The Side Hustle Show

Ravinder Deol was a popular guy at a recent Side Hustle Nation meetup in Seattle.

Why?

He's a Certified Bitcoin Professional and everybody wanted to learn more about the red hot cryptocurrency market. Whether you think Bitcoin is a passing fad or a fundamental shift toward a global borderless currency, it was becoming (for me at least) a trend too big to ignore.

Ravinder has fully immersed himself in the alternative currency world, teaching more than 40,000 students across 20 different courses on Udemy about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.

I figured if anyone could help school me on it, it would be him, so I invited him on the show.

Note: Click here to download Ravinder’s top cryptocurrency and block chain tips from this episode.

In this episode, Ravinder explains what Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are, how they work, and how to safely invest (cough, cough, speculate) in them.

He shares a few side hustle opportunities he sees in this "digital gold" economy and why these fringe currencies just might be the future of money.

You can find out more about Ravinder at b21block.com, where you can also find links to all his courses and his B21 Block Podcast: Cryptocurrency and Blockchain School.

The holy grail of side hustle business models is software, right? Built it once and sell it over and over again for almost zero incremental cost!

Having built the online graphic design tool Snappa to $33k in monthly recurring revenue in 2 years, Christopher Gimmer rounds out our "recurring revenue" theme for the month.

The software as a service aims to help bloggers and content creators make perfectly sized social media graphics or blog images easily and professionally. “Create online graphics in a snap,” the tagline says.

The cool do-it-yourself tool is sold on a freemium or monthly/annual subscription model.

“I just wanted to know whether people were having the same issues I was having,” Christopher said, talking about the hassle he experienced creating quick and professional looking social media and blog graphics.

This is the fourth episode in this series of recurring revenue shows. If you’ve missed any of the previous episodes, be sure to check out:

In this episode, Christopher shares how he validated his idea, successfully launched his new tool just months later and generated $2-3k in the first week, and grew the business to where it is today.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: SaaS Case Study: How Snappa Bootstrapped Their Way from Idea to $33k MRR in 2 Years

Three years ago Design Pickle didn't exist. It wasn't even an idea in founder Russ Perry's head yet.

That's why it seems crazy to me that today the unlimited graphic design service is doing $400k in monthly recurring revenue!

Back in 2014 Russ was running a creative agency, but he started to hate everything about it. “I felt like I was in a prison of my own creation,” he said.

By January 2015, he'd shut down his agency and started working as a freelancer. Not wanting to build a similar prison again, he sought out a different business model -- one with a simpler service offering that was designed to scale.

From taking on a friend as his first client to now completing more than 800 design jobs a day, it’s been an incredibly quick ascension and a great example of how to scale a service business.

Tune in to hear how Russ grew his business from zero to $410k+ in monthly recurring revenue in less than 3 years.

We cover his marketing strategies, his hiring best practices, and what Design Pickle does to keep customers coming back month after month.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Scaling Up a Service Business: From Idea to $400k in Monthly Recurring Revenue (in Under 3 Years)

Zeona McIntyre is earning $12-18k a month through her portfolio of vacation rental properties and her "co-hosting" service for other property owners.

All this has afforded Zeona financial independence at a very young age, as she built her operation largely by piggybacking on the growing popularity of Airbnb (get $40 off your first trip!).

She first became aware of Airbnb and the potential to earn some extra revenue back in 2011. She was in massage school at the time, but a friend of hers in New York subletted his apartment on Airbnb to the tune of $50k for the year -- all while traveling full-time.

“I couldn’t ignore it from then; I started right away,” Zeona said.

She started by subletting a room in her apartment, then her whole apartment, and now owns five rental properties and manages or "co-hosts" another 15-20 properties on the behalf of her clients.

With a small team, some smart decisions, and some online tools, Zeona now manages her business from her home in Boulder, Colorado relatively hands-off.

This is the second episode in our recurring revenue series this month. If you missed last week, be sure to check out how a full-time cop built a subscription box service to $15k a month.

This week, tune in to hear how Zeona chooses vacation rental properties, how she calculates the potential ROI, and how you can get started in this location independent side hustle today with just a spare room in your home.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: How To Shortcut Your Financial Freedom with Short-Term Rentals

From the spare bedroom to $15k in monthly recurring revenue, Sam Gonzalez has grown the subscription style service UrbaneBox.com (affiliate link) all on the side from his day job as a police officer.

He noticed his wardrobe was getting pretty outdated and with family and work life, he didn’t have any time (or desire, really) to go shopping. So he decided to do something about it and create an online subscription box business with a cool value proposition: $120 worth of designer clothes for $60.

In this episode Sam talks through the steps he took from building his website, pitching suppliers, experimenting with different pricing models, and outsourcing the order fulfillment.

He’s used a combination of AdWords, social media promotion, collaborating with other bloggers and YouTube influencers, and an interesting Facebook “hack” to rapidly grow his business.

Tune in to hear how Sam went from idea to 6-figures in 3 years, from packing and shipping his first order from his spare bedroom to a business that now does $15k in monthly recurring revenue.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: How to Start a Subscription Box Service: From Spare Bedroom to $15k in Monthly Recurring Revenue

It’s time to dive into the ol' listener mailbag and answer a few questions in this week’s edition of The Side Hustle Show.

It’s been 6 months since the last Q&A show I did (where does the time go??) and I’ve had quite a few interesting questions come in since then. I picked 20 to talk through in today’s show.

Like this format? This is the 4th installment of "20 Questions" so feel free to go back and binge on the older ones too:

A common piece of advice you’ll hear is to take audience questions and turn them into content, so here’s a meta example of that in action.

This episode covers questions on affiliate marketing, audience building, network marketing, imposter syndrome, my income streams today, and my side hustle mistakes.

Tune in to hear my responses to those questions and a dozen more below.

Full Show Notes: Network Marketing, Imposter Syndrome, My Side Hustle Mistakes, and More: 20 Questions with Nick

Chris Green is one of the foremost advocates for the side hustle lifestyle. He has 10+ years’ experience as an Amazon seller, author, software provider to others involved in the Amazon ecosystem, and most recently as a t-shirt designer selling shirts on the Merch by Amazon platform.

Chris calls Merch by Amazon “the best side hustle out there right now.” With no upfront capital, no shipping or returns, no customer service, and no risk, it’s certainly one of the easiest side hustles to get started with.

If you’re just getting started with Merch, Elaine Heney (who made $50k selling shirts last year) shared how to sign up and get your first t-shirts for sale on the Merch platform back on episode 216.

Chris picks up where Elaine left off and goes into detail sharing some of his best tips for optimizing your listing, where he finds ideas for t-shirt designs and a few of the methods he uses to market his shirts.

Tune in to hear some the unique and interesting ways Chris comes up with t-shirt designs ideas, as well as how he markets them through paid ads and organic outreach.

You can find out more at merch.life, and pick up a free copy of Chris’ book Merch Resources (just pay shipping).

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Merch by Amazon Marketing: How to Drive Traffic and Sales to Your T-Shirt Designs

Sarah Miller is still in college (and plays soccer for her school) but that hasn't stopped her from starting a pretty cool side hustle: painting custom pet portraits.

She's done 300 paintings so far!

But the business isn't without its challenges. She'd like to raise her rates, expand her marketing efforts to land new clients, and figure out how to make her work less of a time-for-money tradeoff.

To help me brainstorm some ideas for Sarah, I invited Don the Idea Guy back on the program to join us on a call.

As you might remember, Don is a creative genius and in this episode he definitely doesn't disappoint. Together we walk through a dozen different ways Sarah could take her operation to the next level and open up new income streams.

Even if your business has nothing to do with painting wiener dogs, I think this conversation will get your gears turning because the broader strategies can apply to lots of different business models.

Among the suggestions:

I think you'll like it!

Full Show Notes: Side Hustle Coaching: I've Got Some Traction, Now What?

Here's an example of Sarah's work:

John Cavendish of FBA Frontiers started his Amazon FBA business three years ago and has become an advocate for the e-commerce and FBA scene in Europe.

If you already have experience with Amazon FBA in the US, expanding into Europe is easier than you’re probably thinking and opens up a much wider customer base.

John says that Europe is about five years behind the US in terms of growth so it’s on that steep rise, and with “double the customers and half the competition,” it was a side hustle opportunity I was intrigued to learn more about.

You don’t need to be based in the UK, have a UK-based business, or be fluent in any other languages either.

In this episode, John talks through the few simple steps it takes to get started selling on the European Amazon marketplaces.

He outlines his product research process, how the EU bestselling ranks differ to the US, his supplier best practices, the tool he made to calculate profitability, and more.

Tune in to hear how John has gone from a $5000 investment just three years ago to a selling hundreds of products daily across the UK, German, French, Spanish, and Italian Amazon marketplaces.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Amazon FBA Europe: The Next E-Commerce Frontier

Over the last decade, Cathy Heller has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from her music and helping other musicians license their songs.

In fact, you've probably heard some of her music without realizing it. Songs of hers have been featured in ads for huge brands, like McDonald’s, Walmart, Kellogg’s, as well as many popular TV shows.

Today, the mother of 3 balances family, her art, her agency, her online course, and her new Don't Keep Your Day Job podcast, where she interviews other entrepreneurs, artists, and influencers.

Cathy's story is an inspiring one, and it follows a familiar trajectory: freelancer to agency to product.

When she moved to LA to be a rockstar, she didn't know where it would lead. That didn't pan out, but she landed at something perhaps even more fulfilling. She called it reverse engineering her dream job, and thinks other people can do the same.

Tune in to hear how Cathy walked The Hustler's Path from freelancer to agency to product, and how you can apply her ideas and tactics to find your dream job.

Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: Reverse Engineer your Dream Job: How a Struggling Songwriter Built a Multiple 6-Figure Business Doing What She Loves