Tag: Service

Exercise App Encourages Fitness While Helping Sick Kids

What It’s About

Forget the expensive trainer—here’s an app that will help you hold yourself accountable!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

If you’re looking to start a side hustle involving an app, Justin and his brother recommend that you try and build an initial version yourself so that you can prove the concept before investing more for a more polished version. As he says, there is a lot you can learn from the initial version that will enable you to make precise improvements on the polished version.

Fun Fact

Asked if he’d thought about using a reverse incentive for Lazy Jar, where users have to pay some organization they disagree with if they don’t make their workouts, Justin said, “Yes, and we refused to do that. We felt that there was nothing to gain by donating money to organizations we generally don’t believe in, even if it was as a form of negative reinforcement. We prefer knowing that even when the user fails, some good comes from it.”

Notes from Chris

Episode 465

Our resolutions to get fit sometimes fizzle. Those twice-weekly trips to the gym can slow to twice-monthly slogs. For some people, they turn into an occasional walk to the corner store for beer. In North Carolina, Justin Anyanwu saw that the shine of his successive new routines—yoga, kickboxing, CrossFit—started out well, but fell away when he couldn’t maintain his commitment to the workouts.

The initial weight loss he achieved didn’t inspire him enough to establish an unbreakable fitness habit. He knew that the problem wasn’t the workouts themselves, but his lack of consistency in committing to them regularly. Multiple canceled gym memberships frustrated him to act: he designed an app to hold himself—and later others—accountable.

Justin is a full-time software engineer, so he knows that technology can solve problems. His Lazy Jar app comes out swinging: Miss your weekly fitness goals and you’ll lose weight—in your wallet. Lazy Jar works by tracking a user’s steps, calories, miles, and minutes of physical activity via a Fitbit device. Users set a weekly goal for those metrics and a financial penalty they must pay if they fail to meet the goals.

He and his business-partner brother sped up the initial work on the look and feel of the app by using a pre-made app theme from UI8, a design platform. Then he found a developer on Fiverr to code the program, which cost him a bit more than five dollars: $7,000, to be precise.

Since the app was launched publicly in October of last year, the company has been making $500 a month from users who head back to the couch rather than the exercise bike. Their user base has been growing with further publicity, like the boost given from being mentioned on places like TechCrunch, LifeHacker and Product Hunt.

Learning about how the human psyche processes interest and desire has been one of the product’s side benefits for Justin. He’s seen how it takes a fair amount of social proof from other user’s experiences to bring new people into the Lazy Jar fold. New, unusual ideas get resistance, but influencers can sway a skeptical audience.

So, the big question: is Justin missing his workouts? Has the app worked for him, or has he programmed in a cheat code? We’re not certain how much Justin is paying back to Lazy Jar these days from missing his regular workouts, but according to him, he’s feeling stronger and healthier than ever.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Lazy Jar: Fire your trainer and hold yourself accountable—learn more about this app over on Justin’s website!
  • Fiverr: The freelancing platform that Justin used to find the developer to make Lazy Jar a reality
  • UI8: The design platform that Justin found a pre-made app theme from
  • Ionic & React Native: Two of the app design platforms that Justin would likely use the next time he builds an app
  • TechCrunch, LifeHacker, & Product Hunt: Three of the tech-related media outlets that did write ups on Lazy Jar and brought it more exposure

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
"See if you can build an initial version that you can use to prove the concept before investing more for a more polished version. There is a lot you can learn from the initial version that will enable you to make precise improvements on the polished version."
—Justin Anyanwu #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
Get Started Here

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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.


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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

College Student Starts Historic Letter Subscription Service

What It’s About

A letter subscription service for history buffs!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Like all good historians, Michael has learned a lot from the past. His experience of running a business selling physical products on subscription has taught him a few lessons that he’ll be taking into the future.

The first is to do a test run of the product before you start selling gifts or subscriptions that lock you in. The second is to pause before you scale, just as Michael did. The third is to choose suppliers who can scale at the same pace as you do. And finally, ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid, from the Start’ (or KISSS)! Simplicity is king.

Fun Fact

Michael previously ran a daily newsletter called Morning Short, for people who wanted to read more. It was pretty successful, with 8000 subscribers. But while his audience raved about the free version, trying to make money from a digital-only product like this was a massive challenge.

It taught him that he definitely wanted to work with selling physical products in the future, which was part of the inspiration for Letterjoy being a snail-mail rather than e-mail service.

Notes from Chris

Episode 464

Michael Sitver is a college student and self-confessed history nerd from Chicago, IL. He’s always loved learning about the past and studying the great historical events and people of times gone by.

While standing at his mailbox one day, an idea struck him that would change the course of his own history. He thought how much he would enjoy receiving a letter written by a legendary figure from the past—like Einstein, Kennedy, Gandhi, or Churchill. He wondered if others would too, and set out to find out in the form of a project that he hoped would make money.

First, he crunched a few numbers—just ballpark calculations of price, profit margin, and estimated market size. Everything added up, so he knew this was an idea worth playing around with. He chose a name—Letterjoy—and bought the domain.

He used a service called Strikingly to quickly build a free landing page, which helped him to visualize the business and think through what the product and pricing would look like. Michael says that he does this with a lot of ideas that he has, as it’s a really quick and easy way to figure out whether an idea comes together. It’s also a good test to see if he still has the “Wow, this is cool” feeling after spending two hours thinking about an idea.

In this case, the feeling endured.

He was then ready to start seeking out customers, he turned to his favorite niche history podcast as a place to advertise. He spent $80 on a month’s worth of ads, and the orders started to trickle in. Within in a month, he had his first 7 to 8 customers and was mailing them weekly letters that he designed and printed himself.

The number of subscribers increases every month and is now at around 300. Growth has been fast, and revenue doubles every couple of months. Letterjoy brought in more than $10,000 last month alone! Is it destined for greatness, to be recorded in history? Even if not, it’s a most notable side hustle success.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Letterjoy: See our history in a new light—learn more about Michael’s subscription service over on his website
  • Strikingly: The website building platform that Michael used to setup Letterjoy

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 build your product until you find your market. Know exactly who you’re going to market to, and know why they want your product. If they won’t pay for it, don’t build it."
—Michael Sitver #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

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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

Adjunct Professor Puts Course on YouTube for $100k Profit

What It’s About

A college professor hacks Udemy and makes more than he does at his day job.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

One of the things Jason confessed was that he has to be careful not to neglect his family by focusing too much on his side hustle. That’s easy to do when your project takes off, because as he says, “You want to throw yourself into it more.”

So what does he do to prevent this from happening? He’s found that setting clear boundaries help and recommends that other side hustlers hustling from home create clear divisions between their home and work lives.

Fun Fact

Even though Jason earns more per month in his side hustle than he does in his day job, he has no immediate plans to quit. He’s a couple years away from being fully-vested in his retirement plan….a great reason to stay.

Notes from Chris

Episode 462

Jason Dion is a Cyber Security Planner working for the government in the greater Washington D.C. area. In November of 2016, he uploaded his first online course on Udemy to help people pass their IT certification exam. Sixteen months later, he has fourteen courses and earns more in his side hustle than he does in his day job. We’ll get to the exact figure later.

So how did Jason go from being a cybersecurity expert in his day job to running a successful library of online courses? Well, teaching online courses on Udemy was not Jason’s first side hustle. His first was as an adjunct professor at a local community college.

While teaching as an adjunct professor, his “day job” switched to one that required extensive travel, often at the last-minute. So teaching in the classroom was no longer an option. During his final in-person course, he recorded the audio of lectures, converted that audio to video by pairing it with a slide deck, and posted those videos on YouTube. The videos were something his students could go back and use as they studied, but he also signed up for a free program that allowed him to earn ad revenue when people watched them.

Those videos sat on YouTube for about a year, and he made a whopping $25-50 per month in ad revenue. A friend suggested he turn it into an “online video course” on a platform like Udemy. So, during Thanksgiving weekend of 2016, he took that course from YouTube and converted it to Udemy’s format. Within a month, he made almost $60. The next month $277, the next $582. He realized he was on to something, so he started making more courses.

In less than a year and a half since starting—and without quitting his day job—Jason now has 14 different courses on Udemy, and he releases a new course every 1-2 months. So far he’s taught almost 35,000 students in 171 countries. Since that first course in 2016, he has made over $100,000 in profits. That’s $100,000 after Udemy takes their cut. In the last six months, his monthly sales have increased, and he averages between $10,000-$15,000 per month. More than what he makes in his day job!

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
"I may spend 100 hours to build a course, but the sales keep coming month after month. I’m creating an asset that works for me while I sleep, and I loved waking up in the morning and seeing I earned money."
—Jason Dion #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Travel the Globe With Cards For Travel!

Side Hustle School is brought to you by CardsForTravel.com. Use travel hacking to see the world!

When you apply for their most popular, small business rewards card, you can earn 80,000 Bonus Points—enough for three round-trip plane tickets or $1,000 in travel credits. Check out this limited time offer! ✈️ 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

EMT Moonlights as App Builder, Earns $15,000 a Month

What It’s About

When he’s not out saving lives, this paramedic flexes quite a different skillset—app development.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

It’s not always easy to stay on the cusp of the fast-paced smartphone app world, but Phil has a tip for those looking to make their way into the field. He believes that pre-launch day hype, like creating waitlists based on referrals, finding a public influencer in your target market to endorse your app, and having a solid marketing plan can all help move you up in the app rankings.

Fun Fact

You might think you have a ton of apps on your phone, but it’s hard to beat 57. That’s the average number of applications your average South Korean smartphone owner has downloaded onto their smartphones! But that’s nothing in comparison to 149.3 billion—the total number of apps downloaded, worldwide.

Notes from Chris

Episode 461

Phone apps aren’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “Emergency Medical Technicians” (or EMTs) but Phil Scarfi in NYC has always looked beyond the ambulance for inspiration. Whenever he went to work, he would spend any downtime dreaming of ways he could make his life easier.

He wasn’t looking for an easy way out, by any means. Just ways he could simplify an already hectic life. One day Phil might focus on looking for the latest gadgets, the next, he could spend searching for productivity hacks. But, no matter what, his attention always wandered back to phone applications.

App development had been an interest of Phil’s, ever since he studied computer science during his freshman year of college. Eager to take his classroom learning into the real world, he created an app that showed what the dining halls were serving for meals each day. Word slowly trickled out and eventually reached the dean of students, who notified the college… who then bought all rights to the app in one lump sum payment.

That success showed him the draw of coming up with app ideas. He eventually decided to become an EMT so he could help people facing their worst situations, but he never really let go of his love of computer science and app development… and especially creating solutions to make his day-to-day life easier.

After he’d spent years quietly developing apps for his own personal use, Phil’s friends started to make suggestions. And, eventually, they made some “friendly” requests of what they would like to see on their own phones. It was at this point that Phil started to come up with ideas to make other people’s lives easier. This led to a new side hustle, Pioneer Applications.

These days, Phil is bringing in around $15,000/month—he’s come quite a long way from his cafeteria days! Phil also says that his app-building side hustle has been one of the best experiences in his life. While he’s happy with Pioneer’s success for now, at some point he may want to go full-time and take the business to the next level. In the meantime, he’ll continue to balance his day job with building apps that make people’s lives easier. It’s not a competition; it’s not a Game of Phones where a different character dies every week. Everyone can have a h-App-y ending.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Pioneer Applications: From dapper men’s attire to Buzzfeed, Phil makes apps for it all! Learn more about the apps Phil is creating over on his website

SEE ALSO:

  • A 12-Step Guide to Building Your Very First Mobile App – Part 1 & Part 2: A Chicago-based plastic recycling sales rep overcomes her fears and doubts to transform her love for DIY lamp shades and $10 in supplies into a multi-million dollar business
  • Flight Instructor’s App Takes Flight, Earns $30,000: Urs Camenish wanted to create an app to help him grow his income. But, he’d never owned a smartphone or used an app in his life
  • Spanish-Language Bible App Generates 1 Million Downloads: Opportunity knocks for a Utah accountant and leads to a fortuitous side hustle making $70,000 in one year with a $0.99 app

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
"I cannot begin to tell you how many apps I’ve seen have so much potential, but their owners stopped pushing them because ‘the going got tough.’ Some might take weeks, others might take a year or so. Keep pushing forward!"
—Phil Scarfi #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
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

Stay-at-Home-Mom Hires Army of College Students

What It’s About

A new mom finds some much-needed release in the form of a party organization service!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Kristen’s target market ended up being affluent professionals with limited time, so she started by asking them two things: 1) what they would most want someone to help them with if they were throwing a party, and 2) what they would be willing to pay to not have to do those things themselves?

She then used this information to determine the services she’d offer and the rate that she’d offer it at. When in doubt, ask!

Fun Fact

Kristen had a friend who got married in Europe, and a combination of her PartyEase income plus her husband’s airlines miles and hotel points allowed for her and her husband to take a two-week vacation to London, Paris, and Barcelona.

Notes from Chris

Episode 460

Kristen Blanks is a Midwesterner who grew up in Akron, Ohio—a place whose claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of NBA All-Star Lebron James. While many of her schoolmates were signing up for French Club or the Debate Team in high school, Kristen set her sights on something different: The Kitchen Libby Organization. If you’ve never heard of this organization, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

For those who are not in the know, a “kitchen libby” is someone who provides services like washing dishes and serving at parties. As President of this esteemed organization, Kristen was in charge of selecting students from her roster of available kitchen libbies to work the parties. It looked great on her college application and provided her with some applicable management and organizational skills. Little did she know at the time that this would go on to be the inspiration for her side hustle.

A few years later and a whole Bachelor’s degree away from her Kitchen Libby days, Kristen was toiling away in grad school so that she could be a counselor. Since her day-to-day schedule was so demanding, she often had to rely on her parents and student loans for support. But Kristen had always had a bit of an independent streak. Not content to rely on mom and dad or loan institutions with outrageous interest rates, she started brainstorming ways that she could bring in some extra cash.

It needed to be something that would allow her to have control over her hours and provide the flexibility that her school schedule severely lacked. That’s when she started reminiscing about her high school days as part of the Kitchen Libby Organization. It definitely fit her criteria and didn’t hurt that it was something that she already had experience in.

She marketed PartyEase on Craigslist and advertised it as the solution to a host’s party-throwing woes. She’d take care of the details and allow hosts to actually ENJOY their parties instead of working them. While not hugely successful, she did end up with around 5-6 gigs a year which lined her otherwise empty pocketbook. In 2012, Kristen hung up her apron for good when she and her husband moved to Pittsburgh while he attended graduate school.

Four years later, Kristen and her husband were officially settled into their new home in Columbus, OH following the birth of their first child 2014. Life was getting back to normal.

Kristen loved being a full-time mother to her young son and was an avid volunteer through her church and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She had always wanted to be a stay-at-home Mom, but the reality was that, well, she was bored. She missed being able to use her adult brain to contribute financially to the family.

As Kristen said to us, “After singing the ABCs for about the 100th time, I poured myself a glass of wine at noon and set out to find a way to not only save my sanity but serve my community while working from home.”

She knew she wanted to depart from her formal training as a school counselor and do something more light-hearted and above all, FUN. So, midway through 2016 she relaunched PartyEase, and started offering her party organizing services to her community in Columbus. Since this was the digital age, she launched her website with Weebly, ordered some stunning business cards, and started reaching out to friends and family for leads on upcoming events.

While this is definitely a seasonal business, Kristen says that she’ll do anywhere from 2-6 gigs a month during the party deprived periods of January and February, and upwards of 15 gigs a month during the busy wedding and holiday seasons. On average, most of her gigs end up bringing in anywhere from $200-1,500 depending on the length of the party and the number of people needed to help run it.

By the end of 2017, Kristen took home about $7,500 after paying all of her contractors and deducting any costs along the way. Not bad for a mom who had been living in sweatpants!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • PartyEase: Let someone else handle the details for a change—learn more about Kristen’s side hustle on her website!
  • Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: The non-profit organization that Kristen spent her time volunteering for
  • Weebly: The platform that Kristen used to create her website for PartyEase

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
"While you might be able to do it alone, it’s better to have people in your corner. Set a meeting with someone who’s successfully started a similar business and pick their brain. You’d be surprised at how helpful people are willing to be!"
—Kristen Blanks #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
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

Aussie Woman Earns Up to $4,000/Month Painting Faces

What It’s About

A little face paint and creativity put this Australian woman on a slide to side hustle success!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

One great part of her marketing that I noticed on her website is that Ainslie warns against the dangers of acrylic paints and craft glitters, and provides guidelines for customers to follow if they’re getting quotes from other face painters. This helps build trust between the potential buyer and Ainslie and shows she cares about her customer’s wellbeing. A great touch if you’re going to be working with someone’s children.

Fun Fact

Ainslie says the only downside to the job is watching parents squash their kid’s creativity. If a boy asks for a butterfly, or a girl asks for a skull, a parent will often step in and decide for them. She says it’s hard to bite her tongue and not give the parents a mouthful, but because she’s got her business head on, she avoids arguments.

But it’s all worth it when she sees just how many people appreciate her favorite hobby as a paid service. And she’s not only paid in money— she also loves seeing the joy in a kid’s (or parent’s) eyes when they look in the mirror.

Notes from Chris

Episode 459

After leaving a job working full-time with children in Northern Australia’s beautiful Gold Coast region, Ainslie Deverson began to miss some parts of her old day-to-day life. The games, the stories, and most of all, painting children’s faces. She found it was a great way to be creative and express herself, while bringing joy to the children and parents she worked on. People had often told her she had a talent for it, and it seemed a shame to let her skills get rusty.

So, one weekend, Ainslie decided she’d attend a local market and offer her services to some of the passers-by. It was something to do, and a way to keep her skills sharp. She bought some paints and brushes and made her way to set up a stall.

After minutes of offering her services, kids were flocking to her to get all different kinds of designs on their faces. They’d all come along with parents who, when they saw their kids were happy, would ask if she offered her services privately for birthdays and events. Within an hour, she’d penciled in her first birthday party for a few weeks in the future. She kept her cool while making the booking, acting like she’d been doing this for a long time, but on the inside, she was squealing and couldn’t believe someone had booked her.

The speed of this first sale gave Ainsley the idea to turn this into a real side hustle. She saw an opportunity to make money from a hobby she loved, and if the parents at this market wanted her services, there must be other people who need this as well.

Since starting Faces by Ainslie, Ainslie has been able to make anywhere between $800 on a slow month, to $4,000 on a good month. Not bad for a $250 investment and a simple website!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Faces by Ainslie: Learn more about Ainslie and her awesome face painting service over on her website!
  • Wix: The online website building platform that Ainslie used to set up 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

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
"So many face painters have ‘mom’ hats on instead of business or work hats. So they people please and self sacrifice. You will stunt yourself and not be able to give your all to clients therefore have lower paying clients, clients who are difficult and it will suck the joy and creativity from you."
—Ainslie Deverson #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Create a Stunning Website With Wordpress

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by Wordpress.com! Whether you’re looking to create a personal blog, business site, or both—you’ll make a big impact, when you build your website on WordPress.com. 💻

Get 15% off when you build your website with Wordpress.com—use promo code PODCAST when you check out.
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

Senior Center Director Creates Virtual Training Service

What It’s About

A director at a senior center sees a need for new training practices and leads the march.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

A large part of Tadd and Kyle’s success here came from Tadd’s ability to use the Power of Observation. While it may be a little scary to launch a side hustle in the corporate arena, it’s definitely an industry ripe for side hustle opportunities.

If you work for a heavy hitter yourself, look around your company or organization and see what is missing. Is there a better way to train your team? If it can’t be you that offers that training, who else could? The point is to get you thinking.

Fun Fact

So, what exactly does this training do? Here’s how it works: the training team signs into the software on a tablet. The software then pulls up a random scenario. For example, a breaking and entering is reported at a home down the street and the suspect is still at large. The police search the facility’s grounds and find the suspect hiding behind some bushes. The team must explain how they would react to the threat, how they would keep residents safe, and how they would interact with police.

Notes from Chris

Episode 453

Tadd Weese is the Director of Operations at Senior Living Community in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He’s an “in-the-trenches” kind of guy, always up-to-date with the latest in the long-term healthcare industry. He’s respected among his peers, and he knows the daily and long-term challenges of facilities like his.

Weese’s idea was based around a hugely inconvenient problem for these facilities: there was no simple, consistent, and non-boring way to provide emergency situation training for employees and report it to the government. Presentations were often dreadfully dull, rarely that practical, and reporting the training to regulatory bodies had to be done manually. There were 3rd party companies providing these trainings in-person already, but they were very costly.

Weese believed that he could create a virtual platform to host thousands of randomized emergency scenarios in an interactive—almost gamified—way. Then, instead of crazy boring presentations, teams of long-term healthcare facilities could work on the required training together, at a time that’s best for the team, and in an engaging way.

Tadd needed help to make this happen, so he turned to his friend, Kyle Golding, a business consultant. At any given time, he’s juggling ten or more businesses that need his skills and expertise. But when Tadd came along with a fresh idea, Kyle knew he had to make time for one more.

Kyle and his team of consultants agreed: this could be a pretty winning idea.

After hitting some snags trying to develop their software, Tadd and Kyle purchased a license for 3rd party software and created a reference product that a more experienced programmer could use to as an MVP (minimum viable product) as inspiration. However, this out of the box software actually worked so well that the pair decided to use it as their launch version for VORTTX.

The team found some healthcare facilities that volunteered to beta test the product for free in exchange for some feedback. This wasn’t difficult since Tadd Weese was so well-connected. These early beta testers provided invaluable feedback over the next few months.

They gave feedback on the user experience, the scenarios themselves, and even the pricing. Since there was no direct competitor, Kyle and Tadd didn’t really even have a ballpark estimate of what their SAAS should cost. The feedback said that they should charge per number of employees and offer discounts to multi-facility businesses.

In 2018, after nearly two years of business, VORTTX has over 3,000 training scenarios—and clients love them. These days, Kyle and Tadd expect between ten and fifteen sales per month, with an average of about $1,250 per sale. Most day-to-day tasks are automated. Targeted ads get VORTTX in front of professionals, referrals bring in long-lasting clients, and the software runs on its own.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • VORTTX: Learn more about how Tadd and Kyle are upgrading corporate training over on their 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

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
"VORTTX was built from the ground up to be as near autopilot as possible. No one is looking to quit their day jobs, mostly because we all love what we do."
—Tadd Weese #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

Acrobatic Mom Jumps Through Hoops to Become High-flying Entertainer

What It’s About

A side hustle that really takes flight!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

As you can probably imagine, starting something like this takes a lot of work, but it’s something that Emily and Brooks love. If you’re looking to start a side hustle of your own, they would recommend beginning small and just doing what you love!

Fun Fact

Emily and Brooks invested in some seriously unique equipment as the business grew. Their big showpiece is a giant chandelier, which aerialists can fly from. A classy touch for a class act!

Notes from Chris

Episode 452

Emily Tiller had always been a dancer. She trained classically, before taking up fire dancing and then aerial acrobatics as a way to keep fit. During some time in China, she began training daily and loved being up in the air.

Then in 2013, she and her husband Brooks moved to Nashville. They were looking for ways to make extra money, so Emily sought out some aerial dancing gigs. It worked well—she could fit gigs around her job at a health company, where she worked as an executive account manager. She already had some basic equipment and outfits, and soon met other performers through local circus art communities who she could bring in to different gigs. Her act was called ‘Beyond Wings Circus’—and it had lift off.

She built a free website using Webs.com, set up social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram, and reached out to venues and potential clients. By the second year, Emily was doing a gig every other weekend and bringing on an abundance of new performers.

When she had her first baby, things really started to fly. She took maternity leave from her day job at the office and doubled down on Beyond Wings while rocking her son to sleep.

Now with an army of hula hoopers, fire breathers, jugglers, aerial artists and contortionists, Emily is hitting the big time. Having taken $5,000 in their first year, Beyond Wings now brings in $60,000 a year and employs 14 performers full time.

A few weeks ago, Beyond Wings ran nine performances simultaneously across four different states. Next, they hope to take their acrobatic extravaganza outside of Tennessee and expand across the US.

They’re off to a flying start—and it looks like it’s all up from here.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Beyond Wings Circus: Learn more about Emily and Brooks’ high flying act over on their website!
  • Webs: Emily and Brooks used Webs to setup Beyond Wings Circus—learn more about it here

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
"Our growth has truly been organic. We provide over the top entertainment and great customer service, and focus on always delivering a great performance. Word of mouth along with organic social media has allowed us to be featured on local and national television."
—Emily Tiller #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

In a World of Uncertainty, Build Your Own Security

What It’s About

After being laid off, a Denver man finds security and opportunity in his side hustle.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

John’s advice to other people looking to start a similar model is to make sure you focus on the demand side primarily. It can be pretty easy to find people who are looking for work, but you have to make sure you consistently have work available in the form of clients who are needing work done.

It is indeed an unstable world out there—that’s why you need to create your own stability. John’s path from hustle to full-time income shows how even a project that earns a few hundred dollars a month may end up being your lifesaver.

Fun Fact

When John sold his first client lead, he told his girlfriend about it. She patted him on the shoulder and said, “good job, buddy.” He thought he was about to be friend-zoned, but happily for him, that didn’t happen and they’re now married.

Notes from Chris

Episode 450

John Doherty is a search engine and marketing professional who started his side hustle when he had a lead on a job that he didn’t have time for. He sent the lead to a friend and asked if he’d be willing to pay fifty dollars for it. The friend agreed, sent John the money and landed the project. John then realized that he was a connector.

After that initial success in early 2013, the idea for Credo (then called HireGun) was born. John bought a domain and put it up on a hosting account he already had. At the time, clients were coming to him for consulting jobs but he didn’t have the time to commit to them. He hoped that this platform could serve as a bridge between those clients and other experts he knew.

From the beginning, it was a win-win, although not a huge financial success. John could refer people he knew were experts, and he would get a small percentage back for the work he was doing in connecting people. He would put in around three to five hours of work a month, and that netted him anywhere from one hundred to five hundred dollars a month. Not bad for a few hours work!

Things became more interesting in September of 2015, however, when John was laid-off from his full-time job. For a lot of people, getting laid off means you have to start from scratch and figure out your next move. But John had already laid out the foundations of Credo, and was able to shift it from a side hustle he spent a few hours working on each month to a mostly full-time endeavor.

So how’s it going? When it was just a side hustle, it brought in $100-500/month… but now that he’s focused, rebranded, and devoted time to it, Credo is bringing in twenty-five thousand dollars a month in revenue. After expenses, including wages for the staff he eventually hired, that comes out to around eight thousand dollars of pure profit each month!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Credo: Learn more about John and his referral service over on his website
  • Single Geared: If you’re interested in the great outdoors, you may want to head over to John’s other 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
"If you’re not embarrassed by your first version, you launched too late. The first version of my site was absolutely embarrassing."
—John Doherty #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

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