The story

In November 2021, Jack was sitting in a hospital waiting room in Malaga. His son George had been born 12 weeks premature, weighing just 800 grams, and was in intensive care. It was COVID. Visitors were limited to one-in, one-out.To pass the time, he was scrolling through his sports humour social pages when a clip went viral. His partner made an offhand joke that sparked an idea for a Christmas jumper design. Jack found a designer on Fiverr, got it made, and listed it on his Store. It sold.That was the beginning. Over the years since, Jack has built a print-on-demand side business around his social media pages-spanning UK comedy and sports content-with a combined following of nearly 6 million people across 25 channels. His Christmas jumper range has become his best-selling product line, and the September–December window now generates around £10,000 in additional income each year.

The reality of life as a side hustler

Jack is not a full-time entrepreneur. He's a campaign manager at a gaming company, a father of two young boys-including his eldest, who has additional needs-and someone who's lucky to get six hours of sleep a night.

"By the time I've worked, come home, had dinner, done bedtime-it's 10pm. I fall asleep on the sofa trying to do a bit more on the socials."

The income he generates through Mayzing isn't a luxury. It covers his phone bill, gym membership, and the extras that don't fit into the family budget-and it made a house deposit possible.

"We wouldn't have been able to survive as a family, or we would have extremely struggled, if it wasn't for the additional income. I wouldn't have been in a position to save for a deposit if it wasn't for the Mayzing stores."

The 80/20 rule applies perfectly to his business: roughly 80% of his annual earnings come in the final three months of the year, built almost entirely around Christmas jumper campaigns. The rest of the year, the store ticks along in the background while Jack gets on with life.

Why Mayzing

Jack has tried other platforms-marketplaces that take hefty fees and leave little margin, and standalone stores that demand more technical know-how than he has time for. Mayzing is where his business lives, and the reason is simple: it works, and there's a real person to call when it doesn't.

"I hate chatbots. I can't deal with anything AI or automated. Knowing there's an actual person to deal with makes all the difference. He's messaged me countless times-'if you need me out of hours, no problem.' I'm hopeless with anything tech. He was always super helpful."

Jack has registered his store domains on multi-year leases. He has no plans to move.

"I'm quite a loyal person. I appreciate the effort and help that's gone into giving me this platform in the first place."

What's next

Jack knows he's leaving money on the table. He has designs that aren't live yet, social pages with hundreds of thousands of followers he isn't fully monetising, and a new colleague at work already talking about automation and AI-powered posting. He's also just learned about Mayzing's bulk cloner-a tool that can launch 50 or 100 campaigns in minutes once the artwork is ready.

For Jack, the goal isn't to turn this into a full-time business. It's to keep it sustainable-something that pays for a family day out, covers the extras, and doesn't cost him the sleep he can't afford to lose.

"I've got a healthy relationship with Mayzing. It's that additional income that means we can take the boys to the zoo for the weekend. You view it differently when it's not paying the gas bill-it's the fun stuff. That matters."