I started [name redacted] to design, manufacture and sell cool, tough products that I like to use and carry daily. Average monthly income is $2K–3K. This is thanks to repeat buyers as much as first-timers. Although some months are slow with no more than 15 orders, the bigger months when a Kickstarter campaign pays out a lump sum (followed by an influx of orders from being new on the KS page) help raise the average. Sales also pick up before Christmas, and whenever I run a promotion. Occasional wholesale partnerships with online retailers (in Japan, USA) also bring in a lump sum payout. 70% orders are from the USA. For shipping I use Australia Post (terrible) and NextSmartShip China (superb).
I should mention that the first couple products I designed did not work at all. Hardly anyone placed orders and I didn't recover my investment... at a time when I didn't have money to 'waste' (I had quit my PhD in the USA and moved to Australia, I was broke so first had to get a full-time job). But of course the experience wasn't a waste, it taught me couple things I really needed to know for this journey. Things only picked up when I discovered Kickstarter. The hit product that changed things (now sold out and discontinued) was a bolt action tactical pen priced at AUD45 (USD~30) and made of reinforced polymer instead of metal. The metal ones at the time cost 3X–7X my price, were heavy, plain-looking, sharp and slippery for tactical use as a glass-breaker. Additionally, I provide the kind of customer service I wish I could get : First, I provide lifetime guarantees on all my products (there are only two products in stock now but I had a dozen; planning more in future). Second, if there's any issue — even if your cousin sneezes on your pen and you therefore want a different one — I'll ship a free pen. The rare issue has been a package getting lost in transit, I try to fix that quickly by shipping a second package and then providing a refund for the disappointing experience. I don't ask for returns and it's a hassle anyway, so nobody has ever returned a product. Only one person asked for a refund in six years which I provided in about ten seconds. Among loads of positive feedback and sometimes multi-page emails that I'm very grateful for, customers also sometimes email me to say their pens were stolen after they showed it off to curious coworkers or something — when I hear this, I send them free replacement pens because it makes me happy to flip their memory of the incident from negative to positive.
