This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Today's question and answer episode features our first repeat caller. I actually try to feature as many people as possible.
We have never before repeated a listener question. Well, actually, we're not repeating a listener question. We're just repeating the listener. So if you have actually not had a question answered yet, just let me know. Come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
It's been so much fun this year to hear from so many different listeners with all kinds of different situations, yet similar goals. Similar goals, dreams, aspirations, and perhaps values. All right, so I don't usually repeat, but this was a good question from John, and it's been 200 days since his last one. His last question was, I believe it was episode 1100 or somewhere around there. Anyway, that was a totally different question.
He's now wondering about how to charge for a travel service, especially in the post COVID-19 world. What new elements or dynamics are introduced? Might there be some opportunity now that didn't exist before? And he has a specific idea, so I'll let him share what that's about, and then I will share some comments on it. How to charge for a travel service post quarantine.
That's what we'll talk about in this episode after this message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hey, Chris, my name is John, and I have a question at the cross section of travel and side hustles. And I thought, who better to ask than you, my friend. I've been exploring places for me and someone very close to me to visit. She's on the West coast of the US and I'm on the East coast.
And with all the quarantining, we're really excited to be able to get out and meet up and see each other here soon. I've really enjoyed the process of scouring flights and times and dates to cities within our budgets. And I'd like to do this as a side hustles for others in the same boat. I really have enjoyed it. I love connecting people and this just checks a lot of boxes for me.
So my question is, that's a two-parter. How would you recommend I charge for such a service? And also what are ways that I could find clients and people in the same boat? Thanks, keep fighting the good fight, Chris. We need you now more than ever.
A lot of uncertainty and I always love your message and I always love the great work you and your team are doing. Hey, John, thank you so much, I appreciate that. And you are needed too. Congratulations on being our first ever repeat listener question or repeat listener caller, not repeat listener question as mentioned. So let's talk about this idea.
I think the challenge here is what is the service exactly? Because just thinking about it very practically, sites like kayak.com or Google Flights, probably some others have pretty developed filters that will show people in real time like all the different options for flight deals from different cities. So if you're like, I'm in Los Angeles, I want to go somewhere in the Midwest and I'm not sure what the best deals are. There are filters that show you that immediately. Same thing if you're coming from the East Coast.
I don't know if there's something that shows somebody exactly where to meet in the middle or where the most budget optimal location could be for two people coming from different parts of the country. But that's really specific. I think a lot of this data is available and because it's real time, it's kind of hard to beat that. Like anybody can go and see it and learn most of what they need to know. The only thing I could think of is the model that Charlotte McGee started with her business called Whisk Away.
This was episode 346, ESL teacher turned travel planner sends clients on surprise vacations. And in her business, she's doing quite a lot of research in terms of not just picking the city, but also lots of activities and overall itinerary. In some cases, planning the entire trip for someone. So there could be something there. And in terms of what to charge, I think maybe a flat fee is probably best.
Like not trying to do this hourly or something, but just here's my flat fee for this particular service. But as I said, I think it would be difficult to say, my service is showing long distance couples or friends where they can meet up. I think you'll have to go further than that. So maybe a good question to consider is, what else do other people in this situation need? I don't know exactly what the answer is, but John is in that situation, so he probably does.
Or at least it wouldn't be that hard to figure it out. So just my two cents there, as always. Thank you again, John. Thank you listeners. You are amazing.
Keep sending me your questions. We've got a bunch to go through. That's why I'm doing the classroom episode every other week now, just because I have so many. But I want to feature as many as possible. So do keep them coming and be sure to do something to get closer to the goal that you have.
The goal that you have, that thing that you're working toward, whether it's a side hustle, something totally different. Whatever it is, I am cheering you on. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
