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0:40

Hey friends, hey listeners. What's

0:46

up? Welcome

0:49

to

0:50

Side Hustle School. Thanks

0:55

for tuning in today. Whatever you're listening from, whatever

0:57

part of the world, whatever you're up to today, whether

1:00

you're out and about or I guess what's

1:02

the opposite of out and about? Whether you're just in and

1:04

settled, I suppose. Whatever you're up

1:06

to, today's episode is part of a feature we call

1:08

your first $1,000. This

1:11

is a fun one today. We're going to hear about how somebody made their

1:13

first $1,000. This guy is

1:15

actually a pretty young student and

1:18

he's making a lot more than $1,000. But

1:20

of course, we're going to look at those steps of getting started. This

1:23

guy's name is Rami. He's in the Chicago area.

1:26

He is a psychology undergrad student who's

1:28

tried a few different side hustles. So already

1:30

a serial side hustler at a young

1:32

age. I love it. And one that's taken off

1:34

is renting cars through Turo. Now,

1:37

Turo is a platform kind of like Airbnb,

1:39

but for cars. If

1:41

you've got a car, you can rent it out. And

1:43

you'll notice I said cars and

1:46

referring to Rami, this guy you're going

1:48

to hear from. He's not just renting his own

1:50

car. He actually started with that, but has

1:52

since acquired multiple vehicles and has

1:54

turned this into a whole operation. So

1:57

pretty cool. Let's hear the story. from

2:00

Rami, along with some lessons learned. I'll come

2:02

back with a quick wrap up.

2:04

Hey, by the way, glad you're out there. Thanks for tuning

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2:51

As a psychology student with a passion

2:54

for entrepreneurial ventures, I never imagined

2:56

that my side hustle would begin with an unintentionally

2:58

hilarious car rental experience. My

3:01

journey into the world of Turo and

3:03

managing

3:03

a fleet of rental cars started with a simple mix-up

3:06

that led me to earn my first thousand dollars and

3:08

eventually grow my business to a million dollars. I

3:11

was a bit of a slob,

3:12

but I was also a bit of a nerd. I was

3:14

a bit of a nerd, but I was also a bit of a nerd.

3:17

I was a bit of a nerd, but I was also a nerd. I was a nerd, and

3:20

eventually grow my income to more than 5,000 a month.

3:23

One day, I rented a car on Turo for a weekend road trip

3:25

with friends. And you know, we were pretty pumped

3:27

about this adventure. But here's the thing. When

3:29

we arrived at the car owner's house, we realized

3:32

that there were two identical cars parked

3:34

in the driveway. Like they didn't look a bit different.

3:36

And in our haste, we of course ended up taking

3:38

the wrong car. So fast forward to

3:41

a couple hours later, we got a pretty confused

3:43

call from the owner. But thankfully they had a pretty

3:45

great sense of humor. And after exchanging apologies

3:47

and a good laugh, we were able to continue our trip

3:50

without needing to swap the cars.

3:51

This amusing incident got me thinking about the potential

3:54

of Turo as a side hustle. I began researching

3:56

the platform, the car rental market, and the strategies

3:58

other successful car owners were using. using to generate income,

4:01

and with a small initial investment, I

4:03

bought a used car and then listed it on Touro.

4:06

My first $1000 came in quickly,

4:09

and only after the first couple weeks of rentals. As

4:12

my Touro side hustle began to grow, I knew that I had

4:14

to eventually implement new strategies to scale

4:16

my business and reach my goal of earning $5000 a month. So

4:19

here were the four things I did that kind

4:22

of helped me make the leap.

4:23

The first thing was to expand the fleet. So

4:26

as demand for my first car proved to be pretty

4:28

sustainable, I reinvested the

4:30

profits from that into purchasing more cars. I

4:33

carefully selected a variety of car models that

4:35

catered to different renters' needs. So for

4:37

example, we have fuel efficient compact cars for

4:39

the budget conscious travelers, and then we also

4:42

have larger vehicles for families.

4:44

After that, I targeted customer segments.

4:47

So I identified specific customer segments with

4:49

unique needs and tailored my offerings to

4:51

meet those needs. For example, I offer

4:53

discounted long term rentals for long residents

4:56

in need of temporary transportation, as

4:58

opposed to just the tourists who were visiting for a

5:00

few days.

5:01

Then I had to streamline my operations,

5:03

because as my business grew, I needed to

5:06

optimize my operational processes to save

5:08

time and then also further reduce expenses.

5:11

I negotiated for better deals with insurance providers,

5:13

then implemented a preventative maintenance schedule

5:15

to minimize vehicle downtime, and then

5:17

I outsourced a bunch of cleaning services to ensure

5:19

that my cars were always in tip-top condition.

5:22

Then comes the analyzing and adapting, which meant that I

5:24

constantly needed to monitor my business'

5:26

performance. That meant paying really close

5:29

attention to key metrics like the rental frequency,

5:31

the customer satisfaction, and revenue

5:33

growth.

5:34

I then used this data to continuously

5:37

refine my strategies and then further

5:39

maximize profits. So by combining

5:42

these tactics and constantly learning from these experiences

5:44

over time, I successfully scaled my 2-row

5:47

side hustle from earning $1,000 a month to over $5,000.

5:50

With this level of income, I now find myself at

5:52

a crossroads, contemplating whether

5:54

to continue with my psychology studies or

5:57

fully embrace my entrepreneurial passions.

5:59

Regardless of the path I choose though, my journey

6:02

with Turo has taught me the value of perseverance,

6:04

adaptability, and embracing opportunities,

6:07

even when they arise from unexpected

6:09

beginnings.

6:15

Awesome, thanks so much, Turo. I really

6:17

appreciate you sharing that story. A lot

6:19

of people have done Turo, but most of them don't scale

6:21

it like that. I think in the in the Side

6:23

Hustle book and maybe one of our very first episodes,

6:26

we told another story of someone who had done it with

6:28

I think

6:29

nine or was it 11 or 12 vehicles

6:32

in the Los Angeles area. So

6:34

it's possible for someone to replicate this

6:36

model just depending on their local market, some

6:38

other factors and such, but very cool.

6:40

Very, very cool. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed the

6:43

story. If you have a question or an update for us about

6:45

your hustle, sideuscleschool.com

6:47

slash questions. As mentioned, this is episode

6:50

2326. So our notes for today, sideuscleschool.com slash 2326.

6:52

So glad you're out there. We've got a

6:57

new episode coming out tomorrow. This

6:59

is Chris Gilavoe for Side Hustle School.

7:18

From the Onward Project.