This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Are you getting stuck trying to find the right idea? Oftentimes people are making lists and trying to do inventories of their skills, their passions, their hobbies, knowledge, et cetera, but they just get stuck trying to figure out, okay, what actually is my aha idea? That's the phrase a caller uses today, caller from Los Angeles. She's like, what is my aha idea? You know that idea where you're like, oh, that's the one.
I thought about a lot of different things, but this is a great idea, or at least it's the one I should proceed with now. So in this situation, if you've got your eyes open looking for opportunities, but you're not sure where a really good one is, how can you proceed? Like you want to move forward, but you're not sure how that's the question our caller is facing. Let me see if I can give a helpful answer to her and anybody else out there. Stay tuned for her question and my answer.
Coming right up. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Monica from Los Angeles, California. Thanks for this show and sharing so much valuable information on starting a side hustle, especially in such an unsettling economy as the one we're currently facing. My question is about starting that side hustle. I really know I want a side hustle, but I can't find the side hustle to start.
I think about it. I keep my eyes open for opportunities. I've inventoried my skills, but nothing has crossed my path that gives me that aha movement. The concept of do what you love and the money will follow is not a guarantee, but certainly you have to at least value or be interested in the thing about which you're hustling. Right?
So my question is, what do you do when you really want a profitable side hustle, but you just can't come up with that aha idea? Thanks, and I hope you and your team stay safe. [Music]
This exercise that our caller refers to, the skills inventory, I do think this is very helpful when you're trying to think through what is your side hustle, your first one, your next one. It basically involves making a list of everything that you're good at, all of your knowledge, your experience, different things you know how to do, things that come naturally to you, and so on. That's a good starting point for a lot of people, especially if they come to this world without a lot of experience, they haven't had a business before, maybe they've heard somebody say follow your passion, and ultimately there is a link between passion and success, but it's not always as simple as just following your passion.
So a skills inventory is a great step for a lot of people. Now in this situation, Monica says she has done the skills inventory and she still doesn't have the right idea, the aha idea as she calls it. So in that situation I would say, does it need to be the best, most special, incredible idea ever? Do you have any idea at all? Like you definitely have to be somewhat interested in the thing you're doing, but couldn't part of your motivation or your excitement or interest be, I am interested in figuring this out.
Like I want to learn how to work in this world and have a project that I haven't had before. So that can be motivation of its own, maybe not for a lifelong project, but a lot of side hustles are not lifelong projects and they don't have to be. So if I think back to when I was first learning to do online business stuff, many, many years ago, more than 25 years ago, I learned how to do things on eBay and then Google AdWords, building little websites, lots of small tech things, some online auctions, arbitrage and so on. And with Google AdWords in particular, I wasn't passionate about little text boxes of ads that show up on Google results, but I had kind of figured out a way to make $1.20 on every dollar that I spent on this process. And I was like, well, that is interesting to me.
It's a 20% profit margin effectively. So I could spend hours working on it, even though it wasn't the most exciting thing or my life calling or something I was gonna do forever, but it was fun and interesting to figure it out. So maybe you don't need an aha idea. That's what I'm saying. You just need something that can work, something that has some value, something that will bring you to whatever the next thing is.
And you don't know what that next thing is, but to get to it, you have to do something else. So I do think having a bias toward action as opposed to a bias toward just continued research, continued thinking, I think that bias toward action is going to serve you well. Longtime listeners probably are not too surprised by that answer, but I hope it is helpful to our caller and anybody else out there. Remember, there's something you can do. There's something you can do to make extra money, maybe even change your life along the way through the power of a side hustle.
And I hope something on the show helps you get closer to that. Of course, please continue to listen. It's always free seven days a week. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to Side Hustle School.
[Music]
