This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Greetings and welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Got a fun story today. It's kind of an inflationary story, but we'll hold that thought for a moment. You know, I often mention that a side hustle can be a good backup plan.
In addition to all the other benefits, well, today's story features a side hustle that provides temporary employment for a man when he changes cities. So we'll look at that in just a moment. Now, last week I asked you a question. I invited listeners to call in and let me know what's your hustle idea or what are you working on, especially if you've been listening for a while. So in every episode this week, we're gonna play some answers so that you can hear what other people who listen to the show are doing.
So listeners, what's up? - Hi Chris, this is Amy from Virginia, and I absolutely love your podcast. I've been listening since day one and I tell everyone I meet practically about it. My husband now listens as does my 13-year-old. She instantly created a successful side hustle, wildly successful actually, until the middle school admin team put the K-Bosh on her chocolate chip cookie hustle.
It's on hiatus until we situate the delivery mechanism. These cookies, it was really good while it lasted. I also have a hustle idea and I'm working toward a July 4th launch. I got a package, the happiest words in the mail room. It's a care package subscription service for boarding school and college students.
I have it up on Shopify and I look forward to your critique and words of wisdom at the workshop in DC in a couple of weeks. Thank you so much. - Hey Chris, my name's Brian from Palm Springs, California. Been listening to the show for a good few months now and I have shared it with everybody that I care about and the influence is spreading like wildfire. Anyways, my hustle inspirations that you have given me through the show include two that I'm working on.
First is an online coffee sales and distribution business where I have figured out a supplier that lets me drop ship custom roasted coffee beans. My wife and I love coffee and she wants to start a coffee shop so I'm doing this as a footwork to gather some clientele and promote our future frickin' mortar business. Also, I am helping people design t-shirts. Anytime I hear somebody say, "Oh, I wish I had a shirt that says this," or, "Wish I had a shirt that says that," I make it in a matter of 30 or 40 minutes in my limited graphics design capabilities but I've been making my friends laugh and I've been selling shirts. Every shirt I make, I sell at least one of.
Probably made a good hundred dollars in profit on just the shirt design, the only thing spent is time. So I'm really enjoying the show. It has inspired me and my wife. Thank you so much for everything, Chris. I can't wait to hear the next episode.
Thank you so much. Get your hustle on. - Amy and Brian, thank you so much for calling in. You guys are awesome. Amy, so sorry to hear about your daughter's cookie hustle being shut down by the communist anti-cookie authorities.
I definitely hope there'll be a revolution soon. And your project sounds awesome. I look forward to seeing you in DC very soon. Brian, glad to know that you're working hard as well. I like both those things.
I think my favorite is the online coffee drop shipping hustle. So hopefully we can feature that on the show at some point. Thanks so much to both of you. We will have more responses every day this week and today's story is coming up right after this. [Music]
Back in 2003, while in college, Jason Vaughn headed to Miami for spring break.
But this wasn't your typical beach party college escape. Jason was there on a mission trip volunteering with a local church. And during the week, Jason watched one of the trip's coordinators tell the biblical story of Jonah and the whale entirely using balloons. And Jason was, well, blown away. Up until then, he had only seen balloon creations in the form of swords or flowers.
But the idea that balloons could be used to tell a story amazed and intrigued him. He asked the coordinator if he would teach him some tricks. By the time he returned to school at the end of the week, Jason had mastered several balloon designs. Once he was home, he kept working on the twisting techniques and creating sculptures. YouTube didn't exist back then.
So he learned the old fashioned way. He went to this thing called a library and checked out these items called books on how to create more complicated designs. By the following month, he had secured his first gig at Chick-fil-A after introducing himself to the marketing manager. And in exchange for performing at Chick-fil-A Kids Night, Jason was paid $25 in cash and $25 in gift cards. He celebrated officially being in business by having a free chicken feast, complete with waffle fries and maybe a slice of lemon meringue pie.
Feeling inflated from this initial success, Jason kept working on his balloon skills, kept introducing himself to other managers at different locations and kept getting more jobs. Gradually, his side hustle, Higher Hope Balloons, came to life. He entertained in libraries, daycares and senior homes by telling stories with balloons. He now charges anywhere from $127 up to just under $500 for performance. And for the first couple of years, on average, Higher Hope Balloons made between $6,000 and $8,000 a year in profit.
But he's now making at least $1,200 in profit each month. Now, Jason's startup costs were extremely low. He just bought a cheap pump and a couple hundred balloons, investing just $10 into the hustle, obviously beating the record of the $100 startup. So Jason, feel free to write the $10 startup book. And as the business grew, he decided to upgrade.
He invested about $1,000 into a professional balloon inflator, and he now spends about $50 to $100 a month on the balloons themselves. Until recently, Jason was balancing the side hustle with a full-time job as an office manager at an outdoor lighting company. But he recently relocated from Dallas, Texas to Austin. So he's temporarily doing the hustle work full-time. His typical day involves creating a new sculpture, posting it on Instagram, and taking it to local businesses to generate new customers.
He's also used his new free time to start a new side hustle reselling on eBay and Amazon. In the first two months, he made more than $2,500 from this project alone. And he says he'll eventually get another job, but he also wants to look for flexible employment so that he can continue to pursue his hustle. Going forward, Jason hopes to expand the balloon business's presence on social media, and he wants to eventually get to the level of building custom balloon designs for brands and television shows. He's not just floating a trial balloon.
His hustle is going up, up, and away. [Music]
Side hustle school listeners don't feel deflated. Maybe your success story is just around the corner as well. But speaking of success stories, this week I have a different question for you. It's actually about failure.
I would love to know, what's your biggest side hustle failure? And just like this week, we're sharing stories of people's ideas. Next week, we're gonna share answers from listeners about something that didn't work out. So if you have a side hustle failure story that you'd like to share in about 30 seconds or so, I would love to hear it. You can record that for me by calling the hustle hotline at 844-9HUSTLE.
Don't think about it too long, just do it. It'll be good. Or if you prefer, you can use your phone and just record a voice memo and then email it to podcast@sidehustleschool.com. So what's your biggest side hustle failure? 844-9HUSTLE.
As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/149. Thank you for listening. I'm Chris Guillebeau This Is Side Hustle School. I'll be back tomorrow.
[Music]
