What It's About
An uber easy side hustle a mom finds right in her backseat.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
To anyone interested in starting a mom’s taxi like Steph, she advises the first step is to let your community know you’re available. There are many people who can’t drive or have to walk. If you don’t offer, no one will know you’re providing a service.
Fun Fact
In America, it is estimated that 26 million of the 50 million students who attend school daily ride the school bus. 54 students are transported by each bus, and there are an estimated 480,000 school buses. The total mileage for all buses is 5,760,000,000!
Notes from Chris
Episode 776
People start side hustles for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes they are looking to create something that they have complete autonomy over, sometimes they are looking to leave a full-time job. And sometimes, they’re just looking to make some extra cash... Steph Holt of sunny Brisbane, Australia fits firmly into this last category. Although she was working and going to school to be a social worker, she found herself once again on maternity leave with kid #5. This meant that she had some extra time on her hands—time that would allow her to do more stuff around the house and drop her kids off at school instead of having them take the bus or walk. And it was during this time that she found more than a few coins and some stale cereal stashed away in her backseat. In Australia, there is a school bus service, but the stops are often public bus stops. And many parents don’t feel comfortable leaving their young children there alone. Being approximately 5-6 miles from their school, Steph was hesitant to let her kids go off on their own. After seeing a large number of kids walking unaccompanied on their way to school one day, Steph got the idea to give rides to other kids in her neighborhood. After all, she was already dropping off and picking up her own two school-aged children—why not make some extra cash while doing so? That’s when her version of “Uber for Kids” was born. The best part is that all the kids she taxis live en route to the school. Some only live about a half mile from the school, but as Steph points out, that is a lot for a young child to walk. Steph’s “Mom bus” is an Isuzu MU-X, which seats 7. That means Steph can haul six passengers. Depending on how many of her own children she is hauling—of which she has four—the minimum she can charge for is two. Only two of her kids are in school. If her two younger ones are staying home, she can taxi up to four other kids. Steph wanted it to be something that was feasible for families to do, so she decided to charge $10 per trip. So if she drops off and picks up one kid each day, that’s $20 per day. Right now, Steph’s average side hustle income is $100 per week although there have certainly been weeks when she’s brought in even more. And every penny adds up! For Steph, this has been a super easy side hustle. She is already going to the school anyway, so it’s also uber-convenient. Steph also shares that it’s very manageable. She had no startup fees and no extra costs except perhaps a small amount of extra fuel. She is making cash in hand for doing something she would be doing regardless. For Steph, she plans to continue to offer her “Uber for kids” while she’s at home with her youngest child.SEE ALSO:
- Rhode Island Mom Has Side Hustle In The Bag: A communications manager and mother of two young children manufactures an innovative solution for a common shopping problem
- Mom-Founded Startup Rents Infant Gear to Tourists: Busy mom in Chicago uses a peer-to-peer sharing platform to earn extra money for her family and help visiting parents get all the baby gear they need for their trip
- Father of 9 Starts “Uber for Tutoring” Hustle: After being frustrated in his search for the right tutors for his many children, a busy father creates a directory that has generated more than 100,000 user profiles
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Resources
CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE
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Quote of the Day
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