Craigslist is for Creepers…well creepers and wannabe Italian Chefs.
I’ve been coming up with 10 ways to make side cash each week. First step to idea success is listing what makes you unique. What do you know about that most people don’t? What makes you cool?
I just spent some time in Italy on the Island of Ischia. During happy hour (pretty much from 12pm-8pm in Italy) I would head down to Bar Rosa and go see Angelo. He was the man. Immediately your best friend when you first saw him. His favorite line was, “Greg, my friend, my friend, one or two beers today?” …Just one Angelo, just one.
Anyway, he would serve up the best bruschetta I’ve ever had in my life.
I mean…cmon…
I said, Angelo you gotta show me how to make this. He had no problem letting me in on his bruschetta secret AND he also showed me the art of pizza making.
Alright I said, I gotta try and have fun with this back home. Someone is going to want awesome pizza made right in front of them…right? Hey maybe I’ll even make some money, and at the very least IT’LL BE FUNNY AND A GOOD STORY (Lesson 1: Honestly what more do you want from life other than humor and a good story?).
Like most amazing ideas, this one started off on craigslist. I threw up a simple ad describing how amazing the pizza I make is. I was targeting couples looking for an alternative date night (suckers) and families who wanted to spice up the weekly dinner.
Try and get more dorky than that…
Responses were pitiful, oh well (Not the first burn on Craigslist). Then I got an email from a mom of a friend of a friend saying she was interested and wanted to hear more details for a party of 8. I gave her 7 awesome pizza choices (email me for the secret list) and told her to pick 4.
Laughing the entire time I would spend days researching the best dough recipes and pizza combo’s. I tested out a ton of options and actually spent a lot of time perfecting the production. You know the awesome thing? I HAD FUN DOING IT even when I wasn’t getting paid. I was passionate and didn’t care how much time it took. Lesson 2: The energy you feel when you’re working on something you like doing is amazing.
The big night came and I had artfully crafted the menu. Started off with bruschetta (…duh) and guests started to arrive. One by one my co-chef and I put out ‘zas (beautiful 'Za at that). It we were entertaining a crowd and smoozing with fun people all night.
At this point I didn’t even care about how much we got paid. It was great to just do something new. We got $300 to make pizza for a party! Paid…to make…pizza…cmon now. Lesson 3: Try as many ideas as you can, the right one will pick you.
This experienced happened because of a simple Craigslist post. Lesson 4: Forget the Craigslist post, this experience happened because a small initiative to mix up life and try something new. What awesome things aren’t happening because you haven’t take a small initiative?
Moral: You gotta put yourself out of your comfort zone and always try new things. I always ask myself, “Greg whats something new you’ve tried recently?” If I can’t think of anything, I’m not doin’ it right.
PS. Grab more side cash experiment write ups and ideas here
PSS. If you need awesome home made pizza ideas let me know
October 14th, 2014 8:50am
Written by
Greg Kamradt
At
Tue Oct 14 2014