This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up my friends, welcome to Side Hustle School. I'm so glad you're here. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I have the privilege of bringing you these daily episodes featuring people out there all over the world who are trying to earn extra money without quitting their day job. And sometimes they want to earn a lot of extra money.
Sometimes they just want to earn an extra 500 or a thousand dollars a month, all good things, right? You know, whatever it is, earning money apart from your day job just brings you more confidence. It helps you believe in yourself more just to be totally frank. Like I hear that all the time. People say, oh, I never thought I could make money on my own, and it just changed something for me.
Like it created a real change, a real shift in my life. So every Side Hustle School story features someone who earns at least $500 a month. But some people go on to earn a lot more. In fact, if you've listened to our archives for a while, you know, or if you go back and listen to the archives, a lot of stories, people earn six figures or even seven figures from their side hustle. Like we've had a number of million dollar side hustle stories.
A listener wants to know, that's what our question is today, what separates small earners from big ones? Okay, so really interesting question. And first of all, let's just acknowledge that people have different goals, right? Because not everybody says, oh, I want to earn $200,000 a year for my side hustle. Almost always, the work required to create something like that is going to be a lot more than somebody who's earning 6,000 or $12,000 extra a year.
So different goals out there. Some people are just trying to do this for a creative project. Some people just like the idea of some diversification, you know, all kinds of different reasons to have your side hustle. So it's not that a big earner is better than a small one, but still, you know, as I said, money is good, right? Having extra money gives you more freedom.
So is there something or might there be something that separates the smaller earners from the big ones? So I thought a bit about this question because as I said, I really liked it. I'm going to bring it to you in just 30 seconds. Here's a quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Kate.
And I've been listening for a while and I've noticed that you feature stories with a wide range of results, including some that make a small amount of money and some that end up being a really big moneymaker. With so many episodes in the archives, my question is, have you noticed anything that separates the big wins from the small? Is it just a matter of choosing a project that has the ability to scale or is it something related to the fundamental approach? What are the skills that someone needs to go big? Thanks, Chris, for sharing your thoughts about this.
[Music]
Thank you, Kate. This is a wonderful question. I think a lot of our listeners are going to be interested in this. What separates big earners from small earners? What are those skills that you need to go big if that's what you want to do?
Now, as I said in the introduction, money isn't the only metric of success, et cetera, et cetera. Still, it's fair to say that we have a number of stories of people who end up doing really well. I was just thinking of a couple that came to mind. There are many others, but I thought of episode 462, cybersecurity training becomes seven-figure business. There was actually a Throwback Thursday episode or Throwback Thursday update on that business, 1328.
So maybe start with that, episode 1328. And then also, Line Chef makes millions cooking up Apron Empire. That was episode 583. And in both of these stories, as you just heard, they became million-dollar successes. So what separates these experiences from others, right, that don't do so well?
I think there are five factors, or at least I came up with five factors for you here. So first, the right idea, because some ideas really are better than others. There is such a thing as a bad side hustle idea. There are a lot of bad side hustle ideas. And some ideas may be okay, but as I said, some ideas are better than others.
So security training, for example, cybersecurity training is desirable. It's valuable. A lot of people need it for their work. It's also not cheap. His courses cost hundreds of dollars.
So that leads me to the second point, relatively high priced. It's very hard to make a lot of money selling something that costs very little. So it's theoretically possible, and some people do it. We've had some exceptions. It's just difficult.
So most people who are high side hustle earners are not participating in a race to the bottom. Like they are not afraid to say, I have a quality service. I'm gonna charge a good price for it. Or I'm gonna make a quality product and also charge a good price. So the line chef who makes millions cooking up apron empire, like this is a small business that has grown to employ a lot of people now.
And it does bring in, I think, multiple seven figures at this point. So these are really high quality aprons that she makes. And other items for chefs and restaurants, definitely not a race to the bottom. In fact, that's what she was competing with. Like all of the cheap, low quality aprons that she found in her career as a professional chef.
Number three, the right adjustments along the way. Most people who are really successful don't just have a good idea because good ideas are everywhere, let's say. Like you probably have a lot of good ideas. If you go back and listen to the archives, there's so many good ideas, but the people who are really successful take that good idea and then they turn it into great execution by making changes and responding to demand as they go along. It's very rare that somebody just has an idea, acts on that idea, nothing ever changes, and then they go on to make multiple six figures or whatever the amount of money is.
Much more common is they have an idea, it is a good idea, but then as they begin to develop that product or service or go to the marketplace, they learn, they observe, and they notice that they need to do something different. So they're not afraid to make changes as they go along. Even as they persist in their determination to succeed, they're absolutely willing to course correct. Number four, spending a lot of time on marketing. Because good products, successful products, let's say, do not just market themselves.
If you wanna grow your business, you can't think of marketing as something you do after everything else is done. It needs to be part of each step of the process or at least most of the steps. The last factor is luck, okay? Because when you do something that turns out well, this is kind of human nature, right? When we do something that turns out well, we tend to think, I'm a genius, I'm brilliant.
Or if we do something that fails, we think, oh, I'm so stupid, right? And the reality is that neither of those interpretations may be correct, is a pretty broad spectrum between genius and stupid. There are variables outside your control. So sometimes it's the right idea at the right time. And so if you think, well, luck, what do I do with that?
The only thing you can do with luck is to have more luck, you take more chances. Because the more chances you take, the more opportunities you have to have the right idea at the right time or to something really go your way. So I do think there are some things that separate small earners from big ones. I hope that's helpful to anybody out there who's like, I wanna go big. I'm thinking about my next year, and I actually want it to be much better than the previous year.
Think about those things. The right idea, the right price, the right adjustments along the way, spending a lot of time on marketing, and luck. And to be more lucky, take more chances. Thank you, Kate, thank you listeners. I'm so grateful to be able to make this show for you.
I hope you'll subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Tell your friends. I'm very grateful for your five-star ratings and reviews as well. Those definitely help in terms of spreading the word. So thank you.
I do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
