{"id":327364,"date":"2025-12-04T14:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/327364\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:59:08","slug":"millennial-couples-side-hustle-from-rental-home-explodes-into-million-dollar-brand-pure-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/327364\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennial couple’s side hustle from rental home explodes into million-dollar brand: ‘Pure chaos’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sydney man Jacob Leung proposed to his girlfriend<\/a> Sarah Jane, he’d been envisioning a dream wedding in their near future.<\/p>\n

But Covid had other plans. It was a delay, food stylist<\/a> Jacob told Yahoo Lifestyle, that changed everything.<\/p>\n

As the couple navigated the first lockdown, their work dried up<\/a>, which meant that when a male friend\u2019s \u201cnot-so-special\u201d birthday<\/a> came around they needed \u201ca nice, small gift for around $50<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

They couldn\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all same same and lame,\u201d Jacob said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like shortbread, cellophane and wicker baskets. Something your nan may like but not us Millennials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to gift something that we would want ourselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We noticed a lot of other companies were offering quantity, not quality<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience sparked an idea<\/a> in the young couple\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n

A plan for a range of gifts that supported Australian businesses and were \u201cboutique and unique<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

With no wedding to plan for in the near future \u2014 and with their day jobs \u201creally diminished\u201d thanks to Covid \u2014 the pair started planning for a side hustle with their $15,000 wedding deposit instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their project?<\/p>\n

\"Picture:<\/p>\n

The couple put their $15,000 wedding deposit toward a side hustle that paid off before their vows. Picture: Good Day People<\/p>\n

Good Day People<\/a> – a range of thoughtfully curated gift hampers <\/a>in reusable and recyclable packaging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust before we launched the business<\/a>, we said we would love to sell 365 hampers in a year – one a day – from our spare cupboard to pay for a holiday,\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first year we did over 7,500 gifts from our rental house<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first order<\/a> came from a friend of theirs and was delivered to Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But soon word was spreading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a few months things were getting crazy and what was originally a spare cupboard took up a spare room, to eventually the entire home,\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

“It was crazy. We had stock being dropped off daily, Australia post picking up hundreds of gifts a week and family coming to help us pack orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter three months, our neighbour put a complaint into council for getting too many deliveries\u2026. Is that a crime? Turns out, it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the couple was still in lockdown, Jacob says it got to a point where it became \u201creally stressful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCashflow was tight as we were just reinvesting any profit back into inventory,<\/a>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the small businesses<\/a> we started worked with decided to stop supplying us as they couldn\u2019t keep up with the demand<\/a> which was a real shame.<\/p>\n

“Also, as we can all probably recall, all couriers were struggling with demand<\/a> which meant some of our deliveries<\/a> were taking up to two to three weeks.<\/p>\n

“It was pure chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair realised that the huge growth<\/a> they had experienced so far was very much due to the pandemic, so any scaling needed to be done very cautiously<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of taking a long lease on a commercial warehouse, Jacob and SJ moved to a bigger rental home \u2014 filling its six bedrooms with stock and packaging in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was half the price of a warehouse, a one year commitment and a home to live in during lockdown,\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

The decision paid off.<\/p>\n

These days Good Day People<\/a> is a \u201cmillion-dollar\u201d company, having grown by over 98 per cent from last year and sold more than 70,000 boxes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bestsellers in the range include the Jolly Holly Christmas hamper<\/a> and the Gourmet Greg<\/a> which has a whole heap of goodies including gourmet pepper and rocky road<\/a>, although Jacob admits you \u201ccan never pick\u201d which is going to be the next big thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we know is people love wine and chocolate<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And what about working and living with SJ?<\/p>\n

Have there been any bumps in the road?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we got married in November 2020 so it\u2019s safe to say we made it,\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really like working together<\/a>, there are times that can be stressful but we are both pretty supportive of each other when needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very clear lanes on what we both do and we really trust each other so that really helps the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair also both feel the same enormous sense of pride<\/a> when they meet shoppers who have used their brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really rewarding to see how much a gift can make for a good day,\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

His advice for anyone thinking of embarking on a side hustle themselves?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would say what Nike has told us \u2026. \u2018Just do it\u2019,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are really decisive, we make decisions quick, when we make mistakes we readjust even quicker,\u201d he says, adding that taking small steps is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe boot-strapped Good Day People<\/a> with $15,000 of wedding savings and we just had to make it work.<\/p>\n

“Having less resources makes you more resourceful.”<\/p>\n

Finally, Jacob advised would-be entrepreneurs<\/a> to keep supporters close.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t do business by yourself<\/a> \u2013 it can be a lonely place so surround yourself with either a good mentor, team or network of other business owners<\/a> so you can laugh and cry together through it all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

You can shop the Good Day People range here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sydney man Jacob Leung proposed to his girlfriend Sarah Jane, he’d been envisioning a dream wedding in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,183680,39615,8531,183679],"class_list":{"0":"post-327364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-dream-wedding","12":"tag-jacob","13":"tag-side-hustle","14":"tag-thriving-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}