Running a business on Fiverr - What's it really like?

When I was younger people used to call me the "human font machine", because my handwriting is really nice. I used to love writing, fonts and creating all kinds of things. I was watching a youtube video where someone gave this idea of even offering a service that people will pay you for in this time of typing and emails. When thinking about side hustles, you really want to skills or hobbies or passions where you would do this in your free time, even if someone didn't pay you. There's a lot more sustainability and business foundation in something you don't mind doing, but someone else will pay you to do.

As an experiment, I wanted to see if anyone would do this. So I posted a profile and a few weeks later, someone put in an order. Here's what I put on my fiverr profile. A few photos of my handwriting samples in cursive and TITLECASE and Sentence Case. Also, me working at my desk with my different kinds of pens. I created a profile and offering for this completely thinking that no one would respond to this, and was surprised when someone did! The fiverr platform guided me through a messaging app where I was able to get the customers requirements and determine a quote based on what he asked for.

I was able to converse with the customer over a messaging platform where we could determine his exact needs, and I made sure I was responsive to any messages he sent. The fiverr platform also handles things like payment and taxes and makes you set a timeframe for which you'll deliver. In this case, my customer wanted 300 notecards handwritten and also put into envelopes that were addressed and then mailed. Not only did I add on the service of getting supplies, writing them but I also mailed them out. It was a service he didn't want to do himself but I was happily willing to do. In had estimated it would take me three days, but I finished in 1.5 days. This type of mindless work allowed me to multitask by listening to business podcasts or watching youtube videos while I was writing them. Also, was able to move throughout my house to different rooms and even sit outside on my rocking chair while doing it. Here is the start of handwriting these cards.

At the end of the 300 cards and envelopes, my hand was pretty tired but I felt a sense of accomplishment getting them all done and was able to do the things in my life while working on this. The customer ended up paying $140 total, but that included $23 for supplies, $.20/card, $.19/USPS postage for direct mailers. All in all I didn't make a ton of money but it was good experience in the whole process.

Highly recommend taking the chance to post a profile on fiverr at whatever you're good at/like to do to see if you can find someone that needs that service. Oh, the internet.

Would I do this again? Maybe, if I can streamline my costs and if the job allowed me to do the other things in life that are important to me. Since I think about making processes more efficient quite often this also gave me time to think about ways to decrease my time spent. I was able to create a label for the mailing envelope, which didn't need to

be handwritten.

Tip: Make sure to communicate with the customer throughout the process. If the customer is across the country, and everything is digital it is nice to know what you are doing. Taking photos helped. I sent him an in progress photo letting him know I got the materials and was starting. I also sent him this final photo when everything was done and I let him know I was going to the post office.

I love writing about my side hustling experiences. Especially as it relates to women and moms, but hope my experiences help everyone.

Try out posting a profile and service on Fiverr

Happy sweet side hustling!