This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Friends, listeners, side hustle school community, hey, what's up? Welcome, my name is Chris Guillebeau, so glad you're here. This is a daily podcast, the only one in fact, all about making extra money without quitting your job. Welcome as well to our weekly segment known as Throwback Thursday. Throwback Thursday, where are they now?
Where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. We've had all kinds of fun features. Let's see, last week we heard from Lisa Long in Texas. She is a multi-hustle side hustler. We also recently heard from a ukulele manufacturer and retailer in Calgary, Canada.
Today in our latest feature, we'll go to the Bronx. We're gonna hear from Tara Pince Chiba. Tara is an opera singer gone contractor in true side hustle school fashion. And one of the things Tara focuses on is helping other musicians find work when music work is light, such as perhaps during a pandemic. She is also a new mom, so lots of changes for Tara.
Let's hear a bit more about that from her. Again, opera singer gone contractor in New York City. I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
My name is Tara Pince Chiba. My company's name is The Practical Diva.
We're located in the Bronx currently. And I was featured in episode 847. So The Practical Diva started out just basically me doing handyman work. And over the years it has morphed into several different things. And a lot of it has been for the purpose of helping other people have employment.
Up until the pandemic, it was my side hustle. I was an opera singer. That was my main focus, what I wanted to do. And The Practical Diva provided my income essentially so that I could do the other thing. But a few months before the pandemic hit, I started feeling like I needed to focus on this little side hustle and beef it up a little bit.
And tell you what, I'm real grateful I did 'cause I was the only one of my musician friends that actually had work during the pandemic. And I was able to employ some of them to help them keep going during this time. So it's been really a cool experience. So since I was featured in the program in 2019, in April 2019, a lot has changed. I think a lot has changed for a lot of people.
At that time I was still going out and doing a lot of work myself. I had started hiring people and taking them with me on jobs, learning a lot about how to run a business at that point. But then that fall, that September actually, I remember just feeling like I needed to focus on this side hustle and make it my main hustle for a while. And I did, I stopped doing music for a while and I focused mostly on my business. And it was cool because it gave me opportunities to do other things like date, get married and all that.
But it also provided the opportunity for me to have employment when everything shut down following March. And some things that changed with my business during that time, I still went out and did work myself but I definitely hired more people to help me. We took bigger jobs. To that point, I had been focusing on handyman style work. And then so I started taking on more contractor sized jobs and doing bigger home repairs, things that would need a team.
And so I had people come help me. Some of the differences with my clients during the pandemic, there were people trying to do DIY stuff. I had one person in particular who hired me to come and do a part that he was afraid of. He actually had done a really good job with a lot of the work himself, but there were, he wanted to take down the wall. He was really scared of it.
So I went and checked it out and made sure that it could come down. We made sure that it wasn't gonna be a problem as far as with the city because you have to pull permits for that kind of thing. And so I helped him with that part of the process, the thing that was too much for him. Another thing that I discovered is because people were in their homes, they were noticing things. And so I got a lot of calls for a little like, I have this hole in my wall.
It's been there for six years, but I can't stand it anymore type calls. It's really kind of fun. So I got to meet a whole lot of people and help make their space something special for them 'cause they had to be there. There just wasn't another place to go. And so it was kind of a fun thing to go in and help people be in a comfortable living space and enjoy their homes a little more since they couldn't go out.
The biggest challenge I'm currently facing is because I'm in transition both with being a mom and with this contracting, I'm having to learn kind of a new skill set as far as how to run this kind of business and how to make it fit with the family life that I need and want to have. And I'll be honest, the biggest problem, and this is something that every business owner has, I think, is figuring out pricing. This is a new avenue for me. I was getting good at the pricing for the small jobs and even the bigger jobs, but this contracting thing, it's like, ah, how do you make money doing this? But I'm learning little bit by little bit.
I'm learning what my clients' expectations are. And I'm learning what I'm capable of and what I'm willing to do for people. And so it's kind of an interesting process of discovery right now. [Music]
Thanks so much, Tara, for sharing those updates with our listeners. I really appreciate it.
And listeners, you can check out her Instagram, the practical diva. It's just like it sounds, all one word, as Instagram handles happen to be. So no underscores, no hyphens, just the practical diva. She's also got a website, thepracticaldiva.com, just in case you happen to need any work done in New York City. I'm also on Instagram, by the way.
I don't post too much, but I am there. My handle, also one word, is 193 countries, 193 countries. If you have a question and update for us about your side hustle or just some feedback, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Let me know what you're up to. And of course, take care of yourself during the holidays.
I hope you'll subscribe, follow, come back for more new episode every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
