Side Hustle Business Advice
This post is for people searching for steps for being successful. I hope to outline some key points that have helped me catapult forward in life and business. The advice provided to me and the experiences I’ve had are going to be laid out point by point for you to see what I did to become successful at both.
My business journey has seen me switch industries three times and rise to leadership levels 3 times. My personal life is rock solid and I have everything I could ever want. I have made sacrifices and changed priorities like weekends with friends to learn my craft and become a high performer but its paid off for me. Do your own research and make your own choices.
1) Start side hustles fail and learn, learn and fail.
When I was leading a large service business I created a system that ran like clockwork for a workforce of over 3,000 people working across the state. This left me many free hours to tinker and build things. This spawned another side business, and another and another.
This lead to me learning about flipping businesses, domains and dropshipping. My stores were horrid I can not believe anyone bought from them, but they served their purpose and now I invest in design for my stores.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons as I was building and scrambling to get deals on domains done. The beauty of this was I also managed to capture learnings, document them and create yet another system for streamlining the process.
2) Work has to be fun
I’ve worked for so many stiff corporate types I know now that my optimal working condition is where I make the rules and not some out of touch ivory tower stiff. I am a man of the people.
I do what I love now working mainly in ecommerce and web 3. It doesn’t feel like work and it fuels me to do more with my days. I share this with the teams I manage, make work fun.
Working in unenjoyable conditions are not productive or satisfying. You must work where you can shine. If you have a boss in a workplace where you are truly enjoying what you do they will notice you.
3) The best products solve your own problems
Everytime I have a problem with something I cant get done or cant find online I get together with my product team and we start product concepting and trying to solve our problems.
If you have a unique problem in every day life, or at your work what can you do as a product or business to solve your own problem? Think about that as a business that you can get behind and build into something people need.
I thought my problems were mine alone but it turns out many more people had the same problems. People will buy things that make what they do easier.
4) Surround yourself with the right people
Building teams is not an easy feat. You always start out trying to build the dream team, but you will encounter a few bums who just don’t mesh with your good people.
I build teams based on culture fit, I can train people as long as they are committed to learning.
I also suggest you surround yourself with the right advisors for your goals. The same way you hire a personal trainer to get in shape you need to think this way about business and life. Paying $2,000 for advice each month can result in a 5x or 10x result in business.
Find people who can build you up and guide you when you need help. We all need help at some point.
5) Building long term wealth
Im not money driven but also not thinking about money is naive. I keep a healthy mixed bag of assets and investments in crypto. NFTs and DeFi activities. Ive also got a excessive collection of sporting cards of all rarities and collectibles and several traditional banking high interest accounts. I have several businesses where funds are dispersed and returned. I diversify as often as I can, the markets are turbulent and COVID sent things into a spin.
My quick start rule for building wealth
1 Review your money right now. what can you save and what can you invest comfortably
2 Invest where you can and be regular with investment. You should be thinking long term
3 Keep an eye on new tech
4 Diversify with real estate, stocks, crypto and assets.
6) Live below your means
Im not flashy, I wear generic t shirts, I shop at KMart and don’t have any jewellery other than a Livestrong silicone wristband. I drive a normal car with factory fittings and I eat out once a week.
While I earn very good money I keep my living expenses stable. My idea of splurging is paying for Disney plus and Amazon Prime.
On my way up in my career I was working 3 jobs. My money coming in was minimal and my expenses kept rising. This is a horrible feeling seeing your hard work not be enough to get by on. I worked on myself and switched career paths and made a change so that the money coming in was more than the money going out.
If I cant afford something I don’t give into FOMO and live beyond my means. I have always saved well and been routine in saving money. This point feeds into point 5) building long term wealth.
7) Double down on what works
I tried not to spread myself too thin between my primary job and my side hustles. I would devote an hour or two to each side hustle. My theory was throw mud against the wall see what sticks and work on the sticky ones.
The side hustles that stuck were were I focused. This didnt always work out but I either made it profitable or I learned valuable lessons that could be applied to a version 2.0 of that project.
If something works I try to do that more and more.
8) Leverage talent
Having built and bought many businesses Ive learned that doing it by sheer brute force takes too long. When I would leverage smart people to take on bits of the journey I would get more done in less time.
I leverage talent by:
A) Hiring talented people who have experience doing what Im doing
B) Using technology to reduce expenses and improve productivity
I stand by hiring smart people and using powerful technology. This keeps the business moving forward and allows me headspace to focus on business growth and strategy.
Taking on even 1 point of advice here will help you make improvements to your business. Its not fit for everyone but it will help guide your journey.
May you learn at my expense. I set out to help people build businesses. This is my journey and I hope you take something away from this guide.
