Mom Starts Uber Easy Side Hustle Taxiing Kids

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

[Music]

Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Psilocycle School. This is Chris Guillebeau. I'm gonna begin with an important reminder, important reminder for you here. It's okay to just make extra money.

It's okay, right? If you need some money, you've got to pay some bills. Having some extra cash is good. Like, it's totally fine. It doesn't have to be strategic.

Not everything in life has to be part of a grand plan. Sometimes in your life, an opportunity just comes along. So if it doesn't add a lot of difficulty to your life, and if it can help you in some way, or in the case of the story you're gonna hear about today, it can help you and some other people too, there's really no reason why you shouldn't pursue it, or at least try it out. It's always good to ask, you know, what's the worst thing that can happen? If something doesn't work, okay, I'll do something different.

So today we're gonna talk about a really simple project, just super simple, that brings in an extra $100 a week for a mom in Australia. She calls it Uber for Kids. And in this case, she's the Uber driver, or the taxi driver, or the chauffeur, doing this on her own to provide rides to the same elementary school where two of her kids attend. So this Aussie mom is making some extra cash, nothing wrong with that, as I said, and perhaps it will get you thinking about how you can make some extra cash of your own. All right, stay tuned for that story.

It's coming right up. [Music]

People start side hustles for all kinds of different reasons. Sometimes they're looking to create something that they have complete autonomy over. Sometimes they're looking to leave a full-time job. And sometimes, like today, they're just trying to make some extra money.

Steph Holt of Sunny Brisbane, Australia fits firmly into this last category. Although she was working and going to school to be a social worker, she found herself once again on maternity leave with kid number five. This meant she had some extra time on her hands, time that would allow her to do more stuff around the house and drop her kids off at school, instead of having them take the bus or walk. It was during this time that she found more than a few coins and some stale cereal stashed away in her back seat. In Australia, there is a school bus service, but the stops are often at public bus stops.

So many parents don't feel comfortable leaving their young kids there alone. Being approximately five to six miles from their school, Steph was hesitant to let her kids go off on their own. After seeing a large number of children walking unaccompanied on their way to school one day, she got the idea to give rides to other kids in her neighborhood. After all, she was already dropping off and picking up her own two school-age children. So why not make that extra money?

That's when her version of Uber for kids was born. The best part is that all the kids she taxis live en route to the school. Some only live about a half mile from the school, but as she points out, that's a long way for a young kid to walk. Her mom bus is an Azuzu MUX, which seats seven. That means she can haul six passengers.

If her younger kids are staying home, she can taxi up to four paying clients. That's right, these are paying clients. At least the parents are. Steph wanted it to be something that was feasible for families to do, so she decided to charge $10 per trip. So if she drops off and picks up the same kid each day, that's $20.

Right now, her average side hustle income is $100 a week, although there have certainly been weeks where she's brought in more, and every penny adds up. Parents can pick which days their kids need a ride. Sometimes they need all week, which is great for Steph. She logs information in a notebook, like who needs a ride when and the total cost for the week, and then the parents pay up each Friday. Those parents are grateful to her because they don't have to walk their kid to school or find another means of transportation.

They also don't have to worry about them being at the bus stop. She feels it's a win-win with good karma all around. So how did she get going? Well, to start, Steph advertised her taxi service through social media. Once the word spread, parents now contact her directly at the school.

To address the demand and scheduling kids for rides, for now, she does it on a first-come, first-served basis. There's no search pricing, at least not yet. For her, it's been a super easy side hustle, not much to think about. It's just simple, she just does it, she gets paid. She's already going to the school anyway, so it's actually Uber convenient.

There were no startup costs whatsoever for this hustle. To anyone out there interested in starting a mom's taxi-like stuff, she advises the first step is to let your community know you're available. There are many people who can't drive or have to walk, and if you don't offer, no one will know you're providing a service. She plans to keep offering Uber for kids while she's still home with her youngest child. [Music]

So not a ton of analysis here.

Like I said, it's a simple project, a simple project, and that's okay. Not everything has to be strategic, not everything has to scale, not everything has to go into five figures or six figures or whatever. If an opportunity appears in front of you and it doesn't cost you much in terms of time or focus or energy or any other kind of opportunity cost, why not do it? And sometimes in the startup world or if you listen to some traditional business advice, it's all about focusing and you can only do this one thing and only do what you're best at and don't be distracted by opportunities that come up along the way. And when it comes to your life mission, perhaps that's true.

If you're building a big business, then that's true. But when that's not the case, and for everyone else, and of course there are different seasons in our lives, again, it's okay to make extra money. I think if you're kind of going along and you find money lying under a rock, why not pick it up? Why not just actually say, okay, I'll kind of add that to my life for a while and we'll see how it goes. And whenever it becomes stressful or difficult or just doesn't work as well, I'll stop and I'll do something else.

So that's my encouragement for you today. If you find some money somewhere under a rock, don't be afraid to pick it up. You don't have to ask too many questions about it. And our show notes for today are at sidehustleschool.com/776, episode 776. I'm excited to keep rolling along with you tomorrow.

If you come back, be sure you're subscribed. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

- From the Onward Project.