Service Businesses

Many freelancers in Side Hustle Nation eventually grow their business into an agency that no longer ties their time to their income. What that looks like in practice is often bringing in other team members to deliver the work.

The business ideas and case studies featured in these archives are generally a little “bigger” than a traditional freelance business, even if the actual work offered is the same.

What separates a service business from a freelance business is a matter of scale. No longer are your hours directly tied to your income, and you may not even be directly responsible for doing the work; that’s what your team is for.

 

139: Building Multiple Income Streams with For-Profit Hobbies

I’m excited to introduce you to John Rouda, an IT manager near Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s built a variety of non-job income streams on the side, while still working full time.

In fact, we recorded this session from his office at work!

John calls his side businesses for-profit hobbies, which I think is a great attitude to take. He has a handful of books on Amazon, dozens of apps in the app store, is a part-time professor, and runs a local IT/computer maintenance service business.

134: Growing a Blog to 70,000 Visits a Month in One Year (and More Importantly, Turning it into a Business)

Tyler Zey turned his web development side hustle into a full-time business, but not without a few twists and turns along the way. Tyler’s actually a classically trained musician (clarinet), but now runs EasyAgentPro, one of the leading marketing services for real estate agents — despite having no background in real estate.

What he lacked in real estate knowledge he made up for with hustle.

132: 7 Days to a Profitable Business

A viable startup business in 7 days … sound to good to be true?

Dan Norris is the co-founder of WP Curve, a service that offers unlimited 24/7 WordPress support for small jobs for $79 per month. He went from idea to paying customers in less than 7 days.

Based on his experience, Dan penned the bestselling book The 7 Day Startup, and stopped by The Side Hustle Show to share some of his insights.

92: Building a Location Independent Business of Freedom and Travel — Even With a Family

Here’s a guy who built an online business, and had the courage to up and move to Cozumel, Mexico — with his wife and 3 young daughters.

It’s not your typical single-23-year-old-dude digital nomad type of story, though Sean’s business itself is simple enough to be replicated.

This is a fun chat about hustling for business and building a lifestyle on your own terms. I think you’re going to like it, even if you have no desire to move abroad.

67: The Hustler’s Path: From Freelance to Agency to Product

It’s been quite a while since our last discussion of a software business here on the show. Even though we touched briefly on Long Tail Pro with Spencer Haws, I really have to go all the way back to Josh Isaak in episode 12 to find an in-depth breakdown of a Software as a service business.
So that means today’s conversation with Garrett Moon from CoSchedule is long overdue! After all, the low incremental cost and recurring revenue potential of the SaaS model is such a trendy holy grail of business right now.

42: Niche Down and Dominate

In Episode 42 of The Side Hustle Show, Alex Harris (aka AlexDesigns) joins me to talk niche service businesses.

He shares how he built his business, AlexDesigns.com, in his spare time, how he landed his first customers, how he scores big name clients, how he prices his services, and how he’s recovering from a Google algorithm update.

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social

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