This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's listener slash caller has a side hustle teaching data analytics and he wants to grow it. But he's feeling overwhelmed with all the necessary tools. So far he's been doing in-person teaching and then live online. He wants to go to something that could bring about more passive income and reach more people. But how can he choose the right resources and tools without being fixated on them?
Well, it just so happens that this listener is in luck because next week is all about discovering what is essential to launching your product or service. Gonna strip down all those extra things and look at what you really need, okay? But if you're listening in real time, there's no need to wait until tomorrow 'cause we're gonna jump in looking at tech tools, feeling overwhelmed about them, how to make choices, how to filter, how do you choose which package when there's multiple options and so on, all that stuff in today's brief episode. Stay tuned. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Rashid from New York City.
I recently stumbled on Side Hustle and fell in love right away. I have spent the past two months catching up on all the amazing material. Thank you for all that you do. My Side Hustle is teaching. In particular, I help folks launch careers in data analytics and visualization.
So far I have been teaching in-person or through live online classes. I now want to scale my business with recorded videos. My question is, I'm overwhelmed with all the tools I need to set up and run an online business. For websites, we have Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, or building a custom website. For video recordings, we have Camtasia, screen cache dramatic, teachable.
For email marketing, there's MailChimp constant contact drip. And then there's SEO, SEM, Facebook, Instagram marketing. Oh my God. I'm a techie and find this overwhelming, not to mention picking the right plan within those tools and then the cost. Do you have suggestions on how to filter and choose the best online tools to help scale my business?
I can't wait to hear from you and thanks for the motivation. The community appreciates you very much. [Music]
Rashid, what's up? Thank you so much. Thank you for listening and for those kind words.
I'm so glad you're out there. So I know you got this concern and we're gonna dive into it, but I think it's always good first of all to just acknowledge what is working, like what you are doing well. I know you feel overwhelmed, but you've already got this project helping people with careers in data analytics and visualization. So you've already figured out quite a lot. And now it's just about like, what is the next step?
How do I go from these live online classes to recorded videos? All right, so as I said, next week is all about this subject, broadly speaking. We're gonna focus the classroom episode and several other Q&A episodes on creating your product in its most simple form, or should I say its simplest form, also known as a minimum viable product. I don't actually like to use a lot of startup lingo. So I'll try to keep that very minimal, but that is basically what we're talking about, the simplest version of your product.
And big picture, remember that these tools, like all those shiny objects out there, those tools are there to help you. And they are supposed to make your life easier, not harder or unnecessarily complicated. And so if the opposite is happening, maybe you don't actually need those tools, right? Now you do need some things. And so obviously that's the crux of the question here.
What do you really need for this business? And for Rashid, even though his list sounds pretty long, like the first time you listen to it, you're like, wow, he's got this, he's got that. But actually most of what he mentions sounds important for what he's doing. In particular, he mentioned email marketing and Camtasia. Camtasia is just a form of a screen capture software that allows you to make these recorded videos, do voiceover, show your screen, all that kind of stuff.
And then email marketing, of course, allows you to build up an email list over time, send broadcast messages, send drip messages, also known as autoresponderous sequences. And I don't think he actually needs a lot more than that. Like those kinds of things really do seem essential. The other stuff he mentioned, like SEO, Facebook, Instagram marketing, et cetera, it's not that it's unimportant, but is it essential? Aside from the email services, which are critical, I think if you start feeling overwhelmed, if you start feeling pinched, let's say, either in terms of financial costs, you're like, I'm paying for 10 different services, I don't even know if I'm using half of them, or it's just information overload, which is a cost of its own, then maybe you don't actually need that right now.
Maybe you can put that on pause. And then as for that part about picking the right plan within those tools, what Rashid is referring to is that most of these subscription services, software as a service, as it's known, most of them offer tiered pricing. You know, you've got like the basic plan and you've got the middle plan, you got the pro plan, enterprise option, all that kind of stuff. And these companies do that because it helps them make more money. I actually advise people, like when you're building out your side hustle, think about how you can charge more than one price for it.
So it's smart of them. But of course it can create doubt in you as a consumer. So my suggestion is only pay for features that you'll actually use. And when in doubt, start with the basic plan, the cheapest one, and upgrade later. Often you might look at the pro plan or the higher one and say, oh, that looks really cool, that's an attractive feature, but then you never actually use it.
And I was thinking about it as I was working on this episode here, there's a service that I am paying $100 extra each month for. Like I use this service, but they have something that it's kind of like an add-on and you can pay $100 a month for it. And I've been paying for it for probably about five months because five months ago I looked at it and was like, oh, that's cool, I should do that. And I've been paying for it but I haven't actually been using it. So that's not good.
Do what I say, not what I do, obviously, unless you want to pay more money. But don't do that. I don't want you to actually pay more money. [Music]
Roshid, as I said, it sounds like you were off to a great start. It's just a matter of figuring out what's essential and then building on from there.
So I look forward to hearing what develops, definitely let us know. And listeners, if you've got a question, whether it is about nuts and bolts or an idea or marketing, which we're going to delve into much more in the second half of the year, whatever it is, let me know. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We might feature it right here. If not, I still appreciate your question.
All right, thanks so much. I'll be back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
