This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up, and welcome to Cytosville School. The only show bringing you daily analysis, daily stories, daily tips, question and answer from people out there who are working real jobs, busy, trying to figure themselves out, especially in a changing world order. So much has shifted in the past two months. But what these people have in common, perhaps even you, they want to invest in themselves. They want to create more security for themselves because they recognize that the world that we live in is not secure.
And trusting your future to a corporation or to the government or to an organization, even if it is a good corporation, government, or organization, is not wise. Even if you love that job and want to keep going to it, you also want to build something for yourself. That's what it's about. So today's listener has an idea to sell a toolkit to help sole proprietors become more efficient. And he wants to know what are the pros and cons of this idea.
As a reminder, I too can fall into the habit of asking if something is a good idea, quote unquote. I mean, generally speaking, I don't think that is the most important characteristic when considering ideas. So first of all, you don't want a good idea, you want a great idea. You want the best possible idea for you at this time. There are lots of good ideas out there.
In fact, there is a surplus of good ideas, definitely not a shortage of good ideas. And second, good, that adjective good is a little bit generic. So when you're considering side hustle ideas, you want to focus on feasible, profitable ones, which doesn't sound as pithy as saying a good idea, but still, do you see a clear path from where you are now to how this idea could make money in a relatively short period of time? That's what you want to consider and look for. So we'll apply that thinking to this listener question from Yair.
[Music]
Hi Chris, this is Yair Aitsma from Portland, Oregon. I love your show, even though I've been listening to it just recently. I'm thinking about starting a side hustle to help sole proprietors become more efficient in operating their business by providing them with a toolkit of templates and easy steps to improve their processes. I think it would be valuable to them, but since I don't know yet how to reach them, do you think it is a good idea? [Music]
Okay, Yair, thanks so much for listening.
I'm glad you have discovered the show. We've had a lot of new listeners in recent weeks. So glad to have you all out there. Now, as mentioned, we want to consider whether an idea is feasible and profitable. And without more information based on this question, it's kind of hard to know for sure.
A toolkit could be valuable or it might not. After all, there's no shortage of tools and resources out there. It's kind of like good ideas. So I think the second part of Yair's question is key, where he says, I don't know how to reach them. That to me is a little bit of a red flag.
If Yair is not already well-networked in the world of self-employment, freelancing, and sole proprietors, it might be a hard road ahead. It's kind of a crowded field there. There are a lot of tools and resources, as I said. So it's difficult to just show up somewhere in that industry and lots of other industries, whether online or offline, and say, hey, I have the answers for you. Like even if they are helpful answers, not impossible, but it can just be difficult.
So I think it's actually important to make this idea much more specific. And maybe it is, but just based on the information we have, it's not very specific. Toolkit, that word is very general. Sole proprietors is an extremely large market, and efficiency is a worthy goal, like we would all like to be more efficient. But understanding much more about how that will happen and why it matters would go a long way.
So at minimum, I think this is an idea that should be refined a bit. What is the key benefit? How does it work? And again, why does it matter? I think those are critical questions to answer during the idea stage, rather than trying to sort them out later.
It's gonna be much easier to figure it out on the front end. So if that's my two cents, don't spend it all in one place. Listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We're gonna feature them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects. By the way, let me know what you're up to.
You can also do that on that same page. And we're also looking for more stories to feature. There's another place on the website where it says submit your story. If you have a hustle we haven't featured before, love to take a look and see if it's a good fit. All right, take care of yourself out there, wherever you are in the world.
Do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
