This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rachel Calaj and Felipe Rochi, a married couple in their 30s. Together, they run a wedding camcorder rental business that they started as a side hustle. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Rochi: I’m an SEO supervisor. I also had a second job in the SEO space, but I was terminated this summer, in early June.
Calaj: I’ve been a school psychologist, typically hired through an agency to work for a district on a contract basis.
We found out we were pregnant last December, and my contract ended in May. We were trying to think throughout that time what we would do next year.
Felipe lost his job before our baby shower
Calaj: As a first-time mom, I wanted to stay home with my child. We were trying to see if Felipe’s two jobs would be enough for me to do so. Then, he got terminated the day before our baby shower. It was a very sad moment for us, but we still had a great time at the baby shower, even if it wasn’t the best timing.
Rochi: Unexpectedly losing my job and her contract ending around that time impacted our income significantly.
Calaj: It changed everything for us; it was a turning point. We were in the middle of buying baby clothes and all the things that you need.
Rochi: I applied for a decent number of jobs. You never hear back from jobs fast enough. You’re just waiting to see if you got it. My dad owns a cleaning business, so we considered asking him for work in the meantime. With a kid on the way, we were thinking about anything I could do.
Calaj: I reached out to the district that I worked for the previous year to see if I could do some flexible, part-time contract work. We were trying anything we could to have extra income at that point.
We turned an idea into a new income stream
Rochi: In April, I saw videos of somebody renting camcorders to people to record their weddings, and then editing the footage for them.
I immediately thought it was a really cool idea.
My brain started to spin. Before even telling Rachel, I created a website and a TikTok account for our business, Pass the Cam, and posted a few videos just to see if it could work. I’ve tried a lot of side hustles over the years, including starting a newsletter that sent people entry-level remote job postings and creating a product called DooBagz, a bag dog owners could clip on to hold a used poop bag. However, they didn’t work out.
Calaj: With this camcorder side hustle, I could see real momentum behind it from the start. Felipe hit the ground running, and when our first order came in, I was so excited.
Our first orders gave us hope we could do this
Rochi: We were at T.J. Maxx one Friday night when somebody reached out and said their videographer canceled and she needed our camcorders the next weekend. I was like, “Oh snap, I have to ship this out ASAP.”
I bought a Sony 4K camcorder and memory card from a camera store nearby for around $1,100, including the warranty, picked it up on Saturday, and bought a random box to ship it to her.
Because we didn’t have the money to pay an editor right away, and we were trying to pay off the camcorder I’d just bought, I edited the footage she sent back, since I have a little bit of experience with editing. She loved it.
That first client was in May, before I lost my job. By the end of the month, we had gotten two more clients.
It gave me something to fall back on when my termination happened in June. I said, “Hey, I got a couple of clients out of this, so why not try this more?” I was still applying for jobs, though, because a second job felt more secure than betting on a side hustle.
Calaj: Of course, there was still some uncertainty. You always wonder whether something will take off or eventually fizzle out.
We’ve had nearly 100 clients since we started
Rochi: Our goal is to reach 100 clients by the end of 2026. We’re nearly there, and we still have some months to go, so I think it’s possible.
We’ve made over $50,000 in net volume since starting in May, about half of which was in September alone.
I see more camcorder rental businesses showing up compared to when we started, but with millions of weddings a year in the US, I believe there’s room for everyone.
We try to price our packages slightly lower than our competitors, run almost monthly promos, and include everything without charging for add-ons.
We actually dropped the prices for our two most expensive packages in order to stay competitive. Our packages are $429 for our starter package, $699 for the core package, and $899 for our deluxe package. They differ in terms of the type and number of camcorders, the length of edited video, and additional attachments like microphones and lights.
Calaj: I handle the operations side, like managing bookings, handling shipping logistics, ordering packaging, hunting down the best deals on boxes and stickers, and growing our camcorder inventory. The cameras are probably the biggest expense that we have at this moment, but it’s been worth it so far.
My husband leads marketing and is the main point of contact for every couple we work with. He takes care of the camcorders themselves, making sure each one is working properly and set up with the right settings before it ships. He also works with our editors and reviews their work, so everything we send out is top quality.
On top of that, he manages our finances, making sure we’re smart about what we earn and how much we reinvest back into the business.
Rochi: Sometimes overbooking happens, or we don’t have enough inventory. I think that’s all part of learning a new business.
We wish we’d had something like this at our wedding
Rochi: Some might disagree with our ways, but we know how expensive weddings already are.
Calaj: When we got married about four years ago, we did more of an elopement-style wedding with our close friends and family because we were starting off in our careers. We had disposable cameras; we still have those pictures around our house.
To hear that wedding videos can now cost thousands of dollars — it’s just an insane amount.
We both said that if camcorder rentals were around when we got married, it would be a really cool thing to do. It’s really sweet looking at the videos; it just feels very homey.
Rochi: The coolest part is hearing back from the couples over text or in reviews.
We became new parents in August
Calaj: It’s definitely been hard to be new parents, but we love it.
Rochi: I always told her my goal: “I want you to stay home and be with our kids.” I’ve stopped looking for a second job. The way the business is going now, and if I keep my full-time SEO job and the growth of our camcorder business keeps going, she won’t have to go back to work.
Calaj: It’s been really promising so far. At the moment, I have no plans of going back. Once my baby got here, I was like, “Yeah, I cannot imagine going back in six weeks.”
It’s really special to spend our time building something that’s ours.
Rochi: There’s no better feeling than knowing we trusted each other enough to take the leap. We lost an income, had a baby on the way, and had no idea what was ahead, but we believed this could work. Seeing it actually work has been incredible.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post I lost my job right before having my first child. My wife and I took the opportunity to level up our side hustle. appeared first on Business Insider.
