Grow Your Income with a Side Hustle

Hey peeps, so Mr 15HWW has been lamenting my lack of contribution to this blog again. You can read my past posts here and here and here. In order to keep my status as a co-writer on this blog and also to give Mr 15HWW a break, I have written this piece to share about my side hustle experience. Please support!

– Mrs 15HWW

Frugality is one approach to grow wealth by controlling what we spend. Many finance bloggers have attained their wealth by maintaining their modest spending patterns, including Mr 15HWW and me. But let’s be honest, the frugal lifestyle is not for everyone. It calls for lots of discipline and even some sacrifices. Even we have loosened the belt over the years.

If frugality is not for you, then the alternative is to grow your income. Other than working hard to secure the next promotion, which might take years, consider a side hustle to earn extra money.

As a self-employed, I feel the need to have a side hustle so that I don’t place all my eggs in one basket. The Circuit Breaker last year caught us by surprise. Physical lessons were put to a halt and many parents and students were unwilling to give online lessons a try. Our income dropped by more than 50% in the first few weeks. Luckily for us, we had savings to tide us through that trying period. But it also emphasized the importance of another stream of income.

Mrs 15HWW Takes on Groupbuy Hosting

I first got to know about groupbuy in late 2019 when I was sourcing for Chinese New Year goodies for our students. The idea of a groupbuy is to buy collectively to enjoy a bigger discount. There will be a host to initiate what to buy and the members in the group will then make their orders. A childhood ambition of mine is to be a personal shopper to help others buy stuff. My friends often joked that I derive greater pleasure watching them spend money.

As I toyed with the group host idea, it slowly dawned on me that the role of a groupbuy host is perfect for me!

After reading the “Shopaholic” series in my teens, it got me interested to be a personal shopper

Persistence is Key At the Start

The launch of my groupbuy hosting career was not as exciting as it sounded. I started out selling Bak Zhang (rice dumplings). However, selling Bak Zhang was a messy business. They are oily and there’s different flavours differentiated by the coloured strings, which I mixed up occasionally.

Response for Bak Zhang was good, but it’s an oily business

I upgraded to cheesecake thereafter. The distribution of the cheesecakes was much easier, but the margin was low. I only earned $0.80 for each box that I sold. Even when a whopping 30 households bought it, I only earned $24 for all the effort. It was literally peanuts and Mr 15HWW was on the verge of putting my groupbuy to a stop.

Refusing to end my hosting career so soon, I got to know a fellow groupbuy host and asked her for some advice. She was super nice and introduced me to Webuy, a social e-commerce platform.

Webuy – a One-Stop Solution for a Host

Shopping on Webuy for a consumer is like shopping on any other online grocer. But instead of delivering the purchase to your doorstep, one would have to collect from a host nearby. The host performs the role of a promoter and distributor for Webuy. In return, the host earns a percentage of the sales as commission.

Try downloading the Webuy app. There’s some interesting products which you can’t get at supermarkets

With Webuy, I no longer had to deal with individual suppliers and fret about meeting the minimum order quantity (MOQ). It’s basically a one-stop solution for a host. With the array of products they offered, it was also easier for us to meet the different needs of our buyers.

Another benefit of signing up as a Webuy host is that they will advertise on social media and link potential customers to join your estate’s chatgroup. This is especially important as the success of your groupbuy cannot fly off without customers. At one point, I had close to 200 members in my group chat. It’s not the most impressive as I know of groupbuy chats with a waiting list to enter. But I think for someone doing it as a side hustle, I did great!

Get Your Hands Dirty

Being a host is a very hands-on work. From promoting the product, taking orders, collecting money to moving and packing the goods, a host had to do it all. Mr 15HWW was obviously not pleased as I turned our living room into a warehouse stacked with carton boxes and ice boxes. Sometimes the raw food stench filled the air. But as I implemented a no storage policy, meaning my buyers have to collect their purchase on the day itself, the mess would be cleared, and the place cleaned up by the end of day.

From avocados, hotcakes to frozen meat and even JB’s famous Hiap Joo Banana cake, you name it, I’ve sold it  Nongfu Spring Tea was a big hit and it’s no wonder why Mr Zhong Shanshan is Asia’s richest man

Other than groceries, I also did groupbuys for cooked food, such as bread, Thai food and desserts. One of my student’s mother is a property agent and her income dropped to zero during the Circuit Breaker period. Instead of wallowing in misery, she adapted very quickly and started selling homemade treats. I offered to help her promote her home-made Orh Nee (yam paste) to my group. It was a hit and we sold 60 bowls over one weekend!

We sold a mountain of Orh Nee that weekend

At the Forefront of Food Trends

To be a competent host, you must know the latest food craze and trends. You can spot these trends on social media or garner feedback from your groupbuy members.

I have been to Thailand a few times, but I never knew that the sandwich sold at 7-11 was a must-try. I was really surprised when members of my groupbuy requested for it. Due to shipping costs, the sandwich price is 2-3 times the original price, but deprived Singaporeans who used to frequent Thailand did not mind paying the premium.

There was a time when Suan La Fen (Hot and Sour Instant Noodles) was the IN thing and I could easily sell 50 cartons of that in a week.

Still remember the Suan La Fen craze? There’s so many different brands and flavours, our stomach couldn’t catch up. And the overpriced sandwich from Thailand which was really yummy! Remember to try them when we can travel to Thailand again.

Lucrative Stay-At-Home Work

I typically host once a week and commission is 10-15% of sales on average. I was very lucky to receive strong support from my estate and was able to bring in $200-300 per week. That’s not too bad for 5-6 hours of weekly work.

Festive periods like Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and Christmas proved to be even more lucrative. There are demands for abalones, mooncakes and even Christmas party food bundles. I managed to sell about 60 boxes of mooncakes last year and earned about $400 for a one-time effort. At one point, I was seriously considering dedicating more time to hosting so that I could spot products with better margins.

I was so caught up in selling the mooncakes that I forgot to order for myself.  Not that we fancy mooncakes much, it’s really too overpriced.

Other than monetary incentives, another benefit of hosting a groupbuy is I got to know more neighbours. Even their children could recognise me when we meet while waiting for lift. What is even more amazing is a few of them have become my students!

Procrastination No More

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

– Martin Luther King, Jr

To be honest, I am quite impressed with how I just took a leap of faith and started being a host for groupbuy. As someone who loves to plan, this is definitely not my usual character. But you never know what you can achieve until you take the first step.

From being a Grab driver to a weekend home-baker or even a seller on Shopee/IG, there are lots of opportunities nowadays. Some will require more skillsets than the others, but at the end of the day, do what you enjoy doing the most so that you can persevere and still find joy in doing so during challenging times.

Hope you enjoyed my sharing!