1359
7 min 55 sec

Land Surveyor Paints a Sign Hustle

When a land surveyor and father of three can’t take his job anymore, he experiments with business ideas until he lands on something that doesn’t feel sketchy.
Mural Painting Service

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What It's About

A father sees the sign from his own painted mural and it opens a new hustle.

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Painting & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium

Words of Wisdom

Shawn says: “There's nothing like being your own boss and finding success in something that you’re proud of and built from the ground up. I truly feel like this is what I was meant to do and my only wish is that I had discovered that in myself much earlier in life.”

Fun Fact

Murals and street art have had a large role in shaping popular culture. Artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairy have become famous for both their unique styles, but also the political and not-so-subtle messages shown in their works.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1359
In 2015, Shawn Fitzwater was working as a land surveyor—but he hated his job and wanted to find a way out. The change was a long time coming. Like many young people he left high school with hopes, dreams, and aspirations of achieving something great. Yet here he was, twenty years later, a father of three and still doing the same thing he was back then. But what would he do? He’d spent half his life refining a single skill and felt like he couldn’t do anything else.

When 2018 rolled around, things had gotten worse. Shawn had resorted to driving for Uber with the family car to make ends meet. For him, it was a low point, and he had many hours between rides to dwell on what he considered a huge failure.

Still, he chose to use the time between rides in a productive way. He started drawing pictures in his notebook. Soon, that spark of creativity led to something much larger.

Shawn decided he’d paint a mural of TV characters on his oldest son's bedroom wall. Once he got started, he already knew he loved it. He got lost in the process and felt like maybe, just maybe he’d found a business idea that was palette-able.

Before finishing the mural he knew this would be his next side hustle. He’d paint children's murals alongside Ubering and figure out a way to connect the dots. In his excitement, he decided to film a progress video of the half-finished mural and post it to Facebook. He wanted to try and market this new service straight away.

Fast forward one week, and Shawn was shopping at the grocery store. There, he bumped into a restaurant owner who’d seen his video. The owner asked Shawn to paint a sign for his restaurant. Just like that, with zero setup costs and minimal marketing, in August 2018, Fitz Handpainted Signs and Murals was in business! From there, jobs kept coming. Soon he was painting business signs, murals, and walls all over town. It had all happened so fast that Shawn was still borrowing a ladder from a friend to complete the work.

The bottom line is that it led to success. Shawn is now making a full-time living from his sign business. He’s caught up on all his bills and home repayments, taken his family on vacation, and even has a healthy savings account.
 He’s also realized that if you just keep trying, eventually you’ll find the right fit. I guess that’s the mural of the story.

 
  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
  • Learn more about Shawn and his sign/mural painting business at his website, FitzSigns.com.
SEE ALSO: Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work! Yours in the revolution, cg-sig-newsletter
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Quote of the Day
"There's nothing like being your own boss and finding success in something that you’re proud of and built from the ground up."
—Shawn Fitzwater #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau