Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Program Manager Built a 16K Monthly Side Hustle in Grant Writing Consulting
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this person — let's call her Maya — who was working as a program manager at a mid-sized nonprofit focused on workforce development. She was making about 62K a year, standard benefits, decent job, but she knew she could earn more by monetizing a skill she already had: grant writing. Luna: And she didn't quit, right? She built this alongside her full-time role. Lucas: Exactly. She started small — one client, a local arts nonprofit that needed a federal grant application done in three weeks. She charged them $3,000, which felt like a lot at the time, but she delivered and they referred her to two others. Luna: So she wasn't just writing grants — she was building a reputation. Lucas: Right. And the key insight was that she didn't go broad. She specialized in federal grant compliance, which is a nightmare for most small nonprofits. They don't have the staff or the expertise to navigate 200-page application guidelines. Maya had learned that system inside out at her day job. Luna: How did she price it? Per project or per hour? Lucas: Per project, almost always. She figured out that hourly billing capped her income — a grant application might take her 40 hours, but the value to the client was way more than 40 times her hourly rate. So she charged $4,000 to $6,000 per completed application, depending on complexity. Luna: And she kept her day job the whole time? That's a lot of work. Lucas: She did. But she was disciplined about boundaries. She only took on two to three clients per quarter, and she'd batch her work on weekends and evenings. The biggest risk, of course, was conflict of interest — her employer might see her as a competitor or worry about her using their resources. Luna: How'd she handle that? Lucas: She talked to her boss early on. She framed it as professional development — grant writing is a core skill for a program manager, and she said she was honing it. She also made it clear she'd never take on clients that overlapped with her employer's funding sources. Her boss actually became a reference. Luna: That's smart. It's one of those things where transparency actually builds trust. Lucas: Exactly. And within two years, she had five consistent clients, each paying her on retainer — about $3,000 a month per client for ongoing compliance support. That put her at $15,000 a month, sometimes $16,000 if she landed a big individual grant. Luna: That's more than double her salary. And it's recurring revenue. Lucas: Yeah. That's the part that really changed her financial picture. She wasn't just chasing one-off checks. She built a system where clients came back quarter after quarter because federal grant compliance isn't a one-time thing — you have to report, track outcomes, stay audit-ready. Luna: Speaking of which — I think a lot of our listeners might be in similar roles where they have a skill they don't realize is marketable. And that's part of why we keep doing these episodes. Lucas: Yeah, honestly, the response to this series has been incredible. And it's partly because of listeners like the ones who chip in through Buy Me a Coffee. It's literally what keeps this show ad-free and allows us to keep digging into these stories. Luna: If you've gotten some value from an episode — maybe it helped you think about a career move or gave you a concrete idea — you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it does make a real difference. Lucas: Anyway, back to Maya. The other thing she did really well was use her day job as a case study. She couldn't name her employer, but she'd say 'I've managed grants for a workforce development nonprofit with a $2 million annual budget' — that gave clients confidence. Luna: So she turned her full-time role into proof of competence. Lucas: Exactly. And she also invested in one certification — the Grant Professionals Certification, which cost about $800 and took her three months of study. That gave her credibility with foundations and federal agencies. Luna: Was that a tipping point for her growth? Lucas: It was. Before the certification, she was landing clients mostly through referrals. After, she started getting inquiries from nonprofits that found her through LinkedIn or the Grant Professionals Association directory. Her rate went up about 20 percent. Luna: What about the actual logistics? Did she set up an LLC, get insurance, that kind of thing? Lucas: She did. She formed an LLC after her second client, and she got professional liability insurance — about $400 a year. That made her look more serious and protected her if a grant application had errors. Luna: And the tax side? That's something a lot of side hustlers overlook. Lucas: She set up a separate business bank account from day one, tracked every expense in QuickBooks, and paid quarterly estimated taxes. She also deducted her home office, internet, and a portion of her laptop. Her accountant told her that the biggest mistake she sees is people not separating business and personal finances. Luna: Makes sense. So what does her week look like now? Lucas: She still works her day job 9 to 5, but she's shifted to a four-day week — her employer allowed that after she proved she could manage her workload. Then she dedicates about 15 hours a week to her side hustle, mostly on Fridays and Saturday mornings. Luna: So she's not burning out. That's a sustainable model. Lucas: Exactly. And she's actually thinking about going full-time in the next year. She's already replaced her salary, but she wants to build a bit more of a buffer and maybe hire a junior grant writer to take on more clients. Luna: That's the dream, right? Turning a side hustle into a scalable business. Lucas: Yeah. And the thing I want listeners to take away is that Maya didn't have a unique talent. She had a skill she learned on the job and then packaged it for a specific, underserved market. Federal grant compliance is boring to most people — that's exactly why it pays well. Luna: Right. The boring stuff is often the most lucrative. Lucas: So if you're in a nonprofit, a university, or even a government agency and you're good at writing grants or managing compliance, there's a real opportunity. Start with one client, charge per project, and build from there. Luna: And if you want to dig deeper, we'll have links to the certification and some sample pricing templates in the show notes. Lucas: Yeah, check those out. And next episode, we're looking at how a graphic designer built a $9,000 monthly side hustle in pitch deck consulting — for startups raising seed rounds. Luna: That sounds like a good one. See you then.