This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to Side Hustle School. Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is our weekly segment known as First Thousand Dollars. First $1,000, your first $1,000 specifically.
And as you might guess, or as you might know by now, it's all about how somebody made their first $1,000. How did they in fact get to that point? How did they go from idea to income? What steps did they take? What was easy?
What was hard? And of course, what can you learn from it? What can all of us learn? Because we're all in this together. And something I have noticed over the years is that the steps required to go to the next level, whether it's from a thousand to $2,000, even to 5,000, $10,000 and beyond, often much easier than that first real paycheck, which is why we really hone in on how people make that happen.
So with that in mind, today's feature comes from Eva Rosales. Eva is the founder of Hyper Fluent. It is a consultancy offering lots of different services, all focused around language acquisition and translation. You probably never guessed that from the name of the business, but that's what it does. Okay, we first featured Eva back on episode 1494, 1494.
How did she make her first $1,000 happen? What did it feel like? And what did she learn? Now specifically here, she's got some detailed advice on pricing your services, especially if you, like her, want to offer more than one service. Okay, so let's hear it from her.
I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap-up. [Music]
Hi, my name is Eva Rosales and I'm the CEO and founder of Hyper Fluent. I was featured on Side Hustle School episode 1494. Today I'm gonna talk to you about my journey to making my first $1,000. While I was doing my bachelor's degree in minor and French and Portuguese, I started helping my friends with their language classes.
I remember I charged them $18 to $20 per hour and at that time enjoyed having lunch with my friends and getting paid to help with something I was passionate about. Languages for me were never just about grammar, literature and rules, but how I came to express myself and most importantly, learn about others' journeys in their own language. I guess you could say languages became friends who helped me develop who I was as an individual. Whether my personality became more romantic or more direct, languages made me into the person I am today. After finishing college, I dedicated more time into learning about what kind of price structure I wanted to have for my consulting services.
Something that I never thought about was diversifying my price structure by blending in different services targeted to different audiences. For example, what would I charge a company versus an individual? What if someone wanted tutoring for an extended time? And not just for a month or a couple of weeks, but say five to six months. I think the scariest thought was thinking, am I charging too much or too little?
It's hard to put an estimate to how much you should charge when you first start. People always tell you, well, if you have a lot of experience, you can charge basically whatever you want. But I think you just have to be a bit more flexible and see the potential to working with a client, not just one time, but for a longer period. This is the best scenario for when word of mouth plays a huge role. After pinning down a price scheme with diversified services, I could not stop asking friends to let me know if they knew of anyone who wanted to learn a language.
Friends of Friends started contacting me and what was once just charging $18 to $20 an hour quickly became four to the 50, 60 to 70, and up to 250 to $300 an hour for a particular service. More important than understanding your market is getting to know your client. What his or her needs are and offering something so personalized that he or she knows they can't get anywhere else. This differentiates you from the masses and plays a bigger role in solidifying the value you bring to the table. One day, a friend of mine put me in contact with a friend of hers who happened to be the personal assistant of an NBA player.
I remember getting my first check of $1,200 in thinking, wow, this check made out of paper is worth a trip back and forth to Europe. I remember clearly that it took me three months when I was 16 selling Cutco knives to be able to make $2,000 to travel to Europe in 1999 by myself. And here I was earning half of it in one day in a matter of hours. In German, we call that Wannzen or craziness. That was the moment I first thought to myself, where do I fly with the money?
What I learned about this experience were three things. Jot down what you offer and be true to yourself as to what you bring to the table. Walk away elegantly when you're counter offered or asked and told to lower your price to something ridiculous that you know you should not accept and believe in the power of positive thinking. Finally, I want to highlight that part of being successful is also paying it forward. Look into volunteering your skills as a consultant who takes time to do pro bono work for an organization.
I personally owe much of my success to putting out as many positive vibes as possible in the universe. - Well, you heard it from Eva. She's come a long way from selling Cutco knives. Hey, good work, Eva. Keep putting out those positive vibes and thanks so much for sharing your story with our listeners.
I really appreciate that. Listeners, I hope you found it encouraging as well. Check out her website at hyperfluent.com. It is a wonderful case study of different services at different prices. Definitely a lot you can learn from her example.
Again, hyperfluent.com. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. That's it for today. Hope you'll come back tomorrow for a new episode. New episode every day, in fact.
My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
