This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
From gear wrinkles to New Zealand wilderness adventures. Welcome friends and welcome to side hustle school. Chris Guillebeau here. This is Throwback Thursday. Throwback Thursday, every Thursday we're gonna do an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them.
We've been doing nearly 3000 episodes of the podcast. We've got lots of people to go back to. What happened last week? What did we do? Well, let's see, last week we heard from two late night bakers who created Oakland's first cookie ATM.
So that's fun. You get to go to an ATM machine and get a cookie. I mean, you could also go and get money and buy all the cookies you want, but no need to complicate it. Cookie ATM, that's pretty cool. Today in the latest feature, we're gonna revisit a side hustler who's been renting camping gear to tourists in New Zealand.
Now they organize guided wilderness expeditions featuring, well, serving clients from around the world, a lot of Aussies and Americans, probably other people going to visit New Zealand, but they're focusing on that. I think they're still doing the camping gear rental as well, but we'll hear about that. We'll hear about a couple of business lessons learned to perhaps give somebody else out there an idea. That's what we're all about, helping you get ideas, helping you evaluate ideas, and most importantly, taking action on those ideas. I want you to be able to go from idea to income this year with your first or your next side hustle.
So every single day, all these episodes are designed to help you get closer to that. What's happened since we first featured Will? Let's hear his updates. I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
I'm Will.
My side hustle started in the most practical way possible, renting out camping and hiking gear to tourists in New Zealand who wanted to explore the outdoors without hauling heavy equipment across the world. I'd grown up in the shadow of Mount Cork and I knew these landscapes inside out, and so what began as a simple gear hire rental. It soon turned into something else, a full-fledged guided expedition business catering to beginner adventurers. Today, I don't just rent gear. I help Aussies and Americans take on their first taste of wilderness with fully curated outdoor experiences.
It started with a bunch of secondhand camping kits, tents and sleeping bags and cookware and hiking poles. I bought most of it on TradeMe, New Zealand's version of eBay, for about $2,000. By renting the kits for $75 a weekend, I made back my initial investment in just three months. Most of my clients were international visitors who wanted to explore places like Fieldland or Able Tasman Track, but didn't want the hassle of lagging in their own equipment. But I noticed something interesting.
Many of these renters didn't have much experience of camping or hiking, and that asked me for advice on routes and how to set up the gear and even what to cook. And that's when the idea struck. Why not offer a guided experience that included the gear, the training and the adventure itself? My first expedition package was simple but effective. For $500, I offered a two-day hiking trip to the Routeburn Track, complete with camping gear, guided instruction and meals.
I also hired a friend who worked as a local guide to help lead the group. Most of the clients were couples from Australia or the US, looking for an adventure that wasn't too hardcore. By bundling the gear rental with the guided trip, I tripled the revenue I'd make from a standard rental. And the first trip was fully booked with six people, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. I realised I wasn't just providing logistics, I was creating an experience that made the wilderness accessible and enjoyable for beginners.
As word spread, I started offering three and five-day expeditions to locations like the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and the Milford Track. These packages range from $750 to $1,500 per person, depending on the length and complexity of the trip. To enhance the experience, I partnered with local experts to provide cultural insights, such as mouldy history and storytelling around the campfire. In my first year of running expeditions, I served 80 clients and brought in nearly $60,000 in revenue. About 70% of my bookings came from Aussies and Americans, many of whom found me through Instagram, and word of mouth.
The most surprising boost came from TikTok videos showcasing the landscapes and behind-the-scenes moments from our trips. I didn't edit these videos or put much thought into them, so it was nice when they worked so well. Next, I'm thinking about multi-sport adventures, combining hiking with kayaking or cycling. I might also do something with photography to cater to couples or solo travellers who want high-quality visual memories of their trek. All in all, it's been fun.
Well, when you're doing something for a while and it seems to be working a little bit, it's always helpful to ask yourself, what might also work? Like, what is the logical extension of this idea? If I'm offering this and people are responding to it, do they have other needs as well? And now that they trust me to provide one solution to a problem, might they trust me with other solutions as well? And you don't always wanna pursue every single idea, of course, but just being able to think about opportunities like that is helpful.
Notice how you can expand or scale or grow or just do something different. Thanks, Will, for sharing those updates with us. Listeners, let me know what you think, who you'd like to see featured. We've got almost 3,000 episodes as mentioned in the archives. They're all completely free.
You can listen to them on the website. And also, you can subscribe to new episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, wherever you like to listen. Totally up to you, as noted, always free, as noted every day, but that's all for now. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
