This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh my gosh, what's up? Hey, side hustle school friends, listeners, community. My name is Chris Guillebeau, I'm so glad you're here. We have come to the end of November in what has been for you and for me and for everyone pretty much a very strange year. When we started this year, I began this new series called Classroom.
And my whole goal with this series was to teach more topically because we've got the stories throughout the week, we've got the question and answers. And I thought for anybody who's joining in or anybody who's actually starting their project this year for the first time, let's just kind of go through step by step what you need to know. And so for the first half of the year, we did this every Monday, second half of the year, we've been doing it every other Monday, but altogether there's an archival batch of all this material. You can access it at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. It's all completely free, of course.
Now today and two weeks from today, I thought we'd do a bit of reflection on the year known as 2020. And when I say that, I don't mean the year in general because we don't have time for that, but this classroom series specifically. So we're more than 1400 episodes into the show now. Lots of people have joined in along the way, others have come and gone, maybe focusing more or less on your side hustle depending on what else is going on in your life. So whenever you need to do something specific, such as set up an affiliate program or review your offer before it goes out to everyone or something else, you can hopefully get some of that info from this series.
So what have been a few highlights or key lessons? First, from my perspective, but more importantly, from the perspective of our listeners. So I spent some time going back through all these episodes, trying to notice what got more of a response. Like what were people especially interested in? What do they have questions about?
What did they say was helpful? What was like crickets? You know, well, I won't talk about the crickets because as I said, this is the highlight series. Let us jump in with episode 1129, 1129. That one was called avoiding mistakes in the idea phase.
What are the common mistakes that you want to avoid? And this is specifically, as I said, about the idea phase. So when you're planning your hustle, when you're thinking like, what is that thing going to be? So I gave eight or nine in that original episode, here are the top three. Number one, not having a clear revenue model.
Here's the question you need to have a good answer for, how will your idea make money? And if you don't know, if you're like, I'm not sure, well, don't proceed. Like fix this problem first. Think long and hard about this question. It's not optional.
It's not something to figure out later as you go along. Think about how your idea will make money. Number two, unclear messaging. Do you have an elevator pitch? If somebody asks you about your idea and you start to say, well, it's a long story or it's complicated, that's not good.
Most likely your idea isn't complicated. Maybe you just don't know it well enough. Or maybe you can't explain it well. Clarity and messaging is critical. So make sure it's clear.
And number three, trying to serve all the people all the time. It's not possible to do that, serve fewer people. If you listen to the show over time, you're gonna hear lots of stories of people who are serving a relatively small audience, but actually making a pretty good amount of money from it. Okay, so don't try to serve all the people all the time. If someone asks about your idea and they say, well, who is it for?
Hopefully you're gonna have a pretty good specific answer. Next up, episode 1171, finding time to work on your hustle. Also a very popular episode. And in that episode I gave seven things you can do to help you find the time and energy to make progress. So once again, I'm gonna pick the top three as judged by our listeners.
Number one, don't just start, just stop. What I mean here is stop doing things that waste time and you don't enjoy. Make a to stop doing list. This is one of my favorite things. Whenever I'm feeling stressed out or anxious, sometimes I go through my calendar and I ask myself, like, do I really need to do this?
What's bothering me here? How can I free up some space to be able to work on something that I might be more excited about or might be more meaningful? So don't just start. By there I'm talking about that classic advice. Just go and start.
I do think you should start your side hustle, but I think you can also stop doing things that waste your time. Number two, know what you're going to do before you sit down to work. This will help you avoid getting sucked in and then going away later asking yourself, what did I actually do during that time? I know I sat in front of my computer from this period of time to this period of time, but I don't actually know what I did. Like, did I actually get something accomplished?
So have an idea in mind, know what you're going to do before you sit down to work. And number three, make small sacrifices without canceling everything you enjoy. And the example I give here is, don't skip your favorite TV show. It's okay to like to do fun things, but if you have 17 favorite TV shows, then you might need to pull back. Small sacrifices without canceling everything you enjoy.
I also want to give an honorable mention to this other one, maintain boundaries with your friends and family. And that's just a good thing to do in life. So it will help you in lots of ways. So those tips, once again, were from episode 1171, finding time to work on your hustle. We're going to take a quick break.
Thank you, sponsor. And when we come back, highlights from two other episodes. [Music]
Okay, next up, episode 1143. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. Now, this was all about messaging, writing copy, writing newsletters, thinking about how you're going to describe your product or service.
I think this is so, so important. It shouldn't be an afterthought. This is something you consider as you work off this roadmap and as you complete those tasks, like all the things that you have to do, all the things that we've covered in the Side Hustle book, all the things that we've talked about in this classroom series. Key point for all this stuff, think about your customers. We make purchasing decisions based on emotion, more than logic and the way that you appeal to emotion is by leading with benefits.
Tell them how this is going to change their life. So in addition to thinking about the practical details of your product, you got to ask yourself, what are the core emotional needs that I will meet? And how will I communicate that fact? Once again, that was episode 1143. Now lastly, for this week, this is a two-part series.
So two weeks from now, you'll get the second half. But lastly, for this week, episode 1178, don't listen to this boring episode. That was perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not a popular episode. And what I did in that episode was I gave everybody a few recommendations that just about everybody should follow about all this stuff that is kind of mundane or boring, but people actually ask me all the time about bank accounts and taxes and all that kind of stuff. So here are some really quick recommendations.
You can go back and listen to the episode for the whole thing, but really quickly, get a bank account that's just for your side hustle. Also get a separate credit or debit card that you use only for business expenses. Set aside a good portion of your side hustle income for taxes, if you're not sure, start with 25%. That's just a good baseline. Of course, everybody's gonna be different.
Also, right from the beginning, set up a very simple accounting system. We've had different ones as sponsors of this podcast in the past. I don't have a single recommendation. I think they all have different advantages, but whatever you choose, do it from the beginning. And that can also just be a spreadsheet for a while, by the way.
Last, if at all possible, set aside a dedicated workspace, even a very small one, if that's all you got, in your home or apartment. And I understand that not everybody can do that, but if you have the ability to do so, just create a little corner even, somewhere you go that's like, this is the time I spend on this project. And if you're going to coffee shops now, depending on where you are in the world and the local situation and such, try to sit at the same table, like try to have a routine. In all the craziness of life, in all of your limited time, a routine is going to help you. And as I wrap up here, I see I have a note to myself about this list here of boring topics.
It says, once you're making money, pay yourself first. That's actually not so boring, right? Pay yourself first. All right, this has been episode 1430, 1430. Two weeks from now, we'll have that second part of the series.
And remember, you can read notes for this in every classroom episode this year at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. Thank you so much for joining me. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
