This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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One thing I haven't mentioned in a long time, but has long been a core value of Cytosol School and a goal for me. The goal is that every listener who believes in the values of earning extra money, whether they want to quit their job or not, being able to earn at least $500 a month, $500 a month in extra money from a creative project. And I like that number because it is both obtainable and meaningful. Like you can't live off of $500 a month, at least not in most parts of the world, but it can pay off a couple of bills or make a significant difference in somebody's lifestyle, especially if they are trying to save or pay off debt. And of course, I want you to be able to earn a lot more than $500 extra a month, but I just think it's smart to start with something that is, as I say, obtainable.
We have this whole series of first $1,000, how somebody makes their first $1,000, and then you can often go on beyond that to earn much more. So I mentioned that because there are two ways to grow, especially with a service like the one you're going to hear about in today's listener question, comes from a woman who makes money with face painting, but would like to grow by selling more to her customers. So what should she do in this situation? I think this is a helpful scenario for us to look at the question. Her name is Holly, gonna bring you the detailed question from her and my answer right after this.
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Hey, Chris, this is Holly from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and my side hustle is face painting. My question is about creating more income streams from this project. Other face painters do things like videos or offering courses or sometimes selling paint to other face painters. But I was thinking about going a different way and selling more to my customers. I thought about pairing up with other vendors like photographers and balloon twisters to offer more package deals for events or something like that.
But I was wondering if you have any other ideas that I could use to monetize this side hustle. [Music]
Okay, so first let's make a distinction between categories of side hustles. This one clearly is a service, right? She is providing a service. She is exchanging her talents and skills to provide the service of face painting in which she is paid, okay?
And in the question she's talking about how other face painters are making videos or products or courses, selling paint supplies and so on. So those are products. And so basically we have a clear fork in the road here. She can either start making courses or selling supplies or otherwise doing something on the product front or she can find a way to grow through the service itself. And the first one involves a shift towards a more productized model that's good for a lot of people.
It might be easier actually. But I also think it's great that Holly is thinking more about expanding through the service itself because presumably she is face painting because she likes that, right? It's something she likes to do and she's not trying to necessarily work herself out of a job. With any side hustle, you can sell to more customers or you can sell more to existing customers. And most of the time inexperienced business owners or side hustlers, they focus on the first option.
Like how can I reach more people? How can I sell to more customers? I need more followers on my social accounts, need more sales and all those things are good. But often there's a whole group of people just kind of staring at you waiting for their face to be painted. Or if it's not quite like that, the point is you already have a group of people who trust and follow you.
So are you serving them to the best of your ability? Do they have needs that you could meet that you don't currently offer in the form of a service? So Holly said something about what, partnering up to offer some kind of bundle. I think that's interesting. And I also think just anything you can do to gain a foothold in the world of event planning is gonna be very helpful here.
Because often event planners are steering clients, whether it's for a wedding or a corporate event or something else, they are steering clients toward specific services and providers. So if she has a good wedding planner that she works with, that person may very well get her a bunch of gigs. Maybe weddings are not necessarily the best gig for this particular service, but still some form of connecting with event planners. Ultimately, this is a business very much built on relationships and just being dependable, doing a good job for those clients, those event planners in particular, or people making referrals, that goes a long way in getting repeat gigs. That's what I think about that.
Again, Holly, thank you so much for being out there. Thank you for the question. Listeners, thank you for being out there as well. sidehustleschool.com for resources and notes. Download, stream every episode in the history of the show.
New episodes out each day, seven days a week, wherever you like to listen. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
