This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Today, let's look at a former sound engineer from Texas who now makes $80,000 a year handing out free maps. These maps go to hotels, which then give them to their guests and he gets paid by advertisers. Now by doing so, he's built a diversified income. He gets paid from a lot of different businesses. So if some of them disappear or go out of business or just want to stop paying him, he's got plenty of other clients.
And he also has his eye on taking his idea nationwide by allowing people to franchise this model. Welcome to "Sidle School." My name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you're here as we kick off a brand new week. Every single day this week, I've got a new story of someone starting an income generating project without quitting their job by using a skill they already have and usually without spending a lot of money. Our entire mission is to show you by example that this is possible for you.
You don't have to be an internet celebrity. You don't have to have a lot of resources. There is something you know how to do that you can transform or adapt in some way to make money. And you can do this whether you ever think of yourself as an entrepreneur or not. That's not what it's all about.
It's about creating freedom and options and security for yourself. So with that in mind, have you lost your way while looking for the fine dining of Outback Steakhouse or the gourmet cuisine of TGI Fridays? Well, if so, put a pin in it. We'll be back at the proper latitude and longitude right after this shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
When you stay at a hotel in an unfamiliar city, how do you know where to eat or go shopping or maybe even go to relax at a nearby spot?
Sure, you could look up restaurants or shops surrounding the hotel on your phone, but that takes time. And it can be confusing trying to figure out where that place is located. Wouldn't it be easier to have the restaurants and businesses located close to your hotel all mapped out in one place? That's where Front Desk USA Maps comes to the rescue. Their colorful maps are easy to carry and use when exploring area businesses surrounding your hotel.
The maps are custom drawn specifically for a particular geographic area, so they are super local to the region surrounding hotels. They're provided to all the hotels in one particular region at no cost, so they can then be made available free of charge to guests. The maps are the creation of Tom Schott, who was working as a sound engineer in Texas. After growing up in a family that owned a media company, Tom had an interest in print media and advertising. He believed that hotels have an endless need for visitor information available for guests.
He and his wife now publish maps in the Houston, Beaumont, and Lake Charles, Texas areas, currently issuing seven maps. So how does Tom make money providing free maps to hotels, which are then given to guests for free? It's by selling advertising space on them. Area restaurants and other businesses purchase the benefit of having their ad displayed clearly and prominently on the maps. One area map is typically distributed to 20 to 30 hotels, and thousands of hotel guests view their maps each day.
This buys those area businesses exposure to customers. Meanwhile, hotels benefit by providing their guests with information to the number one question they are asked over and over, what's a good place to eat around here? Each letter size map contains space for 18 ads, and is printed once or twice a year. Each ad generates about $700 a year. That works out to more than $10,000 per year per map, and for the past few years, Tom and his wife have been earning more than $80,000 a year printing these free maps.
Of course, it's not free to print those maps. Their printing costs run about $1,500 per year. They also have some transportation costs incurred when delivering maps to hotels, and the most valuable resource of all time. It takes around 160 hours a year to maintain the maps. In addition to restaurants, Front Desk USA Maps also runs ads for other businesses.
They highlight area shops, pharmacies, and hospitals in addition to area attractions, museums, golf courses, and amusement venues can all become known to consumers via those maps. In fact, they're designed to be the go-to visitor information guide for city guests. Dealing with restaurants closing down has been one of the most demanding parts of this business. They've also struggled with some natural disasters being in Texas in 2017. Flooding from Hurricane Harvey caused many hotels and restaurants to close in the South Texas area, and they had to put much of the business on pause for a bit, but fortunately they're now back up and running strong.
Over the years, this map publishing marketplace has transitioned to much more than a side hustle for Tom and his wife. It's now their primary source of income and has allowed them the freedom to focus on their family. They still have to work, but they like having the ability to decide when their time is spent working. They also have some control over the income because the more time and effort they put into selling map ads, the more money they make. Tom's new focus is helping other people build their own map publishing business in other areas of the United States.
He's offering the project on a franchise model and currently has 30 people in other locations selling ads. Each franchisee pays a quarterly fee to Front Desk USA. For someone with sales experience, Tom believes this is the perfect side hustle. He'll take care of the map design and office work, leaving side hustlers the ability to focus on building relationships with their local businesses. It may not be for everyone, but for him and his family, this project has allowed them to map out the lifestyle they most value.
All right, I got a couple comments here on this mapped out story. Let's talk first of all about the role of personality in the world of salesmanship. At the end of the story, I said something about how for someone with sales experience, Tom believes this is the perfect side hustle. I think that qualification is key. If you have sales experience, if that's something you'd like to do, if you have that kind of personality and you enjoy that, then yes, this could be great, it could actually be ideal.
If you don't have that personality, if this kind of direct sales where you actually have to call people up on the phone and try to sell something to them or email pitch them or whatever you do, if that makes you uncomfortable, then this is probably not a good project for you. Or again, generally speaking, this direction is not a good direction for you. Long ago, I once joined an opportunity that I thought I would like, this is many, many years back, and it turned out that I was terrible at it because it basically required me to try to make sales. And it made me physically ill to try to call people up and sell to them. And it wasn't like I was selling a bad product or something that was harmful or anything that was, I don't know, out of alignment.
But for me, it felt out of alignment with myself just because I wasn't good at that. Again, in a business like this, sales are important. They are helping businesses, they're helping hotel guests, they're helping hotels. So it's a valuable thing. But if you don't like doing that, you probably wouldn't like this business.
Don't try to force yourself into doing something that feels unnatural. Find a way to play to your strengths, find your own North Star, your Compass Point, your side hustle without borders, let's say. And then also, I kind of wonder a little bit about the cell phone thing. Could this potentially be the modern day version of the telephone book or directory or the Yellow Pages, something that was useful at one point but eventually will become obsolete? I may not be their ideal target market, but for me personally, I spend at least 100 nights a year in hotels.
And once in a while, I sometimes ask the concierge or front desk clerk about where to eat. But if I do, I'm usually interested in their opinion. I don't actually want them to say like, here's a map of a bunch of places because I already have that on my phone. And it's not just that on my phone. I can immediately see the restaurant's hours.
Are they open right now? What are their reviews? What does their menu look like? I mean, all that kind of stuff. Google Maps in particular has gotten really, really good at that.
So Tom is the expert in this business, not me, but it might be good for him to be thinking about what he's gonna do as the world evolves, as things change. And as I said, I'm not necessarily their target audience. Perhaps that audience is people who travel less frequently or who don't use technology as much as I do. But as our team worked on this episode, that is something I wondered about. So I will leave you with that.
And as always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to this project and anything else I mentioned, are at sidehustleschool.com/632. That is for episode 632. If you have not done so already, you can also pick up a copy of "Side Hustle" of the book, from idea to income in 27 days, more than 205 star reviews on Amazon. I hear from readers all the time who say that the show is inspirational, but the book is what helps them go step by step, day one, day two, all the way to having a side hustle of their own, which is of course my goal.
And I would love to help make that happen for you if you have not done so already. Friends and listeners, thank you so much for being part of this community. Much more is on the way. Do keep coming back. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School."
