As RV Entrepreneurs, income is always pretty top-of-mind for me and my partner, especially how to make money traveling. Since 2017 was a particularly- and unexpectedly- difficult year for our business (re-branded in 2018 as ResumeLezlie.com), I made a habit of checking Craigslist wherever we were, for opportunities to make a little side money.
Usually I search for one-time gigs that would make good use of our Ram 2500 Diesel truck we use to haul our fifth wheel travel trailer.
But, I also venture into gigs like transcription, market research surveys, and whatever else I can find.
For instance, a pretty easy one-time gig I found was helping a disabled doctoral candidate upload a bunch of super old TV news recordings to YouTube that had been professionally transferred onto compact discs. I picked up a box with the 1st half of the discs, brought them home to upload, returned the box afterward, picked up the 2nd half, and finished the project. The work was simple, the money was decent, and when It was done, it was done.
After that project and while in Florida for the month of December, I came across another ad that I wasn’t even sure was legit, cuz, ya know…Craiglist. It said:
“Fireworks Tent Operator WANTED!!”
The details of the ad were slim, but essentially they were, “Sell fireworks. Get paid. Contact us.”
Yeah, duh, we’re interested.
So, I sent an email and within 24 hours was contacted by the regional manager for TNT Fireworks. Like, TNT the major national brand that sells all the fireworks (well, a lot of them.) In fact, according to the Google search I did just now, they’re the bestselling brand of fireworks and largest distributor of 1.4G Fireworks in the U.S. (so, there.)
It seemed pretty legit.
I had a phone conversation with the Regional Manager and scheduled an interview of sorts at a local fast-food chain, so the guy could vet us and make sure we weren’t crazy, stupid, or so desperate for money that we would steal all of his fireworks. A credit check was also involved because it takes more than a smile and a handshake to be trusted with $20,000 worth of product.
After the meeting, we did some more research and found out that TNT operates many of those tents you might see in shopping center parking lots all over the country.
These tents are mostly operated as fundraisers for school or community organizations, but if a tent is vacant, they open the opportunity to responsible entrepreneurial individuals.
Being an RVer definitely has its benefits for this type of work. The Regional Manager particularly liked that we would be staying in the same parking lot as the product 24 hours a day for the duration of the sale.
The Process
After passing the interview and credit check, the next step was to attend an informational meeting to (very loosely) cover all the basic laws, regulations, and company policies. They also covered the payment process (which we’ll get to shortly) and what to generally expect from the whole experience.
It was, essentially, a 1.5-hour power point presentation on how to run a retail operation from a tent with a, ‘Good luck,’ and, ‘Go get ‘em tiger,’ send off. We were given supplies which included:
- A Manger’s Box with all of the paperwork/licenses, price signs, operating details, and a credit card reader.
- A giant box full of vinyl marketing signs and a big roll of TNT printed plastic, used to fashion the walls of the tent.
- Three (3) fire extinguishers.
- A cash register.
We were told the tent would be erected for us by the tent company and tables would be inside. Once that happened- about 10 days before New Year’s Eve- we were given a date and time to meet the fireworks shipment at the tent to unload. That required a full count of all inventory, and then moving it all into the portable storage unit (provided by TNT) next to the tent.
Some tent operators opt not to use a storage unit and, instead, just leave all the inventory in the tent overnight. While that may be easier from a physical standpoint of not having to set-up and tear-down every day, we were financially liable for all un-returned inventory, so we opted for the ability to lock it all in the storage unit every night.
Because we would be operating the tent at night, we needed a generator to operate the chain of lights in the tent. They offered to let us borrow a gas generator, but we had a practically unused propane generator and wanted to log some hours on it, and it worked great!
Set Up and Operation
One of the items in our Manager’s Box was a black binder with all of the business procedures, marketing details, and product info. The company also has a series of YouTube videos, if you’re more of a visual learner. We found them helpful. It’s all laid out in a step-by-step guide, which is very useful.
Before the fireworks arrived, we had to:
- Set up 10 large folding tables to use to display the products
- Wrap bunting (logo printed plastic wrap) around all the tables
- Create walls around the tent with bunting, leaving one entrance and an emergency exit
- Hang several marketing and warning signs like, BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE! and NO DISCHARGING FIREWORKS WITHIN 300 FEET.
When the fireworks arrived, we:
- Unloaded the boxes from pallets and stacked in like groups
- Counted all the boxes to match our inventory sheet
- Signed some paperwork for the driver and let her go
- Opened all the boxes and counted all the inventory
- Locked everything away in our storage unit
Opening Day
Since we were staying at a nearby RV park for the month, we were able to commute back and forth while we got the tent and fireworks ready to go. When it was time to start selling, we got up early, hitched the trailer and set out to our new parking home for the week.
Displaying and labeling the products was last thing we had to do before officially opening for business. TNT provides a light outline of where groups of products should go, but some of the details are left to the tent operators. So, we decided to line everything up by height- smallest to largest. Then, we labeled everything with the provided pricing cards and waited for the money to roll in.
We waited…and waited some more.
Almost no one came the first day we were open. When almost no one came the second day, we started to reflect negatively on the situation- this was a lot of work for only a few hundred dollars.
By the fourth day, we had literally only made a few hundred dollars and we were both feeling very down about our decision. We kept repeating to ourselves, “They told us we would do most of our business on New Year’s Eve,” so we drudged ahead.
On the morning of December 31, 2017, we started setting up just like the previous few days, only this time someone showed up before we were even open. Like clearly we weren’t open because nothing was set up and we were carting in boxes of fireworks, but we were desperate for any sale, so we just said, ‘We’re still setting up, but please take a look around.’
Then, another person. And, another.
Soon, the tent had a small crowd. The small crowed formed a line at the cash register that didn’t end until we ran out of fireworks. No joke, we had non-stop business from 8:30am until 10:30pm. It was a bit crazy, but honestly, we were just happy to finally be making some money.
Lezlie settled in behind the register and I found myself making endless laps around the tent helping people, restocking depleted inventory, and taking the dog for quick walks.
The Pizza Guy
The timeline between the day’s start and end is fuzzy, but sometime as it was getting dark, I noticed a young gentleman in a blue polo shirt (with a familiar logo) pursuing the merch. I swooped in and asked,
Him: “Have you ended, or are you about to start your shift?”
Me: “Um, actually, I’m on my break right now.”
Unable to contain my excitement about what he just said, I blurted out, “Bring me a pizza and I’ll give you a great deal on those fireworks!”
He stared at me for a second and replied, “You can just call and they’ll deliver here.”
I almost grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him, but was able to control myself and responded with, “Dude. Look at this crowd. I can’t do anything right now. We haven’t eaten all day and I need you to bring us a pizza right now.”
He shrugged his shoulders and kind of half nodded his head in agreement.
“What do you want?”
I pointed to Lezlie at the front of the tent and said, “Ask her. Bring whatever she wants.”
The pizza guy hopped in line and I made a quick dart to the front.
“Lezlie, there’s a pizza guy in line. When he gets up here give him 50% off of his fireworks and tell him what you want to eat.”
Bewildered with the endless flow of people and money, she looked at me without stopping her current transaction and said, “Ok,” and quickly went back to work.
Later, I asked her what was going through her head at that moment and she told me,
“All I heard was, ‘there’s someone in line who’s going to ask you a question,’ and maybe something about pizza. I knew I would just deal with it when the time came.”
And, deal with it she did. About 30 minutes later, I spotted the guy at the entrance holding a white box gleaming in the darkness. Unfortunately, we still had no time to eat, so I reached into the cash register and gratefully handed the guy more money than I’ve ever handed a pizza guy for one pizza, and then shoved it under the nearest table for later.
I can’t speak for Lezlie, but that pizza was the best 2-hour old pizza I’ve ever eaten.
Thanks Domino’s. (no affiliation)
The Aftermath
When the selling was finished, we still needed to clean up a bit, but left most of it for the next morning. We were both exhausted, but still pretty amped from the craziness of the day.
A congratulatory beverage was in order. We made a toast to the day and started crunching some numbers. After four days of only selling a few items, we had sold nearly our entire inventory. We couldn’t believe it.
The next day, we had to clean everything up from the site and return the things that didn’t belong to us, like the fire extinguishers, signs, and the few left over items that didn’t sell. We were also able to bring back all of the cardboard from the product boxes.
During our ‘checkout’ with the Regional Manager, we ran all the numbers, signed a few papers, and gave them the money that we owed from the sold product. Since they gave us access to all the merchandise without paying for it, we owed them 80% of the total we collected (minus sales tax), which left us with 20% profit.
Overall, after giving Florida the tax that we had collected, we netted just over $4,000. And, since TNT set us up as our own company, we were able to deduct all of our business expenses for the week.
Not bad for seven-ish days of light work and one 14-hour day of craziness. We would definitely do this again.
Have questions, or your own story about making money on the road? Send us and email or share in the comments!