2.5M weddings in 2024

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Updated: April 21st, 2022

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Hey there friend,

This is Pat, founder of Starter Story - every week I write this email to share the lessons we learned after talking to successful founders around the world.

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Here are this week's stories, enjoy!

1 in 3 Americans have a side hustle

Q: What's the main reason so many Americans are starting side hustles?

A: To increase income, pay down debts, save more money, learn and improve skills, and some are even testing the waters for a career change.

It makes sense that 1 in 3 people in the US now currently have a side hustle (source).

This week we published three detailed case studies of 1-person side hustles that will definitely inspire you if you're dabbling in side hustles.

(1) Zack is a software developer and runs a $12K/year website with resources for woodworkers - his hobby.

(2) Ana started a $30K/year Etsy shop selling resume templates, leveraging her experience as a recruiter.

(3) Apu created a $2K/year Windows taskbar app so he could learn the skills to make his first $1 online.

And those are just the side hustle stories we published this week. See 950 more side hustle case studies.

Our take:

Starting a side hustle means taking very little risk - it is the best option to test if an idea has the potential to be a business.

Start small, dedicate a few hours per week. You might find yourself with something bigger than you expected.

"Having a side project is one of the most important things young professionals can do." - Mark Zuckerberg

Some numbers for you:

61 -> million people plan to start their side hustle
$1,122 -> generated monthly by a side hustle on average
950+ -> side hustle case to learn from

Riches in niches

Did you know that 90% of e-commerce businesses fail? Read this section and you'll find out why.

E-commerce is dominated by the behemoth known as Amazon - who accounts for 43.5% of all US e-commerce sales.

So how to be successful in launching any kind of physical product? Target a super-specialized niche market.

Taking the niche route helped Brian bootstrap his projector business to $12M/year.

This is the trend we're seeing in most other successful e-commerce brands. For example, check out these super niche products:

Our take:

It's better to dominate a super-specific customer than try to "boil the ocean".

A smaller market may seem less appealing, but it also means less competition. You're going to find fierce competition if go sell socks and t-shirts...

With a niche, it will be 10x easier to reach your audience (ad spend) and differentiate from the rest.

Some numbers for you:

$1.06 trillion -> forecast for US retail ecommerce sales in 2022
90% -> of e-commerce fail, being the lack of specialization one of the main reasons
1 -> solo founder, Brian started the whole operation by himself after being fired

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Wedding crushers

2020 was obviously a terrible year for all celebrations and events. But it hit the wedding industry the worst.

Revenues fell to 50% of what it was in 2016.

Fortunately, the trend is reversing in a big way - we expect to see 2.5M weddings take place in 2022, the most since 1984.

We caught up with Photobooth Supply Co, who dominates the wedding industry. They told us they've seen massive demand this year - they just hit $500K per month.

Our take:

Events and weddings that did not take place in 2020 were not canceled, just postponed. This industry will grow during the next years, a perfect moment to join.

As long as we don't have another pandemic - it is a great time to jump back into the wedding industry and build a business. Check these outstanding case studies:

Some numbers for you:

$57.9B -> Wedding services in the US market size in 2022
2.5 -> million weddings will take place in 2022, the most since 1984.
$6M -> Photobooth Supply's photo booth rental business yearly revenue

E-sports go mainstream

Did you know that e-sports tournaments average 1 million viewers?

That's actually not far from your typical NBA game.

With an estimated global viewership of 577 million by 2024, we think e-sports are the perfect industry to build a business over the next 5-10 years.

Smart entrepreneurs saw this years ago, like Zack, who after 10 years of managing an e-sports arena knew perfectly how to build the perfect software to manage them. Now his solution generates $3.6M/year.

It's always a good sign that the companies we've talked to are all doing over $1M in yearly sales. Here are some examples:

This company makes $300K/year doing giveaways for pro gamers.
This stainless steel bottles brand surpassed $3M in sales thanks to tapping into the e-sports market.
This $150K/month solution helps streamers monetize their audience.

Our take:

This is an industry where you can still be early.

The world is still not taking e-sports seriously. They're just video gamers, right? That's all about to change.

Some numbers for you:

577M -> e-sports audience size worldwide from 2019 to 2024
$12M -> raised by Singapore-based e-sports startup
700 -> e-sports arenas use Zack's product

Thanks for reading!

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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