This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Welcome to a new month. It is November 2020. This also happens to be episode 1401, 1401. Last but not least, the US election is coming up in just two days. Of course, lots of people have voted early this year, but the official election is in two days from now. You could
be listening later and an asteroid may have hit the earth, you know, who knows? So many new things, so much happening in the season. Of course, we all continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. So just a lot of stuff in the mix these days. I hope you are taking care of yourself. I hope you're as well as possible. Now in today's story,
I do have a good story for you today. So maybe that'll help a bit. In today's story, an ambitious pharmacist creates an online course for aspiring pharmacy techs. This is very new, just launched in the summer of 2020. It's already bringing in $2,000 a month. I'd be surprised if it
doesn't grow quite a bit in the months and years to come. So this is really a wonderful, you know, almost archetypal example of the kind of online course you can create if you are a professional of some kind. So if you're a professional, if you work in a field that requires certification, or otherwise has barriers to entry, or anything similar to that, and you have the knowledge, you have the keys that other people are looking for, they want to get into this profession, or there's something you can help them with, you know, toward that certification or toward that access. Essentially, that's what people are looking for. This might be a good path for you to follow. We're calling it Pharmacist Provides Formula for Aspiring
Technicians. And I'll bring you the story in just a moment after this quick message from our sponsor. Aaron Emil's day job in clinical pharmacy paid well. It was simply too big a risk for him to abandon his career to pursue a business idea, even though his father had been a small business owner and inspired him. The concept of side hustles intrigued him, however, and Aaron spent a great amount of time searching for a suitable idea. Reflecting on his skills
and interests, his first thought was to offer an online music course. I should mention that Aaron was also a talented trombonist. But after conducting some research, he decided that there just wasn't enough of a market to make designing the course worthwhile. His next thought went to his professional expertise of pharmacy. Although this was an area that was highly regulated, Aaron thought that there could be some real opportunity in it. He knew
that the Farm Tech Certification Board was going to require some specific education leading up to the 2020 test that all new Farm Techs would need to pass. If he could somehow get the board to recognize a course taught by him, there was bound to be demand, since there are so many people who try to get certified every year. Although the online search volume for such courses wasn't high, Aaron knew that the cost of attending more formal schooling for pharmacy technicians was considerably higher. So an online course could be competitive in the market. That's why in 2019 he took a small leap of faith and purchased a domain name. Then he hunkered down to design the course. Aaron knew the biggest hurdle would
be getting the board to approve his course for certification. This would make or break the business, so he had to be sure that his course was comprehensive and credible. Working with this goal in mind, he took the formal outline for the certification exam and worked backwards to provide the takeaways that students were expected to grasp. With each piece of information backed by primary literature, including drug information databases and federal regulations, Aaron made sure that the course was extremely thorough. This would not only help with getting it recognized by the board, but also strengthen his brand and stave off future competition. Putting the course online was another matter. Fortunately for Aaron,
he had developed skills over the years that would fit the bill well, or so he thought. Having given virtual lectures at college campuses, he was used to recording slide-based presentations. He was also able to navigate between different media platforms and software apps. But his knowledge also created a problem that he didn't expect. Aaron needed to design a site that could host all his content, and he assumed this was a task he could accomplish easily because of his past experience with simple WordPress sites. However, it turned out that
there was a lot of functionality he was unfamiliar with. This proved to be a time sink, as he had to wander through forums and watch countless videos on how to configure parts of the new site. Looking back, Aaron says he would have been better off hiring a developer, since the opportunity costs incurred were high. Nevertheless, by the end of December, Aaron completed his course and received board approval. With over a decade of experience as a clinical pharmacist and having been accredited, the board was content to let him run the course after seeing what he had put together. By summer of 2020, he had launched.
Marketing the course was the next hurdle, and he's still experimenting with a lot of tactics. In the first month, he spent several hours on Reddit threads and Facebook groups answering questions related to certification, before gently pointing them to his resource. He also experimented with Facebook and Google ads, but came to realize that the results didn't justify the costs, at least so far. Not only did he have to spend time researching demographics, but the fees from the ads also quickly added up. Aaron is now working on a strategy to get a continuous source of organic traffic that doesn't involve him spending hours engaging on social media.
Still, in the few months since the course has launched, he's generated an average of $2,000 a month. With total startup costs of just $500, and that went towards the website and a few subscriptions, it's been a great return on investment. What's more, now that the course is done, he has the opportunity to earn much more money over time, without doing much more work. There is no universal prescription for creating your own security, but teaching what you know is often a good start. Alright, so as I mentioned, this is a perfect example of a professional offering a course that is going to help other aspiring professionals get certified. And ultimately, certification
is about overcoming a barrier to entry. So in lots of different fields, there are various barriers to entry. If you can help people overcome those barriers, that can be quite valuable. So if you're interested in doing something at all like this, I would encourage you to check out his site. It's pharmacytechscholar.com. We will link it up on the show notes page.
And then also, I wanted to touch on the difference between a course for trombonists, like Aaron's online music school that he was thinking about, compared to one for aspiring pharmacy techs. Why is one so much better? Or at least why is one able to have potentially much more profit? Well, I already told you part of it. It's the value of the course, helping people have access to a whole new career, essentially. But then also the price you're able to charge because
of that value. So Aaron is currently offering his course for $249. And I actually noticed on his website, he's really creative in how he words this. He says we're currently offering our course at a nearly 50% discount from the full price of $499. So basically, like he eventually wants to charge $500 or maybe he'll just keep charging $249. Whatever it is, it's
a good price. So playing the trombone is a hobby, and people will invest in their hobby, of course. But once the price gets relatively high, they'll think, you know, I wonder if there's something more affordable. I don't know if I want to pay $249 or $499 for a trombone course. But to help you get certified in a field with high demand, and for far less than what traditional education would cost, well, Aaron's course is a steal. So lots of good
lessons there. Congratulations, Aaron, thanks for letting us share your story. Thanks for being out there. He's actually one of our listeners. And listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to Aaron's
site, anything else I mentioned in the episode will be at sidehustleschool.com/14011401. I'm wishing you well as we begin this new month. I hope you'll continue to join me. I'm excited to bring you new stories, new tips, new questions and answers, and of course, all kinds of valuable ideas. So be sure you're subscribed. You can do that wherever you get your podcasts. My
name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
