The Most Overlooked $1K/Hour Business Anyone Can Start Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 I just signed a $30,000 contract for this fall. Spring break, we cleared $12,000 in 1 week, 9:00 to noon, so you're done in the afternoon, right? >> Okay. That's like 3 hours of work. >> Keep it simple, stupid. If you want to go all in, you can make a ton of money pretty simply. For those who wanted to make three grand a month, this is easy. So, in March to July, $50,600.

00:21 >> Wow. >> It was basically like eight, eight, and then then we get a 12, then we get a 16. [music] It just kept scaling up and up and up. >> to have a gong in here cuz every time I discover a business that you really could start with no money, [music] I just want to be like, "Ding! We found one, you know?" It is a business you could start with with nothing.

00:36 >> Facebook post. That was it. No pictures, no nothing. >> [music] >> Meet Mike. He's 50, got laid off after 20 years, and one night at 3:30 in the morning, he wrote a Facebook post from his garage. No photos, no website, no price, and that post became a $50,000 business in 5 months flat. Moms pay him 75 bucks an hour per kid. The state of Florida pays him within 24 hours, and he just signed a $30,000 contract for 2 hours every Friday.

01:03 His startup costs were under $450, and really, he collects money up front, so he could have started this with no money, and you can, too. And by the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly how to copy him this weekend. >> [music] >> I'm going to show you the exact post in a few minutes, and halfway through this episode, he's going to give you the one sentence that got a tool company >> [music] >> to send him $5,000 of free gear.

01:23 And at the end, I'm going to give you the one word that turned a side hustle into real contracts. And also, this whole thing, this whole business exists because Mike watches the channel, and he was inspired by it. So, please enjoy. Why don't you start by telling us who you are and what you do? >> Mike Herod here. I'm a the owner of VOSKILL, where a trade school, and also we teach shop classes to 7- to 18-year-olds, based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

01:48 And I saw all of these like bounce houses, and a friend of ours sells girl teepees for birthday parties. I'm like, "There's nothing for the boys." >> Mhm. >> Like nothing. So, yeah, Thanksgiving week I was like we need money and Facebook post woodworking birthday parties. Yeah. That was it. No no pictures, no nothing. >> Okay, so you had the idea on what?

02:07 November 20th? >> Something like that, yeah. I posted like that day and then we had parties, events, classes. I think at the time we called them woodworking events booked that following week. >> All right, so you post about it and you just posted on your personal Facebook profile. I I imagine you're not probably >> use Facebook just cuz >> You don't have a ton of followers, you're not an influencer, you just your personal Facebook account.

02:30 Okay. What happened? What were the comments like? >> How old? Like how >> do you have to be? >> Yeah, how old do you have to be? How much and when? And where? Basically kind of things. And we're a homeschool family even though my kids are 18 and 23, but I think we put homeschool on it. We did and the first couple ones were in people's backyards. We took a folding table, whatever tools I had, we pulled the table out and I've got little 6-year-olds using handsaws, right?

02:51 And 14 and 15-year-olds using jigsaws and power saws and all kinds of stuff. >> Okay. So are you just like thinking up the answers to these questions as you're typing them? You're like, "How old do you have to be?" Like, "I don't know, uh 5 to 15." Or like, "How much is it?" Oh shoot, yeah, how much is it? Is that kind of how it went? >> Exactly. It was cuz I I had nobody to pull from.

03:14 >> Yeah. >> First we did six six plus, like six to, you know, 18. And then and then I realized quickly you can't have a 6-year-old and a 12-year-old in the same class. They're just too they're too advanced. >> So today, what are your age groups? What are your categories? >> We split them in two, 7 to 9 cuz that kind of it seems the sweet spot, and then 10 10 plus.

03:35 >> Okay. So just two. >> It just two. I really want to lop off the little ones just because I'm not doing the kind of mentoring I want to do with the little ones. They're fun, they have a blast, right? But I'd rather, you know, teach the older ones. >> Yeah. >> But the little ones, man, it's like shooting ducks in a barrel. Like these moms call all All Yep.

03:51 >> Okay. >> Yep. >> So you think there could be a business of someone only doing the little ones? >> Oh, yeah, completely. >> More demand there. >> When we started doing shop classes here in our trade school in the back office before we got open, we did spring break and summer camps, we cleared 30,000. >> Holy cow. All right, so let's go back to day one.

04:09 So, you answered a ton of comments and questions, and then what day was your first class and who all was there and what did you charge? >> I think the first one I stole from you, we did it for free. So, yeah, that was first that first couple of weeks at between Thanksgiving and Christmas was yeah, two free ones and then we got a lot more inquiries and my wife was like, no, there's something here, they can pay.

04:28 And then from that we only we only do paying ones. >> In that original post, did you say that it would be free or you didn't and you just decided to make the first couple free? >> I think we did do it free. >> Looking back, that was an important part of it. >> I think so, too. Yeah, because I had no social proof. I didn't have pictures, I didn't have videos.

04:42 Now I have 10,000 pictures of kids. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, yeah, videos. It's and Google reviews and yada yada yada. >> Was the inspiration for that partly from the guy I interviewed who has the line striping business? >> No, actually it kind of it woke me up in the middle of the night that week before Thanksgiving. Like I remember sitting in my garage at like 3:30 in the morning brainstorming this out.

05:00 I think you had just done a video of the RC guy, the RC digger. >> Yeah. >> Yep, that's right. >> did his first for free. Okay. >> Yep. Yeah, and I was like, man, I still I'm tempted by that. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Shiny squirrel syndrome. But December we did a father-son build, right, for 38 pairs. So, little kids >> and their dads. >> Right, 38 and it was 150 * 38 kids, however much that was.

05:24 >> Five grand. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Jeez. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And that was your first month? >> That was in December. Yeah. So, yeah, it was a father-son through Facebook, she heard about the the the free ones. Hey, can you do a father-son event? I said, sure. And what really kind of got my brain running, of all the dads, so plus 30, only two of them had touched a power tool in their life.

05:46 >> Whoa. >> And these are guys >> of 38? >> Out of 38. >> Not not even like a drill? >> Not even a drill. Like they hadn't anything. >> That is wild. >> Okay, I've heard the trade problem is bad, but to never touch a drill in your life. And And we're not talking big drills, we're talking little 12 volts. >> And these guys are like 30, 40s ages? >> Yep.

06:04 >> Holy cow. >> young boys. Young boys. >> Man. [sighs] >> Yeah. >> Hey, believe it or not, about 62% of you don't actually subscribe to this channel even though you see my videos in your feed. So, just take a second, hit the subscribe button, maybe even the notification bell, and it would mean the world to me. >> That one we did a 3-hour event, and we did, which is why it was a buck 50 a piece.

06:24 It was 3 hours. And then they built these little robots. They built these little dudes here. >> Oh, that's cool. >> I bet I built 500 of these so far. >> Where did you come up with that? Like why why are you going to build a robot? Where'd that come from? >> I think I was poking around on Etsy one day, and this goofy little wooden robot, and then I kept modifying it, modifying.

06:40 So, basically, I prepped the bodies, and then the kids cut the feet and the hands, and >> They they screwed the screw the eyes in. >> Okay. >> And that's for the little ones. Like that And moms pay 75 bucks to build one of these all day long. >> And you don't get that job unless you like get mass exposure by doing a free event, cuz that's where that lead came from, right?

06:57 >> Yeah, it was And the free events were like one with like six kids and one with like five. We're not talking thousands. >> Yeah. >> these random small But you know, the homeschool community is so niche. So, I tell people all the time, I'm like, this business in homeschooling, once you get in, you're you're set. >> You're in. They talk. >> Yep, they all talk.

07:14 >> Yeah. >> Half of our students are repeat students. >> How many events did you have that first November, December? So, the father-son event, two free events. >> the father-son event, and then the two over here at the small group between Thanksgiving and Christmas. >> Okay, so November revenue was 800-ish. >> Yep. >> December was like six grand? >> Six grand because of the father-son plus the two little ones.

07:34 Mhm. >> Okay. >> And then a little bit in January, a couple shows of classes in January. And then another big one we did We did one with a foster community. >> Mhm. >> They brought their foster the local foster kids in and we did a two-hour class just teaching them how to again they made they made I don't have them here these little brain teasers. >> Okay.

07:52 >> 550 cord a nut and a washer and a and a a 1 by 4 piece of block. Like we're not building pianos. I tell the kids all the time we're not building robots or pianos. >> Yeah. >> satellites. So yeah, that was that was where we did 22. And I kind of paused it in March because we're looking at doing the spring breaks. People kept asking can you do spring breaks?

08:07 So then we did the spring break camps here in our site then paused it a little bit a little bit and then did uh summer camps. And then I just signed $30,000 contract for this fall. We already started it. >> Woah. What kind of contract? >> So 14 weeks for 40 students every Friday for two hours. >> Home school students? It's like a co-op? >> It's a big co-op.

08:26 Mhm. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> $30,000 for 14 weeks. How many days like one day per week or >> Every Friday for two hours. >> Okay. So >> It comes to that it's about $55 a head per week. >> Well, I mean that's over a thousand bucks an hour. Oh yeah. Not including like prep time but >> Yeah, yeah. It's about I think we clear 19 revenue is 1,900 per week. I pay me and my wife and my my youngest son Christian he's 18 and I pay him and our youth pastor and a buddy of mine that that work you know, 150 bucks cash and they go help

08:57 us we load up seven tables six kids per table folding tables with plywood tops on them. They spend two hours making a mess. >> Yeah. >> They built cornhole. They just finished the cornhole boards this week. We're getting ready to start PVC PVC builds cuz it's not just woodworking. It's basically kind of shop skills. >> What will you make in profit on that 30,000?

09:18 >> That's a great question. So by the time I pay because I can do 10 students no problem. Like we slowly built the tool kit up and I can talk about tools later if you want to. But with that one we're going to clear by time we bought the extra tools and paid head count and materials we'll clear 10 on our end. >> Wow. >> We'll make real money when we do the one in Jan margins.

09:37 Mhm. Yeah. So, let's say 33% on this $30,000 contract, what are your net margins on like your average one-off class? >> Class with the young ones, let's say it's 10 10 kids, they're 7 to 9, right? I charge more for the 7 to 9-year-olds cuz it takes more oversight. So, the per hour is like my little ones I charge $75 an hour, my older ones I charge $50 an hour.

10:00 So, for example, if we did a 1-hour class for 10 little ones, so it's you know what, $750. I'm about $150 in cogs. >> Wow, cost of goods sold. So, 600 profit on a $750 class. >> Yeah. Yeah. Cuz the only thing that's out the door is a little bit of lumber, glue, screws, paint, that kind of stuff. The tools and stuff, once you buy them, you recycle them every every week.

10:23 >> Mhm. Let's talk about tools. What tools did you have in the beginning and what tools do you have now? >> So, at the beginning I had again a basic basic wood stuff, jigsaw, miter saws, all that kind of stuff. I over-engineered it the first time. Like I bought ridiculously too much stuff because I just I didn't know what I didn't know. Now, basically, cuz I got a buddy that's thinking about doing the same thing out here.

10:40 Basically, the spin-off a pretty decent program is about $425 and that'll that'll gives you enough equipment for six kids. >> This is like a 6-ft plastic folding table from Costco, the Lifetime tables. Okay. >> the half-inch piece of plywood. I used to do three quarters, too dang heavy. So, now I did half-inch [clears throat] plywood on top of it and then put a little tracks so it doesn't move.

11:01 And then um two miter boxes from Harbor Freight, they're 25 bucks. Six tape measures. These are expensive because what I found the first time I'd buy Harbor Freight ones, they don't have the fractions on them. These kids don't know how to roll. So, when you get the Milwaukees, they have the 1/8, 1/4, so it's a lot of use. Six B square from Harbor Freight, 55 screwdrivers, sanding These They're so cool.

11:22 Like you go to Amazon, they have these yellow sanding mice that looks like a a mouse to your computer and the same and the same system on the bottom. Yeah, it's super cool. The kids eat up a couple clamps. So, all in you're 425 for just hand tools. And you make that back on your first class. >> Oh, easily. And then for the older ones, this is where it kind of gets expensive.

11:40 This is why for the fall project, but if we do another one is where we'll really make some some good money. It's about $4,100 in power tools. >> Wow. >> For six. Well, it's because this is two things. Number one, I started with Milwaukee cuz that's what we had for the trade school, right? And they're And they're sponsor. I cold called them. They said yes.

11:59 I couldn't believe it. >> What did you ask them? >> I I say, "Hey, I'm starting a trade school. Would you sponsor trades or tools?" >> Sponsor as in given to me for free? >> Yeah. Yeah, like I think about like $5,000 so far. >> Who did you call? >> I just cold called a guy on LinkedIn. >> [laughter] >> Who worked at Milwaukee? >> Who worked at Milwaukee.

12:15 Yep. Yep. >> And he's like, "Sure." >> Yeah. I emailed him in and he called me. I remember I sitting at the Home Depot aisle and he's like, cuz well, I'd been in corporate America. So, I kind of figured out what what the total lifetime value of a Milwaukee customer is and I put that in the pitch. >> There you go. There you go. >> throughout their career.

12:32 You want to get them at 18, let's talk." >> Yeah. >> So, they did. >> Oh, that's brilliant. I never would have thought to do that. Ever. I just would have bought them. >> You don't know what you don't know. I mean, I just I figured the worst I can get is a no. When I looked at the other brands like the Harbor Freight brands, they're too heavy for the kids.

12:48 >> Hmm. >> Cuz they're full big full-size. Milwaukee makes these little 12s, right? Little tiny guys, which work perfect for the kids. They're small enough they can And they have tons of power. They're under that buy one cry once without a doubt. >> Yeah, yeah. >> You know, but you get them on sale, you know, you get them on Father's Day sales or Black Friday sales.

13:04 I do two students per set of power tools. You can probably do three and stretch it more, right? So, like three drills and three drivers as a combo for 1,500 bucks. And then three jigsaws and then three nailers, like little pin nails, 18 gauge nailers, is $4,100. But again, most of these guys have Like when I first started, I grabbed whatever tools I had.

13:24 Couple Ridgid's, I had some couple Milwaukee's. I borrowed some from my son, my youngest son, grabbed some of his tools. So, the very first ones we just took whatever we could. >> Yeah. >> Now I know the only my 13 and plus touch the power school tools extensively. I've done whole classes where they don't touch a power tool. They're so happy doing the hand saws, which blew my mind.

13:43 They love They love taking a a 12-in board and cut it down to 5 in. And then they cut it out of 3 in and 2 in. And then the last couple times I started bringing a scrap box just because I have all this scrap lumber. And last Friday like, "Hey Mr. Mike, what do you want me to do?" I'm like, "If you want to, go grab something out of the scrap bin." Oh my gosh, you thought it was Christmas.

14:02 Like these kids dove into this big bucket full of scrap pieces that was throwaways. They're hammering them together, they're screwing them together, they're gluing them, clamping them, cutting them. They're coming out these crazy ideas. And I just sit back and make sure they don't cut their fingers off, you know. >> Is that not the most gratifying thing in the world to see boys like unlock that curiosity for the first time?

14:20 >> I have never seen, and I've seen it many times. One example, this this student, he's probably 12, maybe 10 or 12. He built a little squirrel house feeder. Looks like a Looks like a picnic table. It's made of cedar. It wasn't hard, but it was pretty pretty difficult for him. And he spent about 3 minutes when he was finally done just holding it and turn it around, flipping it.

14:39 He just kept flipping it. And you could just see like his pride growing. These kids have never touched anything, and they're afraid to break everything. So, we have these big posters we set up that, you know, mistakes aren't the end, quitting is. >> Mhm. >> to make mistakes, then let's figure it out. We have safety posters, safety glasses, we don't play that.

14:57 >> Have you had any accidents? >> Nope. >> Wow. >> Praise God, nothing. >> What about insurance? I know I already know everyone's going to be wondering about that. >> It's just our regular business insurance. I pay like $95 a month. >> Wow. If someone were to start this and initially only start it for the 6-to-9-year-olds, what is the total startup cost required?

15:14 450, 500? >> 450. And that's assuming you don't have anything. Like let's assume you don't even have a miter saw or a or a square. Yeah. >> So say if you start at zero and I think even you borrow somebody's folding table so it goes from three 425 to 325 you borrow somebody's table and then everybody's got screwdrivers. Like who doesn't have a screwdriver?

15:33 So you don't need those. So maybe you need the clamps and tape measures the miter boxes. You could easily do a a class for less than 300. >> Well, let's bring it down even more. How about people paying up front like deposits? >> Well, I don't go to the bank. >> They pay up front. >> So theoretically could you collect money for this class, use that money to go spend the 300 500 bucks?

15:54 >> them. Yeah, yeah, you could. You could um do a simple square thing and and send me your URL. They pay full out and use that three to five $700 to front load your first set of tools and then from there you're just repeating. >> I need to have a gong in here cuz every time I discover a business that you really could start with no money, I just want to be like "Ding, we found one."

16:13 You know? Cuz it's like it's not even an asterisk. Like you post to your Facebook friends, you send a Stripe link, you get them to pay as they should. You should collect deposits up front no matter what whether you're brand new or not. You use the money to go buy the tools. Of course, you're going to need some expertise. Hopefully you already have that.

16:30 Just some around the house garage expertise. Maybe you watch some YouTube videos, but it is a business you could start with with nothing. >> Yeah. And the amount of times I'm like the moms the moms like my wife is like all you talk to is women on Facebook. I'm like they're they're they're the customers. >> Sorry babe, they pay the bills. >> Yeah, like they're the ones that faint.

16:48 But I hear it every single class. You built that? You built that? Like they're just amazed and they're like buddies. I mean again it's it's just fun woodworking stuff. >> Most online stores lose the sale the second someone leaves, but Omnisend wins it back. It's email and SMS built for e-commerce that syncs automatically with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Wix.

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17:57 So, click the link in the description below and use my code Kerner for 30% off all paid plans for your first 3 months. >> Now we're getting the attention of private schools. Hey, can you help us spin up a woodworking class? I think what really kind of game-changed it was here in Florida we have Step Up, which is a like a scholarship program. So, if you pull your kids out of public school, the state will split the cost with you or something like that.

18:20 We became a vendor, so the parents don't pay us. If they're in that that home school private school scholarship program from the state >> Oh, beautiful. >> they register online for the class, right? Or book it, and then they put a code in that zeros out the cart, and then they go to their Step Up page, find us on Step Up, and the state pays us within 24 hours after I hit send.

18:40 >> Last I checked, the government isn't too price-sensitive, either. >> They're not. Mhm. Yep. >> What do you think happened with shop class in the first place? That was my favorite class in high school, and surely they're not as common anymore, right? >> They're not. They're not. You know, I'm 50, so when I was in high school in the late era in in middle school in the '80s, yeah, everybody had it.

18:56 We had all the way through high school. I think it's like everything else and Mike Rowe talks about this at length is '90s we started pushing for everybody towards college. Like you had to go to college. And I did, too. I have two degrees. I got a ton of student debt. I was talking to a a public school this weekend about the trades. I'm like, you know, college isn't for everybody.

19:12 There's a lot of paths in there. I think we just we drank the Kool-Aid for college and thought it was for everyone and it's not. And I tell I have parents ask me all the time about their kids going to college versus trades and stuff. And I'm like, especially with AI, man, if you're not doing a STEM degree, don't even look at college. Like if you have medical or something that require engineering, medical, totally get it.

19:30 You know, but a marketing or a history or MBA, you know what I can do with I built my entire Now we have an app, I built it all with Claude code, listen to you and a couple other guys just figuring it out. I built my own CRM >> coding experience? >> None. None. You know, it does all my marketing for me, helps me figure out posts, it helps me do the the messaging for the posters, helps me come up with the project ideas.

19:53 And now you've got a whole almost generation and a half have never touched a tool and they're so afraid it's going to hurt them and cut off their fingers. >> Yeah. >> Like if you just do it simple, it's not and safely, you'll have fun. And they all do. >> Yeah. What a scam. Now that I think of it, like colleges and universities spent the '90s and 2000s like preaching, "You got to go to college.

20:11 You got to go to college." Meanwhile, they're jacking tuition up 10% a year every year. They're like artificially creating this demand and then pumping their prices up and it's never been less relevant or needful than ever. >> Yep. >> What a scam. >> Yeah. $180,000 of student loans and now I'm running a trade school and teaching shop classes. >> Yeah.

20:30 Yeah. Okay, what about girls? Are there any girls in your classes? >> them. It's almost half. Probably about say 35 to 45% are girls. >> That's shocking to me. >> It is. And they crush it. >> Like my girls crush it. >> Yeah. >> They crush it. And I always tell them that the girls >> because I always tell these boys too because I have a a class >> with with mix.

20:47 I'm like, all right, guys, who do you think's going to do better, the girls or the boys? Because the boys are all ego, they raise their hands. I'm like, nope, the girls. And they all like their shoulders shrink, you know. And I and and I'm like, all right, girls, why do you think you'll do better than the boys? And they all like, "Well, listen." I go, "Yep, you'll listen."

21:03 You know. >> And they're pretty >> And they're starting to perform hard working They're very attention focused. We joke the house may not be able to be built on time, but at least it'll be built perfect. >> Yeah. >> Um so, yeah, over half of them are are girls. And we've done skateboards, like we built skateboards one time. >> cool. >> Laminated maple together and built skate That was a huge success.

21:22 >> Wow. >> That was a That was a $500 class per student. >> Wow. And you got trucks and wheels and everything? >> Parents bought the trucks and wheels. I just supplied the maple and the forms. >> Wow. >> So, I was out $60, $70 per student and a class would run 4 or 500. >> All right, let's run through your your numbers to date. So, it's been almost a year.

21:40 >> So, that was to do it again. This can be done completely mobile. In March to July, I made 50 grand, but that's cuz we had the classes here in our commercial spot. Everything else is mobile. We take the shop to them. But, you know, somebody could do this completely remotely, like completely mobile. Like you don't need to have a commercial space. Right?

21:57 There's a couple other ones. They do it out of the garage. They do it at the parks, like they'll go set up every Saturday at a park. There's a several different ways to to line it. You don't need to have the the commercial spot. >> And I imagine just a a pickup truck or a van >> Yeah, everything We do 40 students. Everything fits in in a in a F250 Super Duty.

22:14 >> Wow. Okay. How far are you traveling? Like what is your radius look like when you do the mobile stuff? >> The little ones, if it's less than if it's 10, like we'll cap it at 10. Usually we won't go further than 30 minutes from the house. The big contracts, we'll stretch it up to 45. >> Okay. >> That's about it. >> Your numbers are misleading in a good way because you say, "Oh, 800 in January, 2200 in February."

22:32 You're only That's only like one or two events. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. That's like 3 hours of work. >> Yep. >> Like very much in side hustle territory. I interrupted you. What What were your numbers? And I know it's kind of murky, but just add them all together between uh March and >> So, in March to July, so spring through summer, they were all here. 50,600.

22:54 >> In all of those months combined? >> Mhm. >> Wow. And was it like growing? Was it >> Yeah, it was. It was basically like eight eight and then then we hit a 12, then we hit a 16. It just kept scaling up and up and up. Winter breaks are huge. Like I think spring break we cleared 12, 12,000 in 1 week. Only teaching morning classes. We're not all day.

23:12 Like we're teaching a 3-hour class in the morning, that's it. Like that's the we stop. Same with summer classes. We ran summer camps. We ran um 3-day and 5-day summer camps. They were from 9:00 to noon, so you're done in the afternoon, right? And they were 3 to $400. It's $300 for a 3-day camp, $500 for a 5-day camp for 3 hours. >> What would you say the profit per year ceiling is for someone wanting to do this and not have any employees?

23:39 >> If you did it with a purely mobile, not not a commercial space. So basically nights and weekends. There's no reason why you couldn't with a decent hustle, say you filled a whole Saturday and a Sunday afternoon, you could clear probably 1,500 on a Saturday, maybe do another 600 on a Sunday, right? So that's what, two grand? So could be maybe conservative, say you did two weekends a month.

23:59 So that's you're talking four grand a month part in your spare time. Keep your full-time job. What happens when the Facebook posts run out? When you exhaust your immediate network? >> That's what I thought, too. So >> [laughter] >> You're like, "Ha ha ha, as if that ever happened." Cuz it just is it word of mouth? It just becomes a word of mouth? >> It it's become word of mouth and like we're in three homeschool groups.

24:20 One's got 9,000, one's got 5,000. I forget what the other one is. And they're everywhere. Every community has homeschool groups. Like and all these moms talk to each other. They all know each other. They all talk to each other. Very tight-knit group. We've done probably I want to say say on the low side 500 students since Thanksgiving. It's been the low side.

24:40 We haven't even scratched the surface of just one homeschool group of 9,000 moms. >> [sighs] >> Right. And there's new kids obviously aging up and aging out consistently. So you're always getting new new students. And then what what's interesting is that then we started getting asked for, "Hey, can you do an adult DIY class? >> Mhm. Can you teach me how to drywall?

24:58 Can you teach me how to hang a microwave or fix a door? Like we get those all the time. We did a mother mother daughter May build. I think it was like $500 on the weekend. They melt >> What did they build? >> Uh little flower pots. >> That's cool. >> Yeah, and then uh we did a father son one for Father's Day. They made the American flag, the wooden American flag.

25:16 And it's like $300 a head. So, you know, sold eight or 10 of those, you know. >> Geez, you're just throwing around these numbers like, "Oh, three grand there, three grand in an afternoon." You're building this with scale in mind and most people like they could do it mobile or they could they could get cheaper rent. You get a much smaller place for 500 a month.

25:32 I've rented a place in Huntsville, Alabama for 500 a month. It was 500 square feet and it would have been great for something like this. >> What I did learn it I think that's true too. If they wanted to go all in, what I found out in talking to moms, as soon as they saw our space, it put us on another level. >> Yeah, okay. >> Because they're like it it it's interesting cuz I I I I my wife had explained to me.

25:51 I'm like, "I don't understand why this is why they like the space so much." She was, "Honey, it feels safe." When it's in somebody's garage or in their backyard on a folding table, it just doesn't quite feel as safe. But if you have a commercial space, they know somebody's vetted you and, you know, so on and so forth. But yeah, you're right. If I was to do it again, I'd rent, you know, they do those math tutoring places in strip We're in a strip mall.

26:12 I'd rent a small 1,000 square foot strip mall, completely open it up, exposed ceilings and beams. >> You could even do this in like a shared maker space. Like or a shared warehouse or those contractor garages where it's like 1,500 square feet, you know, like a 30 by 60 foot space. >> Or a closed trailer. Like I I I think version 3.0 is we get a big 36 foot enclosed trailer, right?

26:33 Wrap it. All the tools are in it. It's got back doors that open up. And you pull up to the park or corporate events or whatever cuz you can do corporate events too. I mean, people have asked about corporate events. You know, you roll up and everybody has fun building stuff. >> It reminds me of those video game trailers. >> Yeah, and the basketball guy?

26:48 The guy that does the basketball >> Yeah, the basketball guy. Yep. >> Same thing, just woodworking. >> What have all of your marketing methods been to date? >> Me figuring it out by mistakes. Oh, it's all been Facebook, but you know, listening to you and others, posting consistently. Like, I have to post every single day. These moms are super busy. I just post.

27:06 I just post pictures all the time. What the kind of more tactical stand is like really confidence, like giving the kids confidence they don't have. And that confidence leads to responsibility and ultimately to servant leadership is kind of where I'm hoping they'll go as we go through the trade school. >> Yeah. >> But the confidence is I'm telling you it fills it fills your tank.

27:23 It fills my tank every time. Now, it's exhausting. I mean, I have a new respect for teachers. >> I'm sure. Yeah. Tell me about pricing. So, I imagine if you post organically and you get, you know, eight moms together who have 12 kids combined, you're charging each of them per head, but if someone comes to you and says, "Hey, I'm in charge of this home school group."

27:43 You're charging the home school group directly per head and then they >> And basically I I step down the the pricing. It's not, you know, $50 an hour. And basically tear it down based on, you know, like now our big ones is 30 kids minimum. That's that's into 40 kids maximum in our current system. And um basically like, "Okay, how long do you want?" and then just figure out a pricing system from there.

28:02 I know the one we the one we're doing now, they did a they added a markup on top of it. So, there was still wiggle room to the price. Cuz nobody does this. Like, there's These kid These parents have no place to take their kids to teach them how to woodwork. >> Please, I need you. I need you to send me your stories. If you or someone you know made thousands of dollars in a short period of time with a business, a side hustle, a growth hack, I don't care what it is, I want you on this podcast to give you free publicity

28:29 and to help grow my podcast. So, if that's you, go to tkoyes.com and fill out the form. If it's a friend of yours, send them tkoyes.com, have them enter your name and I'll give you a thousand bucks for the referral. That's tkoyes.com. Now, you said 50 bucks an hour. Is that like let's say there's only five kids, where do you start per hour per kid? And then what do you scale that down to as you go to 50 kids or 30 kids?

28:55 >> Honestly, I kind of keep the 50 Let's see, 50 and 75 for the little ones, right? Yeah. We've only got a couple of the bigger ones, the 25 plus. So, I usually keep it at 50 75 for the two age groups per hour up to and usually most homeschool events and most events are sub 10. Like they're in that 8 to 12 range. And then when you get the B2B model, which is very lucrative, that's where you get in the $30,000 contracts and all that kind of stuff, then it's a different price structure.

29:21 >> So, call it 50 50 bucks per hour per kid at the older ages, 75 per hour per kid at the younger ages. And as you scale up, you can bring it down, but you're saying you don't really need to most of the time. You're not competing. >> Yeah, you're not competing. >> Yep. Okay. >> Yeah. And that's that's what I was really thinking. I was like, this could be something that like I just like I just want to make an extra $1,000 on a weekend, take the tools I already got and make some smiles.

29:42 Like it's that type of business. If you want to go all in, the world's your oyster your ocean. You can you can make a ton of money pretty simply, you know, but yeah, just for those who wanted to make two to three grand a month, this is easy. >> Do you have like a acronym or a framework or something that you use? >> It's learn, build, lead. So, learn it learn it learn a skill, whatever it is, build with it and then lead others to it.

30:05 That's kind of like the mantra, but not from like a business standpoint. I could I don't really have I guess post cut cash. >> [laughter] >> PPC post collect host, right? >> Yeah, something like that. I mean, it really >> PCH >> Yeah. Um that would be cool though to have a good acronym. That'd be kind of cool. >> Yeah, I like that. Post collect host.

30:28 Like you post a Facebook, collect the money, or even just the first one might be free, right? Collect the reservations and then host it. >> Cuz you do you do need to do a couple of them just to kind of get your feet wet and to get some pictures. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Once you get the pictures and then if you want go all in, then do a Facebook page.

30:44 We did a Facebook page, and then then we did a Google profile, cuz we needed them for the trade school. But yeah, all of our reviews, if you look at all of our reviews for Facebook and Google, are for the shop students. >> Yeah. >> And I ask that out. >> Yeah. Once you get pictures and videos, it just becomes easy mode. Like then you're legit. >> what one thing I did learn is make sure to respect the um the parents that don't want their kids posted.

31:08 >> Yeah, sure. >> And like okay, so we had to like at first we used to put name tags on their shirts, so I could call them by their name. Now we put them on the workstation, cuz it's easier to go in and scratch them out, right? And then we have all the parents sign a waiver, obviously. And then within it says, "Hey, we can post." And most I mean, 99% of time the parents don't care.

31:23 I've had a few of them that say, "Hey." Like, "Well, I can put a emoji on their face." Like, "Okay, that's fine." So they just put a emoji on their face. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> There's so many pictures, you don't have to worry about it. I mean, there's just >> Right. >> you know. >> If someone were to start this, like what is what are some non-negotiables that they need to do, or what would step one be, or what advice do you have for someone starting this from nothing?

31:45 >> Draw the line in the sand with safety, and don't move an inch. Safety glasses, like don't don't let them play with that, because it takes one injury to wreck it, >> The whole business. >> Yeah, the whole business. Yeah. So, like, you know, number one, eye protection. Like we have posters everywhere. You push on the site, they don't touch the table without eye protection, right?

32:02 And then I kind of have a persona, Mr. Mike. I have a little shop apron that's got all like my my stuff in it, right? It's got eye protection, a big big Velcro that says eye protection. Yeah, definitely a hard line to safety. Keep it simple, stupid. Like you don't have to build these elaborate step tools. >> Yeah. >> They like making totes and flags and bird feeders and don't over and and we Another thing, we used to go cheap on the wood.

32:29 We'd buy the the cheaper lumber just cuz to save money. Now we're like, "No, we buy the we buy by really nice high-grade pine that's got no knots in it. It's It's a It costs more, but it's just a better experience for them. And they don't have to paint or stain it. They're happy going home with raw wood. >> Yeah. >> All day long. Yep. >> I like the idea of going to Etsy and just sorting by like most sold, most popular.

32:50 Both like physical things you could buy and then just copying that and then plans. >> Yep. >> I bought a chicken coop plans and shed plans from Etsy for like 15 bucks. You could use those forever. >> That That's how I got my American flag plan. >> Yeah. >> $9 off Etsy. Came with two two file sizes. And then I went to Amazon and bought the the star the stencil the star stencil.

33:10 >> Yeah. >> Right? >> With the jigsaw or >> Yeah. It's a metal and they they rattle can it. Like you don't need to complicate We're not talking routers or fancy joiner. We're talking like we're putting butt joints and screws and I don't do nails. That's another thing. Don't do nails. I do everything with screws. >> injury city, right? >> injury city.

33:25 I just do the nails or the the screws little sheet rock screws. Don't buy the expensive ones. I buy sheet rock screws in the big buckets all day long, right? Home Depot's and Lowe's they always have a scrap bin part all the time. Like go go grab scrap out of there. When I failed early on and I still struggle with this, I'm like, okay, I got to keep coming up with new projects.

33:43 I keep coming up with new projects. But really, I've got 10 projects, Chris, and that'll keep us busy for probably 5 years. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you need new projects if you're teaching the same kids over and over, but if you find a winning project >> Yep. >> recycle >> is basically for the the recur cuz now we do month month programs. So basically every week for a month, like every Monday or every Tuesday.

34:01 And basically I have a month of black totes full with kits, like a flag kit or bean bag kit or whatever. And if I if it's a previous student, I'm like, "Hey, what do you want to build?" Like, "I want to build a flag." Okay, so I go grab the flag and they're building the flag and everybody else is building robots or bean bags or whatever. >> What happens when the kid doesn't finish by the end of the class?

34:19 >> Uh oh, the So the first couple times, yeah, the first couple times we went long because we tried to add paint and glue. I've learned to simplify the project. And Harbor Freight, don't be too prideful with the tools. Go to Harbor Freight. And they're going to break them. They're going to break them. They're going to drop them. They're going to stain them.

34:33 Yeah, that was that was for sure. >> Do you have like a carpentry background or are you just like your average dad? >> This is average dad. This is average dad. >> one myself. >> Yeah. Just just It's funny. The The only reason I kind of got into woodworking was we bought a house in Maryland and my wife wanted a new kitchen. I got priced like three or four hundred thousand.

34:49 I'm like, I'm not paying three hundred dollars for boxes, for cabinets. So, I hopped on YouTube and built her entire kitchen off YouTube. >> Wow. >> I can hold my own. Keep it simple. I We're talking ninety degree squares, screws and glue. It's It's It's not hard. >> Yeah. >> But, don't be surprised when you leave tired but like on fire because the kids are so much fun to build with.

35:10 They are just an absolute blast. >> And now I think I'm going to do full just scrap bin. I'll throw a whole scrap bin in it. Once they learn the safety and I always start with safety. These are the five rules of the shop. Like we have a mantra, respect first, safety always. That's the mantra. Every time I have a class I start with that and eye protection.

35:26 And then um teach them how to do the stuff obviously. And then I'm like, "Okay, here's a bin. Go have fun." And man, >> It's like wildfire. It's like you put a whole plate of cookies out. >> You should You should upcharge for that. >> I mean, you like say, "Hey." Show them like a quick fifteen second clip of what they do and you're like, "Hey, for an extra ten bucks per head, I'll add the scrap pile."

35:46 >> Yeah. It is It It's funny too because the scraps are from an previous class. >> Sure, it's free. >> Yeah. It's just I'm going to throw it away anyway. Yep. >> Yeah. That's amazing. Do you ever post to Facebook groups or to Facebook Marketplace? >> I think you could do Marketplace. But, there's so much gold in in in the home Oh, and but and not just home school group, moms groups.

36:06 Like moms of Palm Beach County or moms of >> Yeah. >> Austin, Texas or whatever. >> You could just post to those groups. And again, it's not videos. We're talking a static image. >> Mhm. >> Right? Woodworking or shop class, kids build confidence, message me for details. That's it. No price. Don't put anything in a price. And then all the price goes on your Facebook page or cuz they don't read that stuff anyway.

36:28 That's another thing I learned. They don't read their website anyway. They don't read their Facebook page. They don't want you to tell you there, you know, right there on the phone, so. >> I feel like you're you're under selling the genius of that post. Kids build confidence, is that what you said? >> Yep. >> Like you're not you're not selling the steak, you're selling the sizzle.

36:43 You're selling the outcome, which is confidence. And as a dad of four kids, that is one thing I want them to have more than almost any other thing is confidence. >> Yeah. It took us a while to figure that out. It took me a while to figure my voice out. >> Yeah. >> To figure out cuz it was skills and then then I realized like we're not teaching woodworking.

36:59 We help kids gain confidence through tools and woodworking. >> Yeah. >> It's a blast, man. >> Oh, man. It sounds fun. Mike, this has been incredible. Where can people find you or your business? >> Uh voskill.com, which is vocational skills. Uh used AI to help us come up with a name. >> [laughter] >> Voskills, v o skills.com? >> Yeah, uh voskills singular, v o s k i l l.com.

37:22 >> And then where can we find you? Or should we just go through the website? >> or um we're on Facebook, Instagram. I think it's voskill training, v o s k i l l training. I'm a huge fan. I'm so thankful for what you do. >> Thank you, Mike. I'm thankful for what you're doing. I mean, you're inspiring people here, both locally and nation wide. By the way, if you are a die hard fan here on YouTube and you want episodes early or exclusive episodes or unedited full episodes, join my community.

37:46 It's only five bucks a month. Don't join on iPhone cuz it'll be seven bucks a month and that doesn't go to me. Join on desktop and it's only five bucks a month and you can get exclusive replies from me, early access to all these episodes, exclusive episodes that never make it to the general public, and every single $19 business plan is free. Five bucks a month, you can check us out at the link below or on my channel page.

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