Today’s world offers a range of possibilities Work which until a few years ago could not even have been imagined. Distances have narrowed, information and knowledge are available with just a few clicks and the immense world market is always open thanks to the web. Rent costs, electricity, bills, transport to the shop are no longer a problem: goods can be sold in digital stores with a few simple steps and this has given new life to do-it-yourself and craftsmanship.
Many people then realized that they could exploit these new means to obtain a I earn important without having to lock yourself in an office for eight or nine hours a day: the spirit of many entrepreneurs has seen the possibilities hidden in the “new world” and has worked to reap the best fruits.
Francisco Rivera doesn’t like candles and, to be honest, he’s allergic. Yet, thanks to candles (and their sale on Etsy) manages to ensure an income of almost half a million a year. The 26-year-old explained to CNBC how his business was born and shared some advice on how to proceed along his path.
Rivera’s journey
In February 2023, Francisco Rivera was living in Florida and had a part-time job as an online school tutor. When the Covid emergency eased, however, life began to return to normal and extracurricular activities began again. As a result, its services have become almost obsolete, little in demand and earnings have been significantly reduced. Hence the need to find another source of income arose.
It was almost by chance that Francisco found a video on YouTube that talked about businesses built on the concept of print-on-demand, whereby sellers create designs and print them on various types of objects, particularly t-shirts and mugs. There are lists of designs that customers can choose from and when one is selected, production starts and then shipping.
Francisco Rivera, however, did not choose t-shirts or mugs, but candles, and decided to decorate them with particular and nice labels created on Canva. Once listed in his shop on Etsy, he uses Printify to get the prints. In this way, last year his business brought in 462 thousand dollars (around 430 thousand euros), from which the money spent on taxes on Etsy (55 thousand dollars in a year) and the money used for printing and marketing services are deducted.
The profit is between 30% and 50% for each product sold. He usually doesn’t work more than 20 minutes a day, but every now and then he does some extra: about two hours to research current trends and create new designs. And the rest of the time? He dedicates himself to his passion: music.
A job for everyone
Francisco believes it is a project within everyone’s reach: «The beauty of the print-on-demand model is that the risk is low. To list something on Etsy you spend 20 cents. For Canva I use someone else’s, but the Pro version is $120 a year. I’m not special, but I work hard. I value time, flexibility. I know there are many people interested, but they can’t take the first step. If you have a 9-to-5 job then you’re already on the right path: you just need to put that effort into something else.”
Then, regarding the choice of candles, the 26-year-old comments: «I don’t have a passion and I’m allergic, but when I started it was a new category and after seeing the Printify catalog and the videos on Youtube, I liked the idea of putting phrases clever about a product that wasn’t already sold by many. The biggest problem with this job is people copying, practically the same designs and the same sentences. They see the products that sell the most and replicate them.”
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