This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I have got a fun first $1,000 story for you here today. If you are not familiar with the podcast, this is called Side Hustle School. If you're not familiar with this segment, it's all about how someone made their first $1,000. So we're all interested in deconstructing that process of like, how do I go from idea to income? Not how I made $100,000, which is awesome, but how did I actually just get going, you know?
And we've featured all kinds of people from all over the world who have started all kinds of little businesses. Sometimes not even thinking of them as a business or a capital E entrepreneurship project, but just something that they like to do that happens to also pay them money. It's not just a hobby, but something that is money-making. Okay, that's the point of Side Hustle School. Welcome, my name is Chris Guillebeau.
And with that in mind, without further ado, I should say, today's feature comes from Sheila in Houston, Texas. Sheila is now earning $2,000 a month on the side as an independent event planner. She's only been doing it a few months and it's going well, but what about her first $1,000? How did she make it happen? What did it feel like?
What did she learn? Let's hear it from Sheila. She's got a couple of tips as well about becoming an event planner and what you want to focus on or not focus on. So let's hear from her and I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. [Music]
Hey, this is Sheila from Houston, Texas.
I work for a defense contractor during the day and I'm trying to side hustle as an event planner to pay off some debt. At this point, I don't want to ever go full-time with my business, but I've been enjoying it even more than I expected. Here's how I got started. First, I've always been good at managing details and coordinating people. That's a big part of the event world, especially when lots of vendors are involved.
I'd been active in my city for a while and I know a lot of bartenders. So I just put the word out, lowkey, that I was looking to help out. I did two events for free, thanks to a connection from a friend of a friend. Well, it was a lot of work. It led me to getting a gig that paid more than $2,000 as my first paid event.
I learned some important lessons from that first month of hustling. With the two free events and one paid, a big decision you have to make as an event planner is whether you're going to do weddings or not. For most wedding planners, that's all they do. I didn't want to do weddings, at least not exclusively. So instead, I chose to focus on everything from corporate retreats to parties to conventions and more.
One funny story, in my second month, I hosted an event for a fruit growers trade association. They wanted me to place stalks of banana as creatively as possible throughout the meeting space. That's really what they said. So I took their request seriously. I ended up hanging up bananas all around the hotel ballroom and even made a banana chain stretching to the highest point of the ceiling.
Everyone made jokes about sleeping on banana pills, but thankfully no one actually got hurt and the event was a success. As for the money, event planners tend to work on a percentage of the total budget. I start with asking for what someone's event budget is and then take 6% if it's a big event or 10 to 12 if it's small. So for example, an event that costs $20,000, I'll clear 1,200. If it's a $5,000 event, I'll quote the higher percentage and walk away with $600.
I figured if I can produce at least two events each month, I'll easily clear my goal of $20,000 a year. And so far it's working. Thanks so much for the show. I'll let you know what happens next. [Music]
Yay, thank you so much Sheila.
I really appreciate that story. This is the first time I've ever heard about a floor to ceiling chain of bananas. So I hope you got some good pictures of that. I feel like that can make a whole event planning career. Anyway, well done.
Thanks Sheila. Thank you listeners. Hope you found this story encouraging. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, if you'd like to be featured on the show perhaps, whatever's on your mind, let me know, sidehustleschool.com/questions. You can also follow me on social media at chrisgillibo.
That's G-U-I-L-L-E-B-E-A-U. We've got our notes page today, episode 2151 on the website. Check it out if you'd like, but mostly subscribe, follow, come back tomorrow. It's all completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You are listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
