The Side Hustle Show

Kimberly Gauthier has been running KeepTheTailWagging.com since 2011, but things really started to take off when she niched down her focus to raw feeding for dogs.Raw feeding is basically the paleo diet for dogs -- attempting to mimic their ancestral diet.Her blog had than 2 million page views last year -- almost entirely from organic search in Google, and she’s monetized the traffic with a few different income streams.Tune in to hear how Kimberly arrived at his niche, what drives content and marketing today, and how the business makes money -- all on the side from her day job.Full Show Notes: The Raw Truth About Blogging - How a "Dog Mom" Built her Online Business on the Side

WTF man!?Are you willing to fail!Let that be your new mantra.That's the rule Brian Scudamore -- the founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK -- lives by.What started with a $1000 investment (Brian's life's savings at the time) has turned into a home services empire that does $1 million in sales on any given day.Brian's come a long way since that beat-up pickup truck going door-to-door that first summer.His portfolio now includes house painting, moving services, and home detailing--all under the umbrella of Ordinary 2 Exceptional Brands. He’s formulated some unique and effective ways to build teams of passionate employees that share his goals and has leveraged the franchise model to grow his businesses and revenue from $0 to $444 million and beyond.Tune in to hear how Brian started the junk hauling business as a soon-to-be college student, his thoughts on marketing and hiring, and how you can apply nearly 30 years of his own successes and failures to your business.Full Show Notes: The Junk Hauling Business: From $0 to $300 Million and Beyond

A few years ago, a side hustler named Brock McGoff reached out to me with a guest post pitch.The post detailed how he was making, at that time, $4,000 a month, from his blog about men’s fashion, on the side from his day job.Since then, Brock has turned TheModestMan.com into his full-time focus, into a 6-figure income, and into a media empire that expands well beyond the blog itself.In this episode, Brock talks me through how he generates content ideas, how the business makes money, where he’s focusing his energy for the best results, and how he’s taken his site from a side hustle to a full-time business.Don't have a website of your own yet? Check out my free video series on how to get up and running in no time.Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: A Look Inside a 6-Figure Online Business: Traffic, Monetization, and More

Roberto Chavez started his raw land flipping side hustle a little over a year ago, and with persistence, has already built it into 5-figure of monthly revenue.This is a business model that was first introduced to me by Mark Podolsky, from TheLandGeek.com, in episode 108 of The Side Hustle Show.He called it "the best passive income model" because it avoids "the 3 T’s" of traditional real estate investing: tenants, toilets, and termites.How the model works is you: acquire parcels of land on the cheap because the owners don’t want them anymore re-sell them either for a quick cash flip, or more commonly, as an owner-financed sale. This is where the passive income comes in as you collect monthly payments for a period of 3-7 years, or whatever terms you agree on.For example, buy a $10,000 parcel upfront for $2,500, and resell it for $199 a month for 5 years. In that scenario, your total payments collected would be almost $12,000, and you'd breakeven on your initial investment after about a year.Where the persistence comes in, is the initial seller outreach. It’s very much a numbers game, as you’ll hear Roberto explain. I think that’s what separates those who have success in it from, those who don’t.Tune in to learn how Roberto finds parcels to buy for 25 cents on the dollar, how he figures out how much to offer, the due diligence that goes into these deals, and how he re-sells them for profit.Full Show Notes: Land Flipping Revisited: From Zero to $10,000 a Month on the SideNote: Roberto is actually a student of Mark's. When I told Mark we were recording this episode, he offered his Land Investing Launch Kit (normally $97) free for Side Hustle Show listeners. I'm also an affiliate for his paid program; use code "sidehustle" for $500 off.

"Growth isn't the byproduct of success," Paul Jarvis told me. "Or at least it shouldn't be. The byproduct of success should be freedom."Paul is a talented writer and designer who’s made a living--and a name for himself--by often taking the counterpoint to the conventional wisdom, especially when it comes to entrepreneurship and business growth.His latest book, Company of One, caught my attention. It’s about why building a better business doesn’t necessarily mean building a bigger business.In this episode Paul talks me through: The decision-making frameworks he uses in his business and how you can apply them to yours How he’s intentionally set up his own operation to maximize time leverage and freedom How he’s built a list of 33k+ email subscribers over the 8 years and how this list drives his business today Full Show Notes: Get Better, Not Bigger: On Growth, Freedom, Online Marketing, and "Enough"

As we’ve mentioned, “scaling” a service business can be one of the biggest challenges with this business model. In fact, it’s a sticking point that keeps a lot of people away from freelancing altogether.But if your goal is to get big or even to just avoid trading time for money your whole life, there are lots of ways to scale a service business.If you'd like to learn more about starting a service business and connecting with your first clients, check out this in-depth interview with Abbey Ashley (Episode 328).Abbey's claim to fame is she booked enough virtual assistant work during her maternity leave that she didn't have to back to that job she hated when her leave was up!Abbey also put together this killer free training on how to launch and grow your freelance business.In the meantime, here are the 7 Ways to Scale a Service Business from this episode: Raise your rates Go From one-to-one to one-to-many Hire subcontractors Create productized packages Play Matchmaker Look for affiliate opportunities Create a product Enjoy!

Starting a service business on the side is one of the fastest ways to build extra income. It's flexible, low-overhead, and you can probably start with skills you already have.“I had a lot of drive underneath me," Abbey Ashley told me, about starting her service business back in 2013. "I was super pregnant and I hated my job so much,”Abbey started offering her services as a virtual assistant, and connected with her first clients at local networking events in Washington, DC. My the time her maternity leave was up--just a few short months--Abbey had booked enough work to not have to go back to that job she hated.On top of that, she only had to work 20 hours a week to do it, and could work from home.There are almost no barriers to entry to starting a freelance service business, and the startup costs are minimal. (All Abbey did was make business cards for networking.)In fact, it was a service business, a house painting business in my case, that was one of my first entrepreneurial adventures.Over time, Abbey scaled her virtual assistant business from just herself at $20-30 an hour, to her own little virtual agency, to $75 an hour and up for some specialized work. Before long, the questions started coming in: How can I do what you do? How can I work from home and set my own hours? How can I do work I enjoy? In response, she built up a complete training program for would-be virtual assistants. She's helped thousands of people start their own service businesses and has built a thriving free community of virtual assistants. If you want to dive in deeper, check out her free training called Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant. (That's an affiliate link; if you buy her full program, I'll receive a commission.)Full Show Notes: How to Start a Service Business to Replace Your Income, Step-by-Step

Todd Tresidder took his own personal net worth from less than zero at 23, to self-made millionaire and retired at 35.When it comes to building wealth, he's the smartest guy in the room.His latest book is The Leverage Equation: How to Work Less, Make More, and Cut 30 Years Off Your Retirement Plan.We met through the FinCon community several years ago and I've learned a ton from our conversations. Todd has a unique perspective on business and investing, and our conversations over the years always get me thinking a little differently. He blogs at FinancialMentor.com.Tune in to hear Todd talk me through his 6 types of leverage and how you can apply those as needed in your business: Financial Leverage Time Leverage Technology and Systems Leverage Communications and Marketing Leverage Network and Relationship Leverage Knowledge and Experience Leverage Enjoy!Full Show Notes: How to Get Unstuck: 6 Levers to Pull to Level Up Your Business

Jessica Larrew and her husband Cliff have been reselling on Amazon for years. And though it started as a part-time side hustle, it turned into a serious business--they've sold more than $1 million worth of stuff on Amazon!What's surprising – and I think exciting – is that they’ve done this is by finding profitable products to resell primarily in nearby retail stores.How Reselling on Amazon WorksJessica takes advantage of Amazon’s FBA program, or Fulfillment by Amazon. This is Amazon's way of crowdsourcing its inventory, and letting regular people like us tap into its world-class logistics network.That means this Selling Family doesn't have to ship anything to the end customer, handle returns, or write up product descriptions.How the business works is like any other retail business: you profit on the spread between the cost of your product and what it sells for. Now you have to account for Amazon's fees and shipping costs, but it's basically buy low, sell high.And the best part of this side hustle is that you can get started today with whatever initial inventory investment you're comfortable with.Full Show Notes: Reselling on Amazon with a $1 Million Seller: Let’s Go Pick Up Profit!

Marc Andre made over $1.1 million dollars from his photography hobby.But what’s interesting is that he never: got paid to take pictures sold any of his photos held any photography workshops So, what did he do instead?He built and subsequently sold 3 websites related to photography – that sold digital products to other photographers.His journey started in 2012. Marc wanted to upgrade from a point-and-shoot camera to a nice DSLR and some lenses but couldn’t justify the $5k price tag for the equipment.Instead of settling for something else, Marc set himself a challenge to see if he could raise the $5k starting a photography-related side hustle.Things escalated quickly, from starting a site to creating digital products, he made that $5k in a few months.Marc carried on scaling his business, creating more products, starting two more photography-related sites, and over the next 6 years pulled in more than a million dollars in revenue.Tune in to hear Marc’s unique process for starting and growing sites, why he decided to create products before having an audience to sell to, how he used sites that already had traffic to drive sales, and how he scaled up his business to more than a million dollars in revenue in such a short space of time.Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: The Million Dollar Hobby: How to Monetize What You’re Already Interested In