‘I made $100,000 in passive income—in one day’: This 28-year-old quit her job and turned her side hustle into a $1 million business Published Wed, Feb 2 202211:23 AM ESTUpdated Wed, Feb 2 202212:23 PM EST

 

‘I made $100,000 in passive income—in one day’: This 28-year-old quit her job and turned her side hustle into a $1 million business

Published Wed, Feb 2 202211:23 AM ESTUpdated Wed, Feb 2 202212:23 PM EST

Kat Norton, Contributor

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Kat Norton, a.k.a. “Miss Excel”

Photo: Kat Norton

Like many others, in the early days of the pandemic, I found myself moving back into my childhood bedroom.

I had stopped traveling for my consulting job and was working from home on Long Island. After a few months, though, I grew bored and restless. I wanted something different; my job was getting me by financially, but it wasn’t lighting me up.

One day, I was on the phone with my best friend, Anna, tossing around side hustle ideas that could leverage the four years I spent teaching Microsoft Excel at my consulting firm.

Suddenly, a lightning bolt hit: I could post mini Excel lessons on TikTok.

Little did I know, that idea would lead to a fun side hustle that would eventually turn into Miss Excel, my successful full-time Excel training business. Today, it has grown to more than 1 million followers across TikTok and Instagram — and has brought in more than $1 million in course sales.

How I turned my training side hustle into a million-dollar business

I posted my first video on TikTok in June 2020, then began posting once a day. I didn’t tell a soul other than my mother and my boyfriend.

But things caught on fast. My fourth video, where I explained Excel’s new data-searching XLOOKUP feature to DMX’s song “X Gon’ Give It to Ya,” surpassed 100,000 views in just a few days.

@miss.excelMEET XLOOKUP 👋#learnontiktok#excel#spreadsheet#exceltips#edutok♬ X Gon’ Give It to Ya (Re-Recorded / Remastered) - DMX

By my sixth video, the CEO of an IT company sent a message saying he loved my fun teaching style and wanted to pay me to create Excel training videos for his clients. I accepted his offer and ordered a green screen and a ring light to make my videos look more professional.

I formed an LLC on June 15, 2020. Next thing I knew, I was in business.

While working my 9-to-5 and hustling on other client projects, I continued posting Excel videos on TikTok every day. I was creating wholly unique videos and infusing them with genuine passion — and people could tell.

By October, I had grown my social media audience to 300,000 followers. My videos were going viral. I beamed at the prospect of leveraging my brand to become a full-time content creator.

The next step, I decided, would be to build out online courses to sell directly to consumers via my website.