This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey, what's up? Welcome back. This is Side Hustle School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. Now, today's story is all about dogs. So if you're a dog person, you might like this
story. And if you're not a dog person, that's okay, because I think you can still learn something from it. It's all about how a woman from Spain, who now lives in Texas, has been able to host pets in her home for up to $200 a day. Now, as I worked on this story, I thought way back to this big argument that I had with my editor long ago when I first wrote the $100 startup. In fact, it was when we were just beginning to outline the book and work together. Now, this editor, he's an amazing
guy, worked on a lot of really big books, and I learned so much from him. So probably in the three or four years that we worked together, we had maybe three or four arguments. But this was a big one because when I was first pitching $100 startup, I would talk about ordinary people from all over the world who had found a way to make a good living doing something that they love without spending a lot of money, without going into debt. And so I had all these examples. And one of the examples was a woman in Minneapolis who makes $80,000 a year walking dogs. Now, I thought that was a great example. And he completely
disagreed. And he would say, "Nobody wants to walk dogs." That is not an aspirational thing. And I would say, "Well, I totally understand, but some people do like dogs, and this woman's pretty happy doing it. And she's making $80,000 a year, which is a lot more than the average income in America." So I don't totally remember how we resolved that. I think what we did was we put it in the book, but didn't really emphasize it very much, trying to make both of us happy. But as I worked on this story, I thought back
to that. And maybe the answer is some people get it, some people relate to it, and others don't. And that's okay because it's your hustle. It's all about you, what's best for you, what your goals are. And so I'll be right back with the Airbnb for Dogs story.
When Andrea Hajal moved to Texas from her native Spain, she gained true love, but left behind her beloved pets. Her fiance was from the U.S. And after traveling together for a couple of years, they decided to marry and settle down in Austin. Andrea enjoyed her work as nutritionist, but her real love was animals, especially dogs. One day, while she and her fiance were staying in a rental apartment on a trip to Canada, she had an idea. What
if there was something like Airbnb, but for dogs? You know, where their owners could travel and leave the dogs somewhere better than a kennel? Well, a year later, she stumbled on Rover.com, which was a service that did exactly what she described. Andrea eagerly created a profile advertising her home as a welcoming place for dogs of all breeds. She loved caring for dogs, but she also had business savvy. She knew that with dozens of other dog-loving
hosts all competing for bookings, her caretaking skills alone wouldn't be enough to turn this venture into a successful hustle. So she started doing a little detective work. She started studying the profiles and reviews of other dog landlords, paying close attention to what the successful ones did differently. Andrea noticed that the most popular dog sitters had several nice photos on their profiles. So she went above and beyond. She posted more
than 50 photos of herself playing with dozens of different dogs. Now you might think that's excessive, but keep in mind, someone who's deciding between dog hosts doesn't necessarily have to look at all 50 photos. The mere fact that Andrea was motivated and diligent enough to post so many might be a point in her favor. Similarly, Andrea noticed that the dog hosting platform encouraged sitters to send photos of dogs to their owners while the owners were away. And this platform also tracked how frequently this occurred, as well as the average response time when owners inquired about their pets. So this observation produced two goals. Andrea
would aim for 100% photo sending rate and a very timely one hour response time. By paying attention to these goals, over time she shot up to the very top of the listings, frequently appearing in the top five of more than 40 potential sitters in the area. Before long, she'd built a strong following with rave reviews from everyone who hired her. When she went to visit family in Spain for a month, she turned off the account and then turned it back on upon her return. And she had three new bookings that first day. Her customers
had missed her and she quickly returned to the top of the local listings. The Airbnb for dogs was open once again. So what can we learn from the Airbnb for dogs hustle? Well, the first thing is it wasn't that hard to get up and running, you know, services like these, you can go on rover.com, like she did make a profile. And she had her first doggy daycare booking within a week. But then, you know, after that, that's when she kind
of specialized in advance. She went above and beyond. She did everything she could to make the best impression. And she posted all those different photos. She responded to inquiries super quick, usually within an hour. She sent photos to all the dog owners. And she did
this, you know, partly because she loved dogs and she wanted to reassure the owners like she really was good at this. But she also kind of had an eye on that site's algorithm. And she understood, okay, they actually reward more frequent engagement. Here's what I need to do to stand out so that I can get to the top. And there's one more really smart thing she did. Over time as she paid attention, she noticed that successful dog sitters didn't
only board dogs in their homes. They were also available for other services like drop in visits and walking while their owners were at work. So she added those services to her listing. She saw a 20% increase in her weekly income. And now as I said, this hustle is bringing in up to $200 a day part time from her home. Well, it may not happen like that
for you. And in fact, you may not want to keep up to six dogs in your home every day like Andrea does. But if you listen to these stories, and you apply the lessons in your own way to your own hustle, you will see results over time. Remember, inspiration is good. But inspiration combined with action is so much better. You can see the show notes and
learn more about rubber.com@sidehustleschool.com. Every day there's an original post. And you can also follow me on social media. I'm Chris Guillebeau on Twitter, Chris Gillibough on Facebook or 193 countries, 193 countries on Instagram. This is Side Hustle School. I'm
Chris Guillebeau. I will see you tomorrow with another action packed episode.
