In partnership with
Encore Income Insider: weekly, practical help for corporate managers and directors turning proven expertise into real income, without leaving their jobs.
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In today's issue
Four people who sold their work skills to individuals and families
What changes when the buyer is a person
A one-hour weekend exercise: the help people outside work already ask you for
What each of the four started with, and what they later built
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THIS WEEK'S OBSERVATION
Most of what gets written about outside income assumes the buyer is a company. A manager, a budget, an approval somewhere up the chain.
Four clients I've worked with went a different way... they sold the skills they use at work to individuals and families. An HR manager helped people with their resumes. A project manager helped families get through college applications. That's the route this week's issue is about.
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THE DEEP DIVE
Most advice about earning outside your job assumes a business buyer. You find a company with a problem, someone there agrees to pay, and the money comes out of a budget. That route works (a lot of this newsletter has been about it).
It isn't the only one, though. Some of the people I've worked with offered their expertise to individuals and families instead.
Amanda P. is an HR Manager. In her words: "I sit on hiring panels every week in my corporate job. Helping mid-level professionals rewrite their resumes and nail behavioral interviews is a direct translation of skills I already use daily."
Marcus T. is a Project Manager. He helped high school families manage college applications and scholarship timelines. "As a corporate project manager, keeping teenagers and parents organized was surprisingly natural and immensely rewarding."
Brian K. is a Senior Financial Analyst who, as he put it, "wanted something completely separate from my corporate finance day job." He started helping local remote professionals organize their household cash flow.
Linda W. is a Real Estate Project Director. She helped individual buyers run cash flow and return projections on property purchases. In her words, "Everyday buyers often make emotional decisions."
What I notice about these four is how everyday the starting point was. Amanda already sat on hiring panels. Marcus already kept deadlines and moving parts on track for a living. They took something they did every week and pointed it at a new kind of buyer.
That matters for one practical reason. Selling to a person changes the buying conversation. The person with the problem may be the one paying... or it may be a parent paying for a teenager, with a partner who wants a say. So before price ever comes up, find out who'll use the help, who'll pay, and who else gets a vote.
Pricing can feel different too. Someone spending their own money may weigh it differently than a department spending a budget.
This route won't suit everyone, and some expertise has a more obvious household version than others. More of it translates than you might expect, though, especially anything to do with careers, money, paperwork or keeping a complicated process on track.
One caution before you start. These are examples of work clients described. A job title on its own doesn't qualify someone to offer every related service, so check the scope, qualifications and any requirements that apply before you offer paid help.
So here's the question worth sitting with this week... who outside work already asks you for help with the thing you do all day?
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THE WEEKEND GAMEPLAN
One hour, and nothing gets sent.
First, list the help people outside work already ask you for. Friends, family, neighbors, former colleagues. A resume, a spreadsheet, a big purchase, a pile of paperwork, a schedule that keeps slipping. Write down every request you can remember from the last year.
Second, circle the one closest to what you do all day at work. You're looking for the request where your job has made you unusually good at the answer.
Third, write one sentence describing that help for a household. Start with the person's problem and leave your title out of it. "When the applications are due in six weeks and nobody knows which essay is finished" is a sentence a parent recognizes.
That's the hour. Done and dusted. You don't have to decide anything yet... you'll just have one possible service worth a closer look.
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BY THE NUMBERS
Client | Who they helped | Monthly gap, then monthly revenue built |
|---|---|---|
Amanda P., HR Manager | Professionals rewriting resumes and preparing for interviews | About $2,500, built to about $3,500 |
Marcus T., Project Manager | Families managing college applications | About $2,000, built to about $2,800 |
Brian K., Senior Financial Analyst | Households organizing their cash flow | About $1,800, built to about $2,500 |
Linda W., Real Estate Project Director | Individual property buyers | About $4,000, built to about $6,000 |
Each person's own estimate, rounded, shared with permission. "Built" means the monthly revenue from outside work they reported once it was established, in most cases a monthly average, and it covers all of their outside work, not only the help described above. Not financial advice. Example only. Your results will vary.
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THIS WEEK'S READING
A short book built around seven questions, written for anyone whose instinct is to jump straight to the answer. That instinct serves you well at work. With a parent, a job seeker or someone buying a property, though, the first problem they describe often isn't the real one. These questions help you find out what they actually need before you start helping.
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ONE MORE THING
Earlier this month I changed one line in how I describe this newsletter.
It used to say it was for people building part-time consulting income. Now it says it's for people turning proven expertise into real income, without leaving their jobs.
The old line was accurate for some readers and quietly wrong for others. Some of the people I've worked with built their outside work around individuals and families. Consulting is one route... it was never meant to be the only door.
P.S. If you've done paid work for individuals rather than companies, hit reply and tell me what it was. I'd really like to hear it.
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IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE
Most of the people this is written for don't know it exists. They aren't searching for it, because they don't have a word yet for the thing they're looking for.
If someone came to mind while you were reading this issue, forward it to them. That's the whole mechanism.
There's a referral program attached if you want it. One referral gets you a sixteen-page workbook on building a tangible asset you're already qualified to create. Three gets the Projects Playbook plus your pick of an AI Survival Guide. Five gets a written audit that I read and return myself.
HOW I CAN HELP
A few things I've built, if any of them are useful this week.
The Corporate Superpowers Assessment - free, about 7 minutes. Shows which of your skills are already worth $100-150 an hour to someone outside your building.
The Freedom Number Calculator - free. Runs your retirement math with income as a variable, not just savings.
The Encore Income Playbook - 75 ways corporate professionals turn existing skills into paid work, organized by function and effort level.
AI Survival Guides - function-specific guides (finance, HR, operations, and about twenty more) on where AI is actually changing the job and what to do about it, plus a few planning spreadsheets.
No pressure on any of it. Take what's useful, skip the rest.
Scott Fulbright
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YOUR TURN
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Not financial advice. I am a career coach specializing in corporate skill monetization, not a licensed financial planner, CPA, investment adviser or attorney. Nothing here is financial, tax, legal or investment advice, and nothing in it guarantees any outcome. Results vary with experience, market and effort.
Some links in this newsletter are affiliate links, including Amazon Associates, which means I may earn a commission if you purchase through them at no additional cost to you.