This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
What do you do when you need to make some extra money? Perhaps a lot of extra money, but your time is limited. Do you just go out and work harder? That's the question we'll look at in today's episode of Side Hustle School. I'd like to welcome you to the broadcast. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Now on that topic of hard work, I think there's actually a lot to be said for hard work. Like, yes, you want to work smarter, you want to be strategic, and so on. But sometimes if you believe in something, if you have a dream, if something is important to you, you just have to work hard. And it can help to do that hard work in a different way than what you're already doing.
Because if you just keep working hard doing the same thing, you can get burned out, get exhausted, or you might even miss a major opportunity. So to illustrate this, today's story features a California baker who wants to raise extra money for a down payment on a house. She needs to raise a significant amount of extra money because houses are expensive in California. So instead of just working hard at her main gig, which she was already doing, she takes the skills she had gained from operating the bakery and then opens a second business. The second gig is a creative agency to help other small businesses in the food industry, and a couple of other industries I think as well. We'll also look a bit at Instagram marketing and how she narrowed down her focus
because she had pretty limited time. That complete story is coming right up after this quick shout out to our sponsor. For organic baker Mimi Council, it was the dream of building a new family home that brought her to side hustling. With sky high California house prices, Mimi knew her current level of income wasn't going to help her raise the $100,000 she needed to build the first part of the project. If she was going to turn dreams and ideas into bricks and mortar, she'd need a second source of income. But Mimi was faced with a problem. As the owner of a successful bakery,
she found herself with a full schedule. She was already working six days a week for at yeast 10 hours a day trying to rise to the top. If she was going to start a side hustle, she'd need to draw on her existing skills, and she'd have to use her limited time well. There was no room for learning new skills or taking Saturdays off work. So instead of seeing her job as an obstacle, Mimi saw it as an opportunity. She was a scrappy small business owner. She'd learned lots of skills to help her
market and grow her venture. In the years since starting the bakery, she'd learned photography to capture beautiful images of her creations. She'd mastered Instagram marketing to make her more visible. And she'd studied the fundamentals of search engines to ensure that her website was consistently receiving traffic. Most of all, she remembered what drove her to learn those skills in the first place. They were expensive to outsource, and it was hard to find someone she could trust.
And it was hard to find someone she could trust who really understood her needs. Because she'd been successful, her friends often asked questions regarding how she started her bakery. They wondered about that list of skills she'd acquired, how she created an Instagram following of over 45,000 people in just a year, how they could create visually stimulating photos like hers, and even what kind of promotions they should run for their own businesses. It was then she figured out she could be making money instead of just talking to her friends. So she kept talking to her friends, but she also started marketing to people outside her friend group. See Mimi felt she was competent
enough with all these skills to perform them for other businesses. She also figured that she could charge an affordable price, which would give her an edge over the competition. She'd been in the trenches trying to grow her bakery. She could empathize with many of the day to day problems that small business owners deal with. So she decided she would start a purposeful focused creative agency and offer her services under the name above 8000 creative. The name comes from the
fact that Mimi is based out of Mammoth Lakes, California, which is over 8,000 feet above sea level. Through this new creative agency, Mimi provides photography, search engine optimization, Instagram marketing, and consulting to small businesses to help them grow their audience in revenue, all based on the skills she had learned doing it herself. Since her time was so limited, she made an important decision to narrow down the types of clients she wanted to work with. She couldn't be an all purpose consultant. She looked for two or three industries she was passionate about and where she knew she could deliver a lot of value. This would make performing search
engine work or editing photographs much easier after a long day working with hot ovens. It would also make it easier to identify whether a business was worth her pitch in the first place. Mimi settled on the food, apparel, and outdoor industries. And to market above 8000 creative, she focused her time and effort on Instagram. She knew if a company was already on that platform, they were actively trying to market themselves and would likely be open to discussing her services.
Because of her proven skills there, having built that 45,000 person following for her bakery, she was able to send messages to companies and offer actionable advice on their feed. If the photographs could be improved, or if their biography was missing essential information, Mimi could swoop in, offer help, and position herself as an authority. The other way she marketed her business was through word of mouth. Many of her local leads have come through referrals from friends or other companies who use her services. These techniques have led to above 8000 creative working with 12 clients since she first launched with great results. For example,
Mimi began running the Instagram marketing campaign for Ocean Palms Beach Resort in Carlsbad, California. Over a six month period, they were able to grow their following from just 200 people to over 16,000. Her prices are custom tailored to the services and needs of her clients. In setting them, she factored in what a budget for a small business might be. And she also gives existing customers a little discount if they upgrade to a larger package. Startup costs for this business
were almost non-existent. She just had to make a website and her graphic designer husband took care of that. Because she was monetizing skills she already had, and because she's selling a service, the new side gig costs nothing to maintain, at least nothing financial. Not surprisingly, the bigger challenge for Mimi has been getting the work done. Thanks to her hectic schedule, she often finds herself trying to fit in work while she's at work or once her shift at the bakery is finished.
The good news is that Mimi is the boss and can integrate this work into her schedule without anyone thinking that she's slacking off. If she needs to make a call or answer an email, she can step away. She's in charge. She can do it however she wants. Thanks to her clear branding, her decision to focus, and that hard work, of course, Mimi has been able to generate $2,000 a month in extra income through the business. This money goes directly into the savings account for
the new house, which he's hoping to be able to start work on in January 2019. Looking to the future, Mimi wants to keep growing her client base without working too hard and continue to put away money toward her dream home each month. Awesome, congratulations to Mimi. I respect people who are willing to work hard and get creative, which is exactly what she's done. Like I said, sometimes it's good to work hard but in a different way or a different approach than what you're already doing for your day job or for your existing business in her case. And since
she's focused on Instagram so much, she sent along a tip for us. She says, "For anyone looking to take advantage of Instagram in their business, I recommend you go back to basics. Many businesses forget that Instagram is a photography platform first and a marketing tool second. You need to create well-lit images that show your product in its best light and then share captions that are relevant to your audience. Stick to these basics and use the platform properly, then you can see major growth in your following while subtly promoting your products," which is exactly what she's done. So if you're interested, you might want to check out her Instagram account in addition
to her website, which we will of course link up. And looking at my schedule, we also have another episode that focuses on Instagram marketing coming up in just a couple of days. So stick around for that. And lastly, I also really like the idea of starting a special savings fund. So in her case, she's saving up for this down payment on the home, which is quite a significant expense as discussed.
So if you're saving up for something, whether it's something really big like that, or something smaller like a trip or a new computer or whatever it is, it can be really fun and empowering to see those savings kind of build up in a place that's separate from your normal checking account or your normal savings account. I've done that a few times myself, and I just noticed there's something different about it. Like even though the money is not more, like the total money is the same regardless of what account it's in, it can just be kind of motivating to see that number get bigger and bigger as you get closer toward whatever your goal is. So that could be a little side hustle tip for you or just a life tip in general. It's good to save for something and it's also good to make money, which is a lot of what I talked about inside of school school. I want you
to be able to make money. I want you to be able to pursue your dreams. That is the whole focus of this seven day a week project. Don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those show notes I mentioned are at sidehustleschool.com/515. That is
for episode 515. Hope you enjoyed this one. Thanks again to Mimi for letting us share about her business and her other business. Much more to come, and I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
