Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Librarian Built a 20K Monthly Side Hustle in Research Consulting
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've ever spent an afternoon falling down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia and thought, 'I should get paid for this,' today's episode might just validate that feeling. Luna: I feel personally attacked, but also intrigued. Lucas: We're talking about research consulting as a side hustle. And not some abstract 'you could do it' — we have a real case. Sarah Jenkins, a public librarian in Columbus, Ohio. Fifteen years at the reference desk. She now pulls in about $20,000 a month on the side doing freelance research for authors, biographers, and small law firms. Luna: Wait — $20,000 a month? From research? That's more than most full-time salaries. Lucas: It is. And she's not working 80 hours a week to get there. She charges $150 an hour and does roughly 25 to 30 hours of client work per week, all on top of her regular librarian job. Luna: So she's essentially working a second full-time gig. How is she not burning out? Lucas: That's the part I want to dig into. But first, how she got started. Sarah told me that the idea came to her during the pandemic, when the library was closed to the public but she was still working remotely handling reference requests. She noticed that a lot of the questions she was answering were actually quite specialized — genealogy deep dives, historical property records, obscure scientific papers. And she thought, 'Someone out there would pay for this if they knew it existed.' Luna: So she essentially realized her 'free' library skills had market value. What was her first step? Lucas: She didn't build a website or a fancy landing page. She started by reaching out to local authors' groups and historical societies. Her first client was a historical fiction writer who needed 19th-century Ohio farming practices researched. She charged $100 an hour for that first project, which is actually less than what she charges now. Luna: And she raised her rate over time. How did she justify the jump to $150? Lucas: She used a pretty smart strategy. She kept detailed logs of her time and the value of the information she found. For one author, she uncovered a primary source document that saved them weeks of work. She showed that client: 'What I did in three hours would have taken you thirty hours, if you even knew where to look.' That's the argument for a premium rate — not just the time she spends, but the time she saves the client. Luna: That's a great framing. It's not about the hours; it's about the expertise and efficiency. How did she get her first law firm client? Lucas: That one came through a referral from a local attorney she knew from the library's small business resource center. The attorney was working on a case involving historical land deeds and needed someone who could navigate county archives. Sarah did a sample search for free — just one deed record — and the attorney was so impressed they hired her for the full project at $150 an hour. Luna: So the free sample worked. That's a classic freelance tactic, but it's high-risk if the sample takes too long. How did she keep it short? Lucas: She set a timer. She told herself, 'I will spend 15 minutes, no more, and deliver whatever I find.' And it worked because she knows exactly which databases to hit first. That's her competitive moat — she's a trained information professional. She knows how to use advanced search operators, deep web databases that aren't indexed by Google, and how to verify sources quickly. Luna: That's something most people don't have. I think a lot of listeners hear 'research consultant' and think 'I can Google things.' But what Sarah is doing is a different level. Lucas: Exactly. She's not just Googling. She's using resources she has access to through the library system, like ProQuest, JSTOR, and specialized legal databases. And that raises an ethical question we should address: can a librarian use their employer's resources for freelance work? Luna: I was wondering about that. Isn't that a conflict of interest? Lucas: It can be. Sarah was very careful about this. She checked her library's policy and found that as long as she doesn't use library computers, library time, or library subscriptions that aren't publicly available, she's in the clear. She does all her freelance research on her personal laptop, using her own subscriptions to databases like Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com. She also pays for a premium account to a legal research platform. So her costs are about $200 a month in subscriptions. Luna: That's a small investment for a $20,000 monthly revenue. Let's talk about the time management piece. How does she juggle a full-time job and 25 to 30 hours of freelance? Lucas: She's ruthless about boundaries. She works her library job from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Then she does freelance work from 7 to 10 PM on weeknights, plus about six hours on Saturday and six on Sunday. She told me she never works more than three hours in a stretch without a break, and she uses a time-tracking app to stay honest. Luna: That's a 50-hour work week plus a side hustle. But she's been doing it for two years now, so something's working. Lucas: She also says she's learned to say no. She turns down about 30 percent of inquiries because they're either too time-consuming for the pay, or the client doesn't respect the scope. One time a client kept asking for 'one more quick search' — she fired them. Luna: Firing a client is a big step. How did she handle that? Lucas: She emailed them politely, said the project had exceeded the agreed scope, and offered to restart with a new contract and a higher rate. The client declined, and she moved on. It freed up space for better clients. Luna: That's a good lesson. Now, for someone listening who thinks they could do this — maybe they're a librarian, a history buff, a journalist — what's the one concrete step they should take? Lucas: Identify a specific niche. Sarah's is historical and legal research for authors and small law firms. But you could specialize in medical research for patient advocates, scientific literature reviews for startups, or even competitive intelligence for small businesses. Pick one industry and get really good at finding information in that space. Luna: And then how do you find those first clients? Lucas: Sarah says go where they already gather. For authors, that might be writing conferences or local NaNoWriMo groups. For law firms, it's bar association mixers or continuing legal education events. Offer to do a free 15-minute sample search, just like she did. And don't undersell yourself — start at $100 an hour at least. Luna: This episode is exactly the kind of concrete blueprint that makes this podcast useful. And if you found it useful, here's the thing — we keep this show ad-free because of listeners like you who support it directly. If today's episode helped you think about your own skills differently, you can keep that going by visiting buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, that's exactly right. We don't run ads, we don't have sponsors, so listener support is what keeps us independent and focused on cases like Sarah's. Anyway — back to her story. One thing I didn't mention is that Sarah has now started offering a 'research audit' service where she reviews a client's existing research and tells them what's missing. That's a higher-ticket offering at $500 per audit. Luna: So she's productizing her expertise. That's smart. Instead of just selling hours, she's selling a deliverable. Lucas: Exactly. And she says that's where the real growth is. She's planning to eventually phase out hourly work entirely and focus on audits and ongoing retainer clients. That would push her income even higher without adding more hours. Luna: I love that. One last question — what's the biggest mistake people make when trying to start a research side hustle? Lucas: Sarah says it's underestimating the time it takes to become an expert in a niche. She had fifteen years of library experience before she started. So if you're new, don't expect to charge premium rates right away. Spend six months building a portfolio, maybe doing some pro bono work for a nonprofit, and then start charging. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Luna: Patience and persistence. Good advice for any side hustle, really. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And thanks to Sarah Jenkins for sharing her numbers. If you're curious about starting a research practice, start small, start local, and track your time. You might just find a $20,000 month hiding in your skillset.