Music Lover Strikes Chord with Guitar Flipping Hustle

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

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Listen up, my friends, if you wanna make money soon, there is nothing like a pure and simple reselling model. It's probably the quickest and least complicated thing you can jump into. It's not necessarily the best thing for everyone. It's not necessarily the best thing for the rest of your life. But again, if you wanna make money soon, there's nothing like a pure and simple reselling model.

So today's story features a music lover who strikes the right chord with her guitar flipping hustle. She is a self-proclaimed collector of things and turns her guilty pleasure into a profitable side hustle that brings in over $2,000 a month. Now, in some ways she does this by buying and restoring guitars, but there's a big lesson here because restoration can mean something very, very simple. Even if you aren't good at fixing things, which is, hello, me, I don't fix anything. Even so, there are still ways to make subtle improvements to something you purchase and then resell for a profit.

Like I said, important lesson here. I'll talk more about it at the end of the story. I'll also give you a couple of other examples as well. So a legit success, a deconstruction of how she does it, and perhaps an idea for you. All of that is coming up after this quick thank you to our sponsor.

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29-year-old Daniella Flores is already a seasoned side hustler. She's been doing it for years. It all started as a way to help her pay off her debt, but has since evolved to serve a greater purpose. That purpose is to live a more sustainable life and eventually gain financial freedom. So it came as no surprise when Daniella's wife, Mark, began experimenting with a side hustle of her own.

Mark has been in the music scene for years and especially loves guitars. In fact, she says it's kind of an obsession. As a self-proclaimed collector of things, she ended up accumulating a lot of guitars through the years. And we all know that life can have financial ups and downs. During one of the dry spells, Mark decided to sell some old guitars that she had no use for anymore.

This gave her a much needed extra boost of cash. As time went on, she realized she could make even more money if she restored parts of the guitars. With just a few fixes, like simply replacing a rusty screw and doing a quick paint job, the price could go up by as much as 40%. But it's got her gears turning. What if she bought and flipped guitars as a side hustle?

She already had plenty of inventory on hand and this would give her an excuse to buy more guitars. It was the perfect scenario. She could buy a guitar she was interested in and enjoy it for a while. Then when she was ready to sell it, she could flip it and end up making money from the process. It was music to her ears.

She began scouring websites like eBay and Craigslist. With her extensive knowledge, she already had a pretty good idea of which ones would be high ticket items. For example, brands like Gibson and Fender are solid, reliable hits. Her passion for product allowed her to know the ins and outs of what was in high demand and also what the upcoming trends might be. She used this knowledge to buy guitars that fit those trends while they were still cheap.

Over time, she found more specialized websites to look for guitars and parts like Reverb and Sweetwater, which we will link up in the show notes. Through her buying, she began to pick up on more knowledge, like how much money people will spend on a brand, condition or type of guitar. This all started a year and a half ago. As she's learned how to fine tune her hustle, she now makes at least $1,500 a month from flipping guitars and that is on a bad month. She makes $3,000 or more on a good month and those months are usually around the holidays or in the summer when people are wanting to pick up a new hobby.

She says there's no trick for what she's doing. There's no big secret. She says it just takes research and asking yourself how you can be competitive in a market. Like all side hustles, it's necessary to find out what people are willing to pay for the product and how much your time is worth. Mark and Daniela are excited to see what progress will occur this holiday season.

Both of them now have side hustles that are bringing in $2,000 or more a month. It sounds like this couple has struck the right chord. [Music]

All right, like I said, this is a pure and simple model. It's something that's not that complicated to do and a lot of people can do it in a lot of different fields, a lot of different categories with a lot of different kinds of items. So let's talk briefly about restoration.

Now I loved what I learned from her in the notes. Perhaps she does more extensive restoration, but what I read, the example I read was something like fixing this rusty screw or doing a quick paint job. So those are obviously really simple things. And as I said, the price could go up by 40% just by doing that. So in other words, some of these kinds of fixes that can really increase the value of something are not that complicated.

And you can apply this in different fields, again, different categories with computer equipment or camera equipment or other music gear or all kinds of stuff, really. I mean, like there's just so many different categories. You think for yourself, okay, what do I know about? What am I interested in? And you generally wanna think about items that cost a decent amount so that you can profit a decent amount.

Like if you're an expert in something that sells for 10 or $20, you're not gonna be that successful because even if you have a good profit margin, you're not gonna be making much money per item. So imagine a profit margin of 20%, for example. If you've got an item that costs $1,000, let's say a nice guitar or something, you're gonna make $200 with that 20% profit margin. If you've got something that costs $10, well, you're gonna make $2. Same profit margin, but very different bottom line.

So it doesn't have to cost $1,000, but you want something that's gonna be at least $50 to $100 unless you're moving a lot of items all the time. You do want it to be something substantial. And of course, you can also have a lower profit margin with higher priced items and still come out well. So in that example, if you only had a 10% profit margin, you would still make $100 with a guitar. But with a $10 item, you would just make $1.

Not so great. So there's a lot more I could say about this. We could do a whole extended cut about reselling. We probably should at some point, or I'll talk more about it in Cytosol Society, just 'cause I know it's something that a lot of people are interested in. And as I said, it's also something that is pure and simple.

You can jump right in. But for now, at least I hope I've given you an idea. If not for yourself, perhaps for someone you know, feel free to pass this on to them. And as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including those links I mentioned, links to everything I talked about actually, are at sidehustleschool.com/713.

That is episode 713. You can also join the waiting list for our upcoming relaunch of Cytosol Society right on that page. I would love to get you more involved in our community. That's it for today. Thank you so much for listening.

I'll be back again tomorrow. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Cytosol School. [Music]