Tag: Service

Las Vegas Wedding Officiant Bets on Red

What It’s About

A car rental executive says “I do” to a new career officiating weddings.

Words of Wisdom

For those looking to follow in her footsteps Maria suggests, “Practice your ceremony just like a professional public speaker and be well versed in different types of traditions so you can create a personalized ceremony that suits your couple.”

Fun Fact

Did you know…. global rapper/superstar Cardi B is also a wedding officiant?

Notes from Chris

Episode 1914
Life takes everyone on a different journey. And sometimes something monumental happens and we suddenly veer off to a whole new life. That’s what happened to today’s side hustler, Maria Romano. Several months after the death of her husband, Maria was looking to start over. She wanted to do something she enjoyed that had an impact on others. After she saw a friend perform a wedding ceremony, she knew she’d found a calling. She wanted to become a wedding officiant.

A wedding officiant is someone who performs wedding ceremonies and can branch out to perform funerals, end of life ceremonies, and naming ceremonies for infants. You must be an ordained minister to perform weddings but receiving your ordination can be done fairly simply. It doesn’t mean going to divinity schools for years … in most cases, it’s much, much easier.

When she started, her cost of licensing with the county and ordination was about $150 and her website was about $500 to get up and running. Being a wedding officiant began as a side hustle for Maria, but it eventually grew into one of her main sources of income.

As a part-timer doing weddings 50% of her time, she made between $15,000 to $20,000 a year. Now she earns over six figures a year.

Maria wishes she had a mentor all those years ago to help get her business started. So to help others just starting out, she’s created a training course that teaches budding officiants everything they need to know about licensing requirements, how to perform the perfect ceremony, and how to create a competitive fee structure.

For her, all of these elements have combined into a rewarding second act.

 

 

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
"Your reputation and your integrity say everything about you."
—Maria Romano #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

New App Designer Jumps Into No-Code Development

What It’s About

An designer downloads a way to create new apps—no coding required!

Words of Wisdom

Karla says to start now so you stand out from the crowd. Don’t wait until more people start developing no-code apps. She predicts it will soon be a common tech skill to have.

Fun Fact

As of December 2021, there was a combined total of almost 16 million apps available across all App Stores, including Apple, Google Play, and Amazon.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1823
Karla Fernandes began her career as a graphic designer at age fifteen, learning everything she could about layout and print for newspapers, magazines, and corporate materials. From there, it was an easy migration to digital media where she learned HTML and backend programming languages. She loved the creative process—and soon realized there were a lot of bad web designers out there. Karla wanted to do better.

So way back in 2006 she quit her job to open her own UX/UI business where she improves how users interact with web-based products. She called it Vitamina K.

In 2020, Karla was taking an educational vacation. This is something she does every year. She dedicates an entire month to learning something new. This time, she had learned about no-code development a few months earlier and in December she started using a tool called Bravo Studio which allowed her to create apps with no coding needed.

While Bravo Studio is free to use, Karla upgraded to a $399 package that removed the company’s branding and gave her other benefits.

How does it work? Well, when you’re creating a regular app, you need to write complex scripts that have logic and rules behind them to make the app do what you want it to do. This is a long process, and you might need two different development teams: one for Android, and one for Apple’s operating system. It could take anywhere from six months to two years to get your app ready to market.

Karla began getting app development clients by reaching out to people while she was still learning how to do it herself. After she had a few apps of her own under her belt, people started coming to her. As a new Bravo Studio expert, she’s featured on their website and people can hire her to complete an app project for them. She’ll also troubleshoot any issues people are having, or even teach them how to use the tool themselves.

What does this add up to? Between the apps, the freelance work, and her new class, Karla’s earning about $6,000 per month [ what about the actual apps though? how much does ScarfApp bring in?]from her no-code, app-making project. Not bad at all for something that came from a month-long educational vacation!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Learn more about Karla and her no-code app work at her website, Vitaminak.Design.

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
"Don’t wait so that many more get to know this, before you know this won’t differentiate you, it will be just as common as other skills are now."
—Karla Fernandes #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

Accountant Trades Active Clients for Passive Course Sales

What It’s About

An expat living in South Africa teaches a global audience on how to master their finances.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Morgan shares some important advice about taking risks, “Magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Every time I feel nervous or scared about doing something, I get excited because I know it’s going to grow and shape me into something greater.”

Fun Fact

Morgan spends some of her time helping her husband run a non-profit called Rural Reach. It aims to help the rural communities in Southern Africa with health, education, and job creation.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1793
When Morgan de Klerk graduated with degrees in Accounting and International Business, she immediately went into the corporate accounting world, thinking that was the logical next step. But the long hours behind a desk felt like a waste, and Morgan knew there had to be more to life.

After a bit of traveling with her husband, she settled down (at least for a while!) in Cape Town, South Africa. There she offered bookkeeping services to clients, which snowballed into a global accounting practice called MDK Services. Morgan had a team of fourteen contractors, and says it was a great learning experience.

One of the things she learned is that many small business owners don’t want a bookkeeper—they want to learn how to do the books themselves.

In 2020, that realization inspired Morgan to start Master Your Finances, a bookkeeping, money, and tax course that teaches contractors, freelancers, and small business owners how to manage their own money.

It cost about $3,000 to build. Most of the money went to a web developer who helped with the online course platform and building a proper e-commerce website. The benefit to that approach is that the content is all hers and she has full control over how it’s presented. The challenge is that she needs her developer to make updates. Fortunately, she’s kept him on retainer.

The course now brings in profits of around $6,000 per month, and she’s hoping to hit six figures in 2022.

Morgan’s ultimate goal is to eventually stop offering accounting services all together and just focus on the course. She still has one large accounting client that she enjoys being hands on with, but the rest of her time is spent leading the course and helping students.

All things considered, Morgan loves the freedom of running her own business. She works about 20 hours or less per week and spends the rest of her time outdoors with her husband and kids (she has a one-year-old and another baby on the way). Some of that time is spent helping her husband run a non-profit called Rural Reach. It aims to help rural communities in Southern Africa with health, education, and job creation.

Going forward, Morgan plans to keep growing the bookkeeping course and bringing in more students.

 

 

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

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
"Magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Every time I feel nervous or scared about doing something, I get excited because I know it’s going to grow and shape me into something greater. "
—Morgan de Klerk #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

Rustic Tiki Bars Turn Into Pallet-able Career

What It’s About

Instead of going into teaching, this new graduate builds backyard tiki bars. They call it the Great Resignation, right?

Words of Wisdom

Ben shares an important piece of advice, “Listen to customer feedback and repeat more of what works. There’s a ton of demand out there, so if you’re handy and have a few tools, you can do this business too.”

Fun Fact

The Mai Tai, the classic tiki cocktail with rum, Curaçao liqueur, orgeat syrup, and lime juice was created at the original Trader Vic’s bar in Oakland, California in 1944.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1788
Ben Corkery was part way through teacher’s college in Canada when he realized he didn’t want to enter the traditional workforce. Searching for a business that would provide him with more freedom, he decided to double down on a promising project he’d started the previous summer: building rustic backyard bars.

He got the idea from his best friend who had built a bar out of wooden shipping pallets to use at his own farm wedding a couple of years back. The rustic farm look was still in vogue, and Ben already had experience with framing and carpentry—so he decided to build a similar structure. He picked up some free pallets from Home Depot and built the bar, which he rented out once via Facebook Marketplace for $120… and then promptly sold it for $250.

He now had a taste of entrepreneurial freedom and the timing couldn’t have been better. More than a year into the pandemic, people were still going all out on home improvement projects. Ben tweaked his rustic bar designs to suit what customers wanted… and began making tiki bars and cabanas too. He earned more money that spring and summer than he’d ever done before.

Crateworks Custom Bars continues to be a solid seasonal business and customers are placing orders for next year. Ben gets most of his customers through Facebook Marketplace and Facebook groups. He’s also collecting Google reviews to help build his business.

Since he began by using free pallets and tools he already had, this was a zero-cost business to start. He’s now averaging $8,000 per month in the summer and at least $1,000 per month in the winter.

Ben is passionate about creativity and doing work that matters to him. And he wants to help other people do that too. Since he has a teaching background, he’s created a course and coaching program to help others start building and selling tiki bars and other unusual DIY craft projects.

He also writes a weekly newsletter on Substack called Society for a Wonder’ing Mind.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Considering pouring yourself a drink from your own custom bar? Check out Ben’s website, Crateworks Custom Bars.

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
"Listen to customer feedback and repeat more of what works. There’s a ton of demand out there, so if you’re handy and have a few tools, you can do this business too."
—Ben Corkery #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 Shapes Crafty Shop During Lockdown

What It’s About

An artist finds her niche community and supports them with art supplies all from down under.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Find ways to stand out. “Instead of having a standard 20% off sale, do an 18% off sale. The unusual number is more likely to catch the customers attention and be more memorable. Better yet, have a story behind why it’s 18%. Is it because your product is 18% more durable than your competitors?”

Fun Fact

In the early days of the Clay Craze Community page, people would DM Katrina asking questions about how to use polymer clay. The truth is, she was very much a beginner in the art, so she spent lots of time Googling and YouTubing the answer. Now she realizes that this was the byproduct and power of having a good brand. It also validated the need for a community where clay makers can ask and answer questions.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1786
During lockdown in Australia, Katrina Vo wanted a creative outlet to keep herself busy. She started experimenting with polymer clay, making jewelry and trinket bowls for fun. For those not in the know (including me), polymer clay is a pliable material, sort of like Playdough for grownups. The main difference is that polymer clay becomes permanently hardened after it’s baked in the oven, making it the perfect material for creating ornaments, jewelry and figurines and more.

As Katrina discovered how versatile the material is, her fascination grew into an addiction. She started an Instagram account to share other people’s creations. The account was originally intended to be a personal inspirational mood board, but it grew quickly, with 300-400 new organic followers per day!

Once she noticed how popular it was becoming, she put lots of effort into attracting more followers by sharing tips for working with clay, or growing your small handmade business. It became a community for clay makers to connect through sharing tips and techniques while supporting and encouraging each other. The account is now called Clay Craze Community. (Find it @clay_craze)

Those realizations inspired Katrina to open Clay Craze Studio, a one-stop-shop for polymer clay makers. Her goal was to create tools which made working with polymer clay more fun and efficient. Using manufacturers from both Australia (where she’s based) and overseas, she made tools that help shape the clay or print textures on it, spending about $150 on stock and a Shopify website.

But before launching any products at all, she spent months interacting with the members in Clay Craze Community to understand their pain points.

After going live in October 2020 (pandemic biz shoutout), Clay Craze Studio had its first sale via a link on the Instagram account. Katrina had just put through a test order to make sure everything was running smoothly, so she initially thought the sale confirmation was part of the test order. After triple checking the order three times, she realized the sale was real!

Let’s talk numbers. The shop started with ten products, but it now stocks over 300, including products made in-house and supplies from other wholesalers. It averages 300-400 orders per month. During its first year of operation, the store generated $113,000 in sales, primarily through social media. Katrina is forecasting 30% growth in its second year, with over 40 new products in the pipeline.

Katrina enjoys her corporate job managing and negotiating changes to legal contracts. However, she says that running your own business gives you an entirely different source of motivation, purpose and fulfillment. It’s incredibly fulfilling to know that someone believes in products, to the extent they are willing to part with their money for it.

Katrina also loves how the project has enabled her to spend more time and support her family. She’s even hired her sisters to source new products and pack orders, while her fiancé helps with the website.

 

 

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

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
"Instead of having a standard 20% off sale, do an 18% off sale. The unusual number is more likely to catch the customers attention and be more memorable. Better yet, have a story behind why it’s 18%. Is it because your product is 18% more durable than your competitors?"
—Katrina Vo #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

Fishing Charter Marketplace Hooks Clients and Guides

What It’s About

You’ll go overboard for this story.

Words of Wisdom

Jonathan shares some important advice, “You won’t miss your free time nearly as much as you think you will. If you find something you care about, you will dive in headfirst.”

Fun Fact

Before Jonathan and Attison decided to go full time as partners in this venture, they bonded over a two week trip across Texas where all they would do is fish, talk to local anglers, and drink beers at night.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1781
When Jonathan Newar was tasked to put together a fishing trip for his work team in Houston, he realized that he had a problem on his hands. Finding high quality fishing charters was tough, and he hated how tedious the process could be. As he recalls, he spent a lot of time searching outdated websites and playing phone tag with guides while wondering whether he could trust the limited information that he found.

Fast forward a year to 2019, and Jonathan was wondering if he could build a business around connecting would-be fishermen with guides.

He’d left his previous job and was taking some time to figure out what came next when he met his eventual co-founder, Attison Barnes, at a party. Attison had a keen interest in the outdoors, and when he heard Jonathan’s idea for a marketplace of fishing charters, he was hooked.

Any two-sided marketplace requires buyers and sellers, so the new fishing partners knew that they had to get guides on board first. They onboarded the first few guides in Galveston, Texas by meeting them in person at the docks and pitching them on the concept. (You could say they cast their nets upon the waters…)

There they learned that the number one priority for guides was filling up their calendar and booking more trips, which confirmed Jonathan and Attison’s hypothesis that this marketplace was needed. We could call that the supply side. On the demand side, their vision was for white collar workers such as themselves to have an easy way to leave the office and spend more time outdoors.

But as any founder of a marketplace can attest, getting initial traction is the hardest obstacle to overcome. Jonathan could build the site since he had a tech background, but the two had to hustle hard to get their first customer.

Having a business model that takes a cut of the fee paid by customers to fishing guides meant that they needed to keep both the customers and fishing guides happy. This, they accomplished by building trust into the system.

They take deposits from customers, who pay the balance of the trip directly to guides. They also go out of their way to make sure that customers who use their platform have a good time.

They also needed to get to scale quickly with a lot of volume, since they were only getting a percentage. Having said that, the two have come a long way—their boat is far from the shoreline. Captain Experiences now sees upwards of 300 bookings a month which adds up to more than $220,000 in revenue.

These days, they’re looking to hire more team members and expand their operations. By delivering a solid experience and working both the supply and demand side of fishing charters, they’ve managed to fill their nets and reel in the customers.

 

 

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
"You won’t miss your free time nearly as much as you think you will. If you find something you care about, you will dive in headfirst."
—Jonathan Newar #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

Oil Field Mechanic Becomes Handyman to Realtors

What It’s About

A soon-to-be father of twins takes matters into his own hands to generate much-needed income.

Words of Wisdom

Gregory has some important words for those of you waiting to start a side hustle, don’t! “The biggest thing that I would have done differently is to start a side hustle much sooner. By much sooner I mean like 20 years ago. I guess I needed the responsibility of having so many people depend on me to give me that push, but if I had started earlier, I would have been able to spend more time with my family from the beginning and enjoying more financial freedom.”

Fun Fact

Even as a bustling handyman, Gregory hates ladders and climbing onto high places with a fiery passion. He has to put on his “handyman mode” each time he takes on such a task, which involves staying calm and collected on the outside while screaming at himself internally.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1753
Lots of people talk about having a DIY mentality, but Gregory Gladden is has actually lived it. Born in a farming part of the country, he grew up helping his dad’s business doing construction and masonry. He loved working with his hands, so it wasn’t a surprise to anybody that he later began a career as an oil field mechanic.

When January 2020 rolled around, Gregory got big news: his wife was expecting again, and this time, she was having twins. With a seven-year-old daughter already, he realised that he would soon have to support three kids, and the cost of childcare for all of them would be almost his entire paycheck.

That seemed absurd, and Gregory knew that he needed to do something about it. He and his wife had long wanted to start a side hustle, but never got around to it. With the twins on the way, it was now or never.

While brainstorming ideas, Gregory recalled the time when he paid for someone to inspect their house. It was a simple process. The inspector only had a few basic tools, and finished his work within the hour. This made Gregory wonder if he could do the same, and he immediately picked up the phone to ask his real estate agent about it.

Having had experience working with his hands since young, Gregory knew that he was equipped with the skills required for various types of repairs, especially since this line of work wasn’t more complicated than what he did on a daily basis at the oil field. And if he didn’t know what to do in a particular situation, he could just be honest and recommend another expert.

With that in mind, he put down $50 for a business license and another $40 for insurance in February 2020. But he soon hit a rough patch as pandemic restrictions and lockdowns started the next month. All he could do was lay low for a while to see if things would blow over. A month later, he got a job from his sister’s landlord. Working on that project gave him the confidence, and also a stellar online review.

The next few months were slow, but Gregory began to find his way. Further chats with his real estate agent made him realise that working more closely with the real estate community could be a smart start, and that he could create a YouTube video as a commercial of sorts.

With the help of his daughter as the camera, he fumbled around the house hammering and tweaking different things with the tools that he had. He added a voiceover when he edited the video to explain who he was and what he was offering. He then uploaded it to YouTube as a private link and shared it with 250-300 realtors through email.

This was when the magic happened. Gregory’s phone would just not stop ringing, as realtors called him with projects for him to take on. He remembers being overwhelmed as he didn’t feel comfortable turning away work as a new company owner, but at the same time he couldn’t meet all the demand.

The rest as they say is history. Gregory is now investing in the business, most recently spending $2,000 to restore an old van as his official work vehicle. He has more than replaced his original income from his day job, and now has full control of his schedule, his life, and his future.

 

 

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
"Venture out, learn what makes you uncomfortable and repeat. What I learned about myself in 15 years I could never have learned just from reading books or hearing others tell their stories."
—Eva Rosales #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

Utah Dad Makes a Splash with Paddle board Rentals

What It’s About

A product marketer uses his stand-up paddle board rentals to make waves of profit.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

We’ve said it before but JJ says it better, “Niche, niche, niche. Profitable side hustles are all about finding the right niche for your location.”

Fun Fact

JJ’s oldest daughter is 9 and earns money working for the business. She saved up enough to buy herself a mini moped. Way to go!

Notes from Chris

Episode 1723
Afew years ago, JJ Haglund searched for stand-up paddle board (SUP) rentals and found a tech executive renting them out of his garage. It was a side business for him, and JJ thought it was also a brilliant way to expense all his toys! Eventually, the guy built it into a full-fledged rental shop.

Fast forward to 2020. JJ was living in Utah and working as a product marketer for a Fortune 500 tech company. He and his wife were brainstorming ideas for a side hustle that wouldn’t cost a lot of money to start.

Then they remembered their experience renting paddleboards a few years earlier and thought, “Why couldn’t we do that?” The couple lives close to a number of popular lakes, so maybe it would be a great way to help people get outside, make memories with their families, and put aside any pandemic stress.

To launch JJ’s Paddleboards, he spent less than $2,000 on the initial rental inventory of inflatable standup paddleboards and life jackets, plus lawyer fees on drafting up a good liability waiver. His digital marketing background came in handy. He built the website using Wix.com, optimized it for Google search, and created a Google My Business profile for Google Maps.

It was all fairly simple—and when they landed their first customer, JJ breathed a sigh of relief that it actually worked! However, it took a few weeks for it to pick up because it was an unusually cold June last year. But once the summer heated up, everything was smooth sailing … mostly. He was constantly selling out and getting more requests than he could handle. He celebrated by buying more and more paddleboards every time he made enough money to reinvest back into the business.

In the summer of 2020, he made around $7,000 but put all the profits into more boards. (Now he has a fleet of fifteen.) So far in the 2021 season, he’s brought in around $10,000—and most of it is straight profit.

The business has benefited the family in several ways. First, they get to meet all kinds of people, who tell them about new places in their home state. They’ve enjoyed exploring more of Utah because of awesome places renters tell him about.

JJ hires help when the family goes out of town. He can still coordinate everything remotely, including all the customer communications, but his part-time employee can be there for the customer to pick up the gear and then clean it when they drop it off.

Speaking of cleaning, it’s also been a great opportunity for him to employ his kids to wash the boards between rentals. (Really his oldest daughter, as the others aren’t interested yet.) This teaches them hard work and helps them earn some money. Never too early to learn the joys of working for yourself!

 

 

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

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
"Niche, niche, niche. Profitable side hustles are all about finding the right niche for your location."
—JJ Haglund #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

P.E. Teacher Livestreams Lessons to 50,000 Students

What It’s About

A P.E. Teacher works out how to get her lessons to a global audience.

Words of Wisdom

Larissa used the power of observation and leveraged her skills and experience to meet a need in the world. Here’s what she said about this, “Find something that is truly needed … For my business, I knew families would be feeling the need for connection, the need for positivity, the need for healthy habits and relationships during the pandemic.”

Fun Fact

After graduating college, Larissa was a professional beach volleyball player and actress!

Notes from Chris

Episode 1711
On a Friday afternoon in March 2020, high school fitness teacher Larissa Maloney sat in a faculty meeting discussing how the school might go virtual as COVID-19 swept across the country. Later that night, she received an email announcing that everyone would be doing just that: going fully virtual starting on Monday, so they would need to figure it out—and fast.

Fortunately, as a teacher and mom, Larissa is used to thinking on her feet. She sat at her kitchen table and wrote up a plan. On Mondays, the kids would run a mile, on Tuesday they’d do arms and abs. But she immediately crumpled up the plan because it sounded boring. She knew if it sounded boring to her, it would be boring to her students, so she came up with a new idea: streaming workout videos for her students on YouTube Monday through Friday at 9am!

When Larissa shared these workouts with other teachers in her community, she started getting requests for other kids to join as well. She also posted on a forum specifically for PE teachers. When Monday morning came and she pressed play, she started the warmup for fifteen kids. Not a bad start. When she finished the warm up, however, and looked at the screen again that number was climbing. Thousands of students logged on to workout with her that first Monday!

How did this happen? The magic algorithm of YouTube had discovered her.

Larissa conducted online workouts every weekday, livestreaming to YouTube. At the end of the week, even her own kids would join in for a fun, active dance party.

By the summer of 2020, Larissa was getting email testimonials from the kids and their families saying that these videos have been the glue to keeping their families together since the pandemic started. That inspired her to grow Active Kids 2.0 into a business. With kids around the world stuck at home due to the pandemic, there was clearly a need for this type of content.

Active Kids 2.0 offers a monthly membership for $40, an annual membership for $400 and a school membership for $500. There’s also a three-month online summer camp (three active videos a week) for $100. Larissa still offers some free classes on YouTube, and that’s helped her attract new customers. In fact, she hasn’t done any paid advertising at all, but her income continues to grow. How much money? She’s now projecting net income of $100,000 for 2021!

Even as schools reopen in the future, the need for physical activity will continue and Larissa has built a loyal following and a community of people who love her workouts. She plans to keep on creating new content that helps kids stay active.

 

 

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
"Find something that is truly needed… I knew families would be feeling the need for connection, the need for positivity, the need for healthy habits and relationships during the pandemic."
—Larissa Maloney #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

No Code, No Problem: Easy-to-Build Apps for Everyone

What It’s About

Look ma, no coding needed? A marketing executive builds apps for his clients.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Take note, Sardar maybe onto something, “Being able to build apps without knowing how to code is a dream come true. If this trend continues in the same way, perhaps it will be the right time to shift it from a side hustle to a new offering.”

Fun Fact

When he’s not no-coding apps, Sardar loves to run. He can complete a marathon in 2 hours and 55 minutes!

Notes from Chris

Episode 1709
Sardar Azimov found his side hustle while waiting in the long queue for a food truck. It was a hot summer’s day in Miami, and he wished there was a way he could order his food in advance and pick it up when it was ready. Or, at least, be able to go stand in the shade while it was being prepared.

As the CEO of a Marketing Agency called Skief Labs, Sardar was familiar with the power of native apps for a business. Customers love the experience of using their smartphone to order food, shop for clothes, access content, or just share updates with friends. (I mean, chances are you’ve already used one or two apps like that today, right?) But, Sardar had a problem: he wasn’t a coder, and had no desire to become one.

One of the byproducts of the COVID-19 pandemic for Sardar was that he had a little more time on his hands than usual. Client projects at his agency had slowed way down, which allowed him to devote time to learning new skills. So, he began exploring different ways to create apps that didn’t require an in-depth knowledge of coding languages. That’s when he stumbled upon the perfect solution.

Specifically, Sardar came across two tools called Glide and Adalo. They allow creators to build “No Code Apps” using their platforms. Basically, that means you can choose all of the features, designs, and interactive elements of your app without ever having to put in a line of code. It’s a little like using a drag-and-drop website builder like Wix or Squarespace, but for apps, and it means that anyone can get started creating professional-looking apps.

Sardar realized that if people were willing to invest in freelance developers to build apps from scratch, there may also be a market for his no-code approach. After all, it allows him to create apps more quickly for a much lower cost. So he created a listing on the marketplace Fiverr to offer his services.

Sardar set the prices for his work based on two factors: the complexity of the app, and the time it would take him to complete. He found that simple apps with just a few screens could be turned around in a couple of days. He charged a maximum of $1,200 for them. Larger apps could extend to a couple of weeks, with feedback and revisions, and prices for those start from $2,500. These prices were still affordable in the world of app development, but were at a rate where Sardar felt comfortable and well-compensated for the work he was doing.

Sardar’s listing quickly became a hit. There was a large market of people who had tried to create No Code apps for their businesses, but had hit snags along the way, and needed someone like him to help them complete their project.

There was also a market for businesses who wanted a bootstrapped minimum-viable product for their app idea, and Sardar could offer them a quick and easy way to test a product with their audience. So, as time went on, Sardar used his marketing skills to word his Fiverr listing to speak directly to these audiences.

As a result, Sardar now makes a good extra income from his no-code side hustle, without spending any money on startup costs or marketing. He’s happy with the number of leads coming in being relatively small, especially as his day job picks up as we come out of the pandemic.

Next, he wants to look at how he can use his No Code skills to add another element to his agency.

 

 

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

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
" Being able to build apps without knowing how to code is a dream come true. If this trend continues in the same way, perhaps it will be the right time to shift it from a side hustle to a new offering."
—Sardar Asimov #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