This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hello there. What's up? Welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School, Episode 223.
I am excited and honored to speak to you today, wherever you are in the world. Got a great story coming up. Yesterday, I did an interview with a longtime friend of mine named Andrew Warner. Andrew has a project called Mixergy. For several years now on this show, Andrew has been interviewing founders and startups, CEOs, other business leaders, and entrepreneurs.
It's a little bit different than what I feature on Side Hustle School most of the time. But I just mentioned it because I think Andrew is one of the most thoughtful interviewers I've ever talked to. He interviewed me long ago when the $100 startup came out. Then again, for the next book, The Happiness of Pursuit, he spoke at WDS a couple of years ago. I haven't talked to him in a while, but I just did that interview with him yesterday.
It'll probably come out when the Side Hustle book is out. Just wanted to mention him because he is such a thoughtful, nice guy. If you are interested in interviews with founders and startup CEOs, which is different than Side Hustle School, but I believe you can learn from anyone, check out his work at Mixergy.com, Mixergy on Social, or I believe you can find it in iTunes or Apple Podcasts as well. And now on to today's story. Are you an animal lover or an artist?
Well, today's case study features a college student who is both of those things. She combines her obsession with pets and her love for painting to help pay her way through school using customized animal portraits. It is truly a cat-devading story, and I'll bring it to you right after this. 21-year-old Sarah Miller has a bit of an animal obsession. She considers herself a cat person first and is long-held to the motto of "boys whatever, cats forever." Her current obsession is her chubby, cross-eyed Siamese feline Cooper, who she cares for amid her busy student schedule at Georgia College and State University.
Her love for dogs comes in a close second. And she also has a boyfriend, but he knows his place. Sarah's fascination with animals began as a toddler in Duluth, Georgia. Her family always had pets, including at one time having a house filled with two dogs and three cats. Her love for these furry critters was so real, she practically considered the pets siblings.
And less than a year ago, Sarah's love for animals unexpectedly led to a promising side hustle. At that time, like many students, Sarah was low on cash. And when her and her boyfriend's anniversary rolled around in October, she didn't have the money to get him something pricey. So she had to get creative. Luckily, Sarah had always had a knack for painting.
So she put this skill to use by painting a watercolor portrait of his tabby cat, Merlin. The boyfriend loved the finished product, presumably Merlin did too. And Sarah figured maybe other people would as well. She decided to post about it on her school's Facebook page, where students typically sell random items like old furniture and textbooks. The responses were explosive, with dozens of order requests for animal portraits flooding in.
Sarah got to work and managed to fill 100 orders before Christmas, charging just $15 a pop for a $1,500 profit, or at least almost $1,500. She did have startup costs of a $7 paint set and a $12 pack of watercolor paper. And with that, Sarah's new custom pet painting business was quickly underway. She decided to call it Sarah Paints Pets. And to help market herself, she set up Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest accounts.
She's also currently building a website through a template she chose on wix.com. This will cost her a grand total of $100 to run an e-commerce site for a year. Last month, she also set up an Etsy shop within a day after some helpful advice she received listening to Side Hustle School. Awesome. And that Etsy shop included examples of her work and links to her social media.
Now, even though she's a marketing major in college, Sarah found that running a business in the real world was very different than studying it. She's had to learn to shift her skills from simply meeting a demand to actively building a brand through conducting portrait giveaways, improving her packaging, and encouraging word-of-mouth referrals. She also learned to use business analytics from Instagram to post at the right time and target her followers. And by painting every day, she quickly improved her artistic skills. Just nine months into managing this hustle part-time, Sarah has painted more than 300 pets based on reference photos sent by the owners and earned $5,000.
She has upped her prices, now charging from $30 to $75, depending on the size. And she also sends a customized greeting card with each order. Her art supply costs remain low at about $30 a month. And she's also tried to keep shipping costs minimal. Sarah currently spends up to 20 hours each week painting, packaging, emailing, and blogging.
She says the hardest part is balancing the business amid her packed schedule of attending classes, studying, and playing for her school's soccer team. Still, she hopes to expand the business by offering stickers, pillows, car magnets, and mugs with custom pet portraits on them. She also hopes to save an additional $10,000, which for a poor college student can go a very long way. Even though the orders for portraits have not slowed, Sarah plans to keep her painting as a side hustle, rather than turn it into a full-time job after graduating. She still wants to have another career, and even as much as she loves animals, she doesn't want to spend all of her time at her kitchen table, painting, and talking to her cat.
She still loves the fact that this side hustle can continue, hopefully providing $1,000 or even $2,000 a month as she moves on from college and enters the workforce. [Music]
Well, congratulations to Sarah. I love the story of a creative college student with the right attitude, clawing her way to the top or at least to a meaningful side income. By the way, 100 portraits at $15 each is a lot of work. You might think, well, $1,500 is great, but how much time did she have to spend for that?
My comment there is this is the first time she did it, and she wanted to establish that there was market demand. There were people that were interested. Well, first of all, she didn't expect that there'd be so much demand. And when it turned out there was, she completed that initial batch, so she really hustled to make that happen. But then notice how she greatly increases the cost once she realizes it's working.
So the cost doubled from 15 to 30, and it now goes up to $75 depending on the size. So she's now making up to five times per portrait, and it is worth it. So sometimes that's how it works. It's probably more important to figure out is there a demand for a service I can provide? And then once I know I can do it well, how much can I actually charge for it?
And her work looks really great, by the way. You should check it out on Instagram or Facebook. I'll link it up in the show notes. And I think a lot of people would pay a lot more than $30 to $75 for one. Anyway, friends and listeners, as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better.
I hope you are working on your hustle. Don't procrastinate, stay positive. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/223. If you have a comment or question for the show, give me a call on the Hustle Hotline. That's 844-9-Hustle.
I hope to see you tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
