This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Nearly a decade ago, I published a book called "The $100 Startup," and two of the stories I told in that book have kind of gone on to have a life of their own. I think in part because they came from parts of the world that aren't often featured in business profiles. Now, one of these stories was from Rhett, my tuk-tuk driver in Cambodia. When I went to Cambodia many, many years ago, this guy, Rhett, drove me around in his little tuk-tuk cart. When I listed Rhett's phone number in the back of the book, I told a bit of his story.
And I said, "Hey, next time you're in Cambodia and you need a ride, whenever you're in Phnom Penh, give him a call." And since then, literally dozens of people have emailed me or posted photos of meeting Rhett the driver, which I always think is really cool, right? Because it's like, world's collide, you know, and Rhett is still going strong driving people around Phnom Penh and making a much better income than the other tuk-tuk drivers, which is why I wrote about him in the first place. But the other story in this vein is a little different. This one was about a guy named Perna Dugarala, a guy from India who branded himself as BFF for Excel. So, best friend forever for Microsoft Excel, you know, spreadsheets, essentially.
He was helping people with spreadsheets and making a lot of money from it. Now, today's caller is wondering a bit about Perna. What was so compelling about his business idea? Why was it so interesting or maybe it actually wasn't that interesting, but why was it so profitable? We're going to talk about that in this episode.
Hi, Chris, this is George from West Tennessee, and I've been listening to the show for about a couple years. Could you tell us more about the spreadsheet guy? Why did it work? I've heard you tell the story about the guy in India who makes six figures showing people how to use spreadsheets. Can you explain more about why this is so compelling?
I don't think it's what most people, including myself, would think about when trying to decide on a business idea. Thanks again, and keep up the good work. George, what's up? Thank you so much for asking this question. I actually think about the story every now and then because it's one of those things that just kind of keeps coming back.
And if I think back to more than a decade now when I was first working on this book and doing some research, I came across this story and I almost dismissed it right away. Because I'm like, "Hey, I'm trying to write a mainstream book about unusual businesses." Somebody who says, "I'm really into spreadsheets." Not to stereotype here, but it's kind of a definition of boring. So my apologies to anybody out there who's fascinated by spreadsheets, but that was my impression at least. And the more I heard about it, the more I realized I was wrong, whether spreadsheets are boring or not. His business model was compelling, was extremely compelling because this was a guy who I think when I first found him, he was making $70,000 a year in a country where that was an extremely high salary.
A lot of his income was coming through passively and he eventually crossed indeed six figures. So this guy in India is making six figures with a lot of passive income, helping people through these templates he made for Microsoft Excel. So why was it so compelling? Well, Perna's side hustle was helping people use Excel more effectively. And if you think about it, there are a lot of office workers and professionals of all kinds who use this software, variations of spreadsheets or databases, Excel, et cetera, some of them for several hours a day.
And he was able to make their lives easier, more productive, which of course has a tremendous amount of value. Just imagine if you have a pretty stressful day, you've got all these responsibilities you need to complete, and somebody comes along and can essentially give you an extra hour of your day. And not just giving you an extra hour, but they're replacing something tedious with a more efficient process. So it's not just going to save you time, it's probably going to save you just mental space and energy. Maybe you can use that for something creative, maybe you can just catch up and breathe a little bit.
So that's so valuable, right? And whatever is commonly used in complex, which is, you know, spreadsheets, a lot of people using them every day, you know, you can do some really simple stuff without a lot of training, but there are some advanced formulas, there's all kinds of stuff that can be done, you know, in a complex field. And whenever that's the case, there's value in becoming more proficient with it, or just in having some shortcuts. And that's what this guy was able to capture in India so many years ago, and appears to be doing well with it to this day. So like I wrote in that book a decade ago, take it from Perna, if spreadsheets can be made sexy, surely any business can find a way to communicate a similar message.
And just as a side note, it's not only spreadsheets, right? That's just one example, could be Photoshop or some other design program, some complicated architectural software, or database or similar. Here's a statistic I found recently that I've just been kind of thinking about. There are now at least 2000 full time independent contractors who teach people how to use Salesforce software. So 2000 full time people out there, making a living showing people how to use this software, okay, which, you know, at a basic level, it's not that complicated, but there's a lot you can do with it.
So the point is, this business model is compelling because of the difference it makes in people's lives. Think about that as you're developing your ideas, considering different possibilities. What difference are you making in people's lives? Ultimately, that's where value comes from. So thanks again, George, for the question.
And listeners, if you have one, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions, we'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners. This has been episode 1152. I'll be back tomorrow with a throwback Thursday segment. You don't want to miss it. Thanks so much for listening.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
