Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / The Architect Who Built a 25K Side Hustle in Permitting
Transcript
- Lucas: So you know how we've talked about side hustles in all sorts of fields — medical writing, bookkeeping, even lawn care. But today we've got something that's a little more, I don't know, structural. Literally. Luna: Structural. I like that. Are we talking about an architect? Because that's a licensed profession, which feels like a whole different level of side hustle. Lucas: Exactly. Our guest is Maria, a licensed architect in Ohio who built a $25,000-a-month side hustle in municipal permitting. She helps homeowners and small contractors get their building permits approved without the headache. And she does this while working full-time at a mid-sized firm. Luna: Twenty-five thousand a month. That's more than most full-time salaries. And she's doing it in the evenings? Lucas: Yeah, mostly evenings and weekends. And before we dive into the numbers, I want to mention something quick. A handful of listeners chip in a few bucks a month through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what keeps this podcast ad-free and lets us bring you stories like Maria's every week. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group, but it makes a huge difference. We don't have advertisers breathing down our necks, so we can talk about whatever we find interesting. Lucas: Right. And today's topic is genuinely interesting because permitting is one of those things that sounds boring, but it's actually a goldmine if you know the inside baseball. So Maria, let's start with the basics. What does a permitting consultant actually do? Luna: And is it really all about knowing the right people at city hall? Because that's the stereotype. Lucas: She says it's less about who you know and more about knowing the code. Maria can read a zoning ordinance and tell you exactly what's allowed on a property, what setbacks you need, what forms to file, and what to do when the inspector rejects your application. She charges a flat fee for each project, usually between five hundred and two thousand dollars. Luna: That's not cheap. But I bet it's way cheaper than hiring a full architect or waiting six months for a permit denial. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the value proposition. She started this side hustle about three years ago when a friend asked for help with a home addition. The friend's contractor had submitted plans that were clearly out of compliance, and Maria spotted it in ten minutes. She saved them a two-month delay. Luna: And then that friend told another friend, and it snowballed from there? Lucas: Pretty much. But she didn't just rely on word of mouth. She actively networked with real estate agents and title companies, because they're the ones who see deals fall apart over permit issues. She'd offer to do a quick pre-listing review for a flat fee of three hundred dollars, and if it saved a sale, those agents started referring clients to her. Luna: That's smart. It's like she's not just fixing problems, she's preventing them. And that's a much easier sell. Lucas: Right. And she's careful about scope. She doesn't take on full architectural design projects or anything that would require her to stamp drawings in her side business, because that would create a conflict with her day job. She sticks to consulting: feasibility reviews, permit applications, resubmissions, and advising on what's required. Luna: So she's essentially a translator between contractors and the bureaucracy. That's a valuable skill. Lucas: Absolutely. And she says the key to scaling was setting boundaries. Early on, she took on every project that came her way, including a few that were way too big. She had one client who kept emailing her at eleven at night, and she realized she was charging a flat fee with no cap on revisions. That was a brutal lesson. Luna: So what changed? Did she start charging by the hour for revisions, or what? Lucas: She switched to a tiered flat-fee model. The base fee covers two rounds of revisions, and anything beyond that is billed at a hundred and fifty dollars an hour. And she sets clear expectations upfront: she only answers emails between five and seven in the evening, and never on weekends. She says her clients respect it because she's upfront from the start. Luna: That's a good reminder for anyone with a side hustle — you have to protect your time or it'll eat you alive. Lucas: And she's also smart about marketing. She doesn't do any paid ads. She has a simple website with a few case studies, and she gave a talk at her local Realtor association about common permit mistakes. That one talk brought in a steady stream of referrals for months. Luna: I love that. It's not about being everywhere, it's about being credible in the right places. Lucas: Exactly. Now, let's talk about the money side. She charges an average of twelve hundred dollars per project, and she does about twenty projects a month. That's how she gets to twenty-five thousand. But she's not working eighty hours a week. She says she's putting in about fifteen hours a week, mostly in the evenings. Luna: Fifteen hours a week for twenty-five grand a month. That's over four hundred dollars an hour. That's insane. Lucas: It is. But it's also because she's an expert. She knows the code inside and out, and she can do in ninety minutes what would take a layperson three days of research. That's the leverage of expertise. Luna: And that's the lesson for anyone listening — you might have a skill that seems mundane to you, but it's incredibly valuable to someone else. Lucas: Right. Maria's side hustle started with a single favor for a friend. Now it's a business that could easily replace her salary, but she's keeping both for now. She likes the steady paycheck and the health insurance from her full-time job, and the side hustle gives her the freedom to save aggressively and plan for early retirement. Luna: How does she manage the workload without burning out? Because fifteen hours a week on top of a full-time job is still a lot. Lucas: She says the key is to batch her work. She does all her permit research on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and all her client communications on Wednesday evenings. That way she's not constantly context-switching. And she takes one weekend a month completely off from side work to recharge. Luna: That's disciplined. I think most people would just say yes to everything and then wonder why they're exhausted. Lucas: She also turned down a project last month that would have paid five thousand dollars, but it required her to be on-site during business hours. She said no because it would have meant taking time off from her day job, and that wasn't worth the risk. She's in it for the long game. Luna: That's a great mindset. It's not about making the most money possible, it's about making money sustainably. Lucas: Exactly. And she's proof that you don't need a flashy tech startup or a huge online following to build a lucrative side hustle. Sometimes it's just about taking your professional expertise and packaging it for a niche that's underserved. Luna: So if someone listening is an engineer, or a lawyer, or a nurse — they could do something similar? Lucas: Absolutely. Maria's advice is to look for the repetitive questions you get at work — the ones people always ask you because you're the expert. That's your potential side hustle. For her, it was 'can I build this on my property?' For a nurse, it might be 'what does this medication actually do?' Luna: And then you figure out how to charge for it, and you set boundaries, and you take it from there. Lucas: Right. And don't forget to check your employment contract and your professional licensing rules. Maria made sure her side hustle wasn't a conflict of interest, and she carries her own professional liability insurance. It's a small cost, but it protects her in case something goes wrong. Luna: That's a solid point. You don't want to put your main career at risk for a side gig. Lucas: So, to wrap up, Maria's story shows us that side hustles don't have to be glamorous to be profitable. Sometimes they're just about being the person who knows how to fill out the right form. And that's a skill worth paying for. Luna: I know I'd pay for that. I still don't understand the permit I need for my kitchen renovation. Lucas: There you go. And that's exactly the point.