When you run a business every minute counts, you don't have a lot of spare time, and you probably know that accounts payable can take up way more time than it should. A simple task can become all too complicated, but it doesn't need to be, and that's why I recommend Intuit QuickBooks Bill Pay. QuickBooks Bill Pay automates your accounts payable and QuickBooks allows you to do more of what you want to do, because you're not sorting through invoices during your spare time, or when you'd rather be doing something else. No more manual bill entry, you instantly see what to do, who needs to approve it, how it all works, spend less time on admin and more time keeping your business growing with QuickBooks Bill Pay.
Learn more at QuickBooks.com. Again, that's QuickBooks.com slash Bill Pay, in terms of money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Incorporated, licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Tomorrow, we have a listener question coming out about a freelancer who's using AI tools, just like so many people are these days, and he's wondering if he needs to disclose that to his clients. We'll talk about that in some more detail tomorrow, but I was thinking about it because today, today's story, we have a software developer in Colorado who makes a specific tool, it is a browser-based CSV converter, basically takes spreadsheet files and cleans up exports from a real estate system.
So basically, real estate agents use this system, and he has found a way to clean it up, make their lives easier, he profits from it, it makes perfect sense, he's solving a problem, he's providing a remedy or a solution to a need, and today it runs mostly on autopilot. The creator says it now reliably pays his rent each month. So pretty cool story, this is our throwback Thursday segment where we take a look at someone who's story has evolved since we first featured them. Last week, we heard how a fitness fan turned flipping gym equipment into a small media business, you know, sells set up guides and weekly home gym deals for thousands of subscribers.
Today, let's hear about this tiny spreadsheet tool that pays the rent. It's nice if you've got something like that that pays your rent, maybe it'll give you an idea, stay tuned for the story, I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. Hey, I'm Nate, calling in to share my story. I work full-time as a software developer, but my sign hustle is fixing CSV files.
Now seriously, it started when a friend of mine, he's a real estate agent, kept complaining about his customer data exports. Every time he downloaded a contact list, the formatting was a mess, weird spacing, dates in six different styles, merge name fields, extra headers every 20 rows. It was impossible to import cleanly into anything else. I whipped up a quick browser-based tool to fix it.
Just drag and drop the CSV, hit Clean, and it spits out a corrected file with uniform headers, clean cells, and dates in a year, month, day. It ran locally in the browser, so there were no uploads or privacy issues. I named it EasyCSV Fixer, registered a domain for $12 and built a basic landing page on card. I also added Stripe Checkout with Gumroad for good measure.
At first, it was free, but within a week, three people emailed me asking if there was a premium version, or if I could build one for their own CRM exports. So I added a paywall, $39 per year for full access. Unlimited uploads, saved templates, and a batch cleaning option. I also started offering white label licenses, the same tool with custom branding, per consultants.
That's $199 per year, and includes a client-facing dashboard. The early traction came mostly from a couple of Facebook groups for real estate marketing pros. I wrote up a blog post titled, How to Fix Real Estate CRM CSV Files, without going insane, and shared it in a few newsletters. From there, it mostly grew on its own.
As of now, I have 328 active paid users, and about 60% are consultants or virtual assistants who work with realtors in small teams. I've sold 19 white label versions, and two large firms reached out to license the tool for internal use. One of them bought a 40-seat bulk license for $1200. Support is minimal.
Every now and then, someone emails about an error message, but most of the time it's someone asking if I can add support for a specific CRM's quirks. If it's a popular one, I'll do it and roll out the update to everyone. Revenue averages $1,500 to $1,800 per month, and it's consistent. I've stopped promoting it actively, but new users trickle in weekly, just from organic search, referrals, and a pin thread in one real estate discord.
It basically pays my rent. The biggest takeaway? You don't need to build some flashy startup. Just solve one specific problem really well, especially if that problem happens over and over again.
People will pay to not deal with it. Honestly, it still surprises me. I built this thing in a weekend, and two years later, it's still running and still paying the bills. Nate, thank you for sharing the story.
I always love simple projects that solve a specific need and are able to be monetized as you have done. So well done. I think who you'd like to see featured from our archives of thousands of episodes, 3,000 plus, 3,200 plus. In fact, if you have a question or an update, you know where to go, sidehustleschool.com.
Got resources for every episode as well, and of course new episodes out every day, seven days a week. That's it for now. My name is Chris Gillabow. This is SideHustle School.
From the Onward Project.