It was 2017, and Osborn realized he could get paid to advise high school seniors on their college admissions essays. He himself met with a consultant before applying to Stanford University, and was accepted in 2013.
He asked the mentor for help in getting his side business off the ground. As admissions consultants were in high demand, she referred three of her clients to him.
Osborne had planned to quit her side job after earning a master's degree in public administration in two years, but at that point she realized that helping children with their essays was what she wanted to do. Plus, it was profitable. By 2021, Osbourne had “snowballed” 40 clients and earned $113,550, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Last year, he downsized his practice to 33 clients. The main reason was that there were growing expectations for his full-time job as Director of Public Relations Accounts. Still, he makes $77,120, an average for the past two years that Osborne said is slightly more than he makes in his full-time job.
Advantages: A side hustle costs little to start, he says. Osborn, who works remotely with clients, estimates he spent $50 on Zoom and creating his Squarespace account. The extra cash will come in handy, Osborne said. He recently used his inflated savings to buy a house with his girlfriend in Seattle, Washington.
However, side hustles are not completely cost-free. From October to December, with application deadlines looming over the high school senior's head, Ms. Osborn is working a total of 70 hours a week between her two jobs.
“You can't get around it. Once you get close to the deadline, you have to push,” Osbourne, 28, told CNBC Make It. “I often say to my friends, 'Hey, let's meet in January.'”
Here, Osborne details how he started and maintained a six-figure side hustle.
CNBC Make It: Do you think your side hustle is replicable?
Osborn: I think this book is absolutely replicable for anyone who wants to take the time to learn how to break down and approach the process of writing a college essay.
But you need a few things to get started. You need a good mentor, someone who's been there and knows how everything works. That might be through a private consultant like me, or a school counselor trained in this field.
Being on the side of admissions and counseling is a different game than applying on your own. It requires knowledge of how an admissions reader specifically approaches these essays and how schools are looking for things now compared to him 10 years ago.
Admissions procedures seem to be constantly changing. How can you stay up-to-date on what schools expect from their students without giving away trade secrets?
You need to know what's changing in the world of college admissions.This year has been a difficult year considering the Supreme Court decision. [overturned affirmative action] And schools are talking about traditional admissions. If you don't stay up to date with the news, you'll fall behind when students ask you questions like, “Should I talk about race in my personal statement?”
I also subscribe to many university newsletters and am working on publishing some freelance articles. Working on your work requires you to be critical and do a lot of research on mental health and college admissions.
How can you improve your students' essays without making them your own?
There is an ethical line. The first meeting with a student is where she brainstorms as many ideas as possible during an hour-long interview and a 90-minute interview. I record their responses, but only act as a sounding board and ask questions to help them think critically about how their life experiences fit into their personal statement.
When people write text or suggest new content for students, it can get into tricky territory. The first draft will never be great, and you can't write the essay for them. If I need them to dig deeper into an idea, I just pull out my notes and make suggestions based on what they told me. I'm not going to create any new ideas here on the page without their implementation. And it's certainly going to build off of what they've already told me.
How do you set boundaries to maintain work-life balance during the height of admissions season? Do those boundaries help prevent burnout?
It is difficult to maintain a good work-life balance during the school entrance season and during the hot summer months. 2021 was my busiest year, but I couldn't take a day off and started to feel like burnout. My biggest symptom was that I started losing focus. When I log on to my full-time job in the morning, I get distracted within 30 minutes. I became a little more irritable and forgot things easily. My friends contacted me, but I completely missed their messages.
But this year, we made adjustments. I work a full-time job during the day, take a 30-minute break, and then start three consecutive meetings that last until about 9:30 p.m. It sounds counterintuitive, but the reason I do it is to take the weekend off and give myself two days off from her, which I never did before. Now I can go on short trips with my girlfriends, visit family, or just simply rest and recharge.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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