This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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What happens when you have a local business and therefore you have local clients and you change cities, you relocate, you move, whether it's for your job or for a relationship or just because you're like, I need a change of scene. So you change cities, then you have lost your local clients. How do you rebuild your client base? That's exactly what we're gonna look at here in the form of a question, a scenario from Emily. She's a math tutor.
She had been running a successful tutoring site hustle and then now she is moving. I don't know if she has moved or I think she is going to move. I think that's what it sounds like. Yes, that's right. She's from Chicago.
She's going to move to California. And so she wants to figure out how can she rebuild her client base and maybe also work a bit smarter in terms of not just replicate what she has done before, but build her business in a way that is less dependent on local clients. So if she decides to move somewhere else, she doesn't have this problem again in a year or however long the time period is. Relocation can be a challenge for any side hustle, especially one that has local clients or customers, but it also kind of gives you an opportunity to think a little bit differently and maybe diversify your income. So let's see if we can help Emily with that.
Whether you are a tutor or you have a service-based business, you have a completely different kind of side hustle, or if you're just thinking about your next side hustle, I'm gonna see if we can't help Emily and perhaps give you an idea along the way as well. All right, detailed question and my answer coming up in 30 seconds. [Music]
Hey there, I'm Emily, a math tutor from Chicago. I've been running my tutoring side hustle locally for a year now, but I'm planning to move to San Francisco soon for a new job opportunity. I'm wondering how I can rebuild my client base in a new city and market my services effectively.
Additionally, I'm curious if there are ways to structure my tutoring business so that it isn't so dependent on local clients, such as offering online sessions or creating digital resources. What strategies can I use to grow my tutoring side hustle and adapt to a new location while maximizing my reach and my income potential? [Music]
Hey Emily, I think you are super smart to use this as an opportunity to think about how to evolve your side hustle because however you got clients in the first place in Chicago, you can probably do that in San Francisco or another city as well. Presumably you have testimonials, you've got a portfolio, you had a process that worked. So that's fine and well, but you also ask about structuring your business that it's not so dependent on local clients.
So that's where I think maybe this is the next level version of Emily's side hustle. So what do you do in that case? Well, you can use online tutoring platforms. Maybe they aren't the best long-term, they end up keeping a lot of the money. But for people that are building a new business, it can be a good fit.
So there's a bunch of those. A couple of them that I know are Wyzant. We've talked about them on the podcast before. I think it's W-Y-Z-A-N-T. Tutormy is another, Chegg is another.
There may be some more. So you can set up a profile there, highlight your experience, expertise, your unique teaching style, offer competitive rates, but don't be too cheap because you've got a lot of experience. You've done this before. So you're just trying to move to a new platform. If you don't like the idea of being on one of those platforms, then build your own online presence.
Create a website that showcases your tutoring services and you can optimize it for local search keywords like MathTutor San Francisco, but you're also trying to build in a way that's less dependent on a local area. So in that case, you might want to be more specific about the kind of tutoring that you do. Is it for certain classes? Is it standardized tests that you're helping students prepare for? It's a competitive field, online tutoring, because there's a lot of money involved.
But because it's a competitive field with so many students, there's often room for somebody new to provide services in a little bit of a different way. You can also develop digital resources and courses, which may be what you want to work toward ultimately. So some downloadable study guides, worksheets, video tutorials, again, on specific math topics to attract students who are searching for help online. I just, you know, a really simple online course, not a big complicated one, but a simple one that sells for like $100 or less, that can be a great way to generate passive income. So those are a few ideas, Emily, I'm wishing you well.
Listener's always wishing you well, cheering you on as well. And your quest to create new sources of income, let me know how I can help, www.sidehustleschool.com/questions. This has been episode 2,717, going strong, 2717. Much more is coming up though. Thank you for listening today.
My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
