Lyft Driver Bags Luggage Storage Hustle For Tourists

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

[Music]

I love simple projects. A simple business idea, well executed, can be much more interesting than a grand vision that never gets implemented because it's too complicated or requires too much money, too many steps in the process or for whatever reason. Welcome to Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. I have the privilege and honor of bringing you these stories every single day.

We've got a community of people out there from all over the world who are interested in creating freedom for themselves through the power of a second income, or a third income, or just anything you can do to not be dependent on a single paycheck. Now, in this story, a Nashville Lyft driver noticed that many of her passengers were carting their luggage all over town just because they didn't have a place to store it before going to their hotel or after checking out. She followed up on this idea and created a luggage storage service, and she did so within about 10 minutes. That's right, you could call it the 10 minute startup, the simple business idea that worked, a case study in just do it already, stop waiting, or the small idea that brings in an extra $1,000 a month for her. I'm calling it Lyft driver bags storage hustle for tourists.

Stay tuned. It's coming up in just about 30 seconds. [Music]

Cecilia Ebrahim is always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to earn money. She owned a recording studio for her own music. She started a women-only rideshare service.

She bought a giant touchscreen mirror for photo booth pictures at events. And during her free time, she drove for Lyft. Driving people around was fun. She enjoyed meeting tourists who were eager to explore Nashville. She listened to their stories and offered suggestions on where to eat and what to see.

Along the way, she kept noticing something. Many of those Lyft customers would carry their luggage all over town while they were sightseeing. It looked exhausting. Surely they'd rather not have to lug all their belongings around. One day, she got to talking to two passengers about it.

They said they'd be willing to pay $5 per hour for someone to store their luggage for them in between hotel check-ins, flights, or sightseeing adventures. The idea seemed ripe for a side hustle and it was gonna be an easy one to test out. Cecilia already knew it was a widely experienced problem. She already drove for Lyft and could manage picking up and delivering luggage. She already had an extra room in her music studio for storage.

All she needed was her first customer. She dropped those passengers off at their location, pulled over to the side of the road and immediately bought a domain, musiccityluggagelockers.com. It cost her just $10 and she also claimed a free Facebook page for the business. All in all, it took about 10 minutes. Then her phone dinged with another Lyft request.

She picked up those passengers. She told them about her new idea. Amazingly, they were heading to a luggage storage service, the only one in town. Within a few minutes, Cecilia had met her only local competitor, a man with a pickup truck and a storage shed. Now, some might say that Cecilia was just really lucky that day to have an idea, begin working on it and meet her rival all within the same hour.

But she thinks she's just mindful of the problems people are facing around her and open to finding ways to solve them. Over the next couple of days, she built a bare bones website, listed her phone number and not a week later, got her first call. Before long, the phone was ringing every few days. Not everyone hired her, of course, but travelers were looking for a service like this and she was among the first two people to act on it. The $5 per hour storage fee turned out to be fairly lucrative and along with optional pickup, drop off and airport trip fees at $20 to $25 each, she earned more than $200 that first month with only a few hours of work.

The key wasn't just that musiccityluggagelockers existed as a service, but the Cecilia bent over backwards for her customers. She loved helping people, sometimes even if the pickups were inconvenient. And as a result, her five star ratings began to soar on her Facebook page as well as on a new Yelp profile she'd made. That September, she had her first $1,000 month. The only challenge was she didn't allow people to just stop by her music studio at any time.

Everything was by appointment only, so she couldn't access tourists who needed a more on demand service. So when other luggage storage companies started popping up within a couple months, with prices as low as $7 per bag for a whole day, she knew something had to change. In December, Cecilia purchased a 100 year old house with a restaurant and wellness center in it. Now she had access to a lot more storage room in the restaurant and full day access for customers, which meant that people could stop in at any time rather than having to make an appointment. She also changed her pricing structure to $10 per person per day, which is cheaper than her competitors if you have more than one back.

Though it's not quite as lucrative as $5 per hour, it opens her service up to a much larger market. And since she already has a restaurant with staff, she can operate that luggage storage service without having to be there. This made Cecilia the top pick for larger groups of tourists. They could all pay by the person rather than by the bag, and they could get everything picked up and delivered for $50 flat, which made it a lot easier for groups to organize. So even though other services were getting more singles and couples with just one or two bags, Cecilia started getting frequent visits from those larger groups with more customers.

After a disappointing experience with online advertising, she's now determined to do all of her marketing for free. Accordingly, she's active on social media. She asks people to review her on those Yelp and Facebook pages and reaches out to tour operators to let them know her service is around. She's even started to get referrals from Airbnb hosts she's never met. But competition is only growing more fierce.

So to stand out, Cecilia is looking to expand the ballet portion of her business with better group pick-up and drop-off rates. It'll mean higher ticket orders, but she's even more excited that it'll get her outside, interacting directly with travelers. After all, helping people enjoy their Nashville experience is why she started in the first place. [Music]

I'm telling you, my friends, there are opportunities everywhere. There are opportunities in front of you every single day.

What simple idea can you spot? So here's a challenge for you. As you go through your day, identify some kind of service that you could provide. And you don't necessarily have to take action on this idea. If it's not for you, if there's something that's better for you to do, or if you're already full up on projects, then that's fine.

But again, practicing this power of observation is key. It's critical. It can help you in all kinds of ways. So as you go through your day, identify some kind of service you could provide. Opportunities are everywhere.

You know what else is true? Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. That's why I love sharing these stories with you. I often hear from our listeners who are taking action on the stories, using them as inspiration for their own jumping off point, pursuing an idea that's completely different. You know, whatever it is, I don't have to take credit for it.

I'm just happy to know that people are doing something. So if you want to check out the show notes for today's episode, including links to everything I mentioned, go to sidehustleschool.com/948. 948, much more is coming up. Be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.