1012
8 min 42 sec

Mexican Swine Flu Leads to Virtual Language Lab

Faced with a dramatic loss in income when language students stop coming to Mexico, this creative engineer reinvents the model and builds a $1.5 million side hustle.
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What It's About

A disaster threatens a language school, but opens a new opportunity for this savvy programmer.

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
SEO & Marketing
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Have an interesting side hustle idea? Ray suggests looking for what you are offering by using Google Keyword tools to see if it's viable. If there are not enough monthly searches, consider another idea.

Fun Fact

Ray wakes up every day and does what he says he is going to do. He plans his week two weeks in advance using a simple app called Wunderlist and every day he does what is on his list. He has not missed the gym, martial arts practice or meditation in years. He said it gets easier with practice as you get a better idea of what you are capable of.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1012
In 2008, Ray Blakney was in charge of operations and marketing for a Mexican language school when the swine flu struck. A lot of U.S. news outlets presented over-the-top, plague-like coverage of the event, and he was worried that students would stop crossing the border for classes. His worries proved to be well-founded, as the upcoming classes almost completely emptied. This was hugely problematic for not only Ray’s income, but even more so for the teachers.

But, hope was restored for all involved when Ray came up with an inventive idea. One that would not only benefit him greatly in the long run, but also a lot of teachers … as well as students!

Ray decided that he would start his very own language classes … via Skype. When he started, it was a novel concept and would give teachers a realistic opportunity to continue earning a living by teaching online. He called it LiveLingua.com.

Ray had a background in computer programming, having taken jobs as a programmer for Fortune 500 companies. This knowledge helped him build the website for Live Lingua—which started with just five simple pages. He also says that “the first version looked embarrassingly bad.”

But he began implementing SEO into his website and it soon started to shoot up the Google rankings.

Ray ran the marketing side of things—his Mexican wife, who was, and still is, a teacher, oversaw the classes. Roughly two months down the line, demand began to skyrocket, so they hired more teachers to ease the workload. All of these classes were conducted remotely through Skype … so you could say “The Skype was the limit.”

Ray had found a winner with Live Lingua.

After six months, he was bringing $4,000-$5,000 a month with the side hustle. All through SEO marketing, and with only a startup cost of $59.99 for a Bluehost annual subscription, Ray was now earning more than his full-time position as a director at the other language school, where he had been working at the time. He didn’t quit his full-time position right away. He stayed there for another twelve months, scared that his success was just a fluke.

As of today, Live Lingua generates annual revenue of $1.5 million, and Ray has staff working for him throughout the world, all remotely. Language classes cost students as little as $10.99 per hour.

Among several other projects, he’s now working on a podcast called the Anomalous Educator, which launched recently with the goal of helping teachers make money online as a side hustle—or to even replace their 9 to 5 full-time income. He thinks teachers aren’t paid enough money, which inspired him to launch the podcast.

It all started with a $59 web host subscription, and a clever idea in response to the swine flu.

 
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Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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Resources

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Quote of the Day
"If the idea is financially feasible, then do competitor research. See how many people are offering what you are offering and honestly answer the question "Can I do better?" If you answer yes, move on. Get it up and out as fast as possible. Analysis paralysis keeps most good ideas from getting off the ground. Put up a website and start promoting what you have to offer as quickly as you can. That's it. If the first time does not work, rinse, lather, and repeat."
—Ray Blakney #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau