What It's About
A creative side hustle inspired by a school project leads a classically trained musician to a full-time position at a local university.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Having a side hustle can mean a lot of things for different people. Maybe you're looking for a way to earn extra money on the side or perhaps you're looking to create something that you have full control over. Whatever it is for you, having a side hustle gives you the freedom to pursue what you want.
For Megan and Nick, heypoletti! provided them with a flexible third stream of revenue that allowed them to make special purchases without having to dip into their savings. What would having a side hustle mean for you?
Fun Fact
Megan’s side hustle not only provided her and Nick with some extra cash, it helped her grow her day job as an adjunct music technology professor into a full-time Music Technology professor position at Baldwin Wallace University. She’s now using the skills she honed over the years in her side hustle in her day job.
Notes from Chris
Episode 180
Megan Poletti Kuhar first launched her media side hustle, heypoletti!, while doing a Recording Arts & Technology school project. The assignment was to envision her own recording studio business. Since Megan had a background of being classically trained as a musician, she knew that she could work with other classically trained musicians and really understand their perspective. She got so excited by the idea that she decided to actually try it out and see if she could make any money off her idea. Megan’s now husband, Nick Kuhar, who is a high school film teacher, joined the side hustle and added video editing to their offerings. This meant they were able to take on new clients and really gave their income a boost. As they took on more clients, they realized that often it would make sense to hire other artists with specific skill sets for the project, instead of trying to do everything themselves. With this shift, in 2016 they had their biggest year yet, bringing in over $10,000 in revenue. Megan has done all this, while keeping marketing almost nonexistent. She’s signed up for all the social media profiles — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn—but is most active on Facebook. More recently, Megan’s side hustle actually helped her get her current full-time job as an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. She was hired in 2016 as an adjunct music technology professor, but the job grew because of her specific skillset. As the first full-time Music Technology professor at Baldwin Wallace, she teaches courses in Music Technology and in Entrepreneurship. With the new promotion, the project lives on as a side hustle that provides a third stream of income for Megan and Nick. Since they both have full-time jobs, now they can turn down work if they’re too busy. But if they want, they can devote a weekend to a project and make an extra $1,000 - $1,500 that month.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- heypoletti!: Check out all of the services that Megan and Nick offer
- Wordpress: Megan and Nick used Wordpress for their website, and here you can learn how to install your own Wordpress site in 5 minutes!
- Baldwin Wallace University: The university that Megan teaches Music Technology and Entrepreneurship at
- Music Production 101: If you're interested in recording your own music (and maybe turning it into a side hustle!) here's a guide to help you get started
- Lawyer Earns $400/Month With Stock Music Side Hustle: An online music marketplace offers a young lawyer an opportunity to fulfill his dreams of having his music heard, and also provides him with a new source of passive income
- NYC Jazz Musician Builds $40,000/Year Blog: A musician finds financial freedom by growing a blog and starting an e-course teaching other people how to play jazz
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