ABC News Reporter Dishes Out Profitable Pizza Tour

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And today's story, a Chicago food reporter launches a series of profitable pizza tours, showing Windy City visitors that there's more to life than just the fish. And that's good because gotta say I'm solidly on the side of a good thin crust myself. But I did learn in the research for this episode that there is a thing called tavern style pizza in Chicago that sounds like something I should try the next time I'm there. I have eaten a lot of pizza in my life, and I'm not sure I'm familiar with that kind. Welcome to Side Hustle School.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. Also in this episode, how can you set up a food tour business? It's not just a lot of work or a second job, which it could very easily become, but something that could turn into an asset for you. Here on the program, we are all about assets, all about passive income, anything that can help you achieve your goals or give you the support you need to do whatever you want. Not just working harder, working smarter, working better, and creating independence for yourself.

So with that in mind, here is a shout out to our sponsor, and then stay tuned for ABC News Reporter, Dishes Out Profitable Pizza Tours. [Music]

Steve Delinsky wears many hats. He's the food reporter for Chicago's ABC 7 news team. He runs two podcasts, and he offers media training for chefs. He's a veritable curator of culinary experiences.

He's also the new owner of Pizza City USA Tours, offering weekly pizza tours by both bus and foot. Why did he start this side hustle when he's already got so much going on? Well, he also had a book coming out in the fall of 2018 called Pizza City USA. So Steve figured, why not start a tour business to help bring the book to life? At the time, there was only one other dedicated pizza tour business in Chicago, and a lot of pizza, not to mention a lot of visitors passing through.

He knew that Chicago pizza had been reduced to the deep dish and stuff cliches. But hey, hold the pepperoni. There's more to Midwest pizza than only deep dish and stuffed. What about thin, tavern, artisanal, Neapolitan, Roman Sicilian, and something called Detroit style? Steve dared to challenge the status quo with these questions.

He estimated that there were at least 10 distinct styles in his Chicago pizza round up. So he decided to launch a weekly tour that highlighted these differences, showing guests four styles of pizza in three hours. It began with a Saturday bus tour to four neighborhoods. Next, he added three walking tours, but each focused on a single neighborhood. Throughout the tour, Steve dazzles guests with his encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago history, while leading the groups into the belly of the beast.

That would be the fiery kitchens to show people exactly how the pies are made. In those kitchens, one can expect to engage in lively discussions with the owners and gain a better understanding of the families behind the sauce. So far, business has been pizza-rific, with Steve adding four tour guides to the mix. This salty bunch are affectionately referred to as docents. I love that.

They were trained by Steve and helped lead other tours as well as private events. Pizza City USA Tours has been in operation since May 2018. So less than a year at the time I'm recording this, let's talk about how he brought it out of the oven. With most tour-based side hustles we've featured in the past, they've tried to get started without spending a lot of capital. However, Steve started with $50,000, but pay attention, he used sponsors to help fund it.

He said he did the back of the envelope math and realized that they were to launch with a new website, a ticketing service, hire a bus company, get insurance, do six months of PR with merchandise, shirts, hats, bags, tour badges, et cetera. They did between $40,000 and $50,000. He specifically targeted iconic Chicago brands that were not pizza-related. That way it wouldn't feel like a conflict of interest. And he also only wanted four sponsors so that the merch, T-shirts, and tour badges wouldn't have a lot of clutter.

He found three out of four, saying he was lucky to get them. Let us entertain you restaurants, Goose Island beer, and Johnny's beef. Getting sponsorships to help launch was crucial because otherwise he'd still be paying off his initial investment. One of the reasons for the high cost was the use of a PR firm. This isn't for everyone, but as a reporter, Steve is a big believer in media placement.

So having a PR firm for the first six months was a huge benefit in getting the word out. He's also been hitting as many seminars, events, and book signings as possible to promote the tours. Telling his audience that the tours are the book come to life seems to really resonate with them, especially since the book and the tour company share the same name, Pizza City USA. Currently, the tours are earning net income of between $2,000 and $3,000 a month. In the colder months, he offers bus tours only.

This is Chicago we're talking about. When warmer weather returns in the spring, he'll bring back the walking tours as well as a third Thursday pizza crawl. Bus tours cost $69 and walking tours cost $49. His groups typically hold between 16 and 24 people. Selling out the tour a month into launching was really exciting.

It was fun to see 24 people on a bus eager to learn about and eat Chicago pizza. However, not every tour is a sellout. And in fact, running tours with just a few people can be hard. He's had to market them constantly by reaching out to concierges and tour groups. He's also using a marketing intern to help promote the tours through social media.

Next, Steve's considering a second edition of his book, as well as working toward consistent sellout tours. Once he achieves that, he'd like to add another walking tour. That could be a slice of heaven, or at least really good pizza. [Music]

All right, if you're interested in the food tour business, a couple other episodes that we have featured in the past. Number 648, food tour guide chomps down on $100,000 profit.

I believe that one is based in the Denver, Colorado area. And then way back in episode 201, Travel Rider creates food tours in Marrakech, earned $60,000 annually. You can always go to any episode on the show by just going sidehustleschool.com/ then the episode number. So 648201. Now, in this case, Steve is really smart in how he's setting this up.

He's bringing in the other guides and thinking about how this business can grow beyond just him doing the tours all the time, especially when you're the kind of person like him who really likes doing all the different projects. I also think the key to long-term success here is getting listed in guide books and city directories and all the promotional tourism materials that are distributed every year for any major city. And for a lot of these things, getting listed and endorsed can take a while. There's a little bit of a delay in terms of the preparation for those books and the printing and so on. But once you're there, you'll likely just be renewed every year.

So it can be a great ongoing source of referrals. And the same is true with hotel concierge recommendations because every single day in a big city like Chicago, concierges or just people who work in hotels are always asked for recommendations on what to eat and what to do. If Pizza City USA proves to be popular with their guests and reliable, it's a solid recommendation for them to make, then it will likely become a regular recommendation for years to come. So even though it's a lot of work upfront, not something you should do unless you really believe in the topic. Like if you weren't passionate about pizza, I don't think doing a pizza tour would be a good idea.

But when it's set up properly like this, it does have the potential to produce mostly passive and long-term income, at least down the road. Last but not least, the next time I'm in Chicago, I want to go and check out this tour myself. I was wondering a little bit because I'm vegetarian, so no pepperoni or sausage for me, but I checked out their website and it says they do have an option for that. So pretty cool that they can accommodate different preferences and lifestyles like that. All right, today's show notes.

All right, sidehustleschool.com/809. Come and learn about Pizza City USA. Anything else I mentioned? All my favorite pizza styles. Well, at least one of them.

And pretty soon you can hear about our upcoming side hustle school bootcamp. I'm excited to tell you more about that shortly. All right, be sure to come back tomorrow. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.