How an Etsy candle seller turned his side hustle into a full-time job [Video]

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Six-Figure Side Hustle series, where people with lucrative side hustles break down the routines and habits they’ve used to make money on top of their full-time jobs. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at [email protected].

Francisco Rivera doesn’t even like candles — but he brings in six figures per year selling them on Etsy.

In February 2023, Rivera was living in Orlando, Florida and working part-time for online tutoring company Outschool. Demand dropped when after-school activities resumed post-Covid, so he started looking for more income elsewhere.

He found a YouTube video about print-on-demand side hustles, where sellers create designs for products like T-shirts or mugs. They list their designs on marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon, and when a customer places an order, a manufacturer prints the design onto the product and ships it out.

For his product, Rivera chose neutral-colored organic candles with “witty” …