Archives: Podcast

TBT: Matchsticks Made in Heaven (and Georgia)

What It’s About

A burning hot update from a full-time matchstick seller. Strike a match and listen!

Notes from Chris

Episode 1699

Welcome to Throwback Thursday / “Where are they now?” where we take an in-depth look at someone who’s story has evolved considerably since we first featured them.

Last week, we heard from Meggie Palmer, founder of PepTalkHer, an app that has helped more than 60,000 users (mostly women) negotiate a pay raise.

Today, in our latest feature, we’ll hear from Melissa Moore, founder of Strike a Match. We first featured her in Ep. #665: Chemical Analyst Strikes a Side Hustle Match(Stick). That is indeed her business: selling matchsticks. Can you make money doing this? Don’t matchsticks cost just pennies, and aren’t they essentially a commodity?

Well … evidently she’s figured something out, since we told her story more than a thousand days ago. And evidently she’s still going! Not only that, but she now does it full-time selling on her own site, on Etsy, and on Amazon. In fact, she stays so busy during Q4 that she sometimes has to close the website.

I thought that was especially interesting, so let’s hear more about it from Melissa.

Listen to today’s episode to hear Melissa’s updates…

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • I’m really grateful to Melissa for helping us with this segment. Check out her website at strikeamatch2.com and follow her business on Instagram @strikematches.

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Q&A: Is there an easier way to start reselling?

What It’s About

Today’s caller worries that reselling is complicated and takes a lot of work.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1698

If you’ve listened for a while, you may have heard me talk about reselling. I often mention it as the easiest, simplest, and quickest way to enter the side hustle world—notice that none of those adjectives means it’s the best, but that’s okay. Maybe I just have a soft spot for the first business I ever had—or it’s that twenty years later, it remains just as accessible.

But hey—it’s not for everyone, and it can be a lot of work … as today’s caller points out. He’s looking for a shortcut.

“You talk about reselling a lot, and I enjoyed the story of Jake in The Money Tree. I understand that it’s relatively simple to buy things at yard sales (for example) and then sell them online for a higher price. But it seems like a lot of work! There are so many tasks and mini-projects involved, from doing the research to acquiring the items to listing them for sale, buyer communication, accepting payment, and then finally shipping out the items. For a business that doesn’t seem terribly lucrative, is there an easier way? Or is it just the kind of thing where I’ll get better and faster at once I start doing it?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Lawyer Moonlights Music Production Tutorials

What It’s About

An after-hours hobby leads to an extra $2,000/month.

Words of Wisdom

Evan shares some helpful advice on how to deal with trolls, “The main thing I wish I’d done earlier is turn off YouTube and email push notifications. Nothing like having a nice night when you get an alert on your phone with someone talking crap about you.”

Fun Fact

There are now over 37 million Youtube channels – that may seem like a lot until you realize Youtube has over 2 billion logged-in visitors every month. With that much traffic, there’s potential in every niche.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1697
Evan Oxhorn has a demanding day job as a lawyer. But when letting loose at night, he engages in his favorite hobby, producing beats and making music. Over the course of the last decade it’s become a true passion for him.

It’s a passion that’s easier and more accessible than ever, even for a one man band. Gone are the days where you needed a full band or sound studio. That’s been replaced by a laptop and music production software. Software that’s known as a digital audio station—DAW for short. You can think of DAW software as a recording studio in a box.

There are a lot of DAWs on the market, but Evan uses a relatively less popular one called Reason. And, over the course of ten years he became quite an expert at it. In fact, he liked the software so much that he became an active participant on their official forums. He’d often provide guidance to folks just starting out, as well as anyone who wanted to level up their skills. Overtime, he became somewhat of the go-to guy for advice.

That got Evan drumming up an idea: surely, he thought, making video tutorials about making music would be more effective at helping people than writing about it—so he started his own Youtube channel with the intent of posting how-to guides and tips for producing great music with Reason.

Startup costs were effectively zero. He already had the equipment he needed to start recording. Although, as he discovered, producing high quality videos was easier said than done. In his haste to get content out, he didn’t really focus on quality. That led to a lot of hurtful comments, including some from people claiming he shouldn’t be teaching others about audio, if he couldn’t even be bothered to touch it up on his own videos.

Eventually, his channel ended up with over ten thousand subscribers and he explored additional monetization strategies including; affiliate marketing, where he recommended products on his site and would receive a commission for each sale, as well as ad revenue from his growing views and subscriber base. He even started one-on-one consulting for those that wanted a little more instruction.

With all those streams of income, it’s little surprise Evan is now making a solid two thousand dollars per month from his musically-pleasing instructional side hustle.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
" I’d really recommend building a good lead magnet and mentioning it in every video and blog post so that you can build your email list."
—Evan Oxhorn #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Q&A: How to start a meal prep side hustle?

What It’s About

Today’s listener wants to know if they have a healthy hustle idea.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1696

Today’s listener has a lot of experience with meal prepping. I do meal prepping too: every week I think, what would I like to order from Door Dash or Uber Eats? That’s not the kind he does … he actually prepares the food.

Naturally, he’s thinking about side hustle ideas and wondering if this can be monetized in some way.

Let’s see if we can help him…

“Hi, Chris, my name is Bryce and I’m from Santa Barbara, California. I’ve been listening to the Side Hustle School for just under a year and generally it seems like side hustles are started by people who have a relatively niche knowledge or skill that they turn into a business. And the one idea that continuously comes to my mind is to somehow turn my habit of meal prepping into a business. So I’ve been meal prepping five lunches and five dinners every week for several years and have become quite good at keeping the costs low and prepping fast, healthy and tasty meals. I also line up all the completed meals evenly and take a symmetrical and esthetically pleasing photo and post it on my personal Instagram page.”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

 

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Finance Worker Strikes Gold with Custom Jewelry

What It’s About

A custom jewelry hustle that polishes out the middleman.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Alexis shares an important reminder about finding the best people to work with: “I hired people that were cheaper and in the end couldn’t use their end product. I’ve now found some AMAZING people to work with. I don’t regret it because I wouldn’t know how amazing the people I found are if I didn’t have these obstacles first.”

Fun Fact

The first time a ring was given as a signal of a marriage engagement was in 1477. Maximilian of Austria gave his fiance, Mary of Burgundy, as a promise of marriage.

SOURCE: Interesting Facts about Jewelry [source]

Notes from Chris

Episode 1695
Lexi Taub had it all. A degree, a career in finance, and a boyfriend.

Yet, despite all of this, she also had a nagging feeling that something was missing. All that glitters is not gold, and Lexi had always wanted to do something for herself. All she needed was the right idea.

Lexi’s mom was in the jewelry business, so when her boyfriend wanted to buy her a pair of beautiful earrings as a present, he went to her for advice. He’d found a pair of earrings he loved for $1,600 online. Lexi’s mom made a replica and only charged $165, about 10% of the original price.

The boyfriend was amazed and incredibly grateful. However, after he gave them to Lexi (and told her the whole story), he confessed that he felt that Lexi’s mom had undercharged him. But the more they learned about pricing in the industry, the more things clicked into place.

See, when it comes to the jewelry business, every person involved in the supply chain marks the price up by at least 100%, often 200%. So, if it costs the manufacturer $165 to make, then they will sell it to a designer for $330. Then the designer will sell it to a store for $660, and the store will sell it to the customer for about $1,320.

Lexi thought this was a good business to go into—after all, her mom was already doing it! The idea began to crystallize in her mind. If she could learn from her mom, she too could make high-quality jewelry for a fraction of the retail cost, and cut out all the middlemen!

After starting on Squarespace, she soon moved it to Shopify. Although it was easier to build a website on Squarespace, Lexi felt that Shopify had much better built-in SEO capabilities. Not only that, but Shopify has more integration opportunities.

The switch to Shopify and Google Smart Campaigns helped Lexi to receive a few sales every week. This consistency showed Lexi that she had a rock solid idea. As they got more sales, Lexi began to reinvest the money she was making.

Revenue continued to increase, and just two-and-a-half years after starting, Lexi quit her full-time job to run the business.

What does this look like in terms of numbers? The business now makes about $20,000 in revenue every month. At this point, Lexi is still reinvesting some of the money into her business, but she’s also living comfortably doing her side hustle full-time.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Alexis and checkout her beautiful jewelry at her website, AlexisJae.com.

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

Quote of the Day
" I hired people that were cheaper and in the end couldn’t use their end product. I’ve now found some AMAZING people to work with. I don’t regret it because I wouldn’t know how amazing the people I found are if I didn’t have these obstacles first."
—Alexis Taub #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Learn More With Skillshare!

Supporting the sponsors keeps the show free. Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Skillshare. 📷

Skillshare is giving Side Hustle School listeners 2 months of unlimited access—for $0.99! Join the 2 million students learning everything from street photography to SEO on Skillshare today!
Get Started Here!

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Q&A: Is there a limit to how high I can price my service?

What It’s About

Today’s listener seeks pricing advice.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1694

I often encourage small business owners who are feeling overwhelmed to consider a simple action that might help: raise your prices.

Last week I was watching a video from Chase Jarvis, and he went even further. When a photographer called in to his show and said “I’m fully booked and don’t know what to do, I have to keep turning away business,” Chase said, “Raise your rates ten times!” (Whoa: hardcore!)

But can you really raise prices ten times, or some other high level? Presumably there’s a price ceiling somewhere … right? That’s what today’s caller wants to know. How high is too high, and how do you know?

“I’ve learned that when it comes to pricing, too high might be better than too low—which seems counterintuitive, but several examples on the show have helped me to rethink the whole concept. Still, it’s clear that there’s a “price ceiling” somewhere, right? Like if my service business was getting busy and I wanted to slow down, I could raise my rates, which would likely result in some of my clients going away. But I couldn’t raise them infinitely, because then I’d lose all of them. What if I priced something so high no one would buy it? How do I know where that line is?”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Failure Friday: “We made a ton of investment … then we decided to close.”

What It’s About

It was all going great … until it wasn’t.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1693

I believe we can learn as much from failure as we can from success, if not more. It’s with this principle in mind that we’re starting Failure Friday, a collection of short stories all about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure.

Just like our Throwback Thursday segment, you’ll hear directly from side hustlers who have struggled to get something off the ground. They’ll tell you a short story of something that went very wrong.

The stories will vary, but often it starts with an idea, what they thought would happen and what really happened—and of course, what they learned.

I applaud their courage! I’ll share some of my failure stories along the way as well.

Today’s short story features Nate Martin, the founder of Puzzle Break. We told the successful story of his escape room empire on Episode #927: Video Game Maker Creates Real-Life Puzzle Rooms.

But as you’ll hear, while he was fortunate to have a great success with his first location, he then thought, “The sky is the limit!” … and that’s not at all what happened with location #2.

There’s at least one important lesson here.

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • I’m really grateful to Nate for helping us with this segment. Check out his website at PuzzleBreak.com or or check out one of their many locations… just not in San Francisco!

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

TBT: App Helps 60,000 Women Get Paid More

What It’s About

An update from the creator of an app that helps women fight the pay gap.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1692

Welcome to Throwback Thursday / “Where are they now?” where we take an in-depth look at someone who’s story has evolved considerably since we first featured them.

Last week, we heard from Nikko Mendoza, who sells 3D printing templates. After he lost his job last year, he started taking his side gig more seriously—and business took off.

Today, in our latest feature, we’ll hear from Meggie Palmer, founder of PepTalkHer. We first featured Meggie and PepTalkHer in Ep. #987: Foreign Correspondent Launches Career App. Both Meggie and her company are dedicated to closing the gender pay gap…. and it’s working! The app and PepTalkHer’s programs have helped 60,000 users (mostly women) negotiate a pay raise.

What’s happened since?

Listen to today’s episode to hear Meggie’s updates…

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • I’m really grateful to Meggie for helping us with this segment. She’s very interested in impact and does most of her work for free. That’s my model, too! That website she mentioned was peptalkher.com/challenge.

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Q&A: How to become a travel agent?

What It’s About

Today’s listener wants to get paid for helping people plan a trip.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1691

Have you ever used a travel agent to book a trip? Before you say no—because these days, most people tend to say “Oh, I just book directly”—have you ever used a side like Orbitz, Travelocity, or Priceline? Those are online travel agencies … they just aren’t very helpful when you have a problem, which is supposed to be one of the main benefits of working with an agent.

Today’s listener is interested in becoming a travel agent in the modern sense of the profession. This is definitely something that can be done as a side hustle—so how can our listener get certified and find her market?

“When I was a kid and my parents took us on vacation, they used a travel agent to book the flights. What an outdated idea! Most people these days just go online and book things themselves. But it looks like travel agents still exist, especially to help people plan more complicated trips and excursions, as well as for luxury hotel bookings where agents still earn commissions and have access to perks the average traveler doesn’t. How can I break into the market? Do I need to get certificated, and what is the earning potential? Looking forward to your thoughts on this.”

Listen to today’s episode to learn more…

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Certification is not required as a travel agent, but I think it’s probably a good step. Check out, TheTravelInstitute.com.

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today! Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time. Learn More

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

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Chris Guillebeau

Product Manager Starts “Airbnb for Dungeons and Dragons”

What It’s About

A Dungeon Master levels-up with a marketplace for fellow gamers.

Words of Wisdom

Devon offers important advice for those stuck on an idea: “Figure out your minimum viable product. You don’t need to do everything at first. Secondly, quit stalling and just start!”

Fun Fact

Tabletop role-playing games go well beyond Dungeons and Dragons. There’s a game for everyone, from Buffy The Vampire slayer through to Mad Men.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1690
Devon Chulick makes his living helping people battle monsters, cast powerful spells, embark on fantastical adventures, and even slay the occasional dragon. But no, he’s not been cast as the new lead in a Netflix series—he’s a Games Master.

You see, Devon is a huge fan of tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. He’s been playing them on and off for most of his life. If you’re not familiar with the concept, these games are a little like board games … just without the board. When players roll the dice they move the narrative forward and have to cooperate with other players to get towards the end goal.

A game usually lasts two to three hours, with an average of four to six players. Games Masters like Devon are one-part storyteller, one-part game referee. They make sure the game moves along as it should. In his case, Devon got into it as a way to unwind from his busy work as a Product Manager. He quickly found he had a skill for it, and he wasn’t the only one who noticed. Soon, he was being asked to host games for other players who wanted an experienced Games Master at the helm. As his weeknights began to fill up with exciting adventures, Devon began to ask himself the all-important question: would people pay for this?

After nearly two years of hosting games, he made his move. With a budget of $100, he made a simple website with a booking form. He settled on prices of between $25 and $45 per person, depending on the demands of the game. It was enough to justify his time but also keep the games accessible to players. When the site was ready to go, he shared it on local forums.

It turned out lots of people were open to the idea of paying for a professional Games Master to run their games. In fact, the demand was so high, that within just a few months Devon was earning $2,000 a month from hosting them. After he built some initial momentum from referrals, many of his customers found him organically through Google searches.

The owners make money by taking a 10% fee from each of the transactions, a figure they decided on by looking at similar business models from AirBnB and Fiverr. Accessibility remains important, as they didn’t want the price of using the service to get in the way of playing games.

So far, Startplaying.games has brought in a combined $500,000 since launch. Devon has also been able to quit his day job and focus on the project full-time.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Devon and join a role-playing-game online at his website, Startplaying.games.

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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Quote of the Day
"Figure out your minimum viable product. You don’t need to do everything at first. Secondly, quit stalling and just start!"
—Devon Chulick #SideHustleSchool

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Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau