This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey there. What's up and welcome to Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau. Every single day, new episode about making money without quitting your job. Today, we're gonna hear from a caller from Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Israel.
Our caller is Yael and they are considering starting a company or at least some kind of side hustle. I don't know if it's like a startup with a capital S. Most of our listeners are just regular people trying to do something for themselves. But anyway, Yael wants to create custom-made and sustainable tiny homes for vacation rentals, as well as alternative housing solutions. So I am intrigued.
Naturally, I'm curious to hear more about the challenges of designing and building tiny homes that are both sustainable and comfortable for guests. Have you ever stayed in a tiny house? Have you ever got a chance to tour one? They are pretty fun. And of course, they also present unique challenges in terms of design, in terms of marketing, in terms of, well, I guess, just lots of challenges.
So let's talk about it. Detailed question coming up after this quick break. [Music]
Hi, my name is Yael and I'm calling from Tel Aviv, Israel. I'm an architect who's thinking of designing custom-made and sustainable tiny homes that can be used as vacation rentals or alternative housing solutions. With the increasing popularity of ecotourism and the desire for minimalist living, I think this business could be successful.
However, I know it won't be easy. So I'd like to know what you suggest I look out for along the way. How can I make my tiny homes both sustainable and comfortable for guests? [Music]
Awesome, thanks so much for the question. Thanks listeners as well for being out there.
So let's think what we can do for Yael. I think it's a cool idea, but Yael is right. It won't be easy, just because designing and building tiny homes comes with its own unique set of difficulties. One potential difficulty is finding the right materials that are both sustainable and safe for guests, but also designing a tiny home that is both comfortable and functional for guests. You wanna be eco-friendly, sustainable, et cetera, and also have it be an awesome space in a very small space, since space is at a premium, after all, all that is difficult.
So, and this is even before we get to marketing, like marketing your tiny homes to potential customers, you're gonna have to differentiate your business somehow, you're gonna have to have some sort of brand, social media is gonna be important. It's not important for every project. And sometimes I encourage people to not worry so much about posting on Instagram all the time, but I think for something like tiny houses, like you're definitely gonna need to have a strategy for that. So to give one piece of advice, because I don't wanna just like point out difficulties, to give one piece of advice, I would say, let's find a way for Yael to solve one problem. And to say, there are lots of people designing tiny homes, it's a whole industry, there's lots of complexity to it, there are different parts to it, both the physical parts and just the parts of operating the business.
I'm gonna identify one specific market, much more narrow than what she's thinking so far. Let's just get really specific, solve one problem and become the tiny house designer for that community or that group or that market. I think decide what that's going to be and build everything around that without trying to think too much about expansion or how you're gonna then use that to serve other groups. Solving just one problem can go a long way, especially when you have an idea that sounds pretty cool, but it's also kind of overwhelming. So that's my advice and Yael, good luck, let us know what happens.
Listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. I welcome your ideas, your updates, what's going well, what's not, we try to be really candid here and look at all aspects of things. So of course, I hope you'll continue to listen. We got a new episode every day. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
