This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
So I have long had a goal of every listener who believes in the values of earning additional income, whether or not they want to quit their job, being able to earn at least $500 a month. That number is somewhat arbitrary, but it's meant to be a floor, not a ceiling. And I like it because it's both obtainable and meaningful. You can't live off $500 a month, at least most of us can't, but for a lot of people, it does make a significant difference in their lifestyle, especially if they're trying to save or pay off debt, or if they've just never done this before, it can feel really freeing. Now, the other reason why I like starting with a goal like that is because once you can achieve a basic level of income for most projects, it's usually not that hard to increase it, or at least it's not twice as hard to go to $1,000 a month, for example, or four times as hard to go to $2,000.
So growth becomes exponential at a certain point. And there are two ways to grow, especially with a service like the one you'll hear about in today's listener question. It comes to us from a South Carolina woman who's making money with face painting, and she would like to grow, she would like to make more money by selling more to her customers. What should she try? [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Holly from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and my side hustle is face painting.
My question is about creating more income streams from this project. Other face painters do things like videos or offering courses or sometimes selling paint to other face painters. But I was thinking about going a different way and selling more to my customers. I thought about pairing up with other vendors like photographers and balloon twisters to offer more package deals for events or something like that. But I was wondering if you have any other ideas that I could use to monetize this side hustle.
Thank you so much, and I'm really excited that you are continuing the show in 2020. - Okay, well let's jump in here. Last week we talked about different categories of side hustles. We kind of broke it down between products and services. Well, this one clearly is a service, and there's also a clear fork in the road here because Holly wants to diversify her income, create more income streams, so she could A, start making courses and selling supplies to other aspirational face painting artists, like she mentioned lots of other people do, or B, find a way to grow through the service itself.
Now, the first one involves a shift towards a more productized model, which is good for a lot of people, but I think it's great that Holly is thinking more about this second approach, expanding more through the service itself, because ultimately you can sell to more customers or you can sell more to existing customers. And much of the time, inexperienced side hustlers or new business owners tend to focus on the first option exclusively. They always think, oh, I have to reach more people. I need more followers. I need more sales, I need more clients.
And all of those things are good, but often there's this group of people that are staring at you, just waiting for their face to be painted, or if it's not quite like that, the point is you already have a group of people who trust and follow you. Are you serving them to the best of your ability? So Holly mentioned partnering up with other vendors or service providers to offer some sort of bundle or package. I agree, that's interesting. And the overarching sense I have is that one way or another, gaining a foothold, gaining more of a foothold, let's say in the world of event planning, is the way to go.
And when I say the world of event planning, I mean specifically working through event planners, because a lot of people go to an event planner when they're planning a wedding, a corporate event, or any number of other occasions that face painting could be perfect for. And established event planners are often the ones who do the subcontracting. I know that myself from putting out events like the World Domination Summit, with our opening and closing party, for example, I work with a wonderful event planner. Her name is Shauna, she's actually part of our team. And she is the one who goes out and works with the actual talent, with whatever stations we have.
She sorts out permits, she sorts out electrical, that's what an event planner does. And so if Holly had a number of package options, like she mentioned, that might become an income stream of its own, and potentially reaching some different people than she's not reaching already. Now, if you think of event planners as being your clients, or at least one client base, how would you find them? That's the next question, which is likely through some form of networking. It could just mean reaching out, being friendly, explaining what you do, or perhaps showing up at some kind of trade show or similar.
This is a business that's built on relationships, especially in terms of working with those event planners. And being dependable and reliable goes a long way in getting repeat gigs and referrals. So that's my idea for Holly. Thank you so much for calling in. Listeners, do you have a question?
Come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. As you can tell, we're featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Thank you so much for listening. More is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "S sodasol School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
