Archives: Podcast

Public Health Employee Earns Extra $2,000/Month with Salesforce Consulting

What It’s About

One woman harnesses the power of email marketing and supplements her income.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

These kinds of skills are not just the technical skills of how to do something on a computer. They’re the skills of bidding for a company’s business, making a good impression, negotiating a good rate, completing the task at hand in an efficient manner, and then going from project to project without getting overwhelmed. The only way to master these skills is by doing.

If for some reason this fell apart tomorrow, she’d probably be able to do something else like it in much less time than it would take for someone who’s never freelanced before.

Fun Fact

When Stephanie started this Side Hustle, she was 23, living in Nairobi, and working at a social enterprise that built out data collection and reporting systems on the Salesforce platform for non-profits (Salesforce has a super-generous non-profit donation program). She was making $18,000/yr, which even in Nairobi, did not go far, and Stephanie was feeling very stressed about finances and her ability to pay off her student loans.

Notes from Chris

Episode 447

Stephanie Zimmerman is a technology project manager at a public health non-profit in Chapel Hill, NC. She gets to travel to all sorts of interesting places, including India, Madagascar, and Liberia. When she started her side hustle doing Salesforce consulting, she was living and working in Nairobi, Kenya.

Her initial motivation was extra cash. She was earning a salary of just $18,000 at the time, which even in East Africa didn’t go far. She liked the work she did but was feeling stressed about finances and her ability to pay off student loans.

She’d been using Salesforce for that job in Kenya, and she knew it offered a lot of opportunities for freelance work. Thousands of companies use the software, and while big corporations might have a whole team devoted to it, small companies needed to outsource at least some of the tasks.

But what could Stephanie do? She was young and inexperienced, and she worried that no one would hire her.

What she found though was quite the opposite.

So what was the first step? Stephanie set up a profile on several freelancing websites, including Upwork.com. Then she did some research—she wanted to learn (1) what hourly rates other Salesforce freelancers had on their profiles, and (2) what clients were paying on past projects.

For instance, whenever she was applying for a job, she would look at the client’s profile and see what they had paid for past jobs and would then price herself to be around that client’s past average rate. When she had no work history whatsoever, she priced herself on the lower end—but she always had a personal minimum that she would not go under. At the beginning, it was $20/hr. As her experience and confidence grew, this personal minimum went up.

Once she got more established, she began earning an average of $1,000-2,000/month. She likes that she can ramp-up or slow down as needed. In certain periods of life, she chooses to de-focus the side hustle, but it’s nice to be able to pick it back up fairly easily.

For example, she’ll be going back to grad school this fall, so she’s now actively working to build up a client base to be able to support herself through freelancing only. Her goal is to earn $3000-5000/month and she seems on track for that this month!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Upwork: The global freelancing platform that helps businesses connect with independent freelancers remotely
  • Salesforce: The email marketing software that Stephanie used to start her side hustle
  • Timely: The hour documenting platform that Stephanie uses to document the amount of time she spents on various projects

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

Quote of the Day
"It can be nerve-wracking raising rates, but I always go into it with the mindset that the rate I am asking for is fair. I’ve only ever lost one client from a rate increase, and it was a bad client to begin with."
—Stephanie Zimmerman #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get What Your Business Needs.

Side Hustle School is brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.

Every business faces challenges. Whether you need more space, a better location, or a little more curb appeal, a Realtor—a member of the National Association of Realtors—can help you find the right place to grow. So get what your business needs. Get Realtor! 🏢 Visit Realtor.com

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

Canadian Mom Spells Out Success with Letter Board Loot

What It’s About

A Canadian mom brings trendy letter boards to the people!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Sarah’s advice to aspiring side hustlers?

“Have a solid idea about the product or service you want to sell. Create a concrete vision around it, then start researching the heck out of your competitors. Suss out viable suppliers. Then go for it. You only live once!”

Fun Fact

The internet and eCommerce together have brought the world to the customer’s doorstep. If you spend enough time on the internet, you’ll see that almost anything is for sale, from home sushi bars to parrots, and even a diploma in Nose Picking from Snot State University. The Side Hustle School does not recommend including that on your CV, though!

Notes from Chris

Episode 446

Some side hustles are created from a gap in the market. Some come from experimentation. Sarah Chetney, a stay-at-home mom of three from rural Alberta, Canada, created her side hustle out of both.

Sarah is always on the lookout for fun projects to work on with her three children. Life moves quickly in their household, and finding creative projects to tackle together can be challenging. Pinterest was a regular, favorite stomping ground for Sarah because of the visual content and abundance of good ideas that filled the platform.

While scrolling for a new project to tackle with her kids on a dull, rainy day, Sarah noticed a new trend emerging on her favorite, go-to accounts. Customizable letter boards were popping up everywhere. These marquee boards, which allow you to arrange letters on a board into words to create personalized messages, seemed to be flourishing in home decor. To Sarah, they were also the perfect way to entertain her kids and decorate her house at the same time.

She found a board she liked through a seller on social media, but when she went to their checkout page, she saw that the shipping charges made the product’s cost much higher than what she was prepared to spend. Sarah decided to see if she could find a similar product through a Canadian retailer, but her search came up empty. There were simply no sellers based in Canada.

This put a damper on her excitement because shipping fees and the exchange rate were both significant markups on an otherwise simple purchase. Sarah continued her search but was less optimistic. Days turned into weeks. The avid Side Hustle School listener was dejected. At first.

The lessons she had learned from other side hustlers taught her that her problems couldn’t be unique. Sarah couldn’t be the only Canadian looking for a letter board, put off by exorbitant shipping fees and a crippling exchange rate. If she struggled in her search, she thought, someone else must have too.

Sarah now had a side hustle idea.

The sense of accomplishment of coming from a non-business background to figuring out the eCommerce landscape has changed Sarah’s life. Her monthly revenue from LetterPoet now reaches about $3,000 a month, which is about the same income she would earn working outside her home while paying for childcare. But her side hustle allows her the financial freedom, plus an added dash of excitement, to continue to work from home and be able to travel with her family!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Letter Poet on Amazon.: Learn more about LetterPoet from Sarah’s Amazon store.
  • Shopify: Sarah originally used Shopify to set up her store for LetterPoet, and they’re offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!

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

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $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 my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

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

Quote of the Day
"Creating an eCommerce business that doesn’t involve having physical stock on hand is a great way to lessen the responsibility of starting a side hustle. There’s no pressure with storing stock and fulfilling orders. It’s essentially your business on autopilot—after you set it up."
—Sarah Chetney #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get What Your Business Needs.

Side Hustle School is brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.

Every business faces challenges. Whether you need more space, a better location, or a little more curb appeal, a Realtor—a member of the National Association of Realtors—can help you find the right place to grow. So get what your business needs. Get Realtor! 🏢 Visit Realtor.com

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

Engineer Reprograms Herself, Finds Confidence to Start Over

What It’s About

An online coding course minus all the complex, technical jargon.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Although it can be tempting to jump in with both feet first, and that works for some people, it’s also helpful to take it slow and think about what steps you need to take. Look at what your audience needs, and set small goals to help you create it.

Fun Fact

While she was trying to get to grips with social media, Milecia accidentally uploaded all of her latest vacation pictures to the official Flipped Coding Facebook page and not her personal page. Awkward!

Notes from Chris

Episode 445

Software engineer Milecia McGregor has spent the last few years trying to work her way out of her day job. Her first side hustle attempt was as a consultant working with local businesses. And, the second was as a life coach. Although her skillset was well suited to both of these gigs, Milecia failed both times and found herself no closer to quitting her nine-to-five job.

For any would-be side hustlers, this is a tough spot to find yourself in. Facing one or two failures can leave you feeling defeated, questioning if you’re cut out to be a business owner.

These were the same worries Milecia had. She lost a lot of confidence and was worried about starting yet another venture. But, she had something to spur her on. Her desire for financial independence was stronger than her fear of failure. She had a lifestyle she wanted to live and wasn’t willing to give up on it just yet.

So, she gave herself another chance.

Milecia had been using the time around her day job as a full stack web developer to volunteer as a local teacher helping people learn how to code. She’d take people with no experience and turn them into full-fledged developers. In fact, she was so good at it, she had more people requesting to be her students than she could handle in her spare time.

It was here that Milecia had her lightbulb moment.

If there were this many people in her area of Tulsa, OK who needed help in this, there had to be people all over the country, if not the world, who needed it too. What if she could create an online course to help all of these people learn and make a little money on the side?

She decided that Flipped Coding would be her newest side hustle. And, hopefully, the last one she’d ever have to start while in her current day-job.

And, thanks to her first ten students, she’s earning a recurring $1000 per month through her site! Milecia has set herself the goal of teaching 100 people to learn to code by the end of 2018. She’s happy to know she’s making a difference to the future of the online world and wants to help as many people build a career around the topic she loves.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Flipped Coding: Learn more about Milecia and her developer course over on her website
  • WordPress: Milecia used WordPress to setup Flipped Coding, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

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

Quote of the Day
"Think about where you want to be in 5 years and work backwards from that goal. That goal will keep you focused when you don’t feel like working at the end of the day or it seems like you won’t be successful."
—Milecia McGregor #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get What Your Business Needs.

Side Hustle School is brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.

Every business faces challenges. Whether you need more space, a better location, or a little more curb appeal, a Realtor—a member of the National Association of Realtors—can help you find the right place to grow. So get what your business needs. Get Realtor! 🏢 Visit Realtor.com

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

Childhood Game Master Earns $1 Million from Nerdy Kickstarter Campaigns

What It’s About

After revisiting his childhood love of board games, one man creates his own and launches it on Kickstarter.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

When we asked Travis for his recipe for Kickstarter success, he had a lot to say (listen to this episode for the full cut!), but first and foremost, he said that it’s important that you make your product AMAZING.

As Travis put it, “your product being amazing or not contributes to 95% of whether or not your campaign will be successful. If you have one hour a day to spend on your Kickstarter campaign/idea, spend at least fifty-five minutes of that hour focusing on your product.”

Fun Fact

Our Content Manager actually discovered Travis while browsing Reddit one day and learned more about his story after stumbling across an AMA he was doing that had made it to the front page.

Notes from Chris

Episode 444

If you would have told a young Travis Hancock that he’d eventually end up making a living off of his love of board games, he’d probably have laughed outright and said, “Yeah, right. There’s no way you could make any money doing that.” Followed closely by, “But hey, sign me up!”

Growing up, Travis and his family were always playing board games—especially around Christmas time. As Travis would say, it was kind of their “default state.” If they weren’t eating, sleeping, or God forbid, doing something else, they were gathered around a flat surface playing some kind of board game.

One game, in particular, was especially magical to Travis: Mafia. Without fail, this classic 80s board game from the USSR made a star appearance at every family reunion. It was a game that in Travis’ mind simply could not be beat. It had everything—concepts of good vs. evil, manipulation and deception, fighting for your “life,” etc.

This love of board games continued with him through grade school, and on through his days at university. He eventually landed in the world of digital marketing helping other companies with their SEO and virtual marketing needs, but he continued to play iterations of his old favorite.

Every Sunday night, he’d gather his friends around in a circle and catch up on the week’s events over a game. It was so popular that Travis’s brother even surprised him Christmas of 2012 with his own fully functioning set complete with a printed rulebook and cards, and all of a sudden… Travis was a published game maker.

There was only one copy of course, but it was enough to get his brain turning. Could this possibly become something more?

From that point on, Travis did everything that he could to find a way to get his game to the market. And that brings us to 2015. By this point, Travis had brought on a new partner in the form of his wife, Holly, and had given his game a new and exciting design and theme—the Salem Witch Trials! It was ready for the masses…now he just needed to get funding!

While the Hancocks were hoping to bring in around $6,000, their first game exceeded their expectations by a whopping $100,000! Travis was so impressed with their initial success that he quit his day job and decided to launch Façade Games building board games full-time.

Travis’ second game in the series raised around $403,000 in 2017, and Deadwood 1876 is currently raising funds on the platform now (it’s already smashed its target, having raised over $317k so far—almost $300k more than it’s $25,000 goal). All in all, they’ve sold around a million dollars worth of games through this dynamic crowdfunding platform.

You could say that for this dynamic duo, it was certainly the right move!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Façade Games: Roll the dice, and learn more about Travis, Holly, and their games over on their website
  • Kickstarter | Deadwood 1876: If you’re interested in learning more about this burgeoning indie game company, check out their most recent Kickstarter campaign. They’re even offering a customized option where their designer will make cards based off of your likeness!
  • Fiverr: The freelancing platform that Travis and Holly used to find Sarah, the illustrator for their board games
  • Panda Games: The middle man game manufacturer with connections to manufacturers in China who helped Travis get his games out to the world
  • SaltCON Board Game Convention: The board game convention that helped Travis connect with his manufacturer
  • WordPress: Travis used WordPress to setup Façade Games, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

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
"If you’re looking to do this too, you should know that your final game will likely look nothing like your initial idea, and that’s ok! Our games are literally tested hundreds of times and go through about a hundred different versions. The final game is often completely different from where we started."
—Travis Hancock #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get What Your Business Needs.

Side Hustle School is brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.

Every business faces challenges. Whether you need more space, a better location, or a little more curb appeal, a Realtor—a member of the National Association of Realtors—can help you find the right place to grow. So get what your business needs. Get Realtor! 🏢 Visit Realtor.com

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

Online Dating Profile Service Turns Frogs Into Princes

What It’s About

From frogs to princes—this woman helps men stand out!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Here’s a bonus lesson from Emma (#1 dating profile tip):

“One of the tips I always give is to be specific and to add in little anecdotes/stories. So many online dating profiles are really vague, and it’s hard for people to relate or latch on to anything in the profile. It’s as simple as listing three books you loved and why you loved them rather than saying ‘I like science fiction.'”

Fun Fact

Emma’s side hustle didn’t become a six-figure business, but it did lead to a new job. It also gave her the confidence that she needed to continue experimenting with her writing, and she now works for herself full-time.

Notes from Chris

Episode 443

Something like 30% of long-term relationships now begin through online dating. But this world can be tough to navigate, and you need an edge. Or that’s what one Massachusetts woman thought when she started an unconventional and temporary side hustle.

More than 50 million people in the U.S. alone have tried online dating. That means they have made an online dating profile. Emma Siemasko had recently met her boyfriend, who is now her husband, through online dating. As millions of people know, wading through a sea of thousands of profiles can be overwhelming. And if you’re a guy, in particular, you really need to stand out.

Based on her experience, Emma had noticed—how to put this—that so many profiles, well, sucked. They would be boring, lame, or creepy… three qualities that did not inspire most women to respond. Her goal was to help men optimize their online dating profile so that they’d perform better in the crazy pool of competitors.

She had been successful herself, meeting that boyfriend who would later become her husband. She’d helped out a few friends, showing them how to better describe themselves in a way that sounded attractive without being overconfident. And then one of those friends said, “This should be a business!”

Listen: the business didn’t scale, it didn’t make a ton of money, it didn’t become her full-time work. But it did something else, perhaps something even greater than those things.

Sometimes a small project can lead to something greater, and in this case, Emma can point to two big changes that came from saying, “OK, I’ll give that a try.”

The first was landing a new job. Frog2Prince was the most impressive thing on her resume to the employer where she worked afterwards. She has she didn’t have as much experience as the role called for, but they were impressed by her ability to make things happen. They hired her because of her side hustle.

The online dating profile service may have made just $800, but she traces her current status to that decision to try something new. That’s right, it all started with a Frog that became a prince… or at least got closer to princedom.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Frog2Prince: Go from a frog to a prince—check out Emma’s website for profile tips and tricks!
  • Stories By Emma: Learn more about Emma and the services she offers over on her website

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
"On my online dating profile, I told people that I was currently trying not to eat candy, and asked them to come ask me how I’m doing with that. It gave people an easy in to say, ‘Hey, how much candy have you eaten lately?’ I used to call this ‘giving people hooks.’"
—Emma Siemasko #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get What Your Business Needs.

Side Hustle School is brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.

Every business faces challenges. Whether you need more space, a better location, or a little more curb appeal, a Realtor—a member of the National Association of Realtors—can help you find the right place to grow. So get what your business needs. Get Realtor! 🏢 Visit Realtor.com

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

Weekly Recap: My Most Awkward and Embarrassing Moment

Notes from Chris

Episode 442

LISTENER QUESTIONS:

Today we have a listener voicemail from McKenna:

  • McKenna has been listening to the show for a few months, and she’s finally landed on a side hustle idea! Her question—how do you determine a price point (or price points) for your product or service. She’s launching a side hustle catering to high school to college-aged women, and she’s trying to determine prices that would be attractive to that market.If you’re also interested in learning more about how to price your product or service, check out Extended Cut #7!

If you have something you’d like to ask me or an update you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a voice message on the website or call into the Side Hustle Hotline (Dial 844-9-HUSTLE // 844-948-7853), and your question may be featured on the show!

EPISODES FROM THIS WEEK:

Here’s what we heard this week on Side Hustle School! Listen to this week’s recap for a more comprehensive highlight reel.

  • Ep. 436 – A school teacher earns an extra $1,000 a month placing pink flamingos in neighbors’ yards. Yes, really!
  • Ep. 437 – Dark winter days were no match for four Dutch friends looking to spark meaningful conversations
  • Ep. 438 – A call center supervisor leans into his passion for pickleball, discovers a need for skilled tournament managers, and launches a $40,000/yr side hustle
  • Ep. 439 – The next time you need a Swarovski-covered crystal bikini for a fitness competition (or just a walk to Starbucks), this engineer has got you covered. Strike a pose!
  • Ep. 440 – Toronto book lover uses her extensive experience to teach the art of proofreading, bringing in an additional $2,000 a month
  • Ep. 441 – A freelance designer creates a publishing company to produce and collaborate on books for female creatives

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

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Join me at the World Domination Summit!

Have you heard of the World Domination Summit? This is a gathering of awesome people—an event that I’ve been hosting together with an amazing team in Portland, OR every summer for the past eight years.

WDS 2018 is coming up at the end of June (June 26th-July 2nd), and we’ll be welcoming people from over 30 different countries. With inspiring keynote speakers, a week full of activities and attendee-led meetups, and two incredible parties, you won’t want to miss it!

This is our final wave of main stage tickets so visit our website to get your ticket to this incredible, once a year event! We promise that it’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.

Here’s what’s coming up next…

Each week I’ll feature more stories from people who are starting side hustles without quitting their job. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming next week:

  • A Massachusetts woman helps men improve their online dating profiles. Tip #1: stop being creepy
  • This Ohio man loves board games so much that he made his own—and when he tries to raise $6,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, he ends up with much more than he ever imagined
  • And so much more!

Do you have a side hustle story you’d like to share? Fill out the Side Hustle School submission form and your story may be featured on the show!

Also, if you’re interested in joining the Side Hustle Society, visit our Society page to get notified when it goes live!

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
"Regardless of who you’re selling to, you always want to focus on a) why they NEED what you’re selling, and b) why it will change their life."
—#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

Australian Designer Starts Publishing Company, Hires Herself

What It’s About

A graphic designer finds a new way to stretch her creative muscles.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Tess offered this advice for picking a book distributor:

“One, pick a distributor that specializes in the types of titles your book falls under. That way your book will end up in places where your customers shop. Two, look at the commissions they offer. Especially if your margins are tight. And three, look at their location. Books at Manic has a distribution center local to her, so if they needed more books she can easily drop them off.”

Fun Fact

The printing costs for her first book—Conversations with Creative Women—was about $6,000. Tess ran a pre-order campaign (focused primarily on her email subscriber list), which sold enough copies to cover that initial outlay. She also secured a feature on The Design Files (now a huge blog in Australia and a direct link to creative women, her target market). She does pre-sale campaigns for all her titles.

Notes from Chris

Episode 441

In 2010, Tess McCabe from Melbourne, Australia was in a creative rut. As a freelance graphic designer, she wasn’t attracting the kind of work she loved, book design and layout work. It was a classic chicken-and-egg scenario. Her portfolio didn’t have much book design and layout work. But she couldn’t get that type of work because she hadn’t done much of it.

So like many stories on Side Hustle School, Tess got creative. She approached the one person she was absolutely sure would hire her…herself! Tess founded Creative Minds Publishing, where she publishes books for smart-working creatives.

So why a publishing company? It all started long ago, when she joined a community called Creative Women’s Circle. They host events around Australia featuring female creatives who speak about their career paths, business lessons learned, and advice for others.

When the founder decided to shut down the group, Tess said, “Hey, wait—I’ll run it.” Before taking over the group, events were either free or low cost. As its new leader, she saw a need for its members to be able to find local creatives, like photographers or stylists. She created a searchable database so that members could search for professionals. To fund this feature, Tess added a paid membership option.

She also wanted to bring the essence of Creative Women’s Circle’s in-person events to people who were unable to attend. A book seemed like a natural extension. That’s how Creative Minds Publishing came to be.

It was a win-win for Tess. She’d have book design and layout experience to add to her portfolio. And she’d reach creatives who couldn’t attend their offline events.

She makes around $24,000 each year selling books through her website and bookstores, with around $10k-15k in expenses. Expenses depend on if books are first-run or reprints or if she has to make royalty payments.

So did creating a publishing company increase the amount of book design and layout work she gets? These days about half of her freelance graphic design projects are book and publication design work. Many more clients are now aware of her work through her books. You could say her schedule is all booked up.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Creative Minds Publishing: If you’re interested in learning more about Tess and the work that she’s doing, learn more on her website!
  • Creative Women’s Circle: The women’s organization that led to Tess launching her publishing company
  • Books at Manic: The book distributor who handles wholesale inquiries from libraries and retailers for her

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

Quote of the Day
"Ensure you’ve identified a community or audience for your book, and build it before you publish. It will give you the head start you need to justify the amount of work and expense you’ll invest in a book project."
—Tess McCabe #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

Romance Novel Expert Teaches Proofreading for $2,000/Month

What It’s About

A novel expert proves that true love can be monetized!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

So, let’s get down to business—why exactly does something like this work? Well, I think that a lot of the success she’s experiencing is how closely it relates to employment and making additional income. I’d also imagine that most people who want to proofread or copyedit romance novels are actually fans of the genre, and it provides them with an opportunity to get paid doing what they would already be doing.

Secondly, Phon has real authority in this arena because she’s done this for 15 years! And last (but certainly not least), she’s also used a classic model of selling information with the tried and true 5-day course (we have one!).

Fun Fact

Phon has proofread over fifteen hundred books and counting in all types of sub-genres ranging from Amish, mystery, erotica, Western, paranormal and more. If you can think of it, she’s probably read it!

One genre that she can’t really sink her teeth into is vampire books—they can often be downright gross and puts her off even looking at food for a while after reading them.

Notes from Chris

Episode 440

Phon Baillie loves reading books and has always had a knack for finding pesky typos in them. She was the go-to proofreader for friends and family, freely giving away her special talents. That is until one day while studying media and communications at university, she realized she could be profiting from her eagle-eyed proofreading skills. After getting a post-graduate certificate in publishing, she got her first full-time job as a proofreader at Harlequin, a leading publisher of books for women.

At Harlequin, she quickly became enamored with proofreading stories with strong female leads and tales of romance. What she didn’t love, however, was the nine-to-five lifestyle of the corporate world. The cubicle routine proved to be too confining, so Phon decided to break out on her own.

She loved the flexibility the freelancing brought to what she was already passionate about—reading books for a living. And with her background at Harlequin, she quickly carved out a niche proofreading romance novels. Whenever she went out with her friends, they would get a kick out of telling people that Phon made money reading love stories.

Over the years, with all the content being written for both online media and traditional media, the role of proofreading has begun to change. Content creators want more than just typo-correctors, they want proofreaders who can go deeper into the content and make sure it’s a highly polished piece that keeps the writer’s voice.

Phon saw these changes and noticed that others were interested in learning more about how to get into proofreading, but didn’t know much about the field. She also found the resources available on proofreading didn’t go as deep as necessary for most client needs. With her fifteen years of experience as a Proofreader and Copyeditor and her background as a freelancer, Phon realized she could teach others how to be successful as a proofreader in today’s content-rich environment. The Art of Proofreading was born!

She wrote blog posts on the nitty-gritty of proofreading life, with topics ranging from ‘The difference between Copyediting and Proofreading’ to ‘How to be a Proofreader Without a Degree’ and also wrote guest blog posts to reach more readers. She created quizzes where people could test their proofreading skills and produced a free 5-day email course, Intro to Proofreading, to generate leads for later paid content.

And after receiving some feedback from her community, she also decided to create an e-book called the Ultimate Guide to Freelance Proofreading for those wanting to make the leap to freelancing but weren’t sure how to get started.

The site has been up for just over a year, and is bringing in an additional two thousand dollars a month of income! I guess Phon has proven that sometimes, true love is worth monetizing!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Art of Proofreading: Learn how you can monetize your love of good books over on Phon’s website!
  • WordPress: Phon used WordPress to setup The Art of Proofreading, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

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

Quote of the Day
"You have to stick with what you love, no matter how “nerdy” other people may think it is. Be proud of it, and find a way to reach out and connect to others like you."
—Phon Baillie #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

Electrical Engineer Sells $800 Swarovski Crystal Bikinis

What It’s About

If you bling it, they will come—handmade Swarovski crystal bikinis lead to an extra $50,000/annually!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If Amanda has one piece of advice for listeners, it’s this: no matter what you’re doing, make sure that you are always coming from a place of authenticity. Don’t let the way your competition handles things dictate the way that you run your business. It’s okay to do things your own way!

Fun Fact

The worst part of this experience for Amanda was the “Imposter Syndrome.” Unlike her competition who focused on getting famous people into their suits, Amanda realized that she felt much better when she was actually connecting with her customers and sharing their fitness journey with them instead of just selling them a suit. This led to her launching the Confessions of a Fit Chick podcast!

Notes from Chris

Episode 439

Amanda Freick is the Regional Director for a local electrical engineering firm in Tucson, Arizona. As she puts it, she’s a nerd when it comes to electric utilities. Have you ever almost gotten into a car accident because you were staring at the equipment on a power pole? No? Well, Amanda has, more than once.

But word around the office is that Amanda has a new passion these days, and it has nothing to do with electrical engineering. When she gets home and sheds her corporate life at the door, she starts working on her side hustle: customized fitness competition bikinis.

Amanda has always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, which is why she believes that she has been able to find so much success in the corporate world. She just thinks differently than a lot of people in that setting. And she also spends her time outside of her corporate life very differently than her colleagues, because well, she owns a swimwear company. And not just any swimwear company, one that has until recently been focused primarily on fitness competition swimwear.

This can be quite the interesting dinner conversation topic when you work in an industry dominated by middle-aged men. It’s also a rumor starter for those too scared to approach the topic. She once had a customer from her day job say, “Amanda, I hear you own a lingerie company.” Not quite, but she supposed it was pretty close.

Amanda started this swimwear business, AmandaLouise Swimwear, after participating in a fitness competition herself for the first time. She ordered a $165 crystal encrusted bikini online, and eagerly awaited its arrival, but when it finally came in, she was not impressed with the quality. She had both a mom and grandma who taught her how to sew, and at the time, she found herself hanging out with some old biddies at the quilt shop once a month. She thought, “Hey, I could totally make this, and more so, I can make it so much better.”

First things first, she realized that she needed a website. Since she had learned a little bit of computer science and coding in college, she decided to go with a WordPress site and built it all by herself over the course of a day. And from there, she just started accepting orders!

The best part about a side hustle like this is that since all of her orders were custom made, she didn’t really have to buy any materials until someone actually purchased a suit. Her startup costs came out to around a couple hundred dollars of basic materials, and at the end of 2017, she had brought in almost $50,000. These days she keeps more stock on hand simply because she gets more last minute orders, but in the beginning, she never had to make any purchases out of pocket hoping that someone would buy something.

Amanda’s story just goes to show you that if you bling it, they will come!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • AmandaLouise Swimwear: Get your bling on over on Amanda’s website and learn more about the amazing brand she’s building!
  • WordPress: Amanda used WordPress to setup Amanda Louise Swimwear before switching to Squarespace, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

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

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $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 my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

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

Quote of the Day
"In summary, my life is a beautiful kind of insanity that makes me excited to wake up every morning. Big dreams, big goals, and a big appetite for success."
—Amanda Freick #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

Pickleball Pro Pickles Profits from Persistent Practice

What It’s About

A unique opportunity allows a man to bring in extra money participating in the fastest growing sport in America.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If today’s story is of interest to you, ask yourself—what kind of sport, league, or activity could become an income-earning side hustle? Remember that one method of learning to think this way is just being able to spot opportunities, not necessarily pursue each one.

Fun Fact

There are over 9 million “casual players” who play pickleball 1-7 timers per year, and nearly 1 million players who compete 8+ times per year in sanctioned tournaments. In 2014, NBC News declared pickleball “the fastest growing sport in America.”

Notes from Chris

Episode 438

It all started in 2012, in a dimly lit room filled with highly influential local community members. Leaders were nominated, rules were set, and a new society was born… The Columbia River Pickleball Club.

Pickleball, if you don’t know, is a sport that takes place on a badminton court. A plastic wiffle ball is hit over the 34-inch net with paddles that are roughly twice the size of ping-pong paddles. It’s an accessible activity for newcomers, but it can also be a fast-paced thrill for experienced players (not your grandmother’s backyard pickleball—this sport is on the rise!).

Over the next two years, Mike took on more and more responsibility when it came to managing the tournaments around Portland, Oregon. When the 2014 (highly contested!) elections came around, Mike became the club’s president. It was not long after that Mike got the idea for his own pickleball venture—one that would be for profit.

Mike loved volunteering as a tournament manager, but he figured he’d love earning some income from the activity even more. He agreed and spent the next several months slowly creating his own business plan, website, contracts, and invoice system.

Since Mike could use his club’s supplies to get started (nets, paddles, stopwatches, coolers, and such), his launch expenses were less than $500. And in early 2016, Pickleball Is Great was born. Mike started to receive a small flow of referral inquiries over the next few months. After he received his first deposit from a client, he bought himself a two-pound porter steak dinner the next week (you know, energy for pickleball).

He offered three pricing tiers. The most basic package was a basic, well-run tournament. The next two tiers offered additional services like WiFi routers, coolers with water, trophies, equipment, and other things that hosts may or may not want to worry about.

Once a client picked a tier, he charged them on a per-player basis, which wasn’t bringing in a lot of money at the time. In 2016, his average monthly profit was just $100 after expenses, which included paying a small team of refs and organizers.

In 2017, the USAPA allowed Mike to run two “sanctioned” tournaments. Essentially, these tournaments are heavily regulated and the results go directly to each player’s official score and rank. These were huge for establishing himself as an authority and he’s looking to host at least four over the course of 2018.

And those tournaments that Mike played into a network? Nearly half of them have hired his services for 2018! The in-person networking really came through. Ace!

These days, Mike is traveling all over the American West to manage tournaments. He’s building some travel costs into the overall price, and with the rapid growth of pickleball, he’s averaging just under $2,000 in profit per tournament. His goal is to run two tournaments per month and bring in roughly $40,000 this year, but he doesn’t want to stop there.

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

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

Quote of the Day
"The patience required to build a solid foundation for a successful business is hard to find. Build a solid inner circle support group of people who will be honest with feedback on ideas and suggestions."
—Mike Hoxie #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