Stay-at-Home-Mom Hires Army of College Students

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Hey, what's up side hustle school friends, listeners, community. Welcome back, my name is Chris Guillebeau. So excited you're here. Got a great story for you today. It's about a stay-at-home mom.

This stay-at-home mom is a little bored, wants to make some money. So what does she do? Well, she goes out and makes some money and I'll tell you exactly how she does it. But first I realize you're dying to know what today's pseudo holiday is. And guess what?

It is National Go For Broke Day and the phrase Go For Broke has roots in Hawaiian pigeon and it means to wager everything. Go For Broke Day truly signifies giving it your all regardless of the obstacles ahead. There are several military references to this phrase. In fact, the first Medal of Honor recipient comes from a World War II army regiment known as Go For Broke. There's also a 1951 movie called Go For Broke which tells the story of that army regiment.

As to how this applies for us today, I guess the question is, what are you giving your all to? Are you doing something where you're giving it your all regardless of the obstacles ahead? That could be your side of the slope, it could be something totally different in your life. I actually tend to think of a side of the slope as something that is not really going for broke. You're not risking everything, it's actually giving you more security.

But perhaps it gives you more security to do something where you really do go for broke, where you do give it your all regardless of the obstacles ahead. Because you can look and say, if I was able to start this project, well, maybe the next one's even bigger. Maybe I do wanna take on some risk because now I have some experience. So think about that. And today's feature, as mentioned, a stay at home mom who helps party hosts plan and execute their events.

This side of the slope brings her extra money. It also helps her party her way to a two week European vacation along with Beyonce and Jay-Z tour tickets. All kinds of side of the slope benefits you guys. So stay tuned. Let's say thanks to today's sponsor and then I'll tell you the whole story.

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Kristin Blanks is a Midwesterner who grew up in Akron, Ohio, a place whose claim to fame is being the birthplace of NBA All-Star LeBron James. While many of our high school classmates were signing up for French club or the debate team, Kristin set her sights on something else, the Kitchen Libby organization. Now, if you've never heard of this organization, you're certainly not alone. I didn't know much about it until recording this episode. So for those who are not in the know, including myself, a Kitchen Libby, no relation to the official show cat Libby Gillivaux, a Kitchen Libby is someone who provides services like washing dishes and serving at parties.

So as president of the esteemed Kitchen Libby organization, Kristin kept a roster of Kitchen Libby's along with their weekly availability. Her high school would connect her with hosts in need of a few extra sets of hands and Kristin was in charge of selecting students to work the parties. It gave her some management skills and it looked good on her college application. But little did she know that years later, it would go on to become the inspiration for her side hustle. A few years later and a whole bachelor's degree away from her Kitchen Libby days, Kristin was toiling away in grad school so that she could become a counselor.

Since her day-to-day class schedule was so demanding, she couldn't keep a full-time job and had to rely on her parents and student loans for support. But Kristin had always had a bit of an independent streak. She didn't wanna rely on mom and dad for that support or take money from loan institutions with outrageous interest rates. So she started brainstorming ways to bring in extra cash. It had to be something that would allow her to have control over her hours and provide the flexibility that her school schedule severely lacked.

That's when she began to reminisce about her high school days as part of that Kitchen Libby organization. It fit her criteria and it didn't hurt that it was something she had experience in. Plus there was the added bonus that there wasn't really anything like it at the time, at least where she lived. She thought this idea had serious potential so her new side hustle, Party Ease, became a reality. The concept for Party Ease was very similar to that of the Kitchen Libby organization, but she wanted to take it a step further.

She'd still be helping hosts with setup and cleanup at parties, but she decided to add bartending and food prep to the services she offered. She marketed Party Ease on Craigslist and advertised it as the solution to a host party throwing woes. She'd take care of the details and allow those hosts to actually enjoy their parties instead of working them. And this wasn't hugely successful, but she did end up with about five or six gigs a year that gave her that extra cash she was looking for. But after a while, she hung up her apron when she and her husband moved to Pittsburgh for him to attend graduate school.

Four years later, Kristin and her husband were officially settled into their new home in Columbus, Ohio. In fact, they had moved there a mere five days following the birth of their first child. It wasn't completely planned that way, but apparently their son arrived 10 days late. Kristin settled in. She loved being a full-time mom.

She was also volunteering for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. But while both of those things were fulfilling, she was also, at the same time, bored. She missed being able to use what she called her adult brain to contribute financially to the family. In fact, the way she put it was, after singing the ABCs for about the 100th time, I poured myself a glass of wine at noon and set out to find a way to not only save my sanity, but also serve my community while working from home. A noble mission, of course.

Midway through 2016, she relaunched party ease and began offering her party organizing services to the community in Columbus. Since this was now the digital age, she launched her website with Weebly, ordered some business cards, and began reaching out to friends and family for leads. Now, this time, rather than doing everything yourself, she also looked for independent contractors to help her out with some of the larger parties. Her 21-year-old cousin was attending Ohio State and supplied her with an abundance of young students looking to make extra money. From there, it was just a matter of getting them all licensed to serve food and alcohol.

She created an LLC in the state of Ohio, which cost a few hundred dollars, and in fact, her total startup costs were approximately $1,500. That included buying some basic serving and bartending supplies, those fancy business cards, getting the website set up, and so on. By the end of 2017, Kristin took home nearly $8,000 after paying her contractors and deducting any expenses along the way. Not bad for a stay-at-home mom who is also volunteering much of the time. Now, let's say you want to do something like this.

At this point, you might be saying, "Okay, this sounds cool, but how do you decide what services to offer and how much to charge?" Well, here's what Kristin did. She knew her target market was affluent professionals with limited time, so she began by asking two things. What would they most want someone to help with if they were throwing a party? And what would they be willing to pay to not have to do those things themselves? The first people she talked to said that the after-party cleanup would be their biggest need, and Kristin decided to price her services lower than what they said they'd pay in order to get her name out there.

After a few gigs, she surveyed her clients who surprisingly all said they would have paid a lot more. She didn't raise her rates, which are now typically in the $30 to $35 an hour range per person or per independent contractor. Some people say her rates are still too low, but she's not paying her mortgage with party ease and she wants to keep it accessible. Now, party host organizing and execution is definitely a seasonal business. Kristin says she'll do anything from two to six gigs a month during the party-deprived periods of January and February, and then upwards of 15 gigs a month during the busy wedding and holiday seasons.

On average, most parties end up bringing her between $200 to $1,500, depending on the length of the party and the number of people needed to help run it. She's looking forward to booking more gigs and possibly expanding to her hometown of Akron, Ohio. She's also added childcare services to her lineup and is thinking of offering her services for more somber events like funerals. Her son begins full-day preschool in the fall, but her husband will be switching from a work-at-home position to one that requires extensive travel. So we'll see how these changes affect party ease.

Whatever happens, Kristin found something that accomplished her goal. She was able to use her adult brain and contribute financially to her family, and she can point to some positive experiences she's had as a result of the side hustle. One of those highlights was attending a friend's wedding in London with her husband. They used her party's profits and her husband's airline miles and hotel points. Good work there.

And were able to fully fund a two-week European vacation in London, Paris, and Barcelona. One big personal win for Kristin came when she bought tickets to the recently announced Beyonce and Jay-Z On The Run 2 tour. Her husband wasn't quite sure he wanted to spend so much money on tickets, but then she used the party's funds for them. No guilt there, and at that point he could only say yes. He'd already put a ring on it, so he got in formation.

And it was the last call for alcohol. He was drunk in love. He could see her halo. He prayed it wouldn't fade away. All things considered, party ease was a party that was easy to say yes to.

All right, congratulations to Kristin. What a fun story. And I also learned what a kitchen Libby is. Maybe you did too, or maybe you already knew that. We actually have another episode coming up.

I believe it's number 467, so that's coming next week. It's of somebody who hosts wine and painting parties, earning a couple thousand dollars a month on the side. I just recently worked on the notes for that one, so I was thinking about it as I recorded this one. And both of these stories provide different solutions to the problem of bringing people together, which is a good thing to do, but there's a lot of work for it. And so if you're somebody who's hosting a party and you wanna make a good impression, and not just make the good impression, but you wanna actually be involved.

You don't wanna have to worry about washing the dishes or putting this stuff out or cleaning up afterwards. It makes perfect sense that you wanna hire somebody like Kristin, and even if it's not her doing the work, you know that the students she's bringing in are people who've gone through her process. She backs them up, you're mostly dealing with her, not the students directly. And for this one and the story that's coming up, they're both projects that could be ramped up or slowed down depending on what else is happening in your life. So for Kristin, the highly productive stay-at-home mom, she starts this project when she's feeling a little bit bored.

And now she's moving into a new season with her son going to preschool, but also her husband going to work for a job that requires more travel. So if she needs to scale it back, then she can do so. If not, she can keep it going as it is, or maybe she can do it more. Maybe she can expand to Akron, like she mentioned. The point is with something like this, you have a lot of options.

And of course options are good. I use that word options all the time on the show. It's because I believe you need more options in your life so that you can make the choices that are important to you. It is of course what a side hustle is all about. Thank you for listening today.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. The show notes for today's episode are at sidehustleschool.com/460. That is 4-6-0. I'll be back tomorrow right after I get in formation. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

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