This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to week four of our new classroom series. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Saddison School. Last week we talked about where money making ideas come from. Gave you a number of examples, including some suggested by listeners. My personal favorite was the call your dog on Skype service.
I know a whole bunch of people are rushing out to sign up for that. And we also looked at four ways to find high potential ideas. Those ways were observation, problem solving, asking questions, and experimentation. So just in brief, observation is paying attention to the world around you, perhaps noticing something that could be improved. Problem solving is making a list of problems and brainstorming solutions in the form of products and services.
Asking questions refers to looking for the reasons, either stated or subtle, for why people spend money and then deciphering what else they might buy. And then last, experimentation, just trying out whatever comes to mind. I mentioned briefly last week that most business ideas fall into two broad categories. You're either providing a service or selling a product, one way or another. Now there's some overlap, there's some exceptions, but broadly speaking, a product is something you sell and a service is something you provide.
Products can be digital and services can be virtual, but most of what we'll look at this year can fit into one of those two big buckets. So just to give some examples here, if something is a product, someone can buy it and walk away. It could be a t-shirt, it could be a book, it could be, let's see, what have we done recently? It could be caffeinated chewing gum. That was a story we had last year at some point, somebody who came up with an alternative to energy drinks, which is basically, as I said, caffeinated chewing gum, like an energy drink in the form of gum.
That's a product. Now if something is a service, you usually have to do something for it. By you, I mean the person providing that service. Could be, some examples, standardized test prep. You're helping people prepare to get a better score on a standardized test.
Resume consultation. You're looking at their existing resume, CV, cover letter, whatever, and suggesting some improvements. Party planning, or event planning of any kind, or event cleanup. We have the story a while back of a guy in Australia who cleans houses, but he focuses specifically on party cleanup. So if you have this really big party at your house, the next morning you wake up, maybe you've had too much to drink, well this guy comes over with his team and makes breakfast for you and cleans the house.
What a great idea. Now he's actually been able to stand out in a world that is kind of commoditized. There are a lot of house cleaners in Australia, but nobody was doing it with that particular market in mind or that particular focus. So he was able to get a lot of attention for it. Now products and services, most of them can fit into one or more subcategories.
So we can talk about reselling. We can talk about becoming a subject matter expert. We can talk about earning money through affiliate commissions, arts and crafts, making an app, all kinds of different stuff. But again, there are two main categories. Now some projects or some subcategories can become either a product or a service, depending on what you do with it.
So a subject matter expert, for example, that person is providing advice in one form or another. But a consultation is a service and a podcast is a product or a downloadable audio video course, that is a product. If you're coding something, you could be a freelance web developer or you're providing a service or you could be making your own app, that's a product. So don't get hung up on any fine distinction. Just think about that general rule.
Product is something you sell, a service is something you provide. Now the number one question you might have at this point is, okay, I get it, which one is better? Which one is best? And the thing is, this is not a what's best question because the answer is going to be a lot like your answer to what's your favorite ice cream, for example. In other words, there's not a universal answer besides pralines and cream, of course, that's number one.
Everything else is after that. Your answer to what's best could be different from someone else's. In fact, it most likely will be. So in a moment, I'll give you a way to consider which might be best for you, along with your weekly assignment. Remember each week in the classroom series, you'll have an assignment.
First, I'd like to thank our sponsor for making all of the series completely free to you. So here's a message on their behalf and then we'll have that assignment. [Music]
Okay, so if one category isn't better than another, it's not that a service is universally better than a product or vice versa, why should you be able to recognize the difference? It's because the process for creating a product-based business and a service-based business is a little different. So when you consider various ideas, like last week when you had the assignment to identify a number of opportunities, practice your skills of observation, problem solving, asking questions and experimentation, you should be able to know right away what you're dealing with.
Whenever you have an idea, you should be able to say, "Oh, this is a product, this is a service. Here is the revenue model. Again, here's how it's going to make money." Very important, don't leave that out. And so to find out what's best for you, it often connects to some combination of your goals, skills and personality. All right, goals, skills, personality.
So goals we talked about in the first week of the classroom series, why are you doing this? What's the point? Are you trying to create passive income? Are you trying to pay off some bills? Are you trying to replace your day job income?
Do you want to perhaps become a working artist? Are you doing this because there's something you've always wanted to do, but you've always managed to deprioritize it until now? There are a lot of different reasons why people start a side hustle. And I just try to have that through line present in everything that we do because your situation is your own. Now second, skills, which are ultimately more important than passion.
It's not just about what you like to do, it's what are you good at? I often find that there is a connection between those things. Most of us tend to enjoy what we are good at, may not be 100% correlated, but there's definitely a correlation. So your goals, your skills and personality. Personality is a misunderstood and underestimated component of choosing your best idea.
Once you have a bunch of ideas, then you have to make a choice. We'll talk about that more in detail next week. The reason why I mentioned personality is because something can be a qualitatively good idea. You're like, yep, that is a viable idea. Someone would pay money for it.
I might be able to actually provide that service or create that kind of product. But for whatever reason, it just doesn't mesh with your personality. Maybe it involves some outgoing or outbound sales you don't wanna do. Maybe it requires you to do something that is uncomfortable and not in the way of like, oh, it's good to get out of your comfort zone, but something that you are just diametrically opposed to. Or to frame it more positively, there could be something that you're really good at that you gravitate towards, that your personality is aligned with, and maybe that solution would be better for you.
Even if a purely analytical analysis might suggest that the other idea is stronger. So goals, skills, and personality. We will look at these more as we go along. Now, as promised, each classroom feature will include an assignment. Here is this week's assignment.
For every idea you've come up with so far, and if you've been following along each week, you should have multiple ideas. If you're just jumping in, that's okay, because there are more than 1,000 ideas in the archives of a Side Hustle School. We still have two case studies/stories that are coming out each week. So plenty of ideas. For every idea you encounter or that you've come up with so far, classify it as a product or service.
And then just notice if you learn anything from that process. If you have been identifying ideas and you've got five of them already, are they all products? Are they all services? Or are they a combination of the two? And then as a little bonus, ask yourself, which of the ideas are you most excited about?
Which of them seem the most feasible? And which seem to have the most potential? Okay, I don't wanna overwhelm you, but the answer to those questions are going to lead us straight into next week's classroom episode. So if you don't get to that, it's okay. The most important thing is for all the ideas you come up with or encounter, classify them as a product or service, and notice if you learn anything from that process.
Now, as I said, this is gonna lead us straight into next week's classroom episode, which is all about deciding on the best idea to pursue at any given time, no matter what category it fits into, no matter what your goal is, no matter what skills you have, and no matter your personality. Just in case you missed any of that, you may wanna listen to the last minute or so again. And I'll also include notes for this and every classroom episode this year at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. This has been episode 1,115. More is on the way.
Thank you so much. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
