His unique side hustle exceeded $1 million a 12 months: history by mail

I used to be all the time a history buff growing up. Both of my grandfathers were in World War II, so I heard them tell war stories.

I then became an intern on the U.S. Senate. I actually have given tours of the U.S. Capitol. One day once I was on the Library of Congress, there have been some documents on display. They had recently discovered that they were just sitting in boxes. One of them was a letter from President Abraham Lincoln. It gave me goosebumps. I felt transported back to the Civil War era. It didn’t seem right that documents that belong to the American people should just sit in a box in a warehouse somewhere.

Use Shopify and Facebook Ads to start out the side hustle

So I began reproducing the letter for family and friends, not as a side hustle or business. They loved it. So I created more documents. They wanted it regularly, so I made it a subscription. Then in January 2019, I arrange a Shopify website and put a little bit money into Facebook ads. At this point the project actually officially became an organization, History By Mail. At the time, I used to be working for an actual estate developer in Brooklyn.

There is a complete process involved in manufacturing and printing. First, we’d like to search for documents that tell a compelling story and look visually appealing. If it’s an interesting story but doesn’t appear to be much, it won’t grab people’s attention. And vice versa: If it looks really cool but there isn’t any real story, there’s nothing to inform. Then I actually have to acquire usage rights to truly replicate the document. We often license a document from a museum, private collection or university. Then we now have to enhance it. We must recreate it on paper to make it as near the unique as possible. Then I write a related contextual story that should be edited.

In addition, there are all business features: marketing, sales, accounting. I did every thing to start with. We have now grown to a distant workforce of 12 people. But every a part of the business needed to be rethought organically from the bottom up.

Partnering with Uncommon Goods accelerates the side business

In 2020 we partnered with Uncommon Goods. That took loads of effort. I’d send out samples, nevertheless it’s difficult to succeed in buyers. There is a lot competition. I’d spend a part of my week contacting buyers from various museums, web sites and gift sites each in person and online. I’d also go to shows to confer with people. Then a buyer took a risk on us. We were the primary subscriber to Uncommon Goods. They desired to take out subscriptions. But they didn’t know learn how to cope with it technically.

There is loads of administrative work involved in a subscription. If someone wants to vary their address, pause or cancel, or a component gets lost within the mail or something, things can get complicated. It’s not like buying a deck of cards and either getting it or not. With a subscription, you’ve got a relationship with a customer throughout the subscription, which in our case may be as much as two years.

Uncommon Goods has been an incredible partner. By working together we gained loads of national press and exposure. I feel that is why we were invited to perform at

Preparing for “Shark Tank” and presenting the business

I over-prepared for the show because I knew it was highly competitive and I assumed it was my only likelihood. I hired a Broadway producer to assist me think through all of the little elements of television, hair, makeup, wardrobe, props, body language, voice tone, scriptwriting, every thing. Then I watched each episode and wrote down all of the questions. I wrote them on note cards and practiced them non-stop for nearly a 12 months. I also made giant cardboard cutouts of the sharks so I could practice talking to them without getting nervous. Or upset once they toss stuff at you. You need to stay positive and keep a cool head.

I also took clips of the sharks and had my graphics team put them together right into a half-hour YouTube video. As I practice, I see their faces me with different expressions. So once they’re glad, sad, frustrated, whatever, I still stay focused.

The preparation was value it. When we were filming, I wasn’t nervous. I used to be just excited. It was really fun.

On the show I had the chance to present five special documents, including the check used to buy Alaska. This is such an interesting document. People are fascinated by it. They could have known that Alaska was purchased, but didn’t even think that it was purchased with an actual piece of paper. And how much was that and who wrote it and where was it redeemed? It type of raises all of those questions.

Closing of the deal and an extra on-air segment

We got a deal that was great. In our case, Barbara Corcoran and Daniel Lubetzky went together, but after the due diligence phase, only Daniel continued. He was an amazing partner. We can approach him with any problem and he and his world-class team will help us solve it.

I assumed this may be my only day in Hollywood. But I actually got a second day because we were filming an update that aired in January with David Copperfield. Daniel is friends with David Copperfield, who has the most important private magic collection on the earth. And he had us recreate a letter from Harry Houdini that inspired his profession. That’s why we did an update episode with David in his private museum last January.

After that, History By Mail was now not a sideline. I made a decision to work within the business full time.

The business is not any longer a sideline but continues to grow

We hit a distinct segment and had success with gifting and grew organically due to it, but seasonality also put us in a corner. For example, March isn’t a present month, so sales are down. Now we’re attempting to focus more on corporate gifts which are a little bit more timely. We’re attempting to get into more schools and museums. We are also deeply committed to America’s 250th anniversary.

We have already seen significant sales growth and plan to proceed this. In 2019 we made $2,300 – so little or no. When we began working with Uncommon Goods in 2020, we made $153,000, about 6,500% more. In our first full 12 months of Uncommon Goods in 2021, we raised $639,000. In 2022 we earned $824,000, and in 2023 we reached $1 million. In 2024 we made $1.24 million, and last 12 months we made just over $2 million. We’re expecting $3 million this 12 months.

As an entrepreneur, there may be all the time a giant goal that you simply are looking forward to. In recent years it has been media driven. We desired to move on and we desired to run it again and update. With all of that out of the way in which, we will steer our own ship and choose what we wish to do next.

Follow your passion – and your willingness to unravel problems

Just last month we sent our millionth letter. So that was a giant milestone for us. Our mission is to make history tangible and exciting for people. The more people we reach, the more we further this mission. We are looking forward to our two millionth letter.

I followed my passion for history right into a side hustle after which right into a full-time business, but I would not say that zeal alone is sufficient to sustain a business long-term.

Entrepreneurs must fall in love with solving problems. All corporations have problems, and they’ll all the time have problems. The greater you get, the larger the issues get and the more complex they grow to be. If you possibly can fall in love with the technique of solving an issue – identifying it, brainstorming solutions, opening as many doors as possible, closing those that do not work, consistently iterating and learning – these are skills you wish in business. And these skills support your passion.

I used to be all the time a history buff growing up. Both of my grandfathers were in World War II, so I heard them tell war stories.

I then became an intern on the U.S. Senate. I actually have given tours of the U.S. Capitol. One day once I was on the Library of Congress, there have been some documents on display. They had recently discovered that they were just sitting in boxes. One of them was a letter from President Abraham Lincoln. It gave me goosebumps. I felt transported back to the Civil War era. It didn’t seem right that documents that belong to the American people should just sit in a box in a warehouse somewhere.