This Uber Driver Makes $252,000 a Year by Selling Jewelry to His Passengers

The ideal audience is a captive audience, right? Well, what if that audience were literally buckled into the back seat of your car?

Uber driver Gavin Escolar uses his rides to pitch his jewelry business to his passengers — a strategy that has turned out to be extraordinarily successful, he told Forbes.

“It’s a Salesman’s Dream”

Gavin Escolar makes approximately $18,000 per month selling Gavin Escolar jewelry to his San Francisco Uber passengers, in addition to the $3,000 a month he makes driving for Uber. He puts in many hours behind the wheel; as Forbes notes, Escolar drove “over 3,829 passengers in the past 18 months.” That’s a lot of potential customers, and a lot of opportunities to close a sale.

“It’s a salesman’s dream,” Escolar told Forbes. “I have 10 minutes to make an impression. Would that happen if I went door-to-door? Or if I bought tiny online ads? My way, I get quality time with quality leads. Best of all, I’m being paid as I do it. It’s like Uber is providing a base salary before I make any jewelry sales.”

Uber is perfectly fine with Escolar’s sales strategy, and is happy to provide these types of opportunities to what Forbes contributor Jon Youshaei dubs “Uberpreneurs.” As long as Escolar gets his customers where they’re going, he is free to make as many sales pitches as he wants along the way.

Want to Become an Uberpreneur Too?

If you want to follow Escolar’s example and use Uber as a way to promote your business, here are some tips:

• Don’t pitch everybody. You may be tempted to launch into your sales pitch the minute you pull away from the curb, but this is not Escolar’s tactic. If a customer is using a smartphone or does not appear interested in conversation, he stays quiet.

• Use materials to start conversation. Escolar displays his jewelry in his car — he has earrings dangling above his dashboard and catalogs in the backseat — in the hopes that an observant passenger will ask about his products.

• Let the pitch develop naturally. Even when a customer is interested in chatting, Escolar does not slide into his sales pitch right away. “My passengers peel back the onion,” he explained to Forbes. “I never solicit. I only keep subtle hints to spark conversation if they notice. If they don’t, they probably wouldn’t be my target customer anyway.”

Want to learn more? Read the full story at Forbes.

(This opportunity is for an independent contractor. Stated earnings of $643.48/week in fares [weekly full-time fares are based on a 40 hours of driving per week] are based on net median hourly national earnings of partners from October 2017. Actual earnings vary depending on number of rides accepted and taken, time of day, location and other factors.)

Nicole Dieker is a freelance writer focusing on personal finance and personal stories. Her work has appeared in The Billfold, The Toast, Yearbook Office, The Write Life and Boing Boing.