Side Hustle (2017) explains that anyone can design and implement a profitable side project. The book details how to generate income in the short term, with the resources you already have, and without the risk of having to give up your main day job.
This book is for
- Entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs;
- Small business owners and entrepreneurs;
- Anyone who wants to escape from the daily turmoil.
About the author
Chris Guillebeau is an author, blogger and speaker. He wrote The $100 Startup, a New York Times bestseller. He also runs The Art of Non-Conformity , a blog that ranks among the 15,000 most visited websites in the United States. In 2013, he completed his plan to visit all countries in the world.
What does the book have? Let's spend a little more money.
“Let's take a leap! Get out of the job and become your own boss! “. With this kind of trading advice comes a portion of the relative risk. And let's face it: not everyone trying to be self-employed can thrive as their boss. So what if there's a latent entrepreneur inside of you who wants to take risks, but still wants to keep the benefits of your current job? There's a lot that can be said about health insurance, recurring feedback, and stable terms.
Well, maybe that means you're considering making an extra income outside of your main job.
In this book, you'll understand exactly what it's like to have an extra business outside of your day job, as well as learn the do's and don'ts for a successful side income. From finding the perfect idea for your part-time job to optimizing your income from it, these pages will make you a side hustler.
You will understand:
- Ordinary obscure hobbies, such as writing aquarium reviews, can give you extra income;
- How some simple math can prevent you from making business mistakes;
- And why Girl Scouts has so much to teach the business community.
Earning a side income is a form of freelance work that can be completely achieved by anyone.
One day, a British construction manager decided to start writing a review of the aquarium. The reviews included hyperlinks to Amazon's product listings, and he knew he would get a small commission if readers clicked on and bought them. However, the reviews were posted on a lackluster website, and he was so busy with his day job that he even forgot he ever wrote them. So he was surprised when a few weeks later he received a check for $350. Even now, years later, he still gets $700 a month for the same review. In short, he has a perfect marginal income.
A side job can be defined as a profitable business venture that acts as a supplement to other paid jobs. Do not invest more time, money and effort. It's not a big deal.
You can even think of it as a kind of job preservation. The days for “work of a lifetime” are over, and a side job can secure income from a variety of sources. You simply won't be bound by the whims of a single superior whose loyalty to you is hard to measure.
Everyone needs a "left hand" job. It can also make the transition from a day job to a side job easier, when you decide to quit or get fired. Leaving a job may seem exhilarating in the abstract, but in reality it can be difficult: you'll lose a reliable source of income and health insurance. Another side job that gives you the experience of an entrepreneur, but that's in the absence of any harm.
There's also no reason to feel discouraged about starting another side business.
For starters, you don't need to spend a lot of time doing it. No more than one hour per day. Any addition is a waste of time. Second, there's no need to have a business degree to get started. Remember, it's your job to do, not someone else's – you're the one making the demands!
Those are the basics. But which idea creates the best external source of income?
Ideas for side incomes spring from thorough questioning and a bit of math.
The adage is wrong; because money can grow on trees. But growing a seedling that yields money requires sowing the right seed.
All it takes is a little thought, however, and you'll find the ideas springing up and yielding that are bound to blossom. To move forward, it's important to realize that ideas are worth your while because they share three qualities. They need to be viable, profitable, and convincing.
If you can answer yes to the following three questions, the idea is viable. Does your idea motivate you? Will it bring money? Can it be completed in a short period of time?
How do you know your idea is profitable? Well, try explaining the merits of your idea proposition to potential clients in two sentences. You are not lucky enough? Then your potential customers will not become customers paying anything for you.
An idea is persuasive when your customer can't say no. Check out Julia. As a comic book writer, she made $100 an hour as a side income. But when she started sketching with digital painting, she found she could charge $250 an hour. This is possible because not many customers have seen this technology before. The novelty gave her a convincing edge over her opponents, and that factor was irresistible.
So once you've got some viable, profitable, and convincing ideas, you've got to do some basic math. You should calculate the expected profit of each “side-by-side” job with this equation: “expected income minus expected costs.”
In this way, making a profit is easy to understand. You should spend less money on your side job than you spend on that side job. You should also calculate the answer twice. One should be conservative, the other optimistic, depending on the predictive strength of possible outcomes.
And now you have an idea, how to launch it?
Turn an idea into an offer with a price, a presentation, and a promise.
You might think it would be difficult to make a lot of money from teaching guitar as a side business. After all, there are already plenty of guitar teachers out there. But Jake makes $6,000 per month doing exactly that. He was able to do so much because his offer blew the rest of them away.
Once you have your idea, you can turn it into a proposal. Each proposal consists of three elements: a promise, a presentation, and a price.
A promise is a bold statement to a client about immediate benefits – meaning how you will change their lives. Jake promises “The Greatest Guitar Lessons in the Universe.”
An ad presentation tells the customer all they need to know, with no extraneous details. Jake's is “The goal is to have fun (always the first), as well as learn the tools, while maximizing efficiency so we can achieve our goals.”
The price you suggest is cost-related and should also include a “call to action.” An appeal like “contact this number” or “click this button” should be clever. It needs to be easy and obvious. The best proposals also create a sense of urgency. Your potential customers need to think that they want to experience your product right away.
The best way to do this is to make sure you respond to customer inquiries quickly and efficiently. A Harvard Business Review study found that companies that respond to a customer's request for information within an hour are seven times more likely to do business.
Another technique to convey urgency is the use of red. Highlighting words like “now” or “today” is very effective. Finally, if you sell online, you'll find that the countdown on the checkout screen is awesome when the rush goes with the customer.
We've covered what makes an offer, so think about the kind of tools you need to get up and running.
Side work needs resources. Make a shopping list and prioritize what you need most.
One Valentine's Day special, Sarah discovered a loophole in the market. No one sells heart-shaped candies. So she did, and within a few days she had a ton of orders. When her supplier couldn't keep up with demand, Sarah used her own printer to make sure the business kept going.
If you, like Sarah, want to be resourceful and have the right attitude for your fast-growing side business, you need to protect the fundamentals. You need a resource list to buy that includes the following.
First, a website. This is your online home, and a content management system like WordPress can make installation easy.
A social media profile. You don't have to be active on every single social media platform – just one or two is fine. However, sign up in the name of a side job with the most popular platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, regardless of your current reach.
Planning tool. A side job is a time commitment and time management is important. The planner means you'll spend less time holding meetings with colleagues and clients and working more time because online scheduling apps are designed to show time periods. free time during the day.
A payment system. Make sure to have an invoicing system, PayPal account, or shopping cart on your site before you launch.
Once you've sorted these four out, you should prioritize delivering more value and generating more money. Value is best improved by meeting the unspoken needs of the customer. For example, you are walking a dog while its owner is on vacation. Maybe the man also needs regular dog care when he's back in town? Try asking him.
Money can be produced through periodic price increases. Don't be afraid to do this – the customer will understand. After all, once your business has proven its reliability, you need to charge a fair price.
Optimize your part-time job effectively by understanding its benefits and inviting the right people.
Each spring, the Girl Scouts are seen selling boxes of cookies at out-of-town shopping centers and supermarkets across the United States. Their writing was simple: “Do you want to buy Girl Scout cookies?” They sell them by truck – 200 million boxes a year, to be exact. So what can those looking for a side business learn from the Girl Scouts? They sell a wide variety of cakes not only because the cakes are so delicious but because everyone knows them.
When you sell a product or service, you really have to emphasize its strengths and benefits. You can tell customers that your product will make them happier or their lives simpler and better. Ideally, you should connect with people's emotions.
For example a dog sitter. She may not make it obvious that she's trying to atone for the landlord's guilt about him leaving his dog home alone, but she may mean it. A carefully crafted statement might say “Leave your dog to me and it will feel loved and cared for.” Be subtle.
First, find supporters. This will probably come mostly from your family and friends who can contribute in different ways and support your efforts. Second, seek advisors. These are instructors or experts who can give you feedback and advice. Third, identify influencers. These are the pioneers who will spread the news about your product. Trusted agencies, like reviewers or bloggers, are the best audience for this. Fourth, identify some ideal customers. These people are purely for product reviews and to answer any questions you may have with honest and detailed answers.
Once you've established this audience network, you're sure to go a long way.
Identify what works best in your side business. And promote it even more.
Usually, when business owners are asked about how their business is run, they will just casually answer, “Oh, that's okay.” That's not the right answer! A business is never stagnant. It is on its way up – or sinking.
It is important in the early stages of your job to know exactly how your business trajectory is working.
Once you're up and running, ask yourself one simple question: are you making more money? There are three possible answers.
First, you may find you far exceed your initial expectations. All right, that's great. You will obviously keep going. Second, you may think your original idea is good, but people haven't caught up yet. It's hard to admit it, but it's time to cut your losses and move on. The most common reaction in the early stages is the third type. You find your idea doesn't quite attract people, but since it has generated some money, there's no point in giving it up.
If this last option sounds familiar, but you're still not sure how to refine the tough parts of your work, check out the metrics. Metrics are measured in three areas. Profit – it is income minus expenses. Growth – ask yourself how many new customers or new leads you have. And time – how much time do you spend running this side business each week?
Once you have identified areas of concern, you can improve them by applying two basic rules. In the first case, do more of what is working. In the second case, give up what is not necessary. It's a plan that tries to solve the universal problem. But don't do that. In the author's experience, the most successful people simply let them go and focus more on the aspects that work best.
Yes, that's it! You have all the tools you need to start your side business. From here, things will only move forward.
Summary
The main message of the book is
Anyone can create and launch a successful part-time business. It doesn't require a lot of time, money or effort to get started, and it doesn't mean you need to quit your day job. A side income is a great idea. It gives you an added bonus, but without the dreaded risks of being a self-employed entrepreneur.
Give advice:
Create a workflow for that side work.
When figuring out how to get customers to buy your product or service and get what they paid for, you should write a list of processes to follow. This list of processes is called a workflow. As you make your list of activities, actions, and next steps, you should consider:
- How will potential customers find out about your idea?
- What happens right after a customer signs up or makes a purchase you're selling?
- What else needs to happen for customers to buy and actually get your product or service?
