This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
I love hearing side hustle ideas from listeners. I love to know what you're working on, what you're thinking about. So thanks for making side hustle school what it is. We have come so far, but we have so far to go. So, you know, keep listening. New episode every day, of course. For today,
a question from a listener, a woman with a background in retail, who wants to become a vintage shopping concierge. I'm not totally sure if it's all online or if there's an in-person component. We'll hear the question in a moment. But basically, you know, when you have an idea, whatever your idea happens to be, you're going to have lots of side hustle ideas. The more you think about what kind of business could I start? There's just an unlimited number of ideas, right?
So whenever you have one, you want to look at it from a few different angles. You want to ask like, how feasible is it to get it up and running? You might ask, of all the ideas that I'll have, what is the relative profit potential of this one? We've talked about how to figure that out in different ways, some tools you can use and such. You might also want to ask, how does it suit your skill set? And of course, last but definitely not least, how excited are you about this idea? What
is your level of motivation and momentum, relatively speaking? Because, you know, life is short. And even though it's important to make the numbers work, like we definitely have a question about that in there, but it's also important to work on something you believe in. I think we're all going to be happier when we do that, you know, for the most part. So let us take a look at this latest idea. I want to become a vintage shopping concierge. Well, I don't want to myself. I don't
think I'd be good at that, but I suspect our listener might be a bit more qualified. Hi there, this is Lisa calling from Rockville. I've been listening for a while. I have a background in retail, having worked at two clothing stores and then helping my sister with one of her own. My idea is to become a shopping concierge focusing on vintage. The fancy stores like
Saks and Macy's have concierge that help big spenders pick out their clothes. I want to do that but for vintage. I think the market is big enough and that there's enough people who spend money on clothes but want to go vintage that I can make it work. What do you think? Also, what steps would you take to establish this business? And do you see any big problems I
should be looking out for? Thanks so much. Hey there, thanks so much for the question. I love hearing listeners ideas and I like the market here. I think this is an interesting possibility. The question is where customers will come from. You know, I find myself returning to
this theme time and again, you may have heard me say something similar in a previous question and answer just because it's so important and I think it's a question that many new side hustlers don't think nearly enough about. And not just new side hustlers, I've sometimes had this problem too, where I think I've got a great idea. You know, here's this interesting, I don't know if it's a gap in the market or just something I've identified or something that I would like to do. I think I'm somewhat good at it. And you know, all that's fine and well but the tendency is to think more about the idea and less about the customer.
And really we should reverse that. You know, the ratio should be much more customer centric. So knowing your ideal customer seems extremely important for something like this. You know, who are they? Where do you find them? Or how will they find you? I think as well for this
kind of project, you want to have some sort of pricing package, maybe a recurring commitment of sorts. So it's like, you know, once a quarter for $300 or maybe more, you know, this is including the cost of the close. For $300, let's say I will deliver a number of items that are perfect for you. And anything you don't like, you just return it to me and I'll resell it. I'll apply the credit to next quarter's order. You know, it's something like that.
So obviously you'll do a detailed, you know, survey intake process where you get sizes and also like, you know, preferences and what do you like, what do you dislike and so on. And then, you know, of course the vintage concierge, it's that person's job to then, you know, source the items. You would use a portion of the fee to buy the close, maybe something like two thirds of it with the remaining portion as your profit. So that's the business model of it. But as I said, I would think customer first. So I'd spend a lot more time
thinking about that before I proceeded. But otherwise, I think it's interesting. So let us know how it goes. All right, listeners, sidehustleschool.com/questions. If you've got a question, we'll continue to feature them each week, along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects. Thanks for being out there. Take care of yourself.
My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
