was to take the pictures and post the listings. However, this is also the point where we realized that taking high-quality photos isn't as easy as it may seem.

When perusing most online marketplaces, you probably don't notice much about the quality of the product photos as they're all relatively good. When it comes to Etsy however, the same level of standard doesn't exist and images can range from professional quality to "Does this look good enough?" It makes sense though as Etsy contains a large mix of hobbyists and small businesses, and in cases like ours, having professional-quality photos may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Additionally, they may not even be necessary or worth the cost. At this point, we didn't have the time nor care to pay for a photographer and decided we would try it on our own.

According to a handful of online resources, a high-quality camera and lens would not be required to take quality pictures. Instead, it was proposed that your standard phone's camera would work assuming you had the proper lighting, backgrounds, and potentially some light digital editing. We grabbed a few props lying around and started taking photos with varying results. They weren't quite to the same level of pride we were putting into the product, but in the end, we had some photos that were fairly comparable to the other listings and felt comfortable that they wouldn't prevent somebody from making a purchase.

Everything seemed like an uphill battle at this point. However, I think the first few obstacles we encountered allowed us to realize the following things:

We were going to run into challenges we either didn't or couldn't anticipate. One could probably argue that we should've seen the pictures as a requirement, but we didn't, and we found a way to quickly move on.
There will be times when you either need to learn how to do something on your own, find a friend who can assist, or not do a task altogether (i.e. re-evaluate whether it's truly required) to keep moving. While there are many things that you can buy (like an expensive camera, multiple props, a graphic designer for a logo, etc.), paying for everything as a solution can't always be the answer.
You don't have to have a perfect solution to move forward, and in most cases, there isn't one anyway. We almost always had an opportunity to go back and make improvements to something, but we couldn't get back the opportunities we lost while trying to perfect the first release.

It was learning moments like these that we were hoping to gain and be able to leverage in future projects.

We were a couple of weeks into the football season when we finally got our listings published. Overall, there wasn't much to complain about as we hadn't planned for this adventure, and within just two weeks, we had gone from picking up bucketloads of buckeyes to having a semi-reputable-looking Etsy shop. Since we'd likely missed the best time to sell the necklaces, we adjusted our expectations and figured if we made a dozen or so sales we'd call it a success. We could always make the rest of our money back over time as the buckeyes are non-perishable. At worst, it would be an insignificant loss.

With the listings posted it now became a waiting game. The initial expectation was that things would be slower due to the late start, but that would start to change as we still hadn't sold anything a few days in. Was it the price? Maybe the lack of history? Or could it just be that fewer people buy these than we thought? We weren't panicked by any means, but it was a bit of a surprise to both of us.

It wouldn't be until the fourth day that we'd get our first order, but it felt great. It was proof that there was at least somebody out there willing to give us a chance and that people were still buying the necklaces for the season. A day later we got another sale, and then another. What was even better than the next few sales was the fact the customers were starting to leave reviews. Every review we'd received was 5 stars, and even those that didn't include a comment still meant a lot. It both validated that people liked what we were producing and it also gave us a reference for future customers. Of the things that people specifically complimented us on, most mentioned either the product quality or quick service as the reason for the review.

After several weeks, it was now later into the season and the orders would continue to trickle in. We'd met the low end of our goal at this point and decided to start looking at alternative uses for the buckeyes. After all, we'd estimated that at 231 cubic inches in a gallon, we had somewhere around 10,000 buckeyes. Most didn't meet the quality standard we were looking for, but at 12 per necklace, it was safe to assume we had plenty to spare. We also noticed that we had quite a few buckeyes that weren't large enough for a necklace, but were still good quality and were still usable if we could find a practical application. What could we use these for?

Lindsey and I may not be the most experienced business minds, but we are creative and good at tinkering with new ideas. We were in a local home store when we came across a handful of beaded Christmas garlands. It immediately clicked. Buckeyes could be added to the garlands that people could then hang on their Christmas trees. We didn't know if it would be successful or not, but it was worth a shot as the garland was practically the same thing as a necklace, it just wasn't tied in a loop. When we got home, we got the Christmas tree out and started working on what would be our second product.

We'd end up using the beads from the store-bought garland to make our version. It was 12 feet long and honestly, quite bulky. It was also just the first version so we figured we'd list it and see what happened. Within a few days it'd sold, and just like the necklaces, we got a great review from the buyer.

I think seeing the first garland sell sparked something in Lindsey as she quickly moved to make a different variation. It was shorter and used the beads that we were already using for one of the necklaces. Her version was only 6 feet long, but she decided that we should try selling it for a similar price. We started getting orders for her variation as well, and we'd now found a new product to sell.

Conclusion

In just over a year, we've greatly surpassed all expectations that we had when we started. We easily cleared the triple digit mark for orders and earned the star-seller status (respond to 95%+ of inquiries within 24 hours, 4.8+ Average Star Review, and ship 95%+ of orders on time). The thing that I'm most proud of wasn't the money we made, but rather our ratings and reviews. Out of the 71 total reviews, 70 were 5 stars with the remaining one being 4 stars. Our products have been used as birthday gifts, Christmas presents, and a charity tree decorating competition, and we've even recently been inquired about making something custom for a wedding cake. The goal of making something that people genuinely enjoy had happened, and there was a sense of pride in what we'd accomplished.

After reflecting on all of the things that happened in the first year, we've decided we'll continue to introduce new products and branch into new selling channels. While we're not sure what challenges and adventures this will bring, we're confident that whatever they are will only make us better.

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