Mom Photographer Starts Summer Camp for Kids

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Hello, hello, what's up? Greetings and welcome to Sada School School. It's Chris Guillebeau here with you on the last day of March, episode 1186. At least it is the last day of March, the day this episode is going out. It is also eight days until "The Money Tree," my new book is out in the world.

And like I mentioned briefly yesterday, I'm going crazy with everything I need to do. Long list of stuff, some of which will undoubtedly not get done, but I'm doing what I can. That said, you're here to hear stories. You are here to learn about your side hustle, your income generating project, perhaps get an idea, get a tip, get some encouragement, or maybe just understand that you're not alone. There are a lot of people out there, a whole global community of people who are finding ways to create new sources of income, which ultimately allows them to have more freedom for their lives, for whatever is important to them.

That's ultimately what it's all about. So in today's story, when two photographers' kids want to learn the trade themselves, the adults decide to see what develops with the idea of starting a summer camp. These two mom photographers learn a lot along the way, and we'll talk about that in the episode, which is coming up soon. [Music]

Tracy Robinson works as an outdoor photographer in the Woodlands, just north of Houston, Texas, where she takes family, senior, and business portraits. She loves her work, but it's very seasonal.

You see, it gets extremely hot in the Woodlands during summer, so most people opt to have their outdoor photos taken in the fall. That means Tracy doesn't make as much money in the summers, though that's not to say she's not busy, because as a mom of five, there's always something to do. A few years ago, she was so busy that often she wasn't even able to capture a moment with her kids. Case in point, one of her daughters had been asking for a photography lesson for months, and Tracy would always respond with, "One day soon." As time dragged on, that one day felt like it would never come. But Tracy, as a good photographer, didn't lose focus, and eventually sat down to work out a rough curriculum for a kid's photography class.

As the course developed, her vision for it increased. In fact, she was so taken with what she prepared that she thought it could be worth teaching to other kids, not just her own, and it helped that there was a complete lack of art classes in her local area. Fast forward, or flash forward, to March 2016 when Tracy met Jennifer Pickard. It turned out that Jennifer had been working on a similar idea over the previous year. She was an art director at Louisiana State University, where she taught Adobe Photoshop skills to adults.

Naturally, she had access to Adobe software, which she allowed her daughters to use during sleepovers. After seeing how much her kids loved designing, she came up with the idea to create a graphic design course for kids. When Tracy and Jennifer met, they instantly pictured themselves working together. They devised the idea of a summer day camp to teach kids photography and graphic design. They wasted no time, and in a snap, were testing the concept on their own children.

It turns out kids, even young ones, are pretty good at grasping ideas like aperture and pixelization. Perhaps that's one benefit the iPhone generation has over the rest of us. The two adults then decided to bring this creative endeavor out of the darkroom. They called it Camp Pixel Project, and now they just needed paying customers. To be fair, they also needed a space to host the day camp.

Luckily, they had a friend with some space in the storefront that seemed ideal. Word of mouth and hustle did the rest, and they managed to fill up the spots in what proved to be a successful trial. The format was a day camp, no sleepovers, where parents dropped their kids off for two or three hours a day for photography and graphic design fun. After running that first season, they both collapsed in exhaustion with a new respect for what teachers go through. But they were also satisfied with the progress, as were the parents of their new design students.

With that success under their belt, they went back to the drawing board. They knew they'd for sure run the day camps again the following summer. They planned to implement a bunch of changes from the lessons learned in the first year. For one, they'd allow kids from ages nine to 17, but knew it would be better to separate the younger and older kids. That way, Tracy and Jennifer could take one group at a time, teaching them their particular area of expertise.

They also found a dedicated space for the next year, which proved even more successful. And in year three, they stumbled upon a new revenue stream. They realized that many kids didn't have access to their own laptops or DSLR cameras, so they began renting out equipment. This brought in a whole new group of kids whose parents didn't want to spend all that money upfront. This new setup, combined with marketing efforts like a strong SEO strategy, meant many kids became repeat campers, and they had no trouble finding new ones.

This all results in significant profit for Tracy and Jennifer. For just two to three weeks of camp each year, they each take home around $10,000. Not enough for a full-time income, but more than enough to cover the slower periods in their other work. In the future, they hope to franchise Camp Pixel Project to others around the country. With such a proven concept, the picture seems crystal clear.

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So here's a fun fact. There are more than six million kids in the U.S. alone who attend some form of summer camp. There are actually more than 12,000 summer camps, again, just in the U.S., including 7,000 overnight camps and 5,000 day camps like Camp Pixel Project. So it's a big market, lots of opportunity there, a lot of work, to be sure, but definitely some opportunity as well.

I think we've had a couple of stories at least of people who started camps that have ended up doing really well. However, some advice. To run a successful summer camp, you need a solid curriculum with a lot of interactive projects. As I said, it's a lot of work. Summer camp really needs to be different than school, and the focus should be on fun for the kids.

You have to have learning, of course, but it has to be fun. So you gotta make sure you test out all your projects, have backup plans, et cetera. You wanna make sure kids grasp what you were teaching, but definitely have fun, as I said, while doing so. All right, congratulations to Tracy and Jennifer. Check out the Camp Pixel Project.

We will, of course, link it up in the notes page. And listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1186. Thank you so much for listening, and be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.