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Key Takeaways Yuhas’ pet-sitting business grew quickly thanks to word-of-mouth endorsements.
She began hiring people she trusted to help her expand The Funny Sitter.
Now, she averages $5,000 a month, with a significant spike during the holiday season.
This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Stephanie Yuhas, an award-winning film and television writer and producer and founder of pet-sitting service The Funny Sitter. Income from her pet-sitting side hustle currently averages approximately $5,000 per month but can reach about $15,000 during the holiday season. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.
Image Credit: Courtesy of The Funny Sitter
I am originally from the East Coast, New Jersey and Philly, and I actually never had pets before other than fish. My mom never let me. So never in a thousand years would I have thought I’d start a pet-sitting side hustle.
I came to LA because a show that I wrote sold to Amazon Studios and went into development, but then Amazon dissolved their kids and family division. The show resold to HBO Max. My producer moved on and brought me and the whole team with him to HBO Max. In the meantime, in the background, I was helping develop a series called Mystery Science Theater 3000, a reboot.
The pandemic and strikes shift the industry landscape
I had been doing that on the East Coast, but it broke the Kickstarter world record, and Netflix picked it up. I never expected that to happen. It was a total indie. Now, that’s not my show; I just worked on it. But things were really popping off. I won a mentorship at Netflix, where we were developing a feature. We thought we had it in the bag. Then Covid hit.
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