The Side Hustle Guru
“Fear is a reaction, Courage is a decision” – Winston Churchill
Hope your week has been going well, considering the circumstances. This week I have been researching on which side hustle I can start during my time at home and my search landed me at Chris Guillebeau. After reading up on him I understand why he is considered the side hustle guru.
Chris is the author of the New York best selling book The $100 Startup. On top of that, he’s hosted over 1,100 episodes of The Side Hustle School podcast. After reading up on him and listen to him speak I gathered 3 main concepts that I want to share today.
- How you can come up with side hustle ideas
- What actions you should take next
- What may be coming down the road in the world of side hustle.
Where Do Side Hustle Ideas Come From?
Coming up with side hustle ideas is one of the biggest struggles that readers tell me.
Chris said he divides this question into two types of people:
- Those who struggle to come up with ideas
- Those who struggle to make ideas happen
He says the coming up with ideas component is actually the easier one to solve. There are so many ideas and opportunities out there! If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, here’s what Chris recommended.
Listen to The Side Hustle School Podcast
On almost every episode of The Side Hustle School, Chris interviews someone who has built a side hustle. You can find hundreds of ideas you can replicate or use for inspiration.
Develop your Curiosity
Chris calls curiosity “one of the most important skills or traits you can have in life.” Pay deliberate attention to what’s going on around you. Look for problems and pain points people have and think about how you could provide a solution.
Do a Skills Inventory
Ask yourself:
- What are you good at?
- What do people ask you about?
Take a look at what skills you have and what you can offer others. If you’re good at social media marketing, for example, you can put together an offer to do social media marketing for a monthly fee.
“The idea is to find something that you are actually good at, and it is something that you look forward to doing. Because life is short and there’s lots of different stuff you can try, so you might as well do something that you like,” Chris said.
The Piggyback Principle
One way to generate ideas is what I call the “Piggyback Principle.” Look for things around you that seem to be picking up steam and find a way to support this economy and help people get involved in it. You might also consider this finding a gold rush to sell shovels in.
Chris said one of the best examples of this right now is the rise in influencer marketing. There’s a large ecosystem supporting influencer marketing. From production and video services to virtual assistants, there appears to be a lot of opportunity for side hustles in this space.
Podcasting is another space with potential. There are some 1M+ podcasts, but instead of starting a new podcast, ask yourself, “what do all these podcasters need?” Maybe there is some tool that hasn’t been invented yet or some service that you can improve on that aligns with your skill set.
Give Yourself a Deadline
When people are pressed to do something, they kind of rise to the occasion. In Chris’ new book, The Money Tree, he talks about how someone had to make $1,000 within a week. The immediate deadline and concrete goal forced them to find a way to make it happen. Now I want to ask you this question: If you had to make $1,000 in the next week to save your life, how would you do it?
Most people go from theory to practice a lot quicker than they would without any time pressure, so give yourself a deadline. It will push you to go forward with an idea you’ve had on the back burner for a while.
But I Don’t Have Any Skills!
“Everyone’s an expert at something,” Chris explained. The excuse you don’t have any skills that you can transfer into a business idea doesn’t cut it with me. Everyone has some skill they can use. It’s just a matter of finding out what those skills are for some people.
If you’re one of those people who aren’t sure what skills you have start by:
- Asking people around you what skills they think you have
- Pay attention to what you’re doing and what interests you
- If you have a job, identify the things that people come to you for help with or what you do well
How Do You Narrow Down a Long List of Side Hustle Ideas?
If you’re the kind of person that can come up with a long list of ideas but need help narrowing your focus on ideas to execute on, here’s some advice for you.
“It’s helpful to start thinking about offers,” Chris explained.
Elaborating on this, you need to start by asking yourself:
- What is my actual offer?
- What is my product and service?
- Who is it for?
- What price is it?
A framework you can use for your offer might look like this:
I do ___________ (service or product) for __________ (target customer) so they can ________ (benefit).
For example:
I do nails and make-up for brides getting married so they and their bridesmaids can have an exquisite look on their wedding.
Just like with any other endeavour if you don’t have good answers to these questions, you need to take another look at the idea. The most important lesson I learned though about picking a side hustle is that whatever side hustle you pick, pick something that makes you feel like, “today actually mattered because I made progress on something.” You need to be driven by outcomes and deliverables, not getting things done on a money schedule. The money will come if you set up the right process and follow the right principles.
So to help out our readers with a few ideas here’s a list of side hustle ideas I think can be easy to start off with.
- Become and English tutor on cambly.com
- You can become a content creator on clearvoice.com
- If you are expert in your field you could give advice on justanswer.com
- If you are super organised you can become a virtual assistant on upwork.com
- These are all free to sign up for and need minimal resources to get started. Lets us know in the comments section if you have any other exciting ideas. As always, stay safe.
Photo Credit: Photo by Ylanite Koppens from Pexels
