AI transcript
0:00:06 A food tour side hustle turned into a $300,000 a year business.
0:00:08 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here.
0:00:09 Welcome to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:12 It’s the business podcast you can actually apply,
0:00:14 and I hope you’re hungry because we got a juicy one today.
0:00:17 My guests started a little weekend side hustle a few years ago,
0:00:21 giving local food tours in Mobile, Alabama,
0:00:25 and he’s since quit that old steel mill day job and built it into
0:00:27 a very comfortable full-time income from
0:00:30 inbillbitesfoodtour.com Chris Andrews.
0:00:32 Welcome to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:33 Hey Nick, how are you?
0:00:35 I’m doing well and excited for this one.
0:00:38 Stick around, we’re going to learn how Chris got this thing off the ground,
0:00:41 how he’s removed himself from some of the day-to-day operations,
0:00:43 and how you might start something similar in your town.
0:00:45 But Chris, take me back to 2017,
0:00:48 the early days, the inspiration to start this thing.
0:00:49 How come it needed to exist?
0:00:52 A friend of mine did a food tour in Savannah, Georgia.
0:00:54 I had never heard of a food tour before,
0:00:58 and when she came back home and was telling us about
0:01:00 her experience of going to different restaurants,
0:01:03 and she did a tour of the city of Savannah,
0:01:06 and they went to different landmarks in the city,
0:01:08 and the tour guide was talking about the landmarks.
0:01:10 That was all really, really interesting to me.
0:01:14 I’ve been a history buff ever since I was a kid, especially local history,
0:01:18 and I thought that’s absolutely what we need in Mobile, Alabama.
0:01:21 We’ve got 300 plus years of history in Mobile.
0:01:22 It’s one of the oldest cities in the United States.
0:01:25 And fantastic food.
0:01:29 There’s a great food scene that’s in downtown Mobile.
0:01:32 And so, I think just kind of capitalizing on that,
0:01:36 and that’s kind of how the food tour got started in Mobile.
0:01:38 Was anybody else doing it?
0:01:39 Like, it’s not a new concept.
0:01:41 No, nobody in Mobile was doing it.
0:01:44 At the time, I think mainly you would find food tours
0:01:47 in large cities around the country, in tourist places.
0:01:50 Of course, New York has probably got seven or eight of them.
0:01:53 New Orleans, which is about two hours from where I am.
0:01:57 They probably, again, have five or six food tour operators.
0:01:58 But no, nobody was doing this in Mobile.
0:02:00 And so, that was another big thing for me.
0:02:02 It kept me up at night thinking about it.
0:02:05 I was like, “Man, somebody’s going to do this eventually.”
0:02:06 OK.
0:02:09 And I’m not going to be able to live with myself if that person’s not me.
0:02:09 All right.
0:02:13 So, a little bit of a blue ocean here where the concept had been proven out.
0:02:15 It exists in other cities, but it doesn’t exist here yet.
0:02:17 So, hey, why not me?
0:02:18 Why don’t I go ahead and do this?
0:02:22 And we took a food tour in New Orleans last summer, and it was a blast.
0:02:26 Like, there’s a great group outing aside from just sitting in one spot.
0:02:29 And you get to mingle during the walks and learn a little bit of the history.
0:02:31 And it’s a fun time, so it makes a lot of sense.
0:02:35 And the interesting thing to me is Mobile doesn’t necessarily
0:02:37 strike me as a huge tourist destination,
0:02:40 but I guess you get some Gulf Coast visitors in seasonal traffic
0:02:41 and maybe spring breakers and stuff.
0:02:45 But it’s not a New York or an LA or Chicago or something like that.
0:02:45 That’s right.
0:02:47 Most people do not, yes, be honest,
0:02:51 they’re not planning their trip to Mobile like you would say New Orleans.
0:02:55 But what we have kind of got a little bit of a Gulf Coast niche.
0:02:58 You know, we do find a lot of people that take Gulf Coast trips.
0:03:03 And so they’re doing New Orleans, Coastal Mississippi, Coastal Alabama,
0:03:04 the Panhandle of Florida.
0:03:07 You know, a lot of people are doing that Gulf Coast trip.
0:03:07 Yeah.
0:03:11 And that’s worked out really well for Mobile and for our tour, especially.
0:03:15 We’ve had people from all 50 states, maybe 20 countries or so.
0:03:17 You know, it is really incredible when you kind of step back and look
0:03:19 that these are people that are coming to Mobile.
0:03:20 And yeah, it’s a hidden gem.
0:03:21 I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.
0:03:25 I would certainly compare Mobile’s food scene with some of the larger cities
0:03:30 that we compete with, like maybe Chattanooga or Asheville, North Carolina,
0:03:32 Savannah, Georgia, it’s a good food scene.
0:03:33 Yeah, very good.
0:03:34 Pump it up.
0:03:37 You’re going to have to check me on this because I’m betting by the end of the call,
0:03:39 I’m going to pick up a little bit of your draw.
0:03:44 When I used to live in Atlanta, I come home to Seattle for Christmas or Thanksgiving
0:03:46 and people be like, who are you?
0:03:49 Where did you, why do you have the southern accent all of a sudden?
0:03:52 I was like, hey, I’m talking to southerners all day long, all day every day.
0:03:56 It just starts to rub off, it just starts to flow.
0:03:58 So we’ll see at the end of the hour where I’m out with that.
0:04:00 It just happens, y’all just comes out.
0:04:01 All right.
0:04:03 So the idea is straight, hey, this needs to exist.
0:04:05 There’s nobody else doing it here.
0:04:07 What’s the first step in getting it off the ground?
0:04:10 The first step of getting it off the ground, I think, you know, of course,
0:04:13 for any side hustle is the fact that you’ve got to, I’m going to do this, right?
0:04:16 And not be denied that you’re going to do this.
0:04:16 Yeah.
0:04:20 But for, I think specifically for a food tour, it’s pretty simple because as
0:04:24 long as you’ve got a good website that functions well and a good booking
0:04:29 platform for your customers to book your tour on, that’s the hardest part.
0:04:31 And of course, you’ve got to make relationships with restaurants.
0:04:33 All that is very crucial.
0:04:37 You’ve got to be a very good communicator, communicating with these restaurants.
0:04:40 And restaurant owners do not like change, you know.
0:04:44 So if you’re going to tell a restaurant that we’re going to bring 12 or 14
0:04:47 people into your restaurant, they’re going to freak out.
0:04:50 So that’s where that communication is very crucial.
0:04:51 And for food tours, it does.
0:04:53 I mean, that seems like a good thing.
0:04:54 It seems like a win for the restaurant.
0:04:57 Like, hey, you know, this is hopefully incremental traffic,
0:04:58 incremental business for you.
0:04:58 That’s right.
0:05:00 But I guess they go to the worst case scenario.
0:05:03 Restaurant people are going to be glass half empty kind of people most for
0:05:04 the most part.
0:05:04 Yeah.
0:05:07 So they’re going to freak out a little bit, but that communication is where
0:05:09 you’re going to say, you know, no, we’re going to, we’re going to come to your
0:05:12 restaurant in the middle of the afternoon when you’re not as busy.
0:05:15 And we’re going to be there for 20 minutes.
0:05:18 You’re going to know ahead of time how many people are going to be there.
0:05:21 You know, we’re going to have a dish prepared ahead of time.
0:05:24 You’re going to know the kitchen is going to be very well prepared.
0:05:27 You’re going to know if we have any food allergies or any aversions.
0:05:27 OK.
0:05:29 And they’re going to execute it.
0:05:32 And we’re going to come in and what’s going to end up happening is if they
0:05:34 have a great experience, they’re going to go back.
0:05:37 I want to get back to the restaurants in a second, but any tools or software or
0:05:39 tech on that website, booking side.
0:05:43 Hey, we got to make it easy for people to book with us for our tour.
0:05:45 I use a platform called Fair Harbor.
0:05:49 It’s a very common booking platform in the tour industry and in the food
0:05:52 tour industry, they handle your ticketing, they handle your payments.
0:05:54 All that’s going to be in there.
0:05:57 They take a small percentage, but usually about 2.5 percent, something
0:05:59 like that is what they’re going to take.
0:06:03 And they also take a little bit of fees when the customer books.
0:06:04 OK, sure.
0:06:06 As far as payment processing and stuff like that.
0:06:07 Yeah. Got it.
0:06:10 So now we have a little bit of a chicken versus the egg problem where we put
0:06:11 the website up.
0:06:14 We now have a system that will allow customers to book with us.
0:06:18 But now we have to go to the restaurants first and kind of make these
0:06:22 asks or promises like, hey, I can bring you 10, 15 incremental people.
0:06:23 It’s going to be in off hours.
0:06:24 All going to be fine.
0:06:26 But at the same time, you don’t have those 10 or 15 people yet.
0:06:29 And to be able to do it consistently, like, what was that part of the equation?
0:06:33 That’s the scariest part about it, I think, you know, for sure that you have.
0:06:36 You’re making those promises, but at the end of the day, yeah, you don’t know
0:06:38 if those people are going to show up.
0:06:43 So I think simple actions for me would be just getting involved in the community.
0:06:46 You know, I think that would be the simple thing to do is to, you know,
0:06:49 go network and tell people about your idea.
0:06:50 Yeah, they’re going to look at you like you’re crazy.
0:06:53 If you’re in a smaller market, they’re, you know, if there’s no other food tour
0:06:57 in your town, they’re going to think, you know, that you’re crazy, but that’s OK.
0:07:03 And I think, you know, just a blast in social media and for the food tour industry.
0:07:04 We’re fine, man.
0:07:07 You know, we’ve got we’ve got food and restaurants.
0:07:11 And we’ve got stories to tell about our city that we’re passionate about.
0:07:17 That’s a good recipe in my mind for travelers and tourism.
0:07:18 Yeah, for sure.
0:07:20 And you can see that in the reputation that you’ve built in terms
0:07:25 of the online reviews and the testimonials that you have from happy customers.
0:07:27 Because, you know, it’s a fun thing to do.
0:07:30 And that’s kind of how we look at travel in a lot of ways.
0:07:32 Is what are we going to do in between the next meal?
0:07:36 Like, what’s the next excuse to go explore a new part of town, a new restaurant?
0:07:39 So it definitely checks everybody when they’re traveling there,
0:07:42 looking for the local spots, the local restaurants.
0:07:46 That’s what I love about a food tour as well, is it gives you an opportunity for our tour.
0:07:49 You get to go to five restaurants in a three hour span.
0:07:52 Yeah, that you may not otherwise get to go to while you’re, you know,
0:07:56 if you’re only in Mobile for 36 hours or sometimes less than that,
0:08:01 you know, you take a food tour and you get a chance to really dive into the into the cuisine.
0:08:06 And most food tours like ours, they’re partnering with the best restaurants.
0:08:11 Yeah, tell me about the first restaurant or two to say yes to you.
0:08:13 They were open to this concept.
0:08:20 I was scared to death and walked into a restaurant, had a meal and enjoyed it.
0:08:23 I knew the owner was working behind the.
0:08:26 It was kind of an open kitchen and you could see her working back there.
0:08:28 And I did go kind of a little tip.
0:08:32 I’ll say I went during a non peak time.
0:08:36 So let’s say like a Tuesday at one 45 or two o’clock, you know.
0:08:39 So when the restaurant is not that busy.
0:08:44 And so I asked to speak to the owner and I knew that she was very community minded.
0:08:47 Like, you know, she had what was good for the community in mind.
0:08:49 And so I thought that she was going to say yes.
0:08:53 That was so I was like, OK, this is going to be my easy win to approach her.
0:08:54 And so I did.
0:08:58 I asked to speak to her after our meal was finished.
0:09:01 And she came over and I told her about the idea and she was, I love it.
0:09:03 Yes, we’ll absolutely be a part of it.
0:09:05 So that that was my first win.
0:09:06 And that gives you it’s good.
0:09:08 It gives you that confidence to go to the next restaurant
0:09:10 and tell them the idea that you have.
0:09:14 And yeah, now you can name drop, you know, the name of restaurant number one.
0:09:17 Be like, hey, they’re already on board. Exactly. That was huge.
0:09:18 That’s a huge. That’s a good point.
0:09:22 So get those quick, easy wins and yeah, and go to the next restaurant.
0:09:24 So yeah, yeah, we’ve already got we’ve got, you know,
0:09:27 this popular restaurant down the street, this popular candy shop.
0:09:29 That helps your credibility.
0:09:30 OK, yeah.
0:09:33 And there’s some level of understanding that, hey, this is a startup.
0:09:37 If there are any bookings or nobody shows up for a few weeks, totally understand.
0:09:39 Right. It’s all it’s billed is all incremental for them.
0:09:43 Like, hey, you know, this is extra extra business, hopefully.
0:09:44 That’s right.
0:09:45 You know, that’s how we worked out.
0:09:47 Our pricing structure is on a per person basis.
0:09:51 And so if we have four people come, we’re going to pay the price
0:09:53 that we negotiate based off those four people.
0:09:57 Or if we have 14 people, you know, we’re going to pay based off the price
0:10:01 of 14 people. And so I think that’s a that’s a very viable business model
0:10:04 to for food tours. OK, got it, got it.
0:10:06 And I was going to ask about that revenue share.
0:10:10 So if you charge one of the sites had like $100 per per tour,
0:10:13 per booking for this three hour, five restaurant tour, you know,
0:10:15 how much of that goes to the restaurant other than that?
0:10:17 It’s just your your time walking around and telling stories.
0:10:18 Yeah, that’s right.
0:10:23 And I try to keep our food costs, try to keep it in that 40 percent range.
0:10:28 You know, where 40 percent of your of your ticket costs is your food costs
0:10:31 or drink costs. And then, you know, you’ve got a little bit of overhead there.
0:10:34 Hopefully, maybe no more than 20 percent of company overhead.
0:10:36 And so that’s kind of the structure that I usually try to go by.
0:10:38 And other than that, there’s very little fixed costs.
0:10:41 I mean, maybe pay upfront for hosting and software.
0:10:43 But other than that, it’s like, OK, if we booked 10 people,
0:10:45 then we can pay out the restaurant based on that.
0:10:47 But other than that, pretty low startup cost business. Yeah.
0:10:48 Very much so.
0:10:51 I think your website is going to be your biggest cost.
0:10:54 You know, if you’ve got somebody that can that can help you out
0:10:56 with with the with the website, that would be big.
0:10:58 That’s going to be your biggest cost, though.
0:11:03 And again, I think you’re you’re hosting your email platform.
0:11:06 So just a little bit of technology there.
0:11:11 You know, your your your email me email addresses, things like that.
0:11:14 So it’s a very low startup business.
0:11:17 That was something that was very attractive to me working at the steel meal.
0:11:20 I didn’t have to go out and get a big loan to start this business.
0:11:23 And so otherwise, I might not have started the business
0:11:25 that that was the case more with Chris in just a moment,
0:11:29 including how he got his first real bookings and how he’s collected
0:11:31 hundreds of five star reviews right after this.
0:11:38 Lots of scrappy side hustlers start their business with just their personal phone number.
0:11:38 And I love that.
0:11:42 But at a certain point, you can’t be limited to just your cell phone
0:11:45 and notes app to get your work done with our sponsor, OpenPhone.
0:11:50 You can stay connected while powerful AI features help keep your business on track.
0:11:51 OpenPhone, if you’re not familiar,
0:11:54 is the number one business phone system for modern businesses.
0:11:58 OpenPhone works through an app on your phone or computer
0:12:01 and then integrates with HubSpot and hundreds of other systems that you might be using.
0:12:06 One of my favorite features is their AI powered call transcripts and summaries
0:12:10 so you can streamline client communication and have a summary of every phone call
0:12:13 with action items right when you hang up.
0:12:16 That means no more note taking or forgotten to do items.
0:12:19 On top of that, OpenPhone is rated the number one business phone for customer
0:12:22 satisfaction with over 1700 reviews.
0:12:26 And right now, OpenPhone is offering 20 percent off your first six months
0:12:29 when you go to openphone.com/sidehustle.
0:12:37 That’s O-P-E-N-P-H-O-N-E.com/sidehustle for 20 percent off six months.
0:12:40 That’s openphone.com/sidehustle.
0:12:43 And if you have existing numbers with another service,
0:12:45 OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge.
0:12:49 You know, when you discover a new binge worthy show or podcast
0:12:52 that you just have to tell your friends about it, that’s kind of what it feels
0:12:56 like when you discover that our sponsor Mint Mobile offers premium wireless
0:12:59 for just 15 bucks a month when you purchase a three month plan.
0:13:03 I made the switch to Mint Mobile back in 2019 and haven’t looked back.
0:13:08 Over the years, that one decision has added literally thousands of dollars
0:13:11 in what I call reverse passive income to our bottom line.
0:13:15 That’s the money we’re saving every month compared to our old wireless provider.
0:13:18 All Mint Mobile plans come with high speed data and unlimited
0:13:22 talk and text delivered on the nation’s largest 5G network.
0:13:26 You can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and keep your current number
0:13:29 to get this new customer offer and your new three month premium
0:13:31 wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month.
0:13:35 Go to mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:13:38 That’s mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:13:44 Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:13:48 $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month.
0:13:53 New customers on first three month plan only speeds slower above 40 gigabytes
0:13:57 on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply.
0:14:00 See Mint Mobile for details.
0:14:03 Yeah, and it’s important to know we’re talking food tours,
0:14:07 but you can fill in the blank with whatever kind of tour that you might be into.
0:14:11 If heard from guests on the show doing just walking tour, historical walking tours.
0:14:14 I feel like we’ve had, you know, haunted tour, you know, during Halloween,
0:14:18 especially maybe it was Austin where I did like a ghost tour or something.
0:14:20 I was like, this is interesting for me.
0:14:23 It’s a chance to see parts of the city and learn some stories
0:14:26 that I otherwise never would have known. We’ve had people do urban hiking tours.
0:14:31 We’ve seen a meditation experience type of tour we’ve done.
0:14:34 A friend of mine was doing like gratitude hikes, like, you know, unplugged,
0:14:37 you know, hey, leave your phone behind and we’re go out to the woods
0:14:39 and think about gratitude and stuff.
0:14:42 Any number of different niches where this kind of thing could work.
0:14:44 But then the question is, well, how am I going to get customers for that?
0:14:48 And so that’s going to where I want to go next is, OK, it’s one thing to,
0:14:50 you know, have a lot of the restaurants lined up.
0:14:52 It’s another thing to have the website lined up.
0:14:55 But it’s not necessarily if I build it, they’ll come type of thing.
0:14:57 It’s like, now I got to go out and market this.
0:14:59 You remember where the first customers came from?
0:15:03 The first customers were from social media and particularly Facebook.
0:15:08 We hit Facebook really hard again, you know, we’re tapping into, you know,
0:15:10 this is something bigger than our tour.
0:15:11 This is this is for the city.
0:15:15 We’re doing this to promote our city, to grow the food scene in our town.
0:15:18 And so we really hit Facebook hard.
0:15:22 Our first couple of tours, it was my family and friends, you know,
0:15:23 there’s no doubt about it.
0:15:26 And they were kind of the ones, the guinea pigs, I guess, you know,
0:15:29 kind of helping me work through the kinks of the of the tour.
0:15:31 But, you know, of course, that was a requirement for them was
0:15:35 to share their experience on Facebook and on social media.
0:15:40 And so, you know, one thing led to another and the community really embraced our tour.
0:15:41 Sure, sure.
0:15:43 And this was primarily organic or is this paid Facebook ads?
0:15:46 This was all organic, very few paid Facebook ads.
0:15:50 OK, we did actually did not see very much success from paid Facebook ads.
0:15:53 We found our results were better with organic content.
0:15:59 OK, and this is going to local groups or pages and trying to get in with those admins.
0:16:02 Or this is just like on your personal profile, like, hey, I’m starting this thing
0:16:04 and then having your friends do the same after.
0:16:08 Hey, we just took this tour with B and Bill Bates and it was awesome, that kind of thing.
0:16:13 It was primarily personal, social media pages and our friends and family who,
0:16:15 you know, man, they told everybody.
0:16:17 And so, yeah, the shares got out.
0:16:21 I think, you know, we had a really good social media strategy to highlight our food.
0:16:22 We highlight our restaurants.
0:16:24 We highlight people on the tours.
0:16:27 And, you know, when you do that, you’re going to get some shares
0:16:29 and you’re going to get some you’re going to get some organic content
0:16:31 that people are attracted to.
0:16:31 Is that true?
0:16:35 So it’s the old rule from was that book made to stick, maybe names, names, names.
0:16:39 You know, it’s this old small town newspaper and that was the editor’s rule.
0:16:40 Names, names, names.
0:16:42 You know, people love to see their names in print.
0:16:42 That’s exactly right.
0:16:45 Yeah, it’s amazing when you put up a picture of a group.
0:16:47 If they are in that picture, they’re going to share that.
0:16:51 Yeah, the same thing with the, you know, the restaurants that are being featured.
0:16:54 They have they probably have their own, you know, limited social
0:16:57 media following where, you know, they’re going to post that out on your behalf.
0:16:58 That makes sense. All right.
0:17:01 So the social media engine starts to spin.
0:17:04 And this is primarily locals at this point.
0:17:08 This is trying to get a critical mass is trying to get just a baseline
0:17:12 of feedback and test of audios and reviews to start to seed.
0:17:14 Are we thinking TripAdvisor at this point?
0:17:15 Are we thinking Yelp at this point?
0:17:19 Are we thinking, you know, how can we start to attract people
0:17:20 outside of our immediate circle?
0:17:21 That’s right. Yeah.
0:17:23 The first few weeks, absolutely.
0:17:26 I’d say the first three or four months, it was 90 percent of our people
0:17:27 that were coming were locals.
0:17:30 Mobile has a unique food scene because there’s about 50 restaurants
0:17:31 in the downtown area.
0:17:35 A lot of people that live in the suburbs are not familiar with all those restaurants,
0:17:38 you know, and so it gave an opportunity for people who live
0:17:42 in the suburbs of Mobile to come downtown and and visit
0:17:45 and be have their eyes open to these incredible restaurants.
0:17:49 We had no idea they were all here, you know, or some maybe some old favorites
0:17:51 that, you know, they visited many years ago.
0:17:53 And so there was a little bit of a connection there.
0:17:56 We really encourage people to leave reviews.
0:17:58 And that was huge, you know, like, again, you know, not just sharing
0:18:02 about it on social media and Facebook, but, you know, going on some of the
0:18:05 platforms, like you mentioned, TripAdvisor and Yelp and Google
0:18:07 and leaving five star reviews.
0:18:09 And so we really pushed those out.
0:18:11 Yeah. People left the five star reviews.
0:18:16 And so, yeah, you’ll see after a few months of of of gaining some of those
0:18:19 reviews that bumps us up in the algorithm of websites like TripAdvisor.
0:18:23 And and slowly you start to become, you know, one of the number one
0:18:27 or one of the highly ranked things to do in your town.
0:18:30 That opens up, like you mentioned, all the the tourists and visitors.
0:18:31 Yeah, totally.
0:18:36 Yeah. You’re closing in on looks like 300 TripAdvisor reviews as of as of
0:18:37 press time, as of the time of this recording.
0:18:39 And it doesn’t happen by accident.
0:18:42 And it’s just miles ahead of the next closest thing.
0:18:46 So do you remember if there was a specific ask or, hey, you know, scan
0:18:49 this QR code at the end of the tour and it’ll, you know, suit you straight over
0:18:51 there where you can say nice things about us.
0:18:53 You know, I’ve tried a lot of those things.
0:18:58 I’ve tried the QR codes and I’ve tried the even, you know, the paper,
0:19:00 you know, even business cards with a QR code.
0:19:04 I honestly, I have just found that if you just ask people to leave a five star
0:19:07 review, most of the time they really will.
0:19:10 And honestly, I think that that’s the best strategy.
0:19:14 If you really connect with somebody on a personal level and we get a
0:19:17 chance to do that in a three hour tour, walking tour at the end of that.
0:19:21 If you come away leaving them with an incredible impression of your city
0:19:25 and your genuine knowledge and passion that you’re showing, they’ll,
0:19:27 they’ll go leave that five star review.
0:19:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:19:30 That’s that Southern hospitality coming out.
0:19:32 Well, you know, I got to do right by this guy.
0:19:33 You know, he just spent three hours with me.
0:19:34 There you go.
0:19:39 The other component of this that I forgot to ask about is coming up
0:19:43 with a three hour history lecture and, you know, walking, talking in this building,
0:19:45 this restaurant, like this is significant.
0:19:49 Like you mentioned being a history buff, but that’s still like a lot of material.
0:19:53 Maybe, maybe it’s less difficult than it seems like it might be to come up with.
0:19:57 But that seems like a non-zero part of the equation, too.
0:19:58 Yeah, yeah, that’s huge.
0:20:03 And you do, you kind of, it can be a little tricky as well, because you want
0:20:06 to highlight some of the popular landmarks that are in your city.
0:20:09 Well, you got to hope there’s some restaurants near those landmarks as well,
0:20:12 you know, so that’s a key component.
0:20:17 But again, I’ve always been, I don’t know, my brain is wired differently, maybe,
0:20:18 but I’m a big history buff.
0:20:22 But I’ve also, I can figure out time very well, too.
0:20:27 So I don’t know, I’m really good at logistics and knowing exactly
0:20:30 when I can arrive at a certain place, how long it’s going to take me there.
0:20:34 I’ve slowly found over the years, not everybody’s like that.
0:20:36 Yeah, we’re going to walk from here to here.
0:20:38 We’re going to tell this story and we’re going to talk about this thing.
0:20:42 And then by the time that’s wrapping up, hey, you know, and here’s our next destination.
0:20:43 That’s right. Yeah.
0:20:48 So yeah, we’re looking for historic hotels, historic churches,
0:20:52 historic parks, historic streets, anything with a story, anything
0:20:55 with a good story about our city.
0:20:57 And of course, the restaurants themselves, they’ve all got stories.
0:21:01 You know, whether it’s the founder, maybe maybe one of them has been featured
0:21:03 on the Food Network or something like that.
0:21:04 That’s that’s common.
0:21:08 But then also, I think people are just as interested in the mom and pop
0:21:11 restaurants that have only been open for two years.
0:21:13 They’re interested in those stories as well.
0:21:14 So every restaurant has a story.
0:21:16 Yeah, OK, that makes sense.
0:21:19 And it’s like you get to study up on your on your history really street by street
0:21:22 to learn, you know, what to talk about, what’s going to be compelling.
0:21:25 I’ll say another thing to, you know, and it does sound intimidating.
0:21:29 And I tell my tour guides this all the time, you know, they are not going to remember
0:21:32 what year the Battle House Hotel was built.
0:21:34 They are going to remember how you made them feel.
0:21:37 And so kind of going back to what I mentioned earlier about when you really
0:21:41 connect with people and just kind of connect with them on the tour on a one
0:21:44 on one and personal level, they’re they’re going to remember that there.
0:21:45 That’s going to be their takeaway.
0:21:47 It’s not going to be the history.
0:21:51 It’s going to be the food, but mostly it’s going to be how you made them feel.
0:21:54 Yeah, that’s kind of what’s what stands out from the tours that I’ve been on
0:21:55 and the tour guides that we’ve had.
0:21:59 It’s like the level of excitement and you think you’d be talking about something
0:22:02 that in a different context would be like, who cares?
0:22:04 Like, why does this even matter?
0:22:07 But they’re like so into it that you’re like, well, now I’m into it.
0:22:09 Now I’m invested in this and it really does help.
0:22:11 So that’s yeah, that’s helpful to know. OK.
0:22:13 The social media ball is rolling.
0:22:16 The you know, we’re starting to collect a critical mass of reviews here.
0:22:20 We’ve got the the spiel down to get old, telling the same jokes,
0:22:22 telling the same stories, eating at the same restaurant.
0:22:25 Like imagine like I’m doing this every weekend and I know
0:22:29 this line is going to get a laugh, but it’s like it’s slowly killing me inside.
0:22:31 Or it’s like I’m getting paid to do it, so it’s all good.
0:22:35 No, it really doesn’t know the dynamics of the group are different every week, right?
0:22:36 You know, and I think that’s what’s kind of fun.
0:22:38 It gives you a little bit of butterflies before the tour
0:22:40 because you don’t know what that group is going to be like.
0:22:42 You don’t know where they’re going to be from.
0:22:43 You don’t know their story, right?
0:22:45 Like, yeah, once you start kind of connecting
0:22:48 and asking them where they’re from and hey, people love to talk about themselves.
0:22:51 And so if we can start connecting with those people,
0:22:54 they’re going to open up a little bit and they’re going to build your knowledge
0:22:57 and all that. It’s going to build their trust with them.
0:23:00 And so I think that makes it makes the dynamic different every time.
0:23:04 No tours ever the same. No two days are like there was this Jimmy Buffett line.
0:23:08 Somebody asked you every get tired of singing Margaritaville for 40 years.
0:23:12 And he’s like, honestly, no, you know, this song has paid the rent for decades.
0:23:13 So I never get tired of singing it.
0:23:15 That’s exactly right. That’s all right.
0:23:18 Yeah. Mobile native Jimmy Buffett, by the way, there you go.
0:23:20 That’s right. Gulf Coast. Cool.
0:23:23 Love it. Is there a minimum number of guests?
0:23:26 This was, you know, one of the I guess the pros and cons.
0:23:29 So one of the booking platforms that another guest mentioned is Airbnb
0:23:32 Experiences, where somebody books an Airbnb immobile.
0:23:35 That site is going to try and get incremental revenue by recommending
0:23:38 some of the things to do while you’re in town.
0:23:39 One of them is going to be Chris’s food tour.
0:23:42 But even if only one person books at the time.
0:23:44 Anyways, it’s recollection service.
0:23:47 Like the requirement was like, even if one person books, you got to go do the thing.
0:23:51 It’s like, I don’t know, I got to go do by three hours feel for one person.
0:23:57 Airbnb Experiences, they do have that requirement for us on our website.
0:23:58 I do have a two person minimum.
0:24:01 I mean, so if you book on our website, we will do the tour for two people.
0:24:05 And I’ve done plenty of tours for two people, especially in the middle of August.
0:24:08 You know, I can’t figure out why nobody wants to do a three hour walking tour.
0:24:11 When it’s a hundred degrees outside, I still haven’t figured that out.
0:24:16 Our marketing strategy is there may need some work, but I’ve given two person tours.
0:24:19 And, you know, as long as you’ve got your again, you know, I think that goes back
0:24:22 to what we talked about with your structure of your pricing model.
0:24:26 And so, no, I’m not making any money off a two person tour.
0:24:29 But I’m also going to make sure I’m not losing any money off a two person tour as well.
0:24:33 OK, are you still doing the bulk of the tours yourself?
0:24:36 You mentioned we’ve got some other tour guides here.
0:24:38 We’re going to give the script to and they can run with it.
0:24:42 I’ve slowly got a good, great team of tour guides.
0:24:43 I don’t give as many tours as I used to.
0:24:47 You know, in the early days, it was my wife and I given tours.
0:24:48 I was working at the steel mill.
0:24:51 And if I was off on the weekends, I would give those tours.
0:24:53 I had to work the weekends.
0:24:56 My wife would give the tours on those dates slowly.
0:24:59 But surely, you know, of course, we got burned out really quick.
0:25:02 I’ve got small kids at home and we’ve got a family as well
0:25:04 and other priorities, too, to tend to.
0:25:08 So we started hiring a couple of tour guides, you know,
0:25:11 and yeah, we gave them a script, told them to make it their own.
0:25:13 Don’t copy word for word.
0:25:16 Put your personality into the script and they’ve done that.
0:25:18 And that’s been a game changer for us.
0:25:21 We’ve I’ve got about six tour guides that lead tours right now.
0:25:25 Wow. And so, you know, they’re passionate as I am about our city.
0:25:26 They’re as knowledgeable.
0:25:30 And again, they’re I think the best thing about it is that they love people.
0:25:32 They love connecting with people.
0:25:33 That’s their greatest trait.
0:25:35 And so I’ll let them give as many tours as they want.
0:25:38 And if there’s a weekend that everybody happens to be off at the same time,
0:25:40 then I’ll go give it. OK, yeah.
0:25:44 So starting out, I mean, seems like a great weekend side gig where it’s like,
0:25:47 I can have that full time job because this is going to happen during off hours.
0:25:50 Anyways, you know, people taking the tour is probably going to be off work, too.
0:25:51 And so it makes sense.
0:25:54 You can be a small of a food tour operator as you want,
0:25:57 or you can be as large of a food tour operator as you want.
0:25:59 If you wanted to, you could do this on Saturdays only, Fridays,
0:26:01 or whatever day you chose to do that.
0:26:04 Or if your town has got the demand, you could do it every day of the week.
0:26:07 You know, it’s kind of it’s one of those things that that’s what’s
0:26:09 really fun about this industry, too.
0:26:11 Yeah, just block off the calendar availability.
0:26:15 Like there’s nothing going on on a Wednesday afternoon, so you can’t book that day.
0:26:16 That’s right. Yeah.
0:26:19 And if you know you’re going to be on vacation two years from now,
0:26:20 then yeah, go ahead and block that off.
0:26:23 But for us, you know, we’ve got a great team of tour guides.
0:26:27 And so there have been times where, you know, I get to go on vacation
0:26:29 and let the tour guides handle everything.
0:26:30 And that’s a great feeling.
0:26:33 Yeah, that’s really cool to be able to remove yourself from the delivery
0:26:35 logistics of it.
0:26:38 And I feel like that is where it could wear on people.
0:26:41 If I don’t have enough margin built in to hire somebody else to do this,
0:26:45 then I’m committed to spend it every Saturday night going out and doing this thing.
0:26:46 And if you love it, that’s one thing.
0:26:49 But it’s like, even if you do love it, it’s nice to have the option to step away.
0:26:51 Absolutely. Yeah.
0:26:54 More with Chris in just a moment, including taking the business full time
0:26:57 and the other marketing levers he’s pulling to keep this thing growing.
0:27:00 That’s coming up right after this.
0:27:05 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:27:09 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy,
0:27:13 drafted newsletters from Japan, hosted mastermind meetings from Spain.
0:27:16 Ended up being the middle of the night to get to US business hours
0:27:19 and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:27:23 The common thread of all of these trips, though, is Airbnb.
0:27:26 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay
0:27:31 and have a more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:27:34 And you know me, I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea,
0:27:36 the next income stream, right?
0:27:40 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb
0:27:41 while we’re traveling.
0:27:43 That way, the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:27:45 We could use the income to help pay for the trip.
0:27:49 And we’ve heard from several successful Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:27:53 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy,
0:27:57 running their place or even a spare room while they’re out of town,
0:27:59 taking inspiration from that.
0:28:02 You might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:28:04 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:28:09 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host.
0:28:13 That’s Airbnb.com/host to find out how much your home is worth.
0:28:15 Hey, it’s no secret.
0:28:19 Starting a business can feel really hard and growing a business even harder.
0:28:21 How are you going to reach more customers?
0:28:23 How can you do it when budgets are tight?
0:28:26 How can you maintain the quality of your products and services as you scale?
0:28:29 Well, there’s a great podcast that can help out with all of that.
0:28:32 It’s called This is Small Business.
0:28:36 This is Small Business is full of practical insights that you can apply to your
0:28:37 business right now.
0:28:41 And it answers so many of those kinds of questions that all entrepreneurs have,
0:28:45 like how to build your marketing strategy, how to use email lists to increase
0:28:49 revenue, tips to accelerate small business growth and tons more.
0:28:52 A couple of recent episodes I think you might like are Episode 61
0:28:57 on Marketing, Networking and Audience Building and Episode 63
0:29:00 on how to build your business with a small budget.
0:29:03 Both of those are filled with practical, actionable tips to move your
0:29:06 side hustle forward so you can reach your goals.
0:29:09 So go ahead and follow This is Small Business, an original podcast
0:29:11 from Amazon, wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:29:18 Was there a revenue target or number of guests’ target where you felt
0:29:20 comfortable calling it quits at the day job and said, look,
0:29:21 this is going to be our full-time thing?
0:29:24 No, I don’t think there was ever a number.
0:29:28 If I had put a number on that, right, when you’ve got a family at home
0:29:30 and you’ve got small kids like I do, there’s never enough.
0:29:33 And so that day would have never come.
0:29:35 So no, I didn’t have a revenue target that I was looking for.
0:29:36 I don’t know.
0:29:38 It was kind of just the timing was just, it just worked out.
0:29:42 My wife, she got a job teaching elementary school.
0:29:46 And, you know, so that kind of took care of some of our insurance and benefits
0:29:47 that we needed for that.
0:29:49 And the timing was just right.
0:29:53 You know, I knew I kind of scaled the business as much as I possibly could.
0:29:58 The last few months of my job at the steel meal, oh, I was a bad employee.
0:30:00 They did not like me because I was always taking off.
0:30:04 I was always in the break room on the phone and the bathroom on the phone.
0:30:04 Right.
0:30:09 Like I had scaled it to as much as I could without getting fired.
0:30:10 Yeah.
0:30:14 And so I knew I believe in this business and I believe that, you know,
0:30:17 even as we sit here today, I believe that, you know, our business is going
0:30:21 to continue to grow and we’re going to continue to connect people to mobile.
0:30:23 And we’re going to grow mobile through our food tour.
0:30:24 And it’s exciting.
0:30:28 And it’s grown every year since that, starting as a side hustle into a full time thing.
0:30:32 It’s grown every year, you know, and we hit a course where we got a COVID story
0:30:34 just like everybody in 2020, you know, knocked us down.
0:30:40 But 2021, we were back, back with numbers that were greater than 2019, you know,
0:30:42 and those have grown every single year.
0:30:44 So, you know, I’m so thrilled.
0:30:48 Yeah. So a couple of ways to expand other, you know, number one is, you know,
0:30:52 getting in front of both more locals and more travelers, which sounds like you’re
0:30:56 doing through these different tour booking platforms like TripAdvisor and these,
0:30:59 like, you know, best things to do in mobile type of lists.
0:31:01 What else is going on on the marketing side these days?
0:31:04 You know, one of the things that we’ve kind of tapped into with our tour are
0:31:07 themed tours and you mentioned the Haunted Tours.
0:31:09 We give a Haunted Tour as well in the month of October.
0:31:10 OK.
0:31:12 That’s something that we’ve really tapped into.
0:31:14 Again, it brings out some of the locals.
0:31:19 And so if you’ve taken our traditional history tour before, you might come out
0:31:20 and take the Haunted Tour.
0:31:25 And we have Haunted Cocktails or, you know, Haunted-themed food and drink
0:31:29 during some of those tours where we want to make a visit by the graveyard
0:31:33 and telling some of the Haunted stories of mobile.
0:31:36 OK. And so that’s something that we’ve kind of tapped into.
0:31:40 We’re going to do probably nine or 10 themed food tours this year.
0:31:43 One of those is a Jimmy Buffett themed, you know, our native
0:31:46 Mobillion. Oh, I got to come to town. Yeah.
0:31:49 Jimmy Buffett talks about food a lot in a lot of his songs.
0:31:53 So we’re going to have a Jimmy Buffett themed tour where we talk about
0:31:57 some of his stories that he has growing up here in Mobile and also tying
0:32:00 that into the food that he talks about in some of his songs.
0:32:02 So we’re going to have a cheeseburger in Paradise. Love it.
0:32:08 You know, we’re going to have oysters and beer, some frozen concoctions
0:32:10 and all the good stuff like that.
0:32:14 So but again, the theme tours are great Christmas tours.
0:32:15 Those are Christmas themed.
0:32:19 We have Mardi Gras in Mobile and Mardi Gras theme tours.
0:32:22 So we’ve really tapped into that.
0:32:23 Again, it’s brought out locals.
0:32:26 That’s been the biggest thing that has distinguished us from.
0:32:30 I think a lot of other food tours is the fact that we have 70 percent
0:32:32 of our people are locals that come on our tour.
0:32:35 And I think a big reason is because of the theme tours.
0:32:37 Now, you’re also running the Port City Plate podcast.
0:32:40 Do you consider that a marketing channel for the business?
0:32:43 Is this just something something fun to do?
0:32:46 That is. I did start that as a marketing channel for the food tours.
0:32:49 You know, again, I’ve got these relationships with these restaurant
0:32:53 owners and people in our city who have these stories that, yeah,
0:32:55 we tell the story on the on the food tour,
0:32:59 but we get to really go in depth on their story on the podcast.
0:33:04 And it’s I would highly recommend a podcast for a food tour operator
0:33:08 because no one is going to say no to being on your podcast.
0:33:11 And you might have found that out.
0:33:16 And and that also helps with, you know, it helps build your credibility as well.
0:33:17 And it gives you stories.
0:33:19 I can, you know, some of the interviews that I’ve given,
0:33:24 I’ll turn that around into into the script of our tour.
0:33:27 And, you know, I’m always learning things about
0:33:30 that particular restaurant that I didn’t know through the podcast.
0:33:35 And so incorporating some of those stories back into the into the tour as well
0:33:38 has been so beneficial.
0:33:41 So now I can’t say that it’s a I don’t have a revenue number to give you.
0:33:45 I can’t say that that podcast has given me X amount of revenue.
0:33:46 Yeah.
0:33:51 But it has absolutely been beneficial for me in the community and for our tour.
0:33:51 Right.
0:33:53 Building relationships with restaurant owners.
0:33:56 Hard to imagine a downside to doing it other than just the time commitment.
0:33:57 That’s right. OK.
0:34:02 The other angle that another tour operator was using was kind of like for team
0:34:05 building events where it was like, you know, instead of going for these ones,
0:34:09 the 2Z tourists, you know, maybe it’s a family and you get five or six people
0:34:12 coming at once, but it’s still a lot of individual sales.
0:34:14 And sometimes I want to call you and ask questions.
0:34:18 And it’s like she found it was somewhat easier to make big ticket, you know,
0:34:22 50 person team building sales for some corporate office that happens to be in
0:34:25 town and needs something to do like you play around with that at all.
0:34:30 Absolutely. A quarter of our business last year was was strictly corporate
0:34:31 and team building tours that we had given.
0:34:35 And so we absolutely tap into that that if you’re working in an office,
0:34:38 you’re looking for something different than just going out to a restaurant.
0:34:42 And so the tour allows you to, you know, mingle with your group,
0:34:44 go to different restaurants, do something different.
0:34:49 I’ve also found that we’ve tapped into a company here called Airbus
0:34:52 and they build airplanes, you know, around the world.
0:34:54 They have a manufacturing plant in Mobile.
0:35:00 And Airbus has used us a few times for when they bring corporate clients down
0:35:04 from other parts of the world, they bring them here to Mobile and they take our tour.
0:35:08 And so it’s another way for somebody else to promote Mobile
0:35:12 outside of just maybe the Chamber of Commerce saying how great the city is.
0:35:16 You know, you get to these people, these executives get to come and take the tour.
0:35:19 And it’s again, it shows how, hey, Mobile is a really cool place.
0:35:21 We have a really cool history.
0:35:24 We’ve got great restaurants and it’s a thriving town.
0:35:28 And it makes them feel good about their decision to locate and do business in Mobile.
0:35:32 And do you do anything proactive to get on the radar of those corporate booking
0:35:36 travel coordinator type of people or is just by virtue of being number one
0:35:39 for like things to do in Mobile that they reach out to you?
0:35:40 It’s a lot of hard work.
0:35:43 I would say the number one thing is going back to what I mentioned at the very
0:35:46 beginning is going out and networking with people.
0:35:47 I absolutely recommend that.
0:35:49 I think getting your name out there.
0:35:50 But yeah, email.
0:35:52 That’s another big way that we kind of capitalize on that, too.
0:35:58 OK, email in terms of trying to find a decision maker, trying to find a contact
0:35:59 person at these companies.
0:35:59 That’s right. Yeah.
0:36:00 And so email marketing.
0:36:05 And so, yeah, we’ll even send out sometimes specific emails to our list of client,
0:36:10 our email list, who are potential team building tour guests.
0:36:15 And so we’ll send out a specific email to them specifically telling them
0:36:16 about the different options.
0:36:20 So, you know, yeah, when it comes to team building, we’ve given tours on trolleys
0:36:26 and we can do as much or as little as you want to do on a team building tour.
0:36:29 Is the email list primarily just existing customer base?
0:36:30 Or is there a reason somebody else would be on it?
0:36:33 Primarily, it’s an existing customer base.
0:36:34 My guess is it’s not huge.
0:36:38 So you kind of scrub that list for people who have, you know, a company
0:36:44 looking email addresses, be like, hey, you look like you took our tour last July.
0:36:47 Hope you had a great time, you know, open the door in that way.
0:36:50 Like, if you ever need a team building activity, you know, keep us in mind.
0:36:51 That’s exactly right.
0:36:51 Absolutely.
0:36:52 They’ll do that.
0:36:57 You know, a good little strategy that kind of came up with was I created a blog
0:37:01 and it was on our website best team building activities in Mobile, Alabama.
0:37:03 And it was, you know, it’s like a top 10 list, right?
0:37:06 And so if you search for team building in Mobile, that’s the number one thing
0:37:07 that’s going to pop up.
0:37:08 So we’ve got that on there.
0:37:12 And of course, you know, you click the link and send you an email right to me.
0:37:15 And we’ll start playing in that corporate tour.
0:37:17 Love it. Yeah.
0:37:19 That’s probably not a huge search volume, but very high.
0:37:21 A very well qualified traffic that does come through.
0:37:22 That’s right.
0:37:22 Very good.
0:37:26 So what’s a day in the life look like for you today?
0:37:29 Maybe maybe this weekend, for example, if you’ve got, you know, a dozen people
0:37:33 booked, but you got somebody else handling that tour, you’re answering the phone.
0:37:35 You’re doing the podcast.
0:37:38 Like, where’s where’s your time going if you’ve got other people doing
0:37:40 the actual logistic tour side?
0:37:44 Yeah, I still consider myself a solopreneur, you know, in a way,
0:37:46 because I don’t give as many tours this weekend.
0:37:49 For an example, we’ll give probably six or seven tours this weekend.
0:37:50 But I’m not going to give any of them.
0:37:51 Oh, how cool is that?
0:37:52 That’s that’s exciting.
0:37:53 Yeah, it’s fun.
0:37:57 You know, now, of course, you’re still responsible at the end of the day,
0:37:58 you know, and emergencies happen.
0:38:01 And so you’ve got to always you’ve always got to be on standby a little bit.
0:38:05 But at the end of the day, I think that communication with the restaurants
0:38:09 come in constant communication with the restaurants about our groups.
0:38:13 And if something is a little bit off schedule from our normal tour,
0:38:15 you know, they’re going to know about it ahead of time.
0:38:18 And so I think, you know, communicating with the restaurants,
0:38:22 communicating with the tour guides constantly and getting good people
0:38:25 that you trust. And I think that’s a good recipe for for me to be able
0:38:27 to handle a lot of the logistics.
0:38:31 I get to, you know, create these theme tours that I’ve talked about.
0:38:35 Like right now I’m working hard on our haunted tour season coming up in October.
0:38:38 And so, you know, it gives me a chance to plan that.
0:38:41 It gives me a chance to plan some of the team building tours
0:38:44 that we’ll do over the next few weeks as well.
0:38:46 So a lot of planning.
0:38:50 We’re roster of guides pulled from existing tour operators.
0:38:53 Like, were they were they doing this before either for themselves
0:38:55 or for another agency, another company?
0:38:56 And they’re just like, oh, I have capacity.
0:39:00 I can add on another tour or these like completely homegrown hires.
0:39:03 We’re like, look, we’ll teach you how to do how to lead these food tours.
0:39:06 It’s an incredible mix of people.
0:39:10 So I do have one person that was a tour guide for a duck boat
0:39:12 that she did a duck boat tour.
0:39:13 She was a tour guide for them.
0:39:16 Other than that, nobody else had really ever given tours before.
0:39:18 Now they were again passionate about our city.
0:39:20 One person is a retired school teacher.
0:39:26 One person actually took our tour as a visitor, loved it so much.
0:39:30 She moved here and reached out to me about taking tours
0:39:33 and told me that the reason that she moved here was because of the tour.
0:39:35 Now she’s giving tours for us.
0:39:38 And so I must have been sub-tour. Yeah, it is.
0:39:40 It’s an incredible mix of people.
0:39:44 Yeah, you never know where your your next great hire is going to come from.
0:39:45 That’s fascinating.
0:39:47 Anything else that’s surprised you along the way?
0:39:50 I never set out to quit my full-time job.
0:39:52 Certainly didn’t anticipate that.
0:39:54 That was never my plan.
0:39:57 It was just really just again, like I mentioned at the beginning,
0:40:01 a passion to talk about our history and to give those tours.
0:40:04 So, no, I never never would have imagined
0:40:08 starting a podcast or quitting my full-time job.
0:40:09 I even wrote a book.
0:40:12 I wrote a book called A Culinary History of Mobile that had never been written
0:40:17 before and just little things like that that have opened up so many doors
0:40:21 and avenues, it is surprising when you stop and think about it.
0:40:22 That’s fascinating.
0:40:25 We’ll have to link up the book in the show notes here.
0:40:27 Absolutely. Where do you want to take this thing?
0:40:30 Is there a geographic expansion play?
0:40:33 Like, oh, we’re going to take over the whole Gulf Coast.
0:40:36 Is there, I mean, there’s a limit to how many people are coming through town.
0:40:41 And I guess you got a decent chunk of the customer base that’s locals.
0:40:44 But then I got to imagine that taps out after a while.
0:40:45 Like, what’s next for you?
0:40:49 Yeah, we did expand to a neighboring city that’s called Fairhope, Alabama.
0:40:51 It’s a very small town.
0:40:54 You know, it’s a lot of boutique shops and great restaurants there.
0:40:59 And we did expand there and that tour is going really well, too.
0:41:00 And it’s growing.
0:41:02 But my plan is not to…
0:41:08 I don’t plan on having an empire of food tours along the Gulf Coast myself.
0:41:10 Going to franchise this thing, you know, world domination.
0:41:13 Yeah, I’m passionate about where I’m from.
0:41:18 I’m passionate about Mobile and Baldwin County, the area that I’m from.
0:41:20 And so that’s where my passion is.
0:41:24 So it would probably be I’d be doing those towns in injustice
0:41:27 to really expand and do that in some other town.
0:41:30 But what’s next for me, though, is I have started a course
0:41:33 and it’s called Food Tour Founders.
0:41:36 And so I want to give people who are interested in this niche
0:41:40 an opportunity to take my course and learn the lessons
0:41:44 and perfect the entire strategy of your business
0:41:46 and for people to do this in their food tour.
0:41:50 And I hope that, of course, my big goal would be to have not an empire,
0:41:53 but thousands of food tours around the world,
0:41:57 potentially, of people that have taken the Food Tour Founders course.
0:42:00 And that would be incredibly fulfilling for me.
0:42:04 Now, you can impact a lot of lives that way, both in the tour operators
0:42:06 and in the people going on those tours, wherever they travel,
0:42:08 because it is such a memorable experience.
0:42:12 The one that stands out to me is riding on the back of these motorbikes
0:42:16 in in Vietnam, and it just feels like you’re going to die.
0:42:19 Because there’s just wall to wall motorbikes in these packed cities.
0:42:24 And then you eventually the traffic lets up and you feel like you’re really
0:42:26 flooring it or, you know, and open it up.
0:42:29 You look over the girl’s shoulder and you see we’re going like 25 miles an hour.
0:42:32 Like, oh, gosh, it feels like we were flying now.
0:42:35 But it was such a unique thing and still talking about it 10 and 12 years later.
0:42:36 So that’s right. Yeah.
0:42:40 And there’s a great network of people, they take food tours everywhere they go.
0:42:43 Yeah. And so that’s that’s another I think a marketing
0:42:47 win for a food tour operator that is organically you’re going to have people
0:42:51 that are searching for food tours because there are a lot of great food tours out there.
0:42:53 And it makes an impact on you.
0:42:57 It makes a it’s there’s so many great operators that give great experiences
0:43:02 that people can trust that, hey, you know what, a food tour is a is a great
0:43:05 experience in a city because you’re going to eat at some of the great restaurants.
0:43:09 You’re going to learn about the unique food and the food that ties into the history.
0:43:13 Well, it’s something that we like to give as gifts to where it’s like, I don’t know what to get you.
0:43:16 But I know you’re going to this place this week.
0:43:19 And here here’s a gift certificate to this place or here.
0:43:22 We already booked it for you on Thursday night, you know, have a good time.
0:43:23 Yeah, it’s a great idea.
0:43:25 I don’t know as you get gift card traffic.
0:43:27 Absolutely. Yeah, we do.
0:43:29 We do. We have gift cards on our website.
0:43:33 And so, yeah, that does that has happened pretty frequently where maybe a relative might book
0:43:38 a tour or give someone a gift card for them to come to Mobile or something like that.
0:43:39 So that does happen pretty frequently.
0:43:42 Very good. Well, foodtourfounders.com.
0:43:43 This is brand new.
0:43:47 So you’d be a chance to be an early student of Chris’s.
0:43:49 If you go check that out, foodtourfounders.com.
0:43:51 We’ll link that up in the show notes.
0:43:54 Bienvillebytesfoodtour.com as well.
0:43:57 If you happen to be in or around Mobile, check them out.
0:43:58 Go take one of their tours.
0:44:02 Let’s wrap this thing up with your number one tip for side hustle nation.
0:44:05 My number one tip for side hustle nation is simple.
0:44:08 And it’s probably been said before, you know, just do it, step out there and do it.
0:44:09 Yeah, it’s scary.
0:44:13 It’s scary to think about the what ifs, especially when it comes to business.
0:44:19 I think for anybody, if you’ve got a passion, especially for food, for tourism,
0:44:21 I say, just do it and just do it.
0:44:23 Very good. Again, foodtourfounders.com.
0:44:25 You can find Chris over there.
0:44:27 Couple takeaways before we wrap up.
0:44:30 Number one is really this call to be a steward of the community, right?
0:44:33 It’s a relationships with the restaurant owners.
0:44:35 It is leading with this, hey, we’re fans of Mobile.
0:44:36 We want to get the word out.
0:44:39 This is a great place to eat, a great place to learn about the history.
0:44:41 And that excitement rubs off.
0:44:46 And it’s not we’re approaching this as like, you know, money hungry startup entrepreneurs.
0:44:48 That will come. And that is great.
0:44:52 That’s a byproduct of doing the first part of, you know, trying to build a product
0:44:56 that people really want and value, which I know you’ve done in this case.
0:45:00 The second thing is to build that marketing engine where now seven years deep into it,
0:45:04 it looks like you can’t search for things to do in Mobile and not come across Chris.
0:45:06 But it didn’t start out that way.
0:45:08 It started with friends and family, social media, organic.
0:45:10 Can you leave us a five star review, right?
0:45:12 And it starts to compound and it starts to compound.
0:45:16 And then we get the corporate booking tours and we start the podcast, you know,
0:45:20 integrate, then we expand all these different other, you know, themed tours.
0:45:22 And then we’re expanded to the nearby city.
0:45:25 And it seems like a lot starting out, but it was just a week inside hustle starting out, right?
0:45:30 It just I want to hammer that in that the marketing engine doesn’t have to be overnight,
0:45:33 but it can really start to compound as as you get into it.
0:45:37 So fascinating stuff looking around to see if there are any food tours nearby.
0:45:40 We’re out in the burbs, so probably probably less get around here.
0:45:44 But definitely lots of opportunities to do something in and around Seattle,
0:45:47 especially seasonal with the cruise traffic coming through.
0:45:52 Some makes makes a lot of sense if you are looking for something to listen to next
0:45:57 in this local tour niche, I’ve got some other episode recommendations for you.
0:45:59 Episode 370, we talked to Rob Patengalo.
0:46:03 He did a history tour, a walking tour in Washington, D.C.
0:46:09 And what was unique about his business was YouTube was the primary marketing strategy.
0:46:11 What was interesting about like YouTube is global.
0:46:14 Like it was like marketing a local business on this global platform.
0:46:17 Well, how it worked in his case was he was targeting common questions
0:46:20 that up and coming visitors to D.C. were going to ask like,
0:46:23 how does the metro work or, you know, what are the best things to do in the summer?
0:46:26 And so he creates these videos. Hey, I’m Rob.
0:46:28 I’m a local tour guide in Washington, D.C.
0:46:29 And here’s how to use the metro.
0:46:30 Here’s how our metro system works.
0:46:33 Again, super targeted audience and he’d get customers booking all the time.
0:46:35 I watched half a dozen of your videos.
0:46:38 And it’s so cool to meet you in person and so cool to book one of your tours.
0:46:39 We talked to Michelle Maddox.
0:46:43 She was the one doing the guided meditation on the Red Rocks in Sedona.
0:46:46 That was primarily through Airbnb experiences.
0:46:49 Again, tapping into these pre-existing marketing channels.
0:46:51 We called it the buy buttons theory, like, you know,
0:46:52 where are my target customers already doing business?
0:46:55 If they’re coming into town, they might be doing it through Airbnb.
0:46:58 Maybe there’s a strategic partnership through local hotels or, you know,
0:47:01 making connections with the concierge desks at various hotels in this case.
0:47:06 And the other one that comes to mind or the Michelle Maddox episode was number 347.
0:47:10 And then we had Alex Kennan in 193 way back in the archives.
0:47:12 She was doing the urban hiking tours in San Francisco.
0:47:16 Lots of bookings through those, you know, corporate team building stuff.
0:47:20 Plus, you know, through building up that reputation over years of putting in the reps
0:47:25 and getting those trip advisor reviews and showing up as a as a cool thing to do in town.
0:47:29 And she ended up getting a book deal with like mountaineers press or mountaineers
0:47:32 publishing like the urban, she like literally wrote the book on the urban hiking
0:47:35 just like you wrote the culinary history of mobile.
0:47:36 And if none of those appeal to you, that’s all good.
0:47:40 Hustle.show is where you can find a little two minute quiz
0:47:44 to get your own personalized playlist of the episodes that are most impactful for you.
0:47:47 You can do it on your mobile device to a few short, multiple choice questions.
0:47:49 And it’ll spit out that playlist for you.
0:47:53 Hustle.show is where you’ll find that big thanks to Chris for sharing his insight.
0:47:57 Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:48:01 As always, you can hit up side hustle nation dot com slash deals for all the latest
0:48:03 offers from our advertisers in one place.
0:48:04 That is it for me.
0:48:05 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:48:08 If you’re finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
0:48:10 She’ll fire off that text message.
0:48:12 Hey, we should totally start this in our town until next time.
0:48:14 Let’s go out there and make something happen.
0:48:17 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the side hustle show hustle on.
0:00:08 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here.
0:00:09 Welcome to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:12 It’s the business podcast you can actually apply,
0:00:14 and I hope you’re hungry because we got a juicy one today.
0:00:17 My guests started a little weekend side hustle a few years ago,
0:00:21 giving local food tours in Mobile, Alabama,
0:00:25 and he’s since quit that old steel mill day job and built it into
0:00:27 a very comfortable full-time income from
0:00:30 inbillbitesfoodtour.com Chris Andrews.
0:00:32 Welcome to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:33 Hey Nick, how are you?
0:00:35 I’m doing well and excited for this one.
0:00:38 Stick around, we’re going to learn how Chris got this thing off the ground,
0:00:41 how he’s removed himself from some of the day-to-day operations,
0:00:43 and how you might start something similar in your town.
0:00:45 But Chris, take me back to 2017,
0:00:48 the early days, the inspiration to start this thing.
0:00:49 How come it needed to exist?
0:00:52 A friend of mine did a food tour in Savannah, Georgia.
0:00:54 I had never heard of a food tour before,
0:00:58 and when she came back home and was telling us about
0:01:00 her experience of going to different restaurants,
0:01:03 and she did a tour of the city of Savannah,
0:01:06 and they went to different landmarks in the city,
0:01:08 and the tour guide was talking about the landmarks.
0:01:10 That was all really, really interesting to me.
0:01:14 I’ve been a history buff ever since I was a kid, especially local history,
0:01:18 and I thought that’s absolutely what we need in Mobile, Alabama.
0:01:21 We’ve got 300 plus years of history in Mobile.
0:01:22 It’s one of the oldest cities in the United States.
0:01:25 And fantastic food.
0:01:29 There’s a great food scene that’s in downtown Mobile.
0:01:32 And so, I think just kind of capitalizing on that,
0:01:36 and that’s kind of how the food tour got started in Mobile.
0:01:38 Was anybody else doing it?
0:01:39 Like, it’s not a new concept.
0:01:41 No, nobody in Mobile was doing it.
0:01:44 At the time, I think mainly you would find food tours
0:01:47 in large cities around the country, in tourist places.
0:01:50 Of course, New York has probably got seven or eight of them.
0:01:53 New Orleans, which is about two hours from where I am.
0:01:57 They probably, again, have five or six food tour operators.
0:01:58 But no, nobody was doing this in Mobile.
0:02:00 And so, that was another big thing for me.
0:02:02 It kept me up at night thinking about it.
0:02:05 I was like, “Man, somebody’s going to do this eventually.”
0:02:06 OK.
0:02:09 And I’m not going to be able to live with myself if that person’s not me.
0:02:09 All right.
0:02:13 So, a little bit of a blue ocean here where the concept had been proven out.
0:02:15 It exists in other cities, but it doesn’t exist here yet.
0:02:17 So, hey, why not me?
0:02:18 Why don’t I go ahead and do this?
0:02:22 And we took a food tour in New Orleans last summer, and it was a blast.
0:02:26 Like, there’s a great group outing aside from just sitting in one spot.
0:02:29 And you get to mingle during the walks and learn a little bit of the history.
0:02:31 And it’s a fun time, so it makes a lot of sense.
0:02:35 And the interesting thing to me is Mobile doesn’t necessarily
0:02:37 strike me as a huge tourist destination,
0:02:40 but I guess you get some Gulf Coast visitors in seasonal traffic
0:02:41 and maybe spring breakers and stuff.
0:02:45 But it’s not a New York or an LA or Chicago or something like that.
0:02:45 That’s right.
0:02:47 Most people do not, yes, be honest,
0:02:51 they’re not planning their trip to Mobile like you would say New Orleans.
0:02:55 But what we have kind of got a little bit of a Gulf Coast niche.
0:02:58 You know, we do find a lot of people that take Gulf Coast trips.
0:03:03 And so they’re doing New Orleans, Coastal Mississippi, Coastal Alabama,
0:03:04 the Panhandle of Florida.
0:03:07 You know, a lot of people are doing that Gulf Coast trip.
0:03:07 Yeah.
0:03:11 And that’s worked out really well for Mobile and for our tour, especially.
0:03:15 We’ve had people from all 50 states, maybe 20 countries or so.
0:03:17 You know, it is really incredible when you kind of step back and look
0:03:19 that these are people that are coming to Mobile.
0:03:20 And yeah, it’s a hidden gem.
0:03:21 I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.
0:03:25 I would certainly compare Mobile’s food scene with some of the larger cities
0:03:30 that we compete with, like maybe Chattanooga or Asheville, North Carolina,
0:03:32 Savannah, Georgia, it’s a good food scene.
0:03:33 Yeah, very good.
0:03:34 Pump it up.
0:03:37 You’re going to have to check me on this because I’m betting by the end of the call,
0:03:39 I’m going to pick up a little bit of your draw.
0:03:44 When I used to live in Atlanta, I come home to Seattle for Christmas or Thanksgiving
0:03:46 and people be like, who are you?
0:03:49 Where did you, why do you have the southern accent all of a sudden?
0:03:52 I was like, hey, I’m talking to southerners all day long, all day every day.
0:03:56 It just starts to rub off, it just starts to flow.
0:03:58 So we’ll see at the end of the hour where I’m out with that.
0:04:00 It just happens, y’all just comes out.
0:04:01 All right.
0:04:03 So the idea is straight, hey, this needs to exist.
0:04:05 There’s nobody else doing it here.
0:04:07 What’s the first step in getting it off the ground?
0:04:10 The first step of getting it off the ground, I think, you know, of course,
0:04:13 for any side hustle is the fact that you’ve got to, I’m going to do this, right?
0:04:16 And not be denied that you’re going to do this.
0:04:16 Yeah.
0:04:20 But for, I think specifically for a food tour, it’s pretty simple because as
0:04:24 long as you’ve got a good website that functions well and a good booking
0:04:29 platform for your customers to book your tour on, that’s the hardest part.
0:04:31 And of course, you’ve got to make relationships with restaurants.
0:04:33 All that is very crucial.
0:04:37 You’ve got to be a very good communicator, communicating with these restaurants.
0:04:40 And restaurant owners do not like change, you know.
0:04:44 So if you’re going to tell a restaurant that we’re going to bring 12 or 14
0:04:47 people into your restaurant, they’re going to freak out.
0:04:50 So that’s where that communication is very crucial.
0:04:51 And for food tours, it does.
0:04:53 I mean, that seems like a good thing.
0:04:54 It seems like a win for the restaurant.
0:04:57 Like, hey, you know, this is hopefully incremental traffic,
0:04:58 incremental business for you.
0:04:58 That’s right.
0:05:00 But I guess they go to the worst case scenario.
0:05:03 Restaurant people are going to be glass half empty kind of people most for
0:05:04 the most part.
0:05:04 Yeah.
0:05:07 So they’re going to freak out a little bit, but that communication is where
0:05:09 you’re going to say, you know, no, we’re going to, we’re going to come to your
0:05:12 restaurant in the middle of the afternoon when you’re not as busy.
0:05:15 And we’re going to be there for 20 minutes.
0:05:18 You’re going to know ahead of time how many people are going to be there.
0:05:21 You know, we’re going to have a dish prepared ahead of time.
0:05:24 You’re going to know the kitchen is going to be very well prepared.
0:05:27 You’re going to know if we have any food allergies or any aversions.
0:05:27 OK.
0:05:29 And they’re going to execute it.
0:05:32 And we’re going to come in and what’s going to end up happening is if they
0:05:34 have a great experience, they’re going to go back.
0:05:37 I want to get back to the restaurants in a second, but any tools or software or
0:05:39 tech on that website, booking side.
0:05:43 Hey, we got to make it easy for people to book with us for our tour.
0:05:45 I use a platform called Fair Harbor.
0:05:49 It’s a very common booking platform in the tour industry and in the food
0:05:52 tour industry, they handle your ticketing, they handle your payments.
0:05:54 All that’s going to be in there.
0:05:57 They take a small percentage, but usually about 2.5 percent, something
0:05:59 like that is what they’re going to take.
0:06:03 And they also take a little bit of fees when the customer books.
0:06:04 OK, sure.
0:06:06 As far as payment processing and stuff like that.
0:06:07 Yeah. Got it.
0:06:10 So now we have a little bit of a chicken versus the egg problem where we put
0:06:11 the website up.
0:06:14 We now have a system that will allow customers to book with us.
0:06:18 But now we have to go to the restaurants first and kind of make these
0:06:22 asks or promises like, hey, I can bring you 10, 15 incremental people.
0:06:23 It’s going to be in off hours.
0:06:24 All going to be fine.
0:06:26 But at the same time, you don’t have those 10 or 15 people yet.
0:06:29 And to be able to do it consistently, like, what was that part of the equation?
0:06:33 That’s the scariest part about it, I think, you know, for sure that you have.
0:06:36 You’re making those promises, but at the end of the day, yeah, you don’t know
0:06:38 if those people are going to show up.
0:06:43 So I think simple actions for me would be just getting involved in the community.
0:06:46 You know, I think that would be the simple thing to do is to, you know,
0:06:49 go network and tell people about your idea.
0:06:50 Yeah, they’re going to look at you like you’re crazy.
0:06:53 If you’re in a smaller market, they’re, you know, if there’s no other food tour
0:06:57 in your town, they’re going to think, you know, that you’re crazy, but that’s OK.
0:07:03 And I think, you know, just a blast in social media and for the food tour industry.
0:07:04 We’re fine, man.
0:07:07 You know, we’ve got we’ve got food and restaurants.
0:07:11 And we’ve got stories to tell about our city that we’re passionate about.
0:07:17 That’s a good recipe in my mind for travelers and tourism.
0:07:18 Yeah, for sure.
0:07:20 And you can see that in the reputation that you’ve built in terms
0:07:25 of the online reviews and the testimonials that you have from happy customers.
0:07:27 Because, you know, it’s a fun thing to do.
0:07:30 And that’s kind of how we look at travel in a lot of ways.
0:07:32 Is what are we going to do in between the next meal?
0:07:36 Like, what’s the next excuse to go explore a new part of town, a new restaurant?
0:07:39 So it definitely checks everybody when they’re traveling there,
0:07:42 looking for the local spots, the local restaurants.
0:07:46 That’s what I love about a food tour as well, is it gives you an opportunity for our tour.
0:07:49 You get to go to five restaurants in a three hour span.
0:07:52 Yeah, that you may not otherwise get to go to while you’re, you know,
0:07:56 if you’re only in Mobile for 36 hours or sometimes less than that,
0:08:01 you know, you take a food tour and you get a chance to really dive into the into the cuisine.
0:08:06 And most food tours like ours, they’re partnering with the best restaurants.
0:08:11 Yeah, tell me about the first restaurant or two to say yes to you.
0:08:13 They were open to this concept.
0:08:20 I was scared to death and walked into a restaurant, had a meal and enjoyed it.
0:08:23 I knew the owner was working behind the.
0:08:26 It was kind of an open kitchen and you could see her working back there.
0:08:28 And I did go kind of a little tip.
0:08:32 I’ll say I went during a non peak time.
0:08:36 So let’s say like a Tuesday at one 45 or two o’clock, you know.
0:08:39 So when the restaurant is not that busy.
0:08:44 And so I asked to speak to the owner and I knew that she was very community minded.
0:08:47 Like, you know, she had what was good for the community in mind.
0:08:49 And so I thought that she was going to say yes.
0:08:53 That was so I was like, OK, this is going to be my easy win to approach her.
0:08:54 And so I did.
0:08:58 I asked to speak to her after our meal was finished.
0:09:01 And she came over and I told her about the idea and she was, I love it.
0:09:03 Yes, we’ll absolutely be a part of it.
0:09:05 So that that was my first win.
0:09:06 And that gives you it’s good.
0:09:08 It gives you that confidence to go to the next restaurant
0:09:10 and tell them the idea that you have.
0:09:14 And yeah, now you can name drop, you know, the name of restaurant number one.
0:09:17 Be like, hey, they’re already on board. Exactly. That was huge.
0:09:18 That’s a huge. That’s a good point.
0:09:22 So get those quick, easy wins and yeah, and go to the next restaurant.
0:09:24 So yeah, yeah, we’ve already got we’ve got, you know,
0:09:27 this popular restaurant down the street, this popular candy shop.
0:09:29 That helps your credibility.
0:09:30 OK, yeah.
0:09:33 And there’s some level of understanding that, hey, this is a startup.
0:09:37 If there are any bookings or nobody shows up for a few weeks, totally understand.
0:09:39 Right. It’s all it’s billed is all incremental for them.
0:09:43 Like, hey, you know, this is extra extra business, hopefully.
0:09:44 That’s right.
0:09:45 You know, that’s how we worked out.
0:09:47 Our pricing structure is on a per person basis.
0:09:51 And so if we have four people come, we’re going to pay the price
0:09:53 that we negotiate based off those four people.
0:09:57 Or if we have 14 people, you know, we’re going to pay based off the price
0:10:01 of 14 people. And so I think that’s a that’s a very viable business model
0:10:04 to for food tours. OK, got it, got it.
0:10:06 And I was going to ask about that revenue share.
0:10:10 So if you charge one of the sites had like $100 per per tour,
0:10:13 per booking for this three hour, five restaurant tour, you know,
0:10:15 how much of that goes to the restaurant other than that?
0:10:17 It’s just your your time walking around and telling stories.
0:10:18 Yeah, that’s right.
0:10:23 And I try to keep our food costs, try to keep it in that 40 percent range.
0:10:28 You know, where 40 percent of your of your ticket costs is your food costs
0:10:31 or drink costs. And then, you know, you’ve got a little bit of overhead there.
0:10:34 Hopefully, maybe no more than 20 percent of company overhead.
0:10:36 And so that’s kind of the structure that I usually try to go by.
0:10:38 And other than that, there’s very little fixed costs.
0:10:41 I mean, maybe pay upfront for hosting and software.
0:10:43 But other than that, it’s like, OK, if we booked 10 people,
0:10:45 then we can pay out the restaurant based on that.
0:10:47 But other than that, pretty low startup cost business. Yeah.
0:10:48 Very much so.
0:10:51 I think your website is going to be your biggest cost.
0:10:54 You know, if you’ve got somebody that can that can help you out
0:10:56 with with the with the website, that would be big.
0:10:58 That’s going to be your biggest cost, though.
0:11:03 And again, I think you’re you’re hosting your email platform.
0:11:06 So just a little bit of technology there.
0:11:11 You know, your your your email me email addresses, things like that.
0:11:14 So it’s a very low startup business.
0:11:17 That was something that was very attractive to me working at the steel meal.
0:11:20 I didn’t have to go out and get a big loan to start this business.
0:11:23 And so otherwise, I might not have started the business
0:11:25 that that was the case more with Chris in just a moment,
0:11:29 including how he got his first real bookings and how he’s collected
0:11:31 hundreds of five star reviews right after this.
0:11:38 Lots of scrappy side hustlers start their business with just their personal phone number.
0:11:38 And I love that.
0:11:42 But at a certain point, you can’t be limited to just your cell phone
0:11:45 and notes app to get your work done with our sponsor, OpenPhone.
0:11:50 You can stay connected while powerful AI features help keep your business on track.
0:11:51 OpenPhone, if you’re not familiar,
0:11:54 is the number one business phone system for modern businesses.
0:11:58 OpenPhone works through an app on your phone or computer
0:12:01 and then integrates with HubSpot and hundreds of other systems that you might be using.
0:12:06 One of my favorite features is their AI powered call transcripts and summaries
0:12:10 so you can streamline client communication and have a summary of every phone call
0:12:13 with action items right when you hang up.
0:12:16 That means no more note taking or forgotten to do items.
0:12:19 On top of that, OpenPhone is rated the number one business phone for customer
0:12:22 satisfaction with over 1700 reviews.
0:12:26 And right now, OpenPhone is offering 20 percent off your first six months
0:12:29 when you go to openphone.com/sidehustle.
0:12:37 That’s O-P-E-N-P-H-O-N-E.com/sidehustle for 20 percent off six months.
0:12:40 That’s openphone.com/sidehustle.
0:12:43 And if you have existing numbers with another service,
0:12:45 OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge.
0:12:49 You know, when you discover a new binge worthy show or podcast
0:12:52 that you just have to tell your friends about it, that’s kind of what it feels
0:12:56 like when you discover that our sponsor Mint Mobile offers premium wireless
0:12:59 for just 15 bucks a month when you purchase a three month plan.
0:13:03 I made the switch to Mint Mobile back in 2019 and haven’t looked back.
0:13:08 Over the years, that one decision has added literally thousands of dollars
0:13:11 in what I call reverse passive income to our bottom line.
0:13:15 That’s the money we’re saving every month compared to our old wireless provider.
0:13:18 All Mint Mobile plans come with high speed data and unlimited
0:13:22 talk and text delivered on the nation’s largest 5G network.
0:13:26 You can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and keep your current number
0:13:29 to get this new customer offer and your new three month premium
0:13:31 wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month.
0:13:35 Go to mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:13:38 That’s mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:13:44 Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:13:48 $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month.
0:13:53 New customers on first three month plan only speeds slower above 40 gigabytes
0:13:57 on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply.
0:14:00 See Mint Mobile for details.
0:14:03 Yeah, and it’s important to know we’re talking food tours,
0:14:07 but you can fill in the blank with whatever kind of tour that you might be into.
0:14:11 If heard from guests on the show doing just walking tour, historical walking tours.
0:14:14 I feel like we’ve had, you know, haunted tour, you know, during Halloween,
0:14:18 especially maybe it was Austin where I did like a ghost tour or something.
0:14:20 I was like, this is interesting for me.
0:14:23 It’s a chance to see parts of the city and learn some stories
0:14:26 that I otherwise never would have known. We’ve had people do urban hiking tours.
0:14:31 We’ve seen a meditation experience type of tour we’ve done.
0:14:34 A friend of mine was doing like gratitude hikes, like, you know, unplugged,
0:14:37 you know, hey, leave your phone behind and we’re go out to the woods
0:14:39 and think about gratitude and stuff.
0:14:42 Any number of different niches where this kind of thing could work.
0:14:44 But then the question is, well, how am I going to get customers for that?
0:14:48 And so that’s going to where I want to go next is, OK, it’s one thing to,
0:14:50 you know, have a lot of the restaurants lined up.
0:14:52 It’s another thing to have the website lined up.
0:14:55 But it’s not necessarily if I build it, they’ll come type of thing.
0:14:57 It’s like, now I got to go out and market this.
0:14:59 You remember where the first customers came from?
0:15:03 The first customers were from social media and particularly Facebook.
0:15:08 We hit Facebook really hard again, you know, we’re tapping into, you know,
0:15:10 this is something bigger than our tour.
0:15:11 This is this is for the city.
0:15:15 We’re doing this to promote our city, to grow the food scene in our town.
0:15:18 And so we really hit Facebook hard.
0:15:22 Our first couple of tours, it was my family and friends, you know,
0:15:23 there’s no doubt about it.
0:15:26 And they were kind of the ones, the guinea pigs, I guess, you know,
0:15:29 kind of helping me work through the kinks of the of the tour.
0:15:31 But, you know, of course, that was a requirement for them was
0:15:35 to share their experience on Facebook and on social media.
0:15:40 And so, you know, one thing led to another and the community really embraced our tour.
0:15:41 Sure, sure.
0:15:43 And this was primarily organic or is this paid Facebook ads?
0:15:46 This was all organic, very few paid Facebook ads.
0:15:50 OK, we did actually did not see very much success from paid Facebook ads.
0:15:53 We found our results were better with organic content.
0:15:59 OK, and this is going to local groups or pages and trying to get in with those admins.
0:16:02 Or this is just like on your personal profile, like, hey, I’m starting this thing
0:16:04 and then having your friends do the same after.
0:16:08 Hey, we just took this tour with B and Bill Bates and it was awesome, that kind of thing.
0:16:13 It was primarily personal, social media pages and our friends and family who,
0:16:15 you know, man, they told everybody.
0:16:17 And so, yeah, the shares got out.
0:16:21 I think, you know, we had a really good social media strategy to highlight our food.
0:16:22 We highlight our restaurants.
0:16:24 We highlight people on the tours.
0:16:27 And, you know, when you do that, you’re going to get some shares
0:16:29 and you’re going to get some you’re going to get some organic content
0:16:31 that people are attracted to.
0:16:31 Is that true?
0:16:35 So it’s the old rule from was that book made to stick, maybe names, names, names.
0:16:39 You know, it’s this old small town newspaper and that was the editor’s rule.
0:16:40 Names, names, names.
0:16:42 You know, people love to see their names in print.
0:16:42 That’s exactly right.
0:16:45 Yeah, it’s amazing when you put up a picture of a group.
0:16:47 If they are in that picture, they’re going to share that.
0:16:51 Yeah, the same thing with the, you know, the restaurants that are being featured.
0:16:54 They have they probably have their own, you know, limited social
0:16:57 media following where, you know, they’re going to post that out on your behalf.
0:16:58 That makes sense. All right.
0:17:01 So the social media engine starts to spin.
0:17:04 And this is primarily locals at this point.
0:17:08 This is trying to get a critical mass is trying to get just a baseline
0:17:12 of feedback and test of audios and reviews to start to seed.
0:17:14 Are we thinking TripAdvisor at this point?
0:17:15 Are we thinking Yelp at this point?
0:17:19 Are we thinking, you know, how can we start to attract people
0:17:20 outside of our immediate circle?
0:17:21 That’s right. Yeah.
0:17:23 The first few weeks, absolutely.
0:17:26 I’d say the first three or four months, it was 90 percent of our people
0:17:27 that were coming were locals.
0:17:30 Mobile has a unique food scene because there’s about 50 restaurants
0:17:31 in the downtown area.
0:17:35 A lot of people that live in the suburbs are not familiar with all those restaurants,
0:17:38 you know, and so it gave an opportunity for people who live
0:17:42 in the suburbs of Mobile to come downtown and and visit
0:17:45 and be have their eyes open to these incredible restaurants.
0:17:49 We had no idea they were all here, you know, or some maybe some old favorites
0:17:51 that, you know, they visited many years ago.
0:17:53 And so there was a little bit of a connection there.
0:17:56 We really encourage people to leave reviews.
0:17:58 And that was huge, you know, like, again, you know, not just sharing
0:18:02 about it on social media and Facebook, but, you know, going on some of the
0:18:05 platforms, like you mentioned, TripAdvisor and Yelp and Google
0:18:07 and leaving five star reviews.
0:18:09 And so we really pushed those out.
0:18:11 Yeah. People left the five star reviews.
0:18:16 And so, yeah, you’ll see after a few months of of of gaining some of those
0:18:19 reviews that bumps us up in the algorithm of websites like TripAdvisor.
0:18:23 And and slowly you start to become, you know, one of the number one
0:18:27 or one of the highly ranked things to do in your town.
0:18:30 That opens up, like you mentioned, all the the tourists and visitors.
0:18:31 Yeah, totally.
0:18:36 Yeah. You’re closing in on looks like 300 TripAdvisor reviews as of as of
0:18:37 press time, as of the time of this recording.
0:18:39 And it doesn’t happen by accident.
0:18:42 And it’s just miles ahead of the next closest thing.
0:18:46 So do you remember if there was a specific ask or, hey, you know, scan
0:18:49 this QR code at the end of the tour and it’ll, you know, suit you straight over
0:18:51 there where you can say nice things about us.
0:18:53 You know, I’ve tried a lot of those things.
0:18:58 I’ve tried the QR codes and I’ve tried the even, you know, the paper,
0:19:00 you know, even business cards with a QR code.
0:19:04 I honestly, I have just found that if you just ask people to leave a five star
0:19:07 review, most of the time they really will.
0:19:10 And honestly, I think that that’s the best strategy.
0:19:14 If you really connect with somebody on a personal level and we get a
0:19:17 chance to do that in a three hour tour, walking tour at the end of that.
0:19:21 If you come away leaving them with an incredible impression of your city
0:19:25 and your genuine knowledge and passion that you’re showing, they’ll,
0:19:27 they’ll go leave that five star review.
0:19:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:19:30 That’s that Southern hospitality coming out.
0:19:32 Well, you know, I got to do right by this guy.
0:19:33 You know, he just spent three hours with me.
0:19:34 There you go.
0:19:39 The other component of this that I forgot to ask about is coming up
0:19:43 with a three hour history lecture and, you know, walking, talking in this building,
0:19:45 this restaurant, like this is significant.
0:19:49 Like you mentioned being a history buff, but that’s still like a lot of material.
0:19:53 Maybe, maybe it’s less difficult than it seems like it might be to come up with.
0:19:57 But that seems like a non-zero part of the equation, too.
0:19:58 Yeah, yeah, that’s huge.
0:20:03 And you do, you kind of, it can be a little tricky as well, because you want
0:20:06 to highlight some of the popular landmarks that are in your city.
0:20:09 Well, you got to hope there’s some restaurants near those landmarks as well,
0:20:12 you know, so that’s a key component.
0:20:17 But again, I’ve always been, I don’t know, my brain is wired differently, maybe,
0:20:18 but I’m a big history buff.
0:20:22 But I’ve also, I can figure out time very well, too.
0:20:27 So I don’t know, I’m really good at logistics and knowing exactly
0:20:30 when I can arrive at a certain place, how long it’s going to take me there.
0:20:34 I’ve slowly found over the years, not everybody’s like that.
0:20:36 Yeah, we’re going to walk from here to here.
0:20:38 We’re going to tell this story and we’re going to talk about this thing.
0:20:42 And then by the time that’s wrapping up, hey, you know, and here’s our next destination.
0:20:43 That’s right. Yeah.
0:20:48 So yeah, we’re looking for historic hotels, historic churches,
0:20:52 historic parks, historic streets, anything with a story, anything
0:20:55 with a good story about our city.
0:20:57 And of course, the restaurants themselves, they’ve all got stories.
0:21:01 You know, whether it’s the founder, maybe maybe one of them has been featured
0:21:03 on the Food Network or something like that.
0:21:04 That’s that’s common.
0:21:08 But then also, I think people are just as interested in the mom and pop
0:21:11 restaurants that have only been open for two years.
0:21:13 They’re interested in those stories as well.
0:21:14 So every restaurant has a story.
0:21:16 Yeah, OK, that makes sense.
0:21:19 And it’s like you get to study up on your on your history really street by street
0:21:22 to learn, you know, what to talk about, what’s going to be compelling.
0:21:25 I’ll say another thing to, you know, and it does sound intimidating.
0:21:29 And I tell my tour guides this all the time, you know, they are not going to remember
0:21:32 what year the Battle House Hotel was built.
0:21:34 They are going to remember how you made them feel.
0:21:37 And so kind of going back to what I mentioned earlier about when you really
0:21:41 connect with people and just kind of connect with them on the tour on a one
0:21:44 on one and personal level, they’re they’re going to remember that there.
0:21:45 That’s going to be their takeaway.
0:21:47 It’s not going to be the history.
0:21:51 It’s going to be the food, but mostly it’s going to be how you made them feel.
0:21:54 Yeah, that’s kind of what’s what stands out from the tours that I’ve been on
0:21:55 and the tour guides that we’ve had.
0:21:59 It’s like the level of excitement and you think you’d be talking about something
0:22:02 that in a different context would be like, who cares?
0:22:04 Like, why does this even matter?
0:22:07 But they’re like so into it that you’re like, well, now I’m into it.
0:22:09 Now I’m invested in this and it really does help.
0:22:11 So that’s yeah, that’s helpful to know. OK.
0:22:13 The social media ball is rolling.
0:22:16 The you know, we’re starting to collect a critical mass of reviews here.
0:22:20 We’ve got the the spiel down to get old, telling the same jokes,
0:22:22 telling the same stories, eating at the same restaurant.
0:22:25 Like imagine like I’m doing this every weekend and I know
0:22:29 this line is going to get a laugh, but it’s like it’s slowly killing me inside.
0:22:31 Or it’s like I’m getting paid to do it, so it’s all good.
0:22:35 No, it really doesn’t know the dynamics of the group are different every week, right?
0:22:36 You know, and I think that’s what’s kind of fun.
0:22:38 It gives you a little bit of butterflies before the tour
0:22:40 because you don’t know what that group is going to be like.
0:22:42 You don’t know where they’re going to be from.
0:22:43 You don’t know their story, right?
0:22:45 Like, yeah, once you start kind of connecting
0:22:48 and asking them where they’re from and hey, people love to talk about themselves.
0:22:51 And so if we can start connecting with those people,
0:22:54 they’re going to open up a little bit and they’re going to build your knowledge
0:22:57 and all that. It’s going to build their trust with them.
0:23:00 And so I think that makes it makes the dynamic different every time.
0:23:04 No tours ever the same. No two days are like there was this Jimmy Buffett line.
0:23:08 Somebody asked you every get tired of singing Margaritaville for 40 years.
0:23:12 And he’s like, honestly, no, you know, this song has paid the rent for decades.
0:23:13 So I never get tired of singing it.
0:23:15 That’s exactly right. That’s all right.
0:23:18 Yeah. Mobile native Jimmy Buffett, by the way, there you go.
0:23:20 That’s right. Gulf Coast. Cool.
0:23:23 Love it. Is there a minimum number of guests?
0:23:26 This was, you know, one of the I guess the pros and cons.
0:23:29 So one of the booking platforms that another guest mentioned is Airbnb
0:23:32 Experiences, where somebody books an Airbnb immobile.
0:23:35 That site is going to try and get incremental revenue by recommending
0:23:38 some of the things to do while you’re in town.
0:23:39 One of them is going to be Chris’s food tour.
0:23:42 But even if only one person books at the time.
0:23:44 Anyways, it’s recollection service.
0:23:47 Like the requirement was like, even if one person books, you got to go do the thing.
0:23:51 It’s like, I don’t know, I got to go do by three hours feel for one person.
0:23:57 Airbnb Experiences, they do have that requirement for us on our website.
0:23:58 I do have a two person minimum.
0:24:01 I mean, so if you book on our website, we will do the tour for two people.
0:24:05 And I’ve done plenty of tours for two people, especially in the middle of August.
0:24:08 You know, I can’t figure out why nobody wants to do a three hour walking tour.
0:24:11 When it’s a hundred degrees outside, I still haven’t figured that out.
0:24:16 Our marketing strategy is there may need some work, but I’ve given two person tours.
0:24:19 And, you know, as long as you’ve got your again, you know, I think that goes back
0:24:22 to what we talked about with your structure of your pricing model.
0:24:26 And so, no, I’m not making any money off a two person tour.
0:24:29 But I’m also going to make sure I’m not losing any money off a two person tour as well.
0:24:33 OK, are you still doing the bulk of the tours yourself?
0:24:36 You mentioned we’ve got some other tour guides here.
0:24:38 We’re going to give the script to and they can run with it.
0:24:42 I’ve slowly got a good, great team of tour guides.
0:24:43 I don’t give as many tours as I used to.
0:24:47 You know, in the early days, it was my wife and I given tours.
0:24:48 I was working at the steel mill.
0:24:51 And if I was off on the weekends, I would give those tours.
0:24:53 I had to work the weekends.
0:24:56 My wife would give the tours on those dates slowly.
0:24:59 But surely, you know, of course, we got burned out really quick.
0:25:02 I’ve got small kids at home and we’ve got a family as well
0:25:04 and other priorities, too, to tend to.
0:25:08 So we started hiring a couple of tour guides, you know,
0:25:11 and yeah, we gave them a script, told them to make it their own.
0:25:13 Don’t copy word for word.
0:25:16 Put your personality into the script and they’ve done that.
0:25:18 And that’s been a game changer for us.
0:25:21 We’ve I’ve got about six tour guides that lead tours right now.
0:25:25 Wow. And so, you know, they’re passionate as I am about our city.
0:25:26 They’re as knowledgeable.
0:25:30 And again, they’re I think the best thing about it is that they love people.
0:25:32 They love connecting with people.
0:25:33 That’s their greatest trait.
0:25:35 And so I’ll let them give as many tours as they want.
0:25:38 And if there’s a weekend that everybody happens to be off at the same time,
0:25:40 then I’ll go give it. OK, yeah.
0:25:44 So starting out, I mean, seems like a great weekend side gig where it’s like,
0:25:47 I can have that full time job because this is going to happen during off hours.
0:25:50 Anyways, you know, people taking the tour is probably going to be off work, too.
0:25:51 And so it makes sense.
0:25:54 You can be a small of a food tour operator as you want,
0:25:57 or you can be as large of a food tour operator as you want.
0:25:59 If you wanted to, you could do this on Saturdays only, Fridays,
0:26:01 or whatever day you chose to do that.
0:26:04 Or if your town has got the demand, you could do it every day of the week.
0:26:07 You know, it’s kind of it’s one of those things that that’s what’s
0:26:09 really fun about this industry, too.
0:26:11 Yeah, just block off the calendar availability.
0:26:15 Like there’s nothing going on on a Wednesday afternoon, so you can’t book that day.
0:26:16 That’s right. Yeah.
0:26:19 And if you know you’re going to be on vacation two years from now,
0:26:20 then yeah, go ahead and block that off.
0:26:23 But for us, you know, we’ve got a great team of tour guides.
0:26:27 And so there have been times where, you know, I get to go on vacation
0:26:29 and let the tour guides handle everything.
0:26:30 And that’s a great feeling.
0:26:33 Yeah, that’s really cool to be able to remove yourself from the delivery
0:26:35 logistics of it.
0:26:38 And I feel like that is where it could wear on people.
0:26:41 If I don’t have enough margin built in to hire somebody else to do this,
0:26:45 then I’m committed to spend it every Saturday night going out and doing this thing.
0:26:46 And if you love it, that’s one thing.
0:26:49 But it’s like, even if you do love it, it’s nice to have the option to step away.
0:26:51 Absolutely. Yeah.
0:26:54 More with Chris in just a moment, including taking the business full time
0:26:57 and the other marketing levers he’s pulling to keep this thing growing.
0:27:00 That’s coming up right after this.
0:27:05 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:27:09 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy,
0:27:13 drafted newsletters from Japan, hosted mastermind meetings from Spain.
0:27:16 Ended up being the middle of the night to get to US business hours
0:27:19 and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:27:23 The common thread of all of these trips, though, is Airbnb.
0:27:26 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay
0:27:31 and have a more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:27:34 And you know me, I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea,
0:27:36 the next income stream, right?
0:27:40 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb
0:27:41 while we’re traveling.
0:27:43 That way, the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:27:45 We could use the income to help pay for the trip.
0:27:49 And we’ve heard from several successful Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:27:53 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy,
0:27:57 running their place or even a spare room while they’re out of town,
0:27:59 taking inspiration from that.
0:28:02 You might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:28:04 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:28:09 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host.
0:28:13 That’s Airbnb.com/host to find out how much your home is worth.
0:28:15 Hey, it’s no secret.
0:28:19 Starting a business can feel really hard and growing a business even harder.
0:28:21 How are you going to reach more customers?
0:28:23 How can you do it when budgets are tight?
0:28:26 How can you maintain the quality of your products and services as you scale?
0:28:29 Well, there’s a great podcast that can help out with all of that.
0:28:32 It’s called This is Small Business.
0:28:36 This is Small Business is full of practical insights that you can apply to your
0:28:37 business right now.
0:28:41 And it answers so many of those kinds of questions that all entrepreneurs have,
0:28:45 like how to build your marketing strategy, how to use email lists to increase
0:28:49 revenue, tips to accelerate small business growth and tons more.
0:28:52 A couple of recent episodes I think you might like are Episode 61
0:28:57 on Marketing, Networking and Audience Building and Episode 63
0:29:00 on how to build your business with a small budget.
0:29:03 Both of those are filled with practical, actionable tips to move your
0:29:06 side hustle forward so you can reach your goals.
0:29:09 So go ahead and follow This is Small Business, an original podcast
0:29:11 from Amazon, wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:29:18 Was there a revenue target or number of guests’ target where you felt
0:29:20 comfortable calling it quits at the day job and said, look,
0:29:21 this is going to be our full-time thing?
0:29:24 No, I don’t think there was ever a number.
0:29:28 If I had put a number on that, right, when you’ve got a family at home
0:29:30 and you’ve got small kids like I do, there’s never enough.
0:29:33 And so that day would have never come.
0:29:35 So no, I didn’t have a revenue target that I was looking for.
0:29:36 I don’t know.
0:29:38 It was kind of just the timing was just, it just worked out.
0:29:42 My wife, she got a job teaching elementary school.
0:29:46 And, you know, so that kind of took care of some of our insurance and benefits
0:29:47 that we needed for that.
0:29:49 And the timing was just right.
0:29:53 You know, I knew I kind of scaled the business as much as I possibly could.
0:29:58 The last few months of my job at the steel meal, oh, I was a bad employee.
0:30:00 They did not like me because I was always taking off.
0:30:04 I was always in the break room on the phone and the bathroom on the phone.
0:30:04 Right.
0:30:09 Like I had scaled it to as much as I could without getting fired.
0:30:10 Yeah.
0:30:14 And so I knew I believe in this business and I believe that, you know,
0:30:17 even as we sit here today, I believe that, you know, our business is going
0:30:21 to continue to grow and we’re going to continue to connect people to mobile.
0:30:23 And we’re going to grow mobile through our food tour.
0:30:24 And it’s exciting.
0:30:28 And it’s grown every year since that, starting as a side hustle into a full time thing.
0:30:32 It’s grown every year, you know, and we hit a course where we got a COVID story
0:30:34 just like everybody in 2020, you know, knocked us down.
0:30:40 But 2021, we were back, back with numbers that were greater than 2019, you know,
0:30:42 and those have grown every single year.
0:30:44 So, you know, I’m so thrilled.
0:30:48 Yeah. So a couple of ways to expand other, you know, number one is, you know,
0:30:52 getting in front of both more locals and more travelers, which sounds like you’re
0:30:56 doing through these different tour booking platforms like TripAdvisor and these,
0:30:59 like, you know, best things to do in mobile type of lists.
0:31:01 What else is going on on the marketing side these days?
0:31:04 You know, one of the things that we’ve kind of tapped into with our tour are
0:31:07 themed tours and you mentioned the Haunted Tours.
0:31:09 We give a Haunted Tour as well in the month of October.
0:31:10 OK.
0:31:12 That’s something that we’ve really tapped into.
0:31:14 Again, it brings out some of the locals.
0:31:19 And so if you’ve taken our traditional history tour before, you might come out
0:31:20 and take the Haunted Tour.
0:31:25 And we have Haunted Cocktails or, you know, Haunted-themed food and drink
0:31:29 during some of those tours where we want to make a visit by the graveyard
0:31:33 and telling some of the Haunted stories of mobile.
0:31:36 OK. And so that’s something that we’ve kind of tapped into.
0:31:40 We’re going to do probably nine or 10 themed food tours this year.
0:31:43 One of those is a Jimmy Buffett themed, you know, our native
0:31:46 Mobillion. Oh, I got to come to town. Yeah.
0:31:49 Jimmy Buffett talks about food a lot in a lot of his songs.
0:31:53 So we’re going to have a Jimmy Buffett themed tour where we talk about
0:31:57 some of his stories that he has growing up here in Mobile and also tying
0:32:00 that into the food that he talks about in some of his songs.
0:32:02 So we’re going to have a cheeseburger in Paradise. Love it.
0:32:08 You know, we’re going to have oysters and beer, some frozen concoctions
0:32:10 and all the good stuff like that.
0:32:14 So but again, the theme tours are great Christmas tours.
0:32:15 Those are Christmas themed.
0:32:19 We have Mardi Gras in Mobile and Mardi Gras theme tours.
0:32:22 So we’ve really tapped into that.
0:32:23 Again, it’s brought out locals.
0:32:26 That’s been the biggest thing that has distinguished us from.
0:32:30 I think a lot of other food tours is the fact that we have 70 percent
0:32:32 of our people are locals that come on our tour.
0:32:35 And I think a big reason is because of the theme tours.
0:32:37 Now, you’re also running the Port City Plate podcast.
0:32:40 Do you consider that a marketing channel for the business?
0:32:43 Is this just something something fun to do?
0:32:46 That is. I did start that as a marketing channel for the food tours.
0:32:49 You know, again, I’ve got these relationships with these restaurant
0:32:53 owners and people in our city who have these stories that, yeah,
0:32:55 we tell the story on the on the food tour,
0:32:59 but we get to really go in depth on their story on the podcast.
0:33:04 And it’s I would highly recommend a podcast for a food tour operator
0:33:08 because no one is going to say no to being on your podcast.
0:33:11 And you might have found that out.
0:33:16 And and that also helps with, you know, it helps build your credibility as well.
0:33:17 And it gives you stories.
0:33:19 I can, you know, some of the interviews that I’ve given,
0:33:24 I’ll turn that around into into the script of our tour.
0:33:27 And, you know, I’m always learning things about
0:33:30 that particular restaurant that I didn’t know through the podcast.
0:33:35 And so incorporating some of those stories back into the into the tour as well
0:33:38 has been so beneficial.
0:33:41 So now I can’t say that it’s a I don’t have a revenue number to give you.
0:33:45 I can’t say that that podcast has given me X amount of revenue.
0:33:46 Yeah.
0:33:51 But it has absolutely been beneficial for me in the community and for our tour.
0:33:51 Right.
0:33:53 Building relationships with restaurant owners.
0:33:56 Hard to imagine a downside to doing it other than just the time commitment.
0:33:57 That’s right. OK.
0:34:02 The other angle that another tour operator was using was kind of like for team
0:34:05 building events where it was like, you know, instead of going for these ones,
0:34:09 the 2Z tourists, you know, maybe it’s a family and you get five or six people
0:34:12 coming at once, but it’s still a lot of individual sales.
0:34:14 And sometimes I want to call you and ask questions.
0:34:18 And it’s like she found it was somewhat easier to make big ticket, you know,
0:34:22 50 person team building sales for some corporate office that happens to be in
0:34:25 town and needs something to do like you play around with that at all.
0:34:30 Absolutely. A quarter of our business last year was was strictly corporate
0:34:31 and team building tours that we had given.
0:34:35 And so we absolutely tap into that that if you’re working in an office,
0:34:38 you’re looking for something different than just going out to a restaurant.
0:34:42 And so the tour allows you to, you know, mingle with your group,
0:34:44 go to different restaurants, do something different.
0:34:49 I’ve also found that we’ve tapped into a company here called Airbus
0:34:52 and they build airplanes, you know, around the world.
0:34:54 They have a manufacturing plant in Mobile.
0:35:00 And Airbus has used us a few times for when they bring corporate clients down
0:35:04 from other parts of the world, they bring them here to Mobile and they take our tour.
0:35:08 And so it’s another way for somebody else to promote Mobile
0:35:12 outside of just maybe the Chamber of Commerce saying how great the city is.
0:35:16 You know, you get to these people, these executives get to come and take the tour.
0:35:19 And it’s again, it shows how, hey, Mobile is a really cool place.
0:35:21 We have a really cool history.
0:35:24 We’ve got great restaurants and it’s a thriving town.
0:35:28 And it makes them feel good about their decision to locate and do business in Mobile.
0:35:32 And do you do anything proactive to get on the radar of those corporate booking
0:35:36 travel coordinator type of people or is just by virtue of being number one
0:35:39 for like things to do in Mobile that they reach out to you?
0:35:40 It’s a lot of hard work.
0:35:43 I would say the number one thing is going back to what I mentioned at the very
0:35:46 beginning is going out and networking with people.
0:35:47 I absolutely recommend that.
0:35:49 I think getting your name out there.
0:35:50 But yeah, email.
0:35:52 That’s another big way that we kind of capitalize on that, too.
0:35:58 OK, email in terms of trying to find a decision maker, trying to find a contact
0:35:59 person at these companies.
0:35:59 That’s right. Yeah.
0:36:00 And so email marketing.
0:36:05 And so, yeah, we’ll even send out sometimes specific emails to our list of client,
0:36:10 our email list, who are potential team building tour guests.
0:36:15 And so we’ll send out a specific email to them specifically telling them
0:36:16 about the different options.
0:36:20 So, you know, yeah, when it comes to team building, we’ve given tours on trolleys
0:36:26 and we can do as much or as little as you want to do on a team building tour.
0:36:29 Is the email list primarily just existing customer base?
0:36:30 Or is there a reason somebody else would be on it?
0:36:33 Primarily, it’s an existing customer base.
0:36:34 My guess is it’s not huge.
0:36:38 So you kind of scrub that list for people who have, you know, a company
0:36:44 looking email addresses, be like, hey, you look like you took our tour last July.
0:36:47 Hope you had a great time, you know, open the door in that way.
0:36:50 Like, if you ever need a team building activity, you know, keep us in mind.
0:36:51 That’s exactly right.
0:36:51 Absolutely.
0:36:52 They’ll do that.
0:36:57 You know, a good little strategy that kind of came up with was I created a blog
0:37:01 and it was on our website best team building activities in Mobile, Alabama.
0:37:03 And it was, you know, it’s like a top 10 list, right?
0:37:06 And so if you search for team building in Mobile, that’s the number one thing
0:37:07 that’s going to pop up.
0:37:08 So we’ve got that on there.
0:37:12 And of course, you know, you click the link and send you an email right to me.
0:37:15 And we’ll start playing in that corporate tour.
0:37:17 Love it. Yeah.
0:37:19 That’s probably not a huge search volume, but very high.
0:37:21 A very well qualified traffic that does come through.
0:37:22 That’s right.
0:37:22 Very good.
0:37:26 So what’s a day in the life look like for you today?
0:37:29 Maybe maybe this weekend, for example, if you’ve got, you know, a dozen people
0:37:33 booked, but you got somebody else handling that tour, you’re answering the phone.
0:37:35 You’re doing the podcast.
0:37:38 Like, where’s where’s your time going if you’ve got other people doing
0:37:40 the actual logistic tour side?
0:37:44 Yeah, I still consider myself a solopreneur, you know, in a way,
0:37:46 because I don’t give as many tours this weekend.
0:37:49 For an example, we’ll give probably six or seven tours this weekend.
0:37:50 But I’m not going to give any of them.
0:37:51 Oh, how cool is that?
0:37:52 That’s that’s exciting.
0:37:53 Yeah, it’s fun.
0:37:57 You know, now, of course, you’re still responsible at the end of the day,
0:37:58 you know, and emergencies happen.
0:38:01 And so you’ve got to always you’ve always got to be on standby a little bit.
0:38:05 But at the end of the day, I think that communication with the restaurants
0:38:09 come in constant communication with the restaurants about our groups.
0:38:13 And if something is a little bit off schedule from our normal tour,
0:38:15 you know, they’re going to know about it ahead of time.
0:38:18 And so I think, you know, communicating with the restaurants,
0:38:22 communicating with the tour guides constantly and getting good people
0:38:25 that you trust. And I think that’s a good recipe for for me to be able
0:38:27 to handle a lot of the logistics.
0:38:31 I get to, you know, create these theme tours that I’ve talked about.
0:38:35 Like right now I’m working hard on our haunted tour season coming up in October.
0:38:38 And so, you know, it gives me a chance to plan that.
0:38:41 It gives me a chance to plan some of the team building tours
0:38:44 that we’ll do over the next few weeks as well.
0:38:46 So a lot of planning.
0:38:50 We’re roster of guides pulled from existing tour operators.
0:38:53 Like, were they were they doing this before either for themselves
0:38:55 or for another agency, another company?
0:38:56 And they’re just like, oh, I have capacity.
0:39:00 I can add on another tour or these like completely homegrown hires.
0:39:03 We’re like, look, we’ll teach you how to do how to lead these food tours.
0:39:06 It’s an incredible mix of people.
0:39:10 So I do have one person that was a tour guide for a duck boat
0:39:12 that she did a duck boat tour.
0:39:13 She was a tour guide for them.
0:39:16 Other than that, nobody else had really ever given tours before.
0:39:18 Now they were again passionate about our city.
0:39:20 One person is a retired school teacher.
0:39:26 One person actually took our tour as a visitor, loved it so much.
0:39:30 She moved here and reached out to me about taking tours
0:39:33 and told me that the reason that she moved here was because of the tour.
0:39:35 Now she’s giving tours for us.
0:39:38 And so I must have been sub-tour. Yeah, it is.
0:39:40 It’s an incredible mix of people.
0:39:44 Yeah, you never know where your your next great hire is going to come from.
0:39:45 That’s fascinating.
0:39:47 Anything else that’s surprised you along the way?
0:39:50 I never set out to quit my full-time job.
0:39:52 Certainly didn’t anticipate that.
0:39:54 That was never my plan.
0:39:57 It was just really just again, like I mentioned at the beginning,
0:40:01 a passion to talk about our history and to give those tours.
0:40:04 So, no, I never never would have imagined
0:40:08 starting a podcast or quitting my full-time job.
0:40:09 I even wrote a book.
0:40:12 I wrote a book called A Culinary History of Mobile that had never been written
0:40:17 before and just little things like that that have opened up so many doors
0:40:21 and avenues, it is surprising when you stop and think about it.
0:40:22 That’s fascinating.
0:40:25 We’ll have to link up the book in the show notes here.
0:40:27 Absolutely. Where do you want to take this thing?
0:40:30 Is there a geographic expansion play?
0:40:33 Like, oh, we’re going to take over the whole Gulf Coast.
0:40:36 Is there, I mean, there’s a limit to how many people are coming through town.
0:40:41 And I guess you got a decent chunk of the customer base that’s locals.
0:40:44 But then I got to imagine that taps out after a while.
0:40:45 Like, what’s next for you?
0:40:49 Yeah, we did expand to a neighboring city that’s called Fairhope, Alabama.
0:40:51 It’s a very small town.
0:40:54 You know, it’s a lot of boutique shops and great restaurants there.
0:40:59 And we did expand there and that tour is going really well, too.
0:41:00 And it’s growing.
0:41:02 But my plan is not to…
0:41:08 I don’t plan on having an empire of food tours along the Gulf Coast myself.
0:41:10 Going to franchise this thing, you know, world domination.
0:41:13 Yeah, I’m passionate about where I’m from.
0:41:18 I’m passionate about Mobile and Baldwin County, the area that I’m from.
0:41:20 And so that’s where my passion is.
0:41:24 So it would probably be I’d be doing those towns in injustice
0:41:27 to really expand and do that in some other town.
0:41:30 But what’s next for me, though, is I have started a course
0:41:33 and it’s called Food Tour Founders.
0:41:36 And so I want to give people who are interested in this niche
0:41:40 an opportunity to take my course and learn the lessons
0:41:44 and perfect the entire strategy of your business
0:41:46 and for people to do this in their food tour.
0:41:50 And I hope that, of course, my big goal would be to have not an empire,
0:41:53 but thousands of food tours around the world,
0:41:57 potentially, of people that have taken the Food Tour Founders course.
0:42:00 And that would be incredibly fulfilling for me.
0:42:04 Now, you can impact a lot of lives that way, both in the tour operators
0:42:06 and in the people going on those tours, wherever they travel,
0:42:08 because it is such a memorable experience.
0:42:12 The one that stands out to me is riding on the back of these motorbikes
0:42:16 in in Vietnam, and it just feels like you’re going to die.
0:42:19 Because there’s just wall to wall motorbikes in these packed cities.
0:42:24 And then you eventually the traffic lets up and you feel like you’re really
0:42:26 flooring it or, you know, and open it up.
0:42:29 You look over the girl’s shoulder and you see we’re going like 25 miles an hour.
0:42:32 Like, oh, gosh, it feels like we were flying now.
0:42:35 But it was such a unique thing and still talking about it 10 and 12 years later.
0:42:36 So that’s right. Yeah.
0:42:40 And there’s a great network of people, they take food tours everywhere they go.
0:42:43 Yeah. And so that’s that’s another I think a marketing
0:42:47 win for a food tour operator that is organically you’re going to have people
0:42:51 that are searching for food tours because there are a lot of great food tours out there.
0:42:53 And it makes an impact on you.
0:42:57 It makes a it’s there’s so many great operators that give great experiences
0:43:02 that people can trust that, hey, you know what, a food tour is a is a great
0:43:05 experience in a city because you’re going to eat at some of the great restaurants.
0:43:09 You’re going to learn about the unique food and the food that ties into the history.
0:43:13 Well, it’s something that we like to give as gifts to where it’s like, I don’t know what to get you.
0:43:16 But I know you’re going to this place this week.
0:43:19 And here here’s a gift certificate to this place or here.
0:43:22 We already booked it for you on Thursday night, you know, have a good time.
0:43:23 Yeah, it’s a great idea.
0:43:25 I don’t know as you get gift card traffic.
0:43:27 Absolutely. Yeah, we do.
0:43:29 We do. We have gift cards on our website.
0:43:33 And so, yeah, that does that has happened pretty frequently where maybe a relative might book
0:43:38 a tour or give someone a gift card for them to come to Mobile or something like that.
0:43:39 So that does happen pretty frequently.
0:43:42 Very good. Well, foodtourfounders.com.
0:43:43 This is brand new.
0:43:47 So you’d be a chance to be an early student of Chris’s.
0:43:49 If you go check that out, foodtourfounders.com.
0:43:51 We’ll link that up in the show notes.
0:43:54 Bienvillebytesfoodtour.com as well.
0:43:57 If you happen to be in or around Mobile, check them out.
0:43:58 Go take one of their tours.
0:44:02 Let’s wrap this thing up with your number one tip for side hustle nation.
0:44:05 My number one tip for side hustle nation is simple.
0:44:08 And it’s probably been said before, you know, just do it, step out there and do it.
0:44:09 Yeah, it’s scary.
0:44:13 It’s scary to think about the what ifs, especially when it comes to business.
0:44:19 I think for anybody, if you’ve got a passion, especially for food, for tourism,
0:44:21 I say, just do it and just do it.
0:44:23 Very good. Again, foodtourfounders.com.
0:44:25 You can find Chris over there.
0:44:27 Couple takeaways before we wrap up.
0:44:30 Number one is really this call to be a steward of the community, right?
0:44:33 It’s a relationships with the restaurant owners.
0:44:35 It is leading with this, hey, we’re fans of Mobile.
0:44:36 We want to get the word out.
0:44:39 This is a great place to eat, a great place to learn about the history.
0:44:41 And that excitement rubs off.
0:44:46 And it’s not we’re approaching this as like, you know, money hungry startup entrepreneurs.
0:44:48 That will come. And that is great.
0:44:52 That’s a byproduct of doing the first part of, you know, trying to build a product
0:44:56 that people really want and value, which I know you’ve done in this case.
0:45:00 The second thing is to build that marketing engine where now seven years deep into it,
0:45:04 it looks like you can’t search for things to do in Mobile and not come across Chris.
0:45:06 But it didn’t start out that way.
0:45:08 It started with friends and family, social media, organic.
0:45:10 Can you leave us a five star review, right?
0:45:12 And it starts to compound and it starts to compound.
0:45:16 And then we get the corporate booking tours and we start the podcast, you know,
0:45:20 integrate, then we expand all these different other, you know, themed tours.
0:45:22 And then we’re expanded to the nearby city.
0:45:25 And it seems like a lot starting out, but it was just a week inside hustle starting out, right?
0:45:30 It just I want to hammer that in that the marketing engine doesn’t have to be overnight,
0:45:33 but it can really start to compound as as you get into it.
0:45:37 So fascinating stuff looking around to see if there are any food tours nearby.
0:45:40 We’re out in the burbs, so probably probably less get around here.
0:45:44 But definitely lots of opportunities to do something in and around Seattle,
0:45:47 especially seasonal with the cruise traffic coming through.
0:45:52 Some makes makes a lot of sense if you are looking for something to listen to next
0:45:57 in this local tour niche, I’ve got some other episode recommendations for you.
0:45:59 Episode 370, we talked to Rob Patengalo.
0:46:03 He did a history tour, a walking tour in Washington, D.C.
0:46:09 And what was unique about his business was YouTube was the primary marketing strategy.
0:46:11 What was interesting about like YouTube is global.
0:46:14 Like it was like marketing a local business on this global platform.
0:46:17 Well, how it worked in his case was he was targeting common questions
0:46:20 that up and coming visitors to D.C. were going to ask like,
0:46:23 how does the metro work or, you know, what are the best things to do in the summer?
0:46:26 And so he creates these videos. Hey, I’m Rob.
0:46:28 I’m a local tour guide in Washington, D.C.
0:46:29 And here’s how to use the metro.
0:46:30 Here’s how our metro system works.
0:46:33 Again, super targeted audience and he’d get customers booking all the time.
0:46:35 I watched half a dozen of your videos.
0:46:38 And it’s so cool to meet you in person and so cool to book one of your tours.
0:46:39 We talked to Michelle Maddox.
0:46:43 She was the one doing the guided meditation on the Red Rocks in Sedona.
0:46:46 That was primarily through Airbnb experiences.
0:46:49 Again, tapping into these pre-existing marketing channels.
0:46:51 We called it the buy buttons theory, like, you know,
0:46:52 where are my target customers already doing business?
0:46:55 If they’re coming into town, they might be doing it through Airbnb.
0:46:58 Maybe there’s a strategic partnership through local hotels or, you know,
0:47:01 making connections with the concierge desks at various hotels in this case.
0:47:06 And the other one that comes to mind or the Michelle Maddox episode was number 347.
0:47:10 And then we had Alex Kennan in 193 way back in the archives.
0:47:12 She was doing the urban hiking tours in San Francisco.
0:47:16 Lots of bookings through those, you know, corporate team building stuff.
0:47:20 Plus, you know, through building up that reputation over years of putting in the reps
0:47:25 and getting those trip advisor reviews and showing up as a as a cool thing to do in town.
0:47:29 And she ended up getting a book deal with like mountaineers press or mountaineers
0:47:32 publishing like the urban, she like literally wrote the book on the urban hiking
0:47:35 just like you wrote the culinary history of mobile.
0:47:36 And if none of those appeal to you, that’s all good.
0:47:40 Hustle.show is where you can find a little two minute quiz
0:47:44 to get your own personalized playlist of the episodes that are most impactful for you.
0:47:47 You can do it on your mobile device to a few short, multiple choice questions.
0:47:49 And it’ll spit out that playlist for you.
0:47:53 Hustle.show is where you’ll find that big thanks to Chris for sharing his insight.
0:47:57 Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:48:01 As always, you can hit up side hustle nation dot com slash deals for all the latest
0:48:03 offers from our advertisers in one place.
0:48:04 That is it for me.
0:48:05 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:48:08 If you’re finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
0:48:10 She’ll fire off that text message.
0:48:12 Hey, we should totally start this in our town until next time.
0:48:14 Let’s go out there and make something happen.
0:48:17 And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the side hustle show hustle on.
How can a food tour side hustle turn into a $300k a year business?
Chris Andrews from Bienville Bites Food Tour started his side hustle back in 2017, where he gave food tours on the weekends in Mobile, Alabama.
Fast forward a few years, and now he’s running a $300k business! He quit his job at the steel mill and now runs these food tours full time.
How did Chris go from slinging steels to doing food tours?
Tune in to Ep 632 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how Chris built his food tours from the ground up
- how he’s removed himself from some of the day-to-day operations
- how you might start something similar in your town
Full Show Notes: From Weekend Side Hustle to $300k/year Business
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!
Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!
This is Small Business — Learn how to start and grow your small business with “This Is Small Business,” an Amazon original podcast, on your favorite podcast app.