Two Teachers Launch Summer Camp After Listening to Side Hustle School

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Oh, hey there, what's up, welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. Today I have another listener success story for you. That is in fact the story of two year one Side Hustle School listeners who got an idea and took action on it. It's actually two teachers who launch a summer camp and they're in need of funds for an adoption.

And they think about teaching summer school, which is kind of the obvious normal choice, but then instead of working within the school system, they create their own brain camp and end up earning more than $15,000, which is much more than they would have made just teaching summer school. And they also had a lot more fun because they could create their own structure. They also ended up helping other teachers as well. So it really is just a great story all around. And also a reminder, hey, if you're out there and you've been listening for a while, but you haven't found your idea yet, don't get frustrated, sometimes it takes time.

Sometimes you learn through repetition. And in the case of these guys, they listened every day for several months, almost gave up on it, but then they found that perfect idea for them. So sometimes these things take time. But again, if you listen every day, if you keep thinking, keep asking yourself, okay, what can I do? What is the perfect match between what I'm good at, what I like to do, what other people value?

I really do believe the answer is out there for you as well. So let me give a quick thank you to our sponsor today. And then I'll tell you exactly how these guys found their idea and made it happen. [Music]

Austin, Texas-based elementary school teachers, Mike and Joy Engel, have always enjoyed teaching and playing with kids. Last year, however, was different, as Mike and Joy were contemplating teaching summer school to build up their savings for an upcoming adoption.

They were excited about that adoption, but not about teaching summer school. Teaching in a formal setting was what they did all year, and they needed a break. For a while though, they couldn't avoid that possibility. Although both Mike and Joy listened to side hustle school every day, they still couldn't come up with an idea. Resigned to teaching summer school, the joke was that it wouldn't be as bad if they could set their own rules and do it in their own way.

That was when the seed for creating their own summer camp was planted. Both of them knew that parents were afraid of the summer slide, where their kids' academics would regress after spending too much time having fun. At the same time, they knew that kids needed something fun and something less stressful. Camp Fun Brain was their idea. It would be a summer camp which would incorporate both academic rigor and hands-on projects to ensure that students would maintain their grades while having fun.

Both Mike and Joy got to work immediately. Their first step was finding a location to host the camp. They called around and found a church that agreed to rent out a classroom for $50 a day and didn't require a deposit. So with little risk, Joy was able to confidently reserve the classroom for the last six weeks of summer. Their idea was to spend the first month of summer getting customers and developing their curriculum.

With that main logistical difficulty handled, they turned to the most important marketing issue, getting their first customers. Mike and Joy spent a few hours on Squarespace and put up their website where customers could register and pay for the camp. Launching on March 1st, they followed up by listing Camp Fun Brain and every free camp guide in Austin. They also created a Facebook page and ran a number of sponsored posts. And they didn't stop there.

Mike and Joy put flyers up in dozens of coffee shops and restaurants. They also called up every elementary school within 10 miles to ask if they could distribute flyers to students. Most schools said no, but usually allowed them to leave some flyers with the office. Then Mike and Joy made yard signs and knocked on the doors of homes which faced the pickup points of those schools for permission to put their sign in the homeowner's yard. To their surprise, almost every homeowner said yes when Joy explained that she was a school teacher.

Yet one month later on the 1st of April, there were still no signups. They had been banking on their marketing efforts and the fact that they were both trained school teachers. Seeing no signups in a month was a huge disappointment. Joy was on the verge of pulling out and moving on to the next idea when Camp Fun Brain got its first sale. A family had signed their two kids up for all six weeks of summer camp.

That one sale alone generated over $3,000 in revenue which was more than Joy's monthly take-home pay from teaching. Side note, yes, teachers are underpaid. Those two signups were a huge morale booster and kept them going. Doubling down on their marketing, they managed to get six campers for their first week, then 13 for the second, 18 for the third, and 24 for the fourth to six weeks. Over the course of summer, Mike and Joy grossed $36,000 in revenue for a net profit of $15,000.

Their classroom rental cost $2,000, their marketing cost about $2,000, and they spent $8,000 on school supplies, of which $6,000 were reusable. The biggest cost was getting teachers to staff and help run the camp. But for Joy, her ability to pay teachers well was the best part of the experience. She tells the story of being with Mike at Chipotle for the Teacher Association Buy One Get One Free Burrito Day, which was, of course, packed full of teachers. They were all talking about how, while the public constantly tells teachers how amazing they are, no solutions are ever put forward to ensure they get paid more.

At that point, Camp Funbrain had over $10,000 in sales, so Joy felt empowered. She wanted to do something for other teachers. So she offered them a $40 an hour wage for teaching at the camp. That's more than what most schools pay, and she thought they would find it liberating to work in an environment that allowed them more creative independence. Now, interestingly, even though the camp turned out to be a success, Mike and Joy had a backup plan.

When they started to worry before they got their first registration, they decided if the camp didn't work out, they would focus on selling curriculum to special ed teachers. In other words, they weren't gonna give up even if their first attempt failed. But thankfully, it didn't. Moving forward, Mike and Joy hope to grow Camp Funbrain by collaborating with other teachers who are running their own camps. This year, they'll be experimenting with a month of Spanish immersion camp.

Over the long run, they hope to positively impact the Austin community by raising a teacher's quality of life, since that's often the biggest inadequacy of the public school system. They're glad they listened to themselves when they had that idea. They're glad they didn't just push through by accepting the obvious choice and teaching summer school in the formal system, and they're really glad they found their own way. Okay, so what can we learn from this awesome story? I think the main thing is there's often more than one way to use the same skill.

By starting the brain camp, Mike and Joy were not only able to make a lot more money than they would have by just teaching summer school, they were also able to do something more enjoyable. Even though they were still teaching and working with students, it felt different to start their own camp instead of filling the same roles they filled during the year. Then they were also able to help other teachers by paying them $40 an hour, a higher rate than they would have received otherwise. And last but not least, now that they've had a year of camp experience, they can go on to create another one or partner with other camps like they're thinking about doing this year. Oh, and they also have $6,000 worth of reusable supplies.

So in other words, in year two, they have $6,000 less cost. If no other variable changes, and even if they don't have any growth at all, which they probably will have growth going into it for the second year, but even if it was exactly the same, it would make $6,000 more money. So basically all around, I think this is a fantastic success story. I'm so happy that it comes from two of our listeners. We are always super thrilled when we hear these stories.

I send them around to our production team because they're a big part of making this happen too. And if you've been part of telling somebody about the show or otherwise just passing it on in some way, then you're also part of these success stories. So thank you for being part of that. And remember, I want you to have a success story too. I wanna be able to take joy in something that you've made for yourself.

So as I sign off for the day, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes for today's episode, just go to sidehustleschool.com/405. Congratulations again to Mike and Joy. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.