Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a High School Counselor Built a 14K Monthly Side Hustle in College Admissions Advising
Transcript
- Lucas: So here's a number I want you to hold in your head: fourteen thousand dollars a month. That's what a high school counselor in suburban Ohio is now earning from a side hustle she started on her dining table two years ago — while still working her full-time job at the public school. Luna: That's a wild figure for someone in education, where the median salary for a school counselor is around sixty grand. She's basically adding another full income on top. Lucas: Exactly. And the thing is, she didn't invent a new app or start a dropshipping store. She just took the exact same skills she uses every day — evaluating transcripts, understanding college admissions criteria, guiding families through financial aid forms — and offered them directly to families who weren't getting that help from their own schools. Luna: So she's essentially doing what she already does, but for a different client base. What made her realize that was a viable business? Lucas: It came from a specific frustration. She told me that every year, she'd see students — really strong applicants — miss deadlines, submit weak personal statements, or aim too low because their parents didn't know the landscape. And she'd think, 'I could fix this in two hours.' But her school's caseload was about four hundred students per counselor. She literally didn't have the bandwidth during the day. Luna: Right, so the market was right in front of her. But she had to be careful — most school districts have policies about moonlighting, especially if you're using district resources or competing with the school's own services. Lucas: That's the first hurdle she had to clear. She checked her employee handbook, talked to a labor attorney for a flat fee of three hundred dollars, and confirmed that as long as she worked on her own time, used her own laptop, and didn't recruit students from her own caseload, she was in the clear. That legal clarity gave her the confidence to move forward. Luna: Smart move. So how did she find her first clients? Lucas: She started by offering a free thirty-minute 'college strategy call' to parents in her son's soccer league. She didn't pitch it as a business — she just said, 'I work in admissions, happy to answer questions.' After three or four of those calls, two parents asked if they could pay her for ongoing help. That's when she realized there was real demand. Luna: So the first clients came through her existing network, not through advertising. That's a common pattern we've seen on this show — the initial traction comes from people who already trust you. Lucas: Exactly. She then set up a simple website using Carrd — cost her nineteen dollars a year — and wrote a page describing her services: application strategy, essay editing, interview prep, financial aid navigation. She priced it at two thousand five hundred dollars per student for a comprehensive package. That's about half what independent college consultants typically charge, but she kept it low while she was building her reputation. Luna: And she's still working full-time, so she's not relying on this income to pay the mortgage. That gives her room to experiment with pricing. Lucas: Right. And within six months, she had seven clients. That's seventeen thousand five hundred dollars in revenue, mostly during the fall application season. By the end of year one, she'd worked with fifteen students and grossed about thirty-seven thousand. Now, in year two, she's on track for over a hundred and sixty-eight thousand, which works out to that fourteen thousand a month figure. And she's still only doing it evenings and weekends. Luna: Wait — that math means she's working with roughly five to six students per month. But college advising is seasonal — most of the work happens between August and January. How does she sustain fourteen thousand a month year-round? Lucas: Great question. She's diversified her offerings. In the spring and summer, she does 'college readiness workshops' for younger students — things like building a extracurricular resume, understanding standardized test options. She charges four hundred dollars per student for a four-week virtual workshop. She also offers a la carte essay editing year-round for students who just need a fresh set of eyes on a personal statement. Luna: So she's smoothing out the revenue curve. That makes the business more stable and less stressful. What's been the biggest challenge for her? Lucas: She told me the hardest part is managing expectations. A lot of parents come in thinking she can guarantee admission to a top school. She has to be very clear: 'I can help you present your best application, but I can't promise outcomes.' She had one client who got rejected from their dream school and blamed her. That was a tough conversation. Luna: That's the downside of working in a field where results are uncertain. How did she handle it? Lucas: She refunded half the fee — not because she thought she was wrong, but because she wanted to protect her reputation. Word of mouth is everything in this business. She now includes a clause in her contract that says she doesn't guarantee admissions, and she asks parents to sign an acknowledgment. Luna: Smart legal protection. And it probably filters out clients who have unrealistic expectations from the start. Lucas: Exactly. So that's the core story. But I want to dig into one more thing — how she's thinking about the future. She's now at a point where the side hustle is earning more than her day job. She told me she's considering going full-time in the next year, but she's hesitant because she genuinely loves working with the students at her school. Luna: That's a real dilemma. A lot of people assume the goal is always to quit the day job, but for her, the day job provides purpose and community. The side hustle provides financial freedom. Maybe she doesn't need to choose. Lucas: She's actually exploring a hybrid model — reducing her school schedule to four days a week, and using Fridays for her consulting work. She's in talks with her district about it. If that works, she'd have the best of both worlds. Luna: That's a creative solution. And it shows that side hustles don't have to be an either-or proposition. They can reshape your main career too. Lucas: Alright, quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making episodes like this one. Luna: Yeah, we keep the show ad-free because of that support. If you've gotten something useful out of these episodes, that's the way to keep them coming. Lucas: It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — all one word, no spaces. And we really appreciate every single contribution. Luna: So back to the high school counselor — one thing that stood out to me was how she used her existing skills without needing any new certifications. A lot of people think they need a fancy credential to start a consulting business. Lucas: That's a key point. She's not a certified educational planner. She doesn't have a fancy credential. She just has ten years of real-world experience reading applications and guiding students. And that's worth a lot to families who are navigating a system that's increasingly complex. Luna: I think that's the takeaway for anyone listening who works in a field where you have specialized knowledge — whether you're a nurse, a plumber, a teacher, a librarian. There's probably a market for your expertise outside your day job. Lucas: Exactly. The key is finding the right audience who values that expertise and is willing to pay for it. For her, it was families with college-bound students who felt lost. For you, it might be something completely different. Luna: And start small — a free call, a low price point, test the demand before you build a whole business. Lucas: Right. She didn't quit her job. She didn't take out a loan. She just started having conversations, and the business grew from there. That's the model. Luna: So if you're thinking about starting a side hustle in 2026, maybe look at what you already know how to do. The answer might be closer than you think. Lucas: That's the note. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.