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This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Alaa El Ghatit, founder of LifeOnRecord. LifeOnRecord is a service that allows you to send stories, memories, and well wishes to people celebrating birthdays, retirements, weddings, and other special occasions over the phone. Recordings are stored in souvenir speakers or vinyl albums.
Image credit: Provided by Alaa El Ghatit
When did you start LifeOnRecord as a side hustle and what inspired you?
In 2006, I was managing 60 people in the IT department of a large employee benefits consulting company, but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in my job. I didn’t like sitting in meetings all day, so I wanted to get hands-on again and work on something more meaningful, but where I am, I don’t see a viable path to doing that. was not found.
I’ve been tinkering with phone systems in my spare time and I can’t generate business by calling people and having them record their favorite stories and memories as a way to celebrate birthdays, retirements, weddings, etc. That’s what I thought.
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What was the first step you took to get your side hustle off the ground?
As my mother-in-law’s 65th birthday was approaching, I knew she would be looking forward to hearing from her children, grandchildren, friends, and husband.
So, as a test drive, I set up a phone number that anyone could call, put the recording on a CD, and gave it to her (remember, this was 2006). On her birthday, we listened to it together in the living room. She loved it, it brought tears to her eyes, and it sparked so many stories (she still loves it 18 years later).
I thought the idea had some appeal, so I worked on it in my spare time to turn it into a service.
A few months later, I got laid off, so I decided to take some time to grow my business. More and more people started ordering, but it wasn’t enough to support my wife and her four young children, so after nine months, I was hired by her IT department director at a medium-sized company that I could manage on-site. I got a job as a. small team.
Did you encounter any challenges when starting your side job? If so, how did you navigate them?
There were three major challenges to moving forward with LifeOnRecord’s side business. First, the entrepreneurial aspect of LifeOnRecord got me used to the security of a company salary. I couldn’t fully commit to LifeOnRecord because I enjoyed both of them. Despite the automation and minimal time required by LifeOnRecord, the camaraderie of my role at the company held me back from leaving until 2022.
Additionally, keeping LifeOnRecord a secret from my colleagues created emotional barriers that made me more reserved and unable to share valuable insights across both worlds. This secret lasted until the decisive moment when I decided to quit my corporate job. To my surprise, when I revealed LifeOnRecord to my CEO, I was met with unexpected support instead of resistance. The company facilitated a smooth transition so I could gradually shift my focus to LifeOnRecord, and the CEO mentored me along the way.
Finally, early challenges included protecting LifeOnRecord’s intellectual property from infringement from multinational corporations. Through persistence and direct negotiation, which took over a year, I obtained an agreement from them without legal intervention to license my intellectual property to them for a fair but significant license fee.
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How long did it take you to start seeing consistent revenue every month? On average, how much revenue did you bring in?
Growth was slow, but people who used the service started talking about it, leading to repeat customers. Before focusing on it full-time, I was making just over $100,000 a year on the side. My company’s salary allowed us to live comfortably, fund our children’s college, and travel.
What is LifeOnRecord’s expected annual revenue this year?
For me, it’s not really about money or growth, it’s more about being able to provide a personal, customer-centric experience that I can be directly involved with. Time Venture’s revenue is about $350,000, and he plans to more than double that amount this year. We are always very responsive to customer questions and requests, but we don’t want to grow to the point where great customer service is no longer a priority.
How have you worked to scale your company? What has been really key to driving growth?
From the beginning, my strategy has been to leverage technology to extend and enhance the customer experience. Recognizing that customers want more control over their posts, I developed a “My Recordings” portal where customers can edit, organize, and delete messages. We’ve streamlined the audio enhancement process by partnering with Dolby Labs to achieve the highest levels of audio clarity and noise reduction, and expanded our contribution options beyond traditional phone calls to include his six alternative methods. .
[While] Balancing this growth with corporate responsibility, I was careful not to expand too quickly and aimed to maintain a healthy balance between my day job and LifeOnRecord. This balance has allowed me to reap the benefits of both my professional career and entrepreneurial venture without putting a strain on myself or my business.
A key innovation was the introduction of vintage rotary phone rentals at wedding receptions so guests could leave messages for the bride and groom. Unlike our competitors who simply rent phones, we have integrated these parts into a broader ecosystem of services. Guests love the charm of leaving messages on these classic devices, and their messages are enhanced and saved through our platform.
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Looking back at your journey with LifeOnRecord, is there anything you wish you had done differently?
I keep thinking that maybe I should have left the corporate world sooner to fully embrace the entrepreneurial path at LifeOnRecord. The allure of stability and predictable income held me back, locking me into a role that, while comfortable, probably limited the growth potential of my passion projects. But with every decision comes a silver lining.
By staying at the company for longer than I probably should have, I gained valuable lessons and experience. In this professional environment, I developed skills that would later become critical to navigating entrepreneurship, including project management discipline, negotiation skills, and the ability to lead a team.
This period also served as an important developmental stage for LifeOnRecord. It allowed me to slowly but surely build the foundations of my business, test ideas, and refine my model without feeling any immediate pressure to make it my only source of income. In a way, this gave us the freedom to experiment and innovate with less risk, laying the foundation for what would eventually become LifeOnRecord.
What are you most excited about regarding the future of LifeOnRecord?
Customers have used LifeOnRecord in innovative ways. People used LifeOnRecord to send audio thank you messages, and a bride used her LifeOnRecord to record how it felt to “say yes to the dress” and played the recording while walking down the aisle. I think there are many other ways to market LifeOnRecord in the future.
What do you like most about running your own business now?
I love the impact your business has on your customers. When I worked in a corporate world, I felt like a cog in the wheel, but with LifeOnRecord, I created a way for people to connect with others. We would especially like to thank people for purchasing it and recording messages for people with terminal illnesses. They say it’s one of the few things a person can do to show how much he or she is loved.
Plus, I love the flexibility of my lifestyle and not having to be responsible to anyone other than my clients. I love being identified with it and I love getting excited when others share what I’m doing.
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What advice do you have for people who want to start a side hustle or business?
I encourage you to be kind to yourself. Stories abound of individuals making astronomical amounts of money from side hustles, but such examples are extremely rare. Progress is usually slower than expected, resembling a “two steps forward and he takes one step back” dance.
Building a sustainable principles-first business takes patience and time.
Use your daily work for its intended purpose. It’s a way to reduce risk on your path to building a business that has a lasting impact.
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