Byte-Sized Businesses: My A.I. Assisted Biz Blitz - 20
Edition 20
Recap: At first, I challenged myself to launch two micro-businesses per month with the help of AI. Now I am shifting towards building on top of those micro-businesses. You can get caught up on the details of the challenge in my original post here.
For new readers, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to see a full list and summary of the micro-businesses that have been launched. Not each one will be covered in every weekly edition, but I will be sure to keep you up to date on all of the key points as things progress.
In this Edition:
State of the Challenge
Some tricky issues with the blankets
Introducing Nordic Jo’s Coffee
State of the Challenge
I’m getting a little behind on launches. I haven’t launched the two new items for October yet, but I’m okay with that. As I have discussed over the last couple weeks, it is time to start transitioning this newsletter to focus more on developing and growing what has been started. I do want to keep up a similar pace with product launches over Etsy though, so I will look to launch half a dozen or so products yet over the remainder of the year.
Even though I’m a little behind, I have found tackling this challenge to be very beneficial. Basically, it has just been a great way to put pressure on myself. So, I’m going to start using some more challenges as I step into this next phase of building on top of what was achieved in this first challenge.
So, I’m creating a challenge for myself around the tumbler wraps, which so far has been the area that I have seen the most promise. I am challenging myself to create at least 1,000 product listings for this store. I picked this number for a couple reasons.
First, when I did my initial research, the successful shops that I found all have at least this many listings. Part of being successful with this category is just being visible, so the more listings you have, the more odds you have of some of those making their way to the top of the page on Etsy.
Second, making 1,000 listings will take some time, so keeping this goal will help me keep myself accountable in giving this category enough effort to really be able to see whether this is going to be worth it or not. A lot of emotions go into entrepreneurship, and sometimes it is easy to move away from a project too early either out of being impatient or just by being distracted by another idea. Creating goals like this really helps with removing some of those emotional elements.
Some Tricky Issues With the Blankets
I announced and started designing the personalized blankets a while ago, but I have run into some issues that have held them up a little. Part of it is just working through to see what the best workflow is for setting up this type of product so that it works the best across the board between Etsy, Printify and HelloCustom. So really, there has just been some learning that I have had to do along the way.
The newest issue that I ran into was how shipping profiles transfer from Printify to Etsy. This is the first product from Printify that I have done where the shipping price varies based size the size. When publishing from Printify to Etsy, the shipping price across the varieties is just averaged. This isn’t ideal because the cost can’t just be passed through as it would with a product that has consistent shipping costs. I’ve explored a few options, but I think what I am going to end up doing is just adjust my front end pricing a little to accommodate for the variation.
Every new category requires some learning, but once you get through it the first time, you can generally get moving pretty quick. So hopefully this is a category that I can get running soon.
Introducing Nordic Jo’s Coffee
Nordic Jo’s isn’t a new business. It is actually the first business that I started back in 2012. It’s a small local coffee brand in the Duluth, MN area. I predominantly sell it through the local grocery stores and some online. The brand is based around light hearted humor and of course vikings. This business wasn’t part of the challenge, but I decided that including it in this newsletter might be interesting because I am using various AI tools to create social media content for the brand.
Here’s an example of one piece of content that I have created for Nordic Jo’s. The initial image was generated with Midjourney. I then created the voice through one of my favorite text to speech programs, Revoicer. What I really like about Revoicer is that you have a lot of manual control over the voice. You can select a tone like happy, angry, sad, yelling, whispering, etc. From there you can make adjustments to the speed and volume that each individual word is said. You can also add very specific pauses between various words. This level of control is great for really dialing a specific line of dialogue. After the audio is ready, it all gets uploaded into D-ID Studios which animates the image to the audio. A free alternative for the animation would be Sad Talker, but I personally have liked the results from D-ID better.
Here’s the video.
Dough Control - Dough Control was a blog on cash management for small businesses that I originally started a couple years ago, but hadn’t maintained. I decided to revitalize that blog with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT. This will be a longer duration project, with the goal of developing a following before monetizing.
Canvas and Quirk (originally PleasurePrinted) - This was the first Etsy shop that I launched. It features captivating nature scenes on canvas or metal prints for home or office decor. The images are generated by Midjourney and enlarged with VanceAI. The product descriptions are drafted through ChatGPT. This shop has now been transitioned into a general store through which I will be launching all of my Etsy oriented micro-businesses / product categories.
LittleDreamersDen - A second Etsy shop that also focuses on wall art, but on the other side of the pricing spectrum. The same tools are used to create the works, but the finished products are posters rather than the more expensive canvas or metal prints. The focus of this shop is nursery room decor.
The Consulting Gig - I received a request for some costing and supply chain help. To start, I’ll provide as much value as I can up front. The hope is that the potential client will find it worth hiring me for consulting/coaching on an on-going basis. I plan on using AI to boost my speed in compiling research such as lists of potential supply chain partners.
CozyGifted (originally FlickersOfFantasy) - The third Etsy shop. This shop was originally planned to be as a candle shop, but I have pivoted to also use it for other physical items that work well as gifts.
Wirestock - Selling stock images generated with Midjourney. Wirestock is easy to use right in Discord and allows you to list your images for sale across multiple platforms at once.
Tumbler Wrap Designs (Digital Files) - Digital files of designs to be printed for tumbler wraps. These are sold through Etsy to hobbyists and vendors that sell tumblers in which the print designs on.
Personalized Enamel Coated Camping Mugs - The products are items that I am fulfilling through print on demand services with personalization enabled through HelloCustom, an AI software that streamlines the personalization process between Etsy and Printify.
Personalized Blankets - Similar to the mugs mentioned above, these are fulfilled through the print on demand services of Printify with the personalization being enabled through HelloCustom.
Nordic Jo’s Coffee - Not a new launch, but actually my first business. I will be sharing how I am using AI to produce some of my content for Nordic Jo’s.