“Graphic Design for Dogs” Earns $84,000

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hello, hello, what's up? It's Chris Guillebeau with Side Hustle School. Got a great story for you today that illustrates why you should not try to reach all the people all the time. Okay, most of us know this intuitively. We know that we can't try to serve everybody, but it's really hard sometimes when you're starting a new project because you think like, oh, I've got this thing.

And you know, if I want to reach the most number of people possible, then I have to make my market as wide as possible. The thing is, when you do that, it might sound like you're thinking bigger. Like, oh, I want to serve everybody. But you're almost certainly gonna end up with a lesser outcome, a response that is not what you hoped for. And so some of the people who are the most successful have a really tightly focused market.

Today's story illustrates this will. I just love this story so much. It's about a graphic designer and pet lover who unleashes a side hustle that's on track to earn $84,000 this year. So you'll want to dog ear this episode and pay attention because it shows how a small tightly focused niche or market is a much better idea than trying to serve everyone. So a quick little shout out to today's sponsor.

I appreciate them letting us bring the show to you for free. And I'll tell you about this person's idea and how she made it happen. Stay tuned. [Music]

As a full-time graphic designer, Kyla Pipko knows a thing or two about branding and visual communication. And after a chance conversation with a photographer, she learned how to unleash her skills into a highly targeted market and fulfilled her craving for a new outlet for her ideas.

She already worked for a design studio, but Kyla decided to open her own non-competitive studio on the side. Since she was already in the business, she knew just how overwhelming the marketplace could be. But she also knew she could stand out if she could define the right focus for her ideas. Kyla thought about different audiences to target. She made lists.

She talked to her friends. She even talked to her dog about it. And that's when it hit her. It was a doggy dog world out there, but there were no graphic designers that targeted pet companies. The self-described crazy dog person knew that focusing on the pet industry would mean forgoing other projects, but it would also be a surefire way to stand out with both her design and the projects she would take on.

Therefore, Doc's designs, as she called it, morphed into her new side hustle. And she found her first client by accident. As Kyla describes it, my first client was such a happy mistake. I happened to tell a photographer friend that I wanted to start my own studio, but I hadn't actually started doing anything about it yet. He told me that he was photographing the launch of a new pet shop the next week and offered to put me in touch with the owner.

The company didn't have any branding or brochures, so Kyla knew she had the right opportunity and the perfect client. She rushed over after work to meet the owner who hired her on the spot. After that confidence-boosting first client, Kyla knew she was barking up the right tree. She began to spend her evenings and weekends working on web design and branding for pet stores and trainers, building her client base by reaching out to every dog-related store in her area. Kyla began to see traction as her workload picked up over time, but she also wondered could she really be successful only working with pet companies?

Well, thankfully, with the power of the internet, anything is possible, right? Like possible, you get it? You know, dogs have paws. Okay, I'll keep going. Kyla joined pet-related and pet-preneur Facebook groups, offering her skills as a graphic designer/dog lover to those pet companies looking for a new website or fresh branding.

She landed several clients through Facebook alone, but she didn't want to stop there. Cold emails became her next hot ticket to getting her foot in the door, and she spent a weekend emailing every dog store, veterinary office, dog walker, and dog trainer she could find. This outreach strategy paid off to the tune of $20,000 in her first year on top of her full-time job. Once she launched the Docs Designs website and put together a business strategy that included Facebook ads and a more targeted outreach effort, she began to earn an extra $7,000 a month on average. That's right, $7,000 a month, Kyla is projected to earn $84,000 this year in side hustle income alone.

Like so many of our stories, Kyla's side hustle wouldn't be as successful as it is now if she had waited for the perfect moment. In my notes, I have that in quotes, the perfect moment, not gonna happen. She credits the fact that she launched herself into a specific target market without a plan as one of the main reasons she's been so successful. Since Docs Design began, it's paid off in the form of referral clients all around the country and the ability to double her income working only during evenings and some weekends. One of the best parts of this side hustle has been the opportunity to meet other people who love dogs just as much as she does.

Every client from California to New York and lots of places in between has a new great story to tell about their pet. And Kyla loves hearing these stories. She says they're inspiring in their own ways because many of the pet businesses she works with began as side hustles in their own right. It's almost like a side hustle inception, like the movie, right? Taking the skills she's already had has allowed Kyla to work in an industry that she's truly passionate about and she hopes to turn it into her full-time job at some point down the road.

For now, she's able to combine everything she loves into one life. Dogs, graphic design, the job, her side hustle, and the financial freedom that comes with it, they're all rolling over into one great package. That one package, that one life she loves is looking quite fetching. Hey, sorry for all the dog puns there. It just seemed like the right thing to do, but if you felt it was too rough, feel free to send your complaints into the official show cat, Libby Gillibo.

She's not a big fan of dogs herself, so she'll be on your side. And I'll take off soon. It's almost time for me to save for a while. But first, you know, has life got you on a short leash? If so, stop hounding yourself because really anything is possible.

Okay, here's one thing that I actually did wonder about in Kyla's story. It's not usually a great idea to do the same thing for your side hustle that you do for your day job. So I was a little bit surprised that this person is a successful 40-hour week graphic designer and has a side hustle doing similar design services. And she said when we talked to her that her studio has been supportive, so that's great. But the reason why you don't wanna do the same thing for your side hustle isn't only because of some potential conflict with your employer.

It's also because it can be hard to do the same thing all day and then go home and then do it for a couple hours at night. She said something in our notes about how it helps that she has this tightly focused niche for her side hustle. And she is basically like all dogs all the time when it comes to that. So that does make sense, but I do still wonder a bit about doing basically the same thing during the day that you do at night, on the weekends, whenever you have time to fit in your project. So maybe we'll go back to her and ask if she has any other comments on that.

And if so, we'll bring it to you in the weekly recap. But really a fantastic success. Congratulations to Kayla, $7,000 a month, doing design services exclusively for pet companies. Like I said in the beginning, it really does show that trying to serve all the people all the time is not good, getting really specific and saying like, this is my market, these are my people, this is the kind of work that I'm gonna do. And if you don't fit that purview, then there are many designers that can do that for you.

But this is my lane. I'm gonna stay in my lane. And by doing so, at least in this story, but I think as a general rule, she and anyone else who does that is gonna be more successful. All right, much more is coming up. Don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

If you wanna check out today's show notes, you gotta bark up the right tree. That tree is sidehustleschool.com/485. It's not really a tree, by the way. It's a URL, you put it in your browser. Crazy how that works.

Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back tomorrow. This is Chris Guillebeau for Sidehustleschool. [Music]