This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there friends, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. Every day I'm bringing you questions and answers, stories, case studies, tips, tactics, all designed to support you in your quest to create a new source of income and to do so without quitting your job, without spending a lot of money, and by using a skill you already have. Let's talk about that today in the form of a question from an experienced architect hoping to make a change.
He still wants to use those professional skills, but in a way that doesn't rely on trading time for money. What should he consider? Now, this is a good example of somebody considering how to go from being paid an hourly wage to an unlimited wage. And you might think, hey, for an architect or some other professional, yes, it's an hourly wage, but it's a good hourly wage. Now, the thing is that's true, but it's ultimately still trading time for money.
And you might be okay with that some of the time, but wouldn't it be great to also be making passive income? That's the kind of money that's not just one and done. It's something you create that can continue to bring in earnings for a long period of time, maybe forever, maybe not forever. But the point is there is a clear distinction between trading time for money and passive income. So let's talk about it.
Quick shout out to our sponsor, and then we'll hear from Mike. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Mike Klaus from Booth Bay, Maine. I found your show after buying the Money Tree book. I really love what you're doing. I'm an architectural drafter and have been designing and drawing for over 30 years.
I draw construction plans for new homes, cool rustic barns, as well as a lot of kitchen and back, as well as closet remodel projects. I draw using CAD software and my work independently for a handful of architects, custom builders, and homeowners. I'm thinking about starting a side hustle, and here's why. I currently trade my billable hours for dollars and need better leverage for my financial future. I don't have or really want employees.
So my question is, what ideas would you have for me to offer a service or a product that would allow me to leverage my skillset in a new and better way? Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thanks, Chris, keep up the great work. It's really refreshing and inspiring. Thank you, bye.
- Hey, thanks, Mike, really appreciate you reaching out. Thanks for listening up in Maine. So let's see here. Mike is definitely on the right track in defining his goals. Constraints are helpful in narrowing down options.
In this case, he wants better leverage for his financial future, which I think is a great phrase. So with that in mind, the first thing I thought of is, you know, these websites like Apartment Therapy and there's a bunch of others, they do these makeover features, which are really popular. And now there's all these TV shows as well. So it's really a whole industry of makeovers essentially. So the first thing I think is, selling some kind of series of templates.
You know, Mike wants to create passive income. He's got this skill, professional skill. So I wonder about selling a series of templates. You know, X easy ways to redo your kitchen and bath or remake your bonus room for $1,000 or less. Create your most manly man cave.
Those are the first few things that came to mind. Now there's probably a lot of online articles for those topics, which shows you that they're popular. So it's not necessarily a bad thing. But most of the online articles just give you some tips. It's just kind of doesn't actually tell you how to do each part of it.
Especially if there's any kind of actual building work involved. It's not just about, you know, buying something and putting it in the corner. There's more to it, right? So to take this further, because Mike is an architectural drafter, he's actually drawing construction plans for homes. So much more than just, you know, redoing your closet.
What if he sold complete plans for something like a tiny house or an ADU? Which is what accessory dwelling unit. I think that's what it stands for. Basically like a tiny house or something that goes in your backyard or in some space that you have access to. A lot of people are interested in that now.
There's clearly value for it. And then of course he could just sell complete plans for houses because, you know, people do that as well. So I think creating some kind of product in that direction is a good idea. And my second thought is Mike may or may not want to brand himself. Like he might just want to sell templates.
That's fine if that's the case. But if he's interested in the possibility of free organic traffic, actually building a loyal following, he might want to consider becoming something like, you know, the makeover guy or the ADU guy or something to that effect. Where people are following him to get updates, to get tips, you know, to hear more about how to do this. And so with that path, he would need to begin developing free content in the form of YouTube tutorials, blog posts or something else. So he needs to develop, you know, both the product that's for sale and something that's more of a lead generation tool or something that's helpful to people and to get them to subscribe.
So that whole path is a longer road, but it might be more fulfilling in the longterm. So that's why I mentioned that as well. But I definitely think there's some options there and Mike is asking all the right questions and thinking about constraints and focusing on his professional skills. All good things. I hope that's helpful to him and somebody else out there perhaps.
Listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. I'm so glad to be able to make this show for you every single day. Do come back tomorrow. Be sure you're subscribed.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
