Notes on The Side Hustle by Nick Loper.
Businesses fall into one of three categories:
- Selling as a Service - quick to start with low costs, but trading time for money
- Selling a Product - time leveraged and easier to scale, but intensive upfront costs
- Selling an Audience - time leveraged and flexible, but slower path to making money
- Rip, Pivot, Jam - copy a successful business model, apply it to a new industry/vertical, then hustle to get customers.
- Sniper - focus on a specific audience to deliver a better product and have better marketing
- Shovels in a Gold Rush - sell tools to an existing audience that needs it for their own business
- Intersection - find potential service business ideas at the intersection of your skills/interests/network
- Scratch-Your-Own-Itch - solve your own problem
- Expert Enough - what do your friends/family/peers ask for help with?
- Probing for Pain - call a business owner and ask them for their biggest challenges
What service could you sell? Start with your own resume and work history. List out the potential skills you could freelance. Check freelance marketplaces to find other ideas.
How will you find clients? Use your existing network or consider using other people's audiences. For example, approach companies your potential customers are already doing business with. Can you co-host a workshop? Also consider Facebook Groups and marketplaces.
How to scale a service business? Raise your rates. Consider transitioning to servicing groups instead of one single client. Build a team or agency. Or create "productized" packages.
Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.
- David Ogilvy
Physical Products - first determine what to sell, then how you'll source your inventory. You'll also have to store your inventory and determine where to sell your product. You'll need a system to collect payments and handle shipping/logistics/returns. Amazon Arbitrage is a popular side hustle, look into Amazon's FBA program. Private Labeling is another popular physical product business.
Hybrid Products - where you sell a physical product but you never actually touch the end product. This can be done via drop shipping, print-on-demand products, and product licensing. In drop shipping, the supplier sends the product directly to the end customer. Print-on-demand eliminates inventory risk. When coming up with ideas, think of seasonal/evergreen/trending items. Lastly, product licensing involves selling the idea to someone else to execute.
Digital Products - where you sell e-books, online courses, and software. As a bonus of selling books/courses, you become a expert on the subject and can use it as your business card. Consider using a tiered pricing system.
An audience business is most flexible and time-leveraged, but can be difficult to make money from. Building an audience usually takes a long time, but the payoff can be worth it.
Creating Content - you'll need to create a resource that's worth paying attention to. People are only online to be entertained or to solve a problem. Also consider what type of content to generate: articles, podcasts, or videos. Try to target a niche and make sure to evaluate the competitive landscape.
Building an Audience - be so good they can't ignore you. The best marketing is word of mouth given for amazing resources. Go where your target customers already are to market. Consider using SEO, social media, guest posting/podcasting, and paid advertising.
Monetizing an Audience - you can use affiliate links, sell your own products/services, use advertising/sponsors, or start a membership club.
- How excited are you about it?
- Is there a clear path to the first customer/sale?
- How much time will it take to start?
- How much capital will it take to start?
- What's the revenue potential?
- How easy is it to operate?
- How easy is it to automate/delegate?
- How easy is it to scale?
- How easy is it to stop operations if it doesn't work out?
- Is the business something I can sell down the road?