This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, friends, listeners. What's up, side of social community? This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Now, I often talk about finding and focusing on the need that your side of social or business idea meets. It's often a good starting point.
What need can you meet? What problem can you solve? What solution can you offer, et cetera? And this is easy to understand when it comes to selling something like tires. For example, like you got a car, you need to put tires on it, right?
Or even something like health coaching for type one diabetics, or architectural models, or lots of other things, okay? But what about art? Now, here's where it gets tricky. Is there a need that artists should consider when making something for sale? Or is it enough to just think about art itself?
So today we have a very interesting question from a listener in Connecticut that allows us to explore this topic in some detail. We'll jump into it right after this message from our sponsor. [Music]
- Hi, this is Kaylee from Ansonia, Connecticut, and I've been listening to the show for a couple of years now. Anytime I'm caught up, I go back and listen to ones I've missed. My side hustle is called needle felted fuzzies.
I make and sell needle felted items, and I teach needle felted classes. My question is, what is the need that I am fulfilling with my art? I love making art, but I can find it a difficult sell. I understand a business needs to fulfill a need, so when I decided to turn my hobby into a business, I started by focusing on one specific item, foxtatoes, which are palm-sized foxes shaped like potatoes. I sell them as gifts of encouragement that are meant to be given to someone going through something.
The classes are like paint and sips, so they give people something to do and a new skill to learn, but the rest of my art is a tougher sell. I've also started making wall art to give beauty to people's homes, but what is the message I should be using to sell my art? What is the need my art business is fulfilling? Thanks, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. [Music]
Hey, Kaylee, thank you so much for listening.
I'm so glad you've been enjoying this show. It's just wonderful to know that there are people out there in every state, lots of provinces, lots of countries, et cetera, listening, and congratulations on that side hustle that you have already. Sounds like you have a couple of side hustles already, which is great, and you're selling different kinds of art, which is very helpful for this question because the teaching component, like the paint and sip classes, the things that you're doing with a community, well, that is a pretty clear need. That is a need for both education and a need for community and connection, okay? Then the other item, the fox-tatoes, which is a pretty cool word, by the way, fox-tatoes, palm-sized foxes shaped like potatoes, pretty cool.
So that is less of a need than the class, perhaps, but you've also correctly identified that there is a need there in terms of encouragement, passing it on to somebody, and so on. But that third category, this is what we're gonna talk about here, wall art, the category of wall art to give beauty to people's homes. So here's what I think. I don't necessarily think that all art, broadly speaking, has to fulfill a need in terms of a commercial need or a marketable need or this is the solution to the problem, I guess the problem is that there's a blank wall in my house, but there's probably lots of different ways to solve that problem. So I think to me, it kind of goes back to your goals, like why are you making art?
And I'm guessing that in this case, the wall art, the answer is more than just, I'm making this wall art because I want to make money. I want to make this wall art and exchange it for money. I'm guessing there's a bigger answer there, which is not to say that you wouldn't be happy to sell it for money, of course, but you're correct in saying that it's harder. It's going to be harder than selling a class or anything where you can point and say, this is the practical solution for this particular problem that you are experiencing. So I don't know that that's the best path to go down in terms of figuring out, okay, what is the need?
I think it's more important to say, okay, well, I'm making this art and I know some people like it. There are collectors out there. How can I reach collectors? Where are the people that might buy this art? Like where did they congregate?
Do they go to art shows? Do they go to fairs? Are they buying online, et cetera? Is there some different way that I can get this out? Is there a platform I should be selling on like Etsy or something different?
And then just getting really tactical with it. I think that's the path forward there. And so for our many artists out there, I hope this is somewhat helpful and not discouraging. It's not meant to be discouraging. It's just, I don't think that there is a practical need for all forms of art.
And what you're doing is beyond practical needs. You're doing something more than that. Like you're not just meeting this base level need. You're trying to create something that you believe in. So there are ways to market that, but they are usually different ways than you would market something that is a practical solution.
Those are my two cents. I'd love to know what other people in our community think. Like I said, we got a lot of folks out there. And Kelly, thank you again for calling in. Good luck, let us know what happens.
Listeners, if you've got a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners. Thank you so much. You are awesome. Keep being awesome.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
