This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, greetings. What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you're here.
This is the weekly recap. We have just finished week number 42 of season three. This week featured swimwear for women with D cups and up, a mystery trip coordinator who's on track to bring in $500,000 this year, and a dating app, Ghost Rider. It's good mixing stuff in addition to some others. Now I have a very enjoyable audio update for you today from one of our previously featured stories.
It is fun and awesome. I've listened to it three times myself. It's all about poisonous toads, a woman who's doing very well, making a lot of money in the poisonous toad industry. So, you know, just hold on. It's coming up in a bit.
Before that, I wanna talk with you about a topic I'll call one small change can make all the difference. Okay, one small change can make all the difference. I got to thinking about this topic after working on episode 1017, which was Monday's episode, newlyweds operate campground booking biz from RV. This was probably my favorite story this week. And partly it's because I know Heath and Alyssa, the couple that's featured in this story, but I had no idea their business was going so well with more than $200,000 in bookings from the app that they've made in a single peak month this past summer, $200,000 in bookings in just in one month alone.
That was the summer period. So there's gonna be a lot more campground bookings when the weather's nice, but still. Now it's just doing fabulously, fabulously well. And something I didn't mention in the episode is that Heath turned down what he described as a life-changing amount of money to buy the app. A larger company came along and wanted to pay him for it, but he chose to remain independent.
He wants to continue growing it himself. So naturally I respect that value and it couldn't happen to a better, nicer, harder working person. Still, let's look at the business part of this, okay? How did this project come to be? Again, it's an app that helps you book a campground reservation if you're traveling around the United States.
We often look at a common origin story of a problem in search of a solution. Usually hear that probably at least two times a week. For example, in the swimwear story, these two women started a swimwear line for other women with larger sizes because they looked around and didn't see many vendors who were making swimsuits that would work for them. And they thought, well, there's a bunch of other women out there with this issue, so we should take this on, okay? So problem in search of a solution.
And that's exactly what you have here in this story, the newlyweds operating the campground booking biz. There was no way to book a campground spot online. They're traveling in an RV all across the country. And it's kind of frustrating that you actually have to show up at the campground to see if there's a space available for you. And there are thousands of other campers doing this every single day, which seems like a huge problem, and it was.
So Heath and a business partner went on to solve it, essentially. So that's great. However, here's the key point. One small change can make all the difference. So there's more.
A very, very important step two that has led to this business doing so well. And again, if you hear the episode, you'll hear the whole details. But basically, they were not charging enough to the campgrounds, but they realized the campgrounds probably couldn't pay more 'cause a lot of them are small and independent. And even though this service was gonna bring them more business, it was gonna be a hard sell to get them to pay a more sustainable rate. And so they changed to charging a $5 booking fee for all the campers.
And that booking fee goes straight to them upon making a reservation. So the campgrounds never have to deal with that processing fee at all, essentially. So making this change allowed the campgrounds to actually keep more of their money in the first place. Campers are happy to pay a $5 booking fee, $5 to know that the place you're gonna drive three or four hours to is actually gonna have a spot for you, totally worth it. And for the business, it made a huge difference because all of a sudden, you know, they were charging a few hundred dollars a month for each campground to use this app.
And all of a sudden, $5 a camper, well, you've got relationships, partnerships with campgrounds all across the United States that continues to grow. Again, you've got thousands of campers. So no wonder you can end up with a $200,000 booking month, you know, in June or July or whatever. And overall, they've done more than a million dollars in, I think it's just a year and a half or something. Okay, so tremendous success, but the idea is not enough.
Solving the problem is not enough. Turning the idea into a product or service, in this case, an app, is also not enough. Okay, you have to have the right revenue model. And without that change, without making that tweak, which again is pretty simple, you know, their app could still be successful. This is a really key point.
It's not like they would have failed, right? Their app could still be successful, just not anywhere near the level that they're experiencing now. So that's why that change has made such a difference. And I want you to think about that in your business. If you have a business already, if you've got a side hustle, or if you're thinking about designing your idea, think about that revenue model and ask yourself, like, what can you take away from this experience?
What can you take away from Heath's journey of, you know, starting this app, having the idea, first of all, learning to develop the app, getting a partnership and so on, and then making that critical, critical switch, you know, after they've been doing it a bit. So for me, I asked myself that same question, you know, what can I take away from it? I found it challenging, I found this whole story challenging in a good way, because I often plateau in my projects. You know, I often get to the stage where something is working, you know, well enough, good enough, but I don't take that critical second step. All right, so my encouragement to you today, don't follow my lead necessarily, follow Heath's.
And of course, in the end, you want to follow your dreams and your ideas, but that's why I present these stories to you every day to get you thinking, to ask yourself what if, and perhaps to help nudge you along the way. Okay, in just a moment, we're going to go to that audio update. This one features Janine, who gets paid to remove poisonous frogs in Florida. Yeah, I mean, what else can we say about that? Well, she's going to say a couple of things about it, I think you'll enjoy it.
But first, here's a message from our sponsor, really, really appreciate them allowing the show to be completely free to our listeners. So I want to say thanks to them, and then we'll have that message from Janine. [Music]
Hi, this is Janine Tilford, owner of Toad Busters. My side hustle project was featured on episode number 332. Since we last spoke, business has been hopping.
We have increased our annual clientele from 40 our first year, to over 600 in our three years of business. Toad Busters also went internationally viral this year, when we had an explosion of baby toads right here in Palm Beach Gardens. That week, we were featured in almost every top selling publication and several news and radio shows, from People Magazine, the Washington Post, and the Love Doctors Radio Show. It was totally awesome. I'm still a high school teacher, but with 11 employees now, and the addition of installing Toad Barrier Fencing, we are no longer a side business.
I hope to be working full-time Toad Busting in the near future. Oh no, well, I got to run. We just got to report that toads are taking over a nearby neighborhood by the thousands. I got to go run and catch them now, but it was great to catch up, and I'll have to catch you guys later. Thanks for checking in and have a Toad Free Day.
[Music]
Very cool, congratulations Janine. Thank you so much for putting some effort into that audio update. That was fun. I'm so glad that business has been hopping with 11 employees. Can you imagine, when I started this show a few years ago now, which is crazy, right?
Like almost three years, I knew that there were a whole bunch of different ways to make money that people have never really talked about, and that's why I wanted to do this, to show you that you don't necessarily have to become a life coach. You also don't have to go and take out $100,000 in loans to open a retail store or to do whatever it is that you think the Shark Tank business model is. There's all kinds of other options for you, but I never imagined that someone could have 11 employees to help homeowners and businesses deal with this problem of poisonous toads. Okay, so it is totally awesome, as Janine said, and you can follow along with her at boofobusters.com, just in case you're ever curious about how does this work. If it's the business idea of your dreams, maybe you can go and learn about it from her.
If not, at least you can appreciate what she's doing, and again, just how many ways there are to make money. [Music]
I've got more of those ways coming up for you this week. It's exciting. I'm going to talk about a coffee shop. I believe it's a coffee shop in Scotland, if I'm not mistaken.
We're going to talk about an unplanned modeling career that ends up taking off, and of course, so much more. So before I leave, it's the end of the week. I want to say thank you to a few people, and that list begins with you, our listener. So everybody out there, you know, you are the reason we make this show for 1,000 plus episodes and counting. You know, my commitment is to support you and your quest to create that new source of income.
If you've been thinking about something for a while, but haven't taken action, or, you know, to go back to the top of the episode, if you've got something that's working a little bit, but you're thinking maybe there's a tweak I can make, maybe there's one small change I can make to have, you know, a big success like Heath and Alyssa have, well, it's my greatest hope that we can help you find that, or at least support you along the way in your journey. I want you to know that you're not alone. There's a whole global community of people who are all part of this movement. I also want to say thanks to a few of our team members, especially producer Chuck Reed, community liaison Jed Chang, our content manager Tina Hart, and the show cat Libby Gillibow. Show cat has been with us actually all 1,000 episodes as well.
Doesn't do a whole lot, but you know, gets offended if I don't mention her. Okay, thanks Lib. Together we are part of the Onward Project, which is curated by a bestselling author, also a good friend of mine, someone I look up to and respect very much, Gretchen Rubin. Be sure you check out her show, Happy with Gretchen Rubin, as well as Happier in Hollywood, and a new program from Melissa Urban called Do the Thing. All of those shows are available wherever you listen to podcasts.
And if you're enjoying mine, I'd be super grateful if you would leave a quick rating and review for me. Just takes a second and it helps other people discover the show. And also tell your friends, or even better, show them how to subscribe. Tell them it's free. Tell them it might give them an idea.
They don't even have to go out and catch poisonous toads, because there are other options. Okay, lots of other options. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow and every day next week for more stories and ideas. Our episodes go online every day at 6 o' 1 a.m. Eastern time.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
