Bartenders Turn Trivia Night Into $1.5 Million Business

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

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What's up my friends? Hello, side hustle school community. Let's talk about Trivia Night, also known as Pub Quiz. Popularized in the UK but increasingly common in the US and elsewhere around the world. Now in this episode, a pair of Cincinnati bartenders transform their version of Trivia Night into a seven-figure franchise, $1.2 million business.

They do this with investment capital and a buy-in from Elon Musk. Oh wait, no, I'm reading that wrong. It's actually just $300 of startup funds. That is correct, $300 of startup funds becomes a seven-figure Trivia Night business. Now also in the spirit of the topic, here are three common trivia questions.

I'm gonna give you the questions now and the answers will be revealed at the end of the episode 'cause that's kind of how it works with Trivia. So question number one, what is the most common blood type? Question number two, which animal is faster? A kangaroo or a zebra? In some parts of the world known as a zebra.

In all parts of the world known as a kangaroo. And number three, on which island was Napoleon exiled following his defeat at Waterloo? So three questions for you there. Here is a shout out to our sponsor, then the story, some analysis, and of course the three answers. Stay tuned.

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There aren't many people who can say they found their perfect side hustle while drinking in a bar. But for Cincinnati bartender, Adam Johnston, that's exactly what happened. Way back in 2007, Adam and his buddy Drew Turner got into the habit of attending midweek trivia nights and local bars around town. They loved the atmosphere, the questions, and the friendly rivalry. But the more shows they attended, the more they felt they could do a better job.

They saw a real opportunity to provide a more entertaining service than the already established companies in the area. So Adam roped in his quiz partner slash co-host Drew to create their own version of trivia night. They invested $300 in simple sound equipment, mainly speakers, a microphone, and cables to connect to Adam's laptop so they could effectively host the show. Then they sourced, curated, or researched challenging questions they could ask anybody who attended. Adam and Drew knew that having the equipment in a new formula wasn't enough to get them any paid gigs at a bar.

Despite having a large presence in the UK and Europe, if you're from there, you might know them as pub quiz instead. At the time, trivia nights were still fairly new to the American audience. The pair knew if they were gonna get any bookings, they needed bartenders to see the experience firsthand to understand the potential. So they decided they would host an exhibition night. Now, if you have never attended a trivia night yourself, here's a quick rundown.

You compete as part of a team to answer questions posed by the host. Commonly, these questions cover lots of different topics like sports, films, and music, but they can also be specialized, such as a Star Wars trivia night or a Harry Potter night. The questions are usually interspersed with music or conversations with the crowd, depending on the host, and the team with the highest number of correct answers at the end wins. That team often gets a prize, like a round of drinks at the bar or a small sum of cash. To find bar owners to attend exhibition night, Adam and Drew relied heavily on their network of friends.

They contacted anyone they could think of who had a connection to a bar or knew someone who did. Eventually, they had a handful of bar owners willing to attend. That exhibition night was a hit and instantly landed them a regular gig at a Cincinnati bar called Champion's Grill. To grow their client base, they then employed much the same technique over and over again. They would network with anyone they could find and invite bar owners down to participate in one of their now-paid live events.

Within a few months, they had more than 10 clients. Adam says bar owners are some of the best people to network with. They tend to move in social circles with other owners, and they always want their friends to succeed, so they're happy to refer you onwards. The key to getting them to take on a trivia night is to present it as a solution to one of their problems. Usually, this means turning one of their quiet and least profitable nights into a recurring event.

In his experience, Adam has seen bar owners use the trivia nights to turn usually dormant evenings into thousands of dollars of income. Understanding this can also help you command a good rate for an evening's work. Adam and Drew started by charging bars $150 per night, which quickly increased to 175 and beyond. They knew the bar owner wouldn't have the extra income if it wasn't for their show, and that should be rewarded. As their popularity grew, Adam and Drew found themselves needing to scale their business and employ other people to host.

Although they could split off and host nights independently, they couldn't be in more than two places at once. So they officially created a company called Last Call Trivia and began to employ other hosts from the area. They would source venues, provide sound equipment and questions, and pay the hosts a flat fee per show, with the rest of the money earned from the event going back into the business. A good host can make or break a trivia night, so the Last Call team puts a lot of work into vetting who can take the mic and call themselves a Last Call Trivia host. It's essential that this person is outgoing, confident, and able to read the room and make decisions accordingly.

By their second year, they were able to go all in. Adam had been working part-time sweeping floors in the movie theater to pay some of the bills. But now, since starting up, they have built Last Call Trivia to a $1.5 million business operating in five states and hundreds of bars. One of their significant expenses as that business has grown has been hiring full-time writers to generate unique and interesting questions for the database. They currently have 50,000 unique questions their host can use to challenge their contestants.

They now want to empower more people to start trivia nights of their own. So they've created a product called Last Call Flex, which provides you with a show format and access to that database, 50,000 questions to build your quiz around. All you need is a smartphone or laptop and the confidence to hold a microphone. [Music]

All right, this is a service business, trivia night, essentially, very low cost in terms of the equipment. It's all about managing relationships.

Both with bar owners and hosts. Because the bar owners are the ones who are paying and the host are the ones that you essentially have to trust with your brand and essentially act on your behalf. So it's the kind of business to go into or the kind of side hustles to start. If you're good with people, if you're good with handling different issues that come up, providing reassurance, just kind of proving over time that you can provide a great experience, which is essentially what trivia night is all about. And also it started by noticing that something could be done better.

These guys were enjoying going to the trivia nights in their local area, but they thought, you know, we can take this up a level, we can do something that goes above and beyond what's already happening. So pay attention as you go along, ask yourself what can be done better. And as promised, the answers to our trivia night, side hustle school pub quiz here. Question number one was, what is the most common blood type? Did you know?

I wasn't sure myself. It is O positive, followed by A positive. So O positive, then A positive. I myself am B positive, just in case I'm ever lying on the ground in front of you in need of a blood transfusion and you happen to be walking by B positive again. Number two, which animal is faster, a kangaroo or a zebra?

Or a zebra, let's say. It's actually not the zebra or the zebra, it is the kangaroo. I'm pretty sure I knew the answer to that one, or at least that's what I would have guessed. And number three, on which island was Napoleon exiled following his defeat at Waterloo? I would have said Corsica, but I would have been wrong.

Probably not the best trivia night partner. The answer is St. Helen. So once again, that is O positive, kangaroo and St. Helen.

Now, in addition to hearing about trivia night, you have learned something else for the day, perhaps, or maybe you knew all three answers, in which case you're really smart, but you gotta keep listening because much more is on the way. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/746. You can learn about Last Call Trivia as well as that product they've made called Last Call Flex. For those listening in real time, we are in the midst of welcoming new members to our Sidestyl Society right now. You can learn about that at sidehustleschool.com/society.

All right, that's it, I'm out for the day. Do come back tomorrow. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]