Serial Business Builder Creates Digital Checklist Tool

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

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Hey, Side Hustle School friends, listeners, and community. Got a question for you. What do you use to organize your tasks and goals? For myself, I use a couple of different resources. I actually use a bunch of different stuff, know what I think about it.

So perhaps in an upcoming recap or extended cut, I'll give you a full rundown of everything that I use. But here are two of them, just two little tools that I use. One of them you probably either already use yourself or are at least familiar with, any other might be new. And by the way, this does relate to today's story. But the first one I was going to mention, the more well-known one is Evernote.

Evernote is completely free software. They do have a premium version, but you can do so much with the free version. I've been using it for, I don't know, maybe at least five years, I think probably more like seven or eight. It's just a really handy tool to capture all kinds of information, data, notes, ideas, outlines. You can access it from any device.

So I have my notes on my phone, my iPad, my laptop. And over time, everything becomes archivable and searchable. So if I need to see something that I wrote down four years ago, I can just go and type in a little phrase and it will appear. So I am indeed an Evernote fan. Second tool is OmniFocus.

Now this is a paid tool, though of course they have a free trial. You can check it out and see if it works for you. This is how I organize all my projects and tasks. So perhaps like you, I have a bunch of different to-do lists going. I have a to-do list for each project.

I have a to-do list for each day. And OmniFocus is really great for organizing those tasks that way. You can also organize them by context. So for example, I have an online checklist. You can also organize them by context.

So you can create different contexts based on where you're at, whether you have access to the internet or not. So for example, I have an online checklist. I have an airplane checklist of things I'm gonna do when I'm on the airplane. I have a home checklist, things I need to do at home. All kinds of features and it really does grow with you as well.

I have no affiliation with them except for being a paying customer. Once again, that's called OmniFocus. I will link it up in the show notes. And today's story is about a longtime side hustler who sets out to create his own digital organizational tool, specifically for people who are building businesses. In a short period of time, he was able to pay his mortgage from the proceeds of this tool.

And a bit later, those proceeds exceeded his mortgage payment several times over. So I'll tell you all about this guy who creates a digital checklist tool in just a moment. First, a quick thank you to today's sponsor. [Music]

As side hustlers, we've all been there. At least a lot of us have.

A brilliant business idea pops into your head that you know could be a success if you could just pull it together. But the idea leads to more questions than answers. Well, this is what Chris Ranzio's side hustle is all about, getting your business out of your brain. Chris is a former full-time consultant who is in the business of helping companies build systems and processes to improve their operational efficiency. Inspired by his professional experience, he decided to launch Tranuel.

What is Tranuel? He defines it as the easiest way to organize how you do what you do. It's a web app that helps business owners build a how-to guide on how to run and organize their business. Imagine roles, responsibilities, process, policy, and procedures within your company, all outlined in one simple spot. During his day job as a consultant, Chris realized there was one thing he kept seeing business owners struggle with over and over again.

It was not having a good system for putting their business on paper so that employees could reference and learn from it. Say a new employee is hired at your organization. How do you get them up to speed with your business quickly and effectively? And Chris's mind so much of a new hire success with any company is about giving them the right tools and information to do their job. And this is where Tranuel comes into play.

Chris began by thinking about how he could help owners create what is essentially a business Wikipedia that's interactive, searchable, trackable, and easy to update. Still, he came upon the same hurdles that many of us experience, specifically the how of how to make it happen. Luckily, Chris has been starting projects for quite some time, including an organic coffee brand and drone videography. Time and time again, Chris would search for something more than Google Docs to help his clients organize their business, but nothing came up as helpful. While consulting for a client on a college campus, he met two student developers in the process of coding an online tool.

Chris showed interest in their product, and when they graduated, they thought he would be a good person to take their work in progress and run with it. It had the bones, but it needed some fine tuning to make it relatable. So Chris took the insights and learnings from consulting and he transformed it into Tranuel. He wanted to include the option to assign tasks, track your progress, check off tasks. Every aspect was inspired by the hiccups many of his clients had when it came to their business practices.

Once the digital product was developed, Chris focused on finding an audience. He reached out to the companies he'd been working with already and offered lifetime access to it for $1,000. Four of them said yes, which was awesome, but he was actually hoping that 50 would. At the time, he didn't know much about preparing for an online product launch. So while he did celebrate the validation of his idea, it was a small celebration.

But before he knew it, six more businesses had signed up. Some of the signups came from outside his network, which meant the word was spreading. A major turning point for Chris and his app came after he wrote a guest post and featured Tranuel as one of the top ways to automate your business. It garnered a lot more traffic, signups, and even press mentions because of that feature. Initial startup costs were around $3,500 to launch and host the product.

For the first few years, Tranuel profits grew from $300 a month to about $2,000 a month. Once his profits were able to cover his mortgage, Chris decided that was truly time to celebrate. And since December, his profits are now more than $4,000 a month. He's been able to triple the customer base over the last two months and now has users from 22 countries. Today on Tranuel's site, any business can get a 14-day free trial.

Flat rate plans start at $49 a month with a zero risk cancel at any time policy. He's got great reviews from the medical industry to tech, to education and more, and they even provide checklists for those who prefer paper over digital. One highlight was when Chris was attending the Phoenix Startup Week conference. As he walked the floor in his Tranuel t-shirt, someone he had never met came up to say he knew the company and loved the concept. That was a special moment.

Coming up next, Chris is creating a series of 100 best practice training videos as bonus content to educate business owners on what they can systematize first to make their business most efficient. He loves being able to offer inspiring tips for free to help any business grow, and his biggest challenge now is the same one that many of us have, too many projects. Fortunately, he's got a digital checklist to help him keep up. Awesome, congrats to Chris on his Tranuel web app. Remember, if you have a problem, you're probably not the only one.

Lots of people may have the same problem, and if you can create a solution, well, you might just have a side hustle. In Chris's case, he's had a lot of side hustles. This is one that came out of his experience of starting projects and advising businesses, noticing that a lot of them had common issues, common struggles. So he's now focused on growing this project even further, seeing how far he can take it. Let's wish him good luck just as I am wishing side hustle success for everyone who listens to this show.

That includes you. There is something out there that you can do to make money to create more options and security for yourself. As always, whether you want to quit your job or not, and you can probably do it in a way that doesn't cost a lot of money and doesn't require a lot of risk. I hope you do one thing today to get closer to that goal. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/475. I'll include links to those resources I mentioned at the top of the episode, as well as to Tranuel, of course, and anything else that came up. Thanks for listening. I hope you'll join me again soon, maybe even tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.