Oil Field Mechanic Becomes Handyman to Realtors

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Welcome, friends. Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Very excited to bring you a listener success story today. It's one of my favorite things to work on when I hear from listeners who have taken action and created some kind of transformation in their lives because ultimately that's what it's about.

Transformation, not just extra money, but what does that extra money allow you to do? How does it change your life in fact? So in this story, after learning that his wife was expecting twins, an oil field mechanic, and also, as I said, Side Hustle School listener, starts a handyman business serving real estate agents. In his words, he says, "I did not expect the wave of interest that occurred. "My phone would not stop ringing.

"I was overwhelmed as a new company owner "because I didn't want to turn work away, "but I couldn't carve out enough time for the demand. "So it was overwhelming, but a good feeling." It's also, I think, and these are my words now, it's also a good lesson to not underestimate your skills, which we'll come back to a bit in the wrap up. And finally, even though business was overwhelming, he had to work to make that happen, okay? It's always important to know your customer. So we'll talk through each of these things, everything I just mentioned, all in this short action-packed story.

Stay tuned. [Music]

Lots of people talk about having a DIY mentality, but Gregory Gladden has actually lived it. Born in a farming part of the country, he grew up helping his dad's business, doing construction and masonry. He loved working with his hands, so it wasn't a surprise to anyone that he later began a career as an oil field mechanic. When January 2020 rolled around, Gregory got big news.

His wife was expecting again, and this time she was having twins. With a seven-year-old daughter already, he realized he would soon have to support three kids. And the cost of childcare for all of them would be almost his entire paycheck. Now that seemed absurd, but what would he do? Well, Gregory and his wife had long wanted to start a side hustle, just never got around to it.

With the twins forthcoming arrival, it seemed now or never. While brainstorming ideas, Gregory recalled the time when he paid for someone to inspect their house. It was a simple process. The inspector only had a few basic tools and finished his work within the hour. This made Gregory wonder if he could do the same thing.

So he picked up the phone and called his real estate agent. The agent explained that the competition for inspectors was fierce, but there was not a dependable or available handyman to resolve inspection objections. If he could provide potential clients with that, Gregory would be just fine. Interesting. Having had experience working with his hands, Gregory knew he was equipped with the skills required for various types of repairs, especially since this kind of work wasn't more complicated than what he did on a daily basis at the oil field.

And he figured if he didn't know what to do in any particular situation, he would just be honest and recommend another expert. With that in mind, he put down $50 for a business license and another $40 for insurance in February, 2020. But he soon hit a rough patch as pandemic restrictions and lockdowns started the next month. All he could do was lay low for a while to see if things would blow over. A month later, he got a job from his sister's landlord.

Working on that project gave him confidence and also a good online review. Now the next few months were still slow, but Gregory began to find his way. Further chats with his real estate agent made him realize that working more closely with the real estate community could be a smart start and that he could create a YouTube video as a commercial. With the help of his young daughter operating the camera, he fumbled around the house hammering and tweaking different things with the tools he had on hand. When he edited the video, he added a voiceover to explain who he was and what he could do.

He then uploaded it to YouTube as a private link and shared that link with 250 to 300 realtors via email. And that was when the magic happened. Gregory's phone would just not stop ringing as realtors called him with projects for him to take on. He remembers feeling overwhelmed as he didn't wanna turn away work, but at the same time couldn't meet all the demand. Between his day job and night job, Gregory would work from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. six days a week,

barely got to see his wife and kids, which by the way, there's three kids now, the twins that arrived. Since his clients were real estate agents who brought him in to fix things so that they could have an easier time selling a property, they saw him as an investment instead of an expense. This meant that most of his work came from existing clients and he never had to worry about churning customers. The grind went on for a few more months before Gregory realized it was time for him to double down. The pace of business showed no signs of slowing.

Also, because his wife was working full-time, the cost of childcare was so high, Gregory figured he could still break even financially by taking care of the kids himself, even if his handyman work began to stall. In retrospect, he says he should have left his job earlier, but of course, a stable source of income is a difficult thing to leave behind. And the rest, as they say, is history. Gregory is now investing in the business, most recently spending $2,000 to restore an old van as his official work vehicle. He has more than replaced his original income from the day job and now has full control of his schedule, his life, and his future.

[Music]

Awesome, congratulations to Gregory. As I said, I'm always so excited when I hear from our listeners and of course, all the credit goes to him, so good work. Gregory said a number of times in our comments and interviews that he wished he had started sooner, to which I say, okay, well, we all do, but the point is, he started, so good for him. And also, I just wanna point out this note about underestimating your skills, okay? Something else he said to us, he said, I grew up in farming country where almost everyone is at least as handy as I am.

So I was very concerned that my skills would not be needed because in my community, most people are comfortable with tools, but I was very wrong because I was immediately called upon by many people in the city nearby. This is a great example of how sometimes you think, well, there's this thing that I know how to do, but it's really not that special because everyone knows how to do it. And as you can see in this example, well, everyone in Gregory's circle, or at least a lot of people in his circle, had similar skills, but there was this huge market of people, just beyond that circle, geographically, maybe socially in some ways as well. And as soon as he understood that and connected to those people through the real estate community, he had essentially a turnkey business. So the lesson is don't underestimate your skills, find a way to package those skills in a way that's valuable to others.

All right, that's it for today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I was inspired by this story. I'm gonna go take action on it. I'm not gonna be a handyman.

It's not my thing. The show notes for everything mentioned in today's episode, including Gregory's website, just in case you need an on-call handyman, and he happens to be in your area. Well, go to www.sidehustleschool.com/1753, episode 1-7-5-3. I hope you will subscribe or follow, come back tomorrow, but also do something for yourself. Thanks again.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.