You’re greeted by a looping slide show of various side hustles showcased on his website, short book promos, and a video-burst of advice straight from Chris himself.
As of Monday, June 8, 2020, his channel offers 18 broadcasts and has 8649 followers. Niiiice. Click on his name in the lower right corner for a slide-in with that information.
An interesting promotional strategy, SH’s, don’t you think?
***
Other stuff on my mind…
“For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
I have my website started. Now what? I want to level it up to getting paid for it.
Chris G: Have you looked into Facebook groups? Send a note to group moderators to ask permission to connect.
Chris G: Can you do three or four small things each day to get the word out?
***
Participant: Home school demographic. Teach a geology class in person and then we’d go rock climbing. During school year. I started at $5 per student.
Chris G: Consider a summer time camp, maybe? Pricing: I don’t know what others are doing, but the group says you should raise the price. [Note: The attendees were suggesting $15 or more.]
Chris G: You were offering babysitting for $5.
Chris G: Where did the first 15 kids come from? Answer: Local FB group.
***
Participant: Mantramedallions.com: I don’t like social media, but I need to educate visitors about the nature of the product. Asking for feedback re: the website and on the concept/products.
Chris G: Headline font should be bigger. Pricing is good. I like the idea and the website. Is there an ‘About’ page? Is there a story behind it? A happy customer? Connect it to your own values.
Chris G: I like the 2-hour course package. Short enough, but with plenty of content. Sounds like you’re doing just about everything right.
Good ‘About’ page—people want to learn about their instructor.
***
Participant: Creating morning routines to build self-confidence and self-respect. Uncomfortable experiences. I wrote an ebook and an accountability practice. My challenge: How to reach out.
Chris G: How is this just not like a blog post? Have you expanded this idea?
What is the benefit you’re offering?
Participant: These practices got me unstuck, strengthened my relationships with fears.
Chris G: I have no concerns about the program. My main question: How am I [the customer] being helped?
This is more feature-oriented than benefit-oriented.
***
Participant: Herbal organic teas aimed toward treating insomnia, stress, etc. Very successful in the country of origin. There is lots of competition. How do I evaluate this as a side hustle option?
Chris G: Yes, this IS a tough market. Aim for some unique branding, story, twist.
Is this the side hustle option you’re most excited about? But it may not be THE one. Consider other options if you have other ideas that you’re more interested in.
***
Participant [current day job as a consultant]: I want to help people at ‘end of life’ stage. Haven’t created a website yet. Looked at end-of-life doulas. Need ideas on getting started.
Chris G: What is your exact purpose? Educate? Inform?
Answer: To help people die well.
Chris G: As for website: There are lots of plug-and-play options like SquareSpace, Weebly, Wix, WordPress.
Chris G ideas:
— Even if you’re providing a local service, consider providing lists of resources for folks outside of your area.
— Would you consider a one-off Skype session for families to talk through the issues?
***
“For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
Today [June 4] at noon Pacific Time/3:00 Eastern Time], meet with Chris Guillebeau as he offers feedback on side hustle ideas. All are welcome and he promises there will be no upsell at the end.
Let’s revisit–in more detail–resources I’ve suggested in previous posts.
Today, I’ll condense the first ESI Money interview suggested in this post. Lots of valuable information in the interviews, but I can’t very well copy/paste acres of the content, so I’ve provided a short background followed by advice and lessons learned.
Background: At the time of the interview [May, 2019], three main side hustles—house hacking, consulting and freelance web design—made up the majority of his side income.
Advice: 1. Creation of something new seems to be a lot harder than stepping into a role which already exists. 2. Focus is incredibly important in life. I was trying to do too much, and when I started, I didn’t have the time to fully dive in and give it my all. 3. Luck doesn’t happen unless you put yourself in those situations where you can “get” lucky. 4. For my subscription box, which I started in 2017 and have since closed down, I ended up closing out with a loss of roughly $20,000. I did make roughly $15,000 in revenue, but I wasn’t passionate about it. 5. Think about this for a second: in 5 years, you’ll be on this Earth for 43,800 hours. How many hours does it take to implement your idea? 100?
“I will approach five people today.” Facebook friends, blog readers, etc.
Fear is the number one obstacle to this. “Won’t I appear salesy?”
**
Tim S: [on engaging with customers] Never underestimate how important it is to show care and concern for others and attention to their lives.
**
Tim and Darrell: Very adamant about lower pricing as a competitive advantage. It helps you get your foot in the door and ‘build your reps‘. [TH: Repetitions? Reputations? Actually, I like both.]
**
Question from attendee: How do I know when to raise my rates?
Answer: When it costs more to NOT raise your prices [i.e. you might then need to hire someone to help], then it is time to raise your prices.
Answer (from Darrell): I just doubled my rate until somebody said ‘No, I can’t afford it.’
You can always renegotiate, but still agree to, a mutually acceptable rate.
***********
Note: Any included links are not affiliate links. I just think these sites, specialists, and resources are worth your limited time.
Thanks for visiting.
As always, check in with questions and requests in the comments
You don’t have to have it all figured out before you start…plan on pivoting.
Tim: Start by selling a service. Benefits:
Low barrier to entry.
Nature of performing the service makes you better.
Selling a service helps you build an audience.
**
Three helpful early steps:
Know your target market.
Know your promise or offer. How are you going to solve the problem?
How will you distribute your service/product?
**Business growth happens when you excel at one of those three list items above.
**
There are lumps you have to take. You will be less successful if you skip over those difficult steps.
Failures do NOT send you back to square one. Your experience en route to your ‘failure’ has launched you to many steps ahead of square one.
**
Get comfortable with the idea that most/plenty of other people will reject you/your service or product.
**
Note: Any included links are not affiliate links. I just think these sites, specialists, and resources are worth your limited time.
Thanks for visiting.
As always, check in with questions and requests in the comments below Let me know if any of the content has helped you in some small way. sidehustlecurator@gmail.com
Already a dependable source for public domain images and video, Pixabay now offers free downloadable music. You never know when you might need a quick piece of intro or outro music for a podcast/some audio you’re creating.
As always, check in with questions and requests in the comments below Let me know if any of the content has helped you in some small way. sidehustlecurator@gmail.com
As always, check in with questions and requests in the comments below Let me know if any of the content has helped you in some small way. sidehustlecurator@gmail.com
Tomorrow [Wednesday, May 20] at 3:00 PM Eastern, Darrell Vesterfelt and Tim Stoddart of Copyblogger.com are offering a free session to give entrepreneurs a bit of a kickstart. Highlights:
A simple framework for building a highly successful (and profitable) online business
check out Copyblogger for a treasure trove of valuable content.
Note: These leads are not affiliate links. I just think these sites, specialists, and resources are worth your limited time.
Thanks for visiting.
As always, check in with questions and requests in the comments below Let me know if any of the content has helped you in some small way. sidehustlecurator@gmail.com
Side Hustle Curator 