Samza Round-Up - 9/8/2022

This Week's Round-Up

I hope everyone had an awesome Labor Day. The weekend was one of the best in recent memory; a perfect balance of family and relaxation. And now football starts tonight; can there possibly be a better week on Earth?

I made $100k in three months thanks to my side hustle – and someone else does all the work for me

The beauty of the modern world is the access to digital platforms and assets. Etsy is one of those sites where people can use "print-on-demand" businesses, where you partner with Etsy/another provider that prints your art, books, or other item, and ships it directly to the buyer, without you as the seller ever touching inventory. This side hustle can be incredibly lucrative, especially if you pair it with keyword research and market research,.

Where People Are Cutting Back To Afford Rent

An interesting sneak-peak into the current market, where a lot of people are having to cut back on their spending in order to make rent. The majority of these budge cuts come in discretionary spending (coffee, takeout, subscription services), with an almost equal portion of people turning to a second job or side hustle to cover the extra costs.

An interesting side-point: most metropolitan areas are showing drastically higher rates of evictions this year. In Minneapolis, a 73% average increase in eviction rates have been observed (link). This further illustrates the urgency some people are facing with regard to rent rates. If your rent hasn't gone up drastically this past year, thank the Lord above.

Best Budgeting Apps Of September 2022

If you don't use a budget template or app, you should. How are you going to know how to improve your financial position if you don't know your financial position? Most of the apps in this list also have capacity to automatically link to all your bank accounts and import your transactions for easy classification.

I also put together a simple budget template for my subscribers. You can check it out and download the file here.

What to do when your dream job becomes a nightmare

I found this story to be somewhat relatable. The article follows Toni, an eager new hire who just stepped into a role she was thrilled about, through her story at the company until she realized the only way forward was out.

I relate to feeling like this with my current position. I know I won't be happy in my role forever. This is absolutely not everyone's story but the article does a good job of outlining an interesting case study showing how to handle a situation like this.

A quote from the article: “Careers are only one side of who you are and are not meant to define your whole essence. If we keep thinking that, we often get rabbit holed and forced to meet standards that we might have based on what other people say is success for us.”

Idea of the Week - Tutoring

A lot of people might feel a strong sense of imposter syndrome when they think about teaching anyone else anything. But the truth is: everyone has something that they know significantly more about than the general public (English, SQL, email marketing, ACT, etc.). Armed with this knowledge and just a little bit of confidence, anyone can find a niche market and start tutoring others on how to master those same skills/knowledge.

The article below outlines an interesting case study of someone who saw a problem (students not being prepared for the ACT) and began designing a system to help solve this for people. Matt recognized that parents are very willing to pony up $75-125 for one session of ACT prep, recognizing that the payoff of a high ACT score is upwards of thousands of dollars in scholarships. He also knew the test was a year-round occurrence, which provided consistency even though he was only offering tutoring for one specific test.

Matt now pulls in an easy $3-4K a month with tutoring. I found this to be a fascinating idea, especially since there are so many different ways to adapt this business idea. Interested in learning more about Matt's story? Check out the link below.

Podcast of the Week - Joe Rogan Experience feat. Aaron Rodgers

Since football starts this evening, it's only fair to give this a shoutout. The conversation on this specific episode is wide-ranging, varying from social policy to psychedelics. If you want an intellectually stimulating conversation for a car ride or slow day at the office, this is a great episode to listen to.

This week's content is sponsored by Kickflips. Kickflips is your one-stop-shop for all things reselling; get access to hot leads, flipping guides, drop dates/times for sneakers, consoles, tickets, etc., and much more. All this for just $30 a month. I made my subscription cost back in profit within 5 minutes of joining the channel, and you can too. Check out Kickflips here.

Thanks for reading! If you loved it, forward this email to your friends. And follow me on Twitter!