This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I've been working on something over the past few weeks that I'm really excited about. It's a series of audio and text messages that you can receive directly on your phone. And I'm excited because it's coming out tomorrow. So I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. It's one of those things that I thought would be really simple.
And the more time I spent on it, the more I realized how much more time was needed. But this is not a complaint in any way. Part of why I wanted to spend a lot of time on it was because I wanted it to be good. So I'm looking forward to sharing that with you in tomorrow's episode. And of course, if you're listening in the future, then it may already be out.
But today I wanna focus on a listener question from London. And the first thing I wanna say about this question is, this question is lit. Can you candle it? That's right, we're talking about candles. Specifically, a listener in London wants to sell candles with inspirational quotes and artwork featuring black women.
And she wonders if her idea is too specialized. It's a really good question. Lots we can take away with it in terms of thinking about your target market, how to match your product to your market, and so on. So here's a quick message from our sponsor. Really appreciate them.
Thank you sponsor. And then let there be light. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Selena from England, London. I've been listening to your show for six months and I'm a great fan. I'm thinking about starting a side hustle, selling candles for women, specifically to black women with quotes of inspiration and artwork with the potential to expand to question quotes.
My question is, is this too niche? Am I restricting myself by being so narrow? I made a few candles for friends and family who love them, but I'm not sure if this is a hobby rather than an actual business. Great to hear your thoughts and thank you very much for your show. [Music]
Selena, thank you so much for listening.
Thanks for calling in. And this is an interesting scenario because there are actually two questions here. First question is, is it a hobby or a business, this particular project? And the second one is, is this specific idea too niche or too specialized? So I wanna focus on the second because for the first, that's kind of up to Selena.
It's one of those projects that could be a business or it could just be a hobby. So that's gonna come down to what her specific goals are. For the purpose of the question, let's assume that she does want it to be a business. Is her product or her market too niche? Is it too specialized?
I don't think so, but I would suggest she thinks of the market a little bit differently. So she talks mostly about the product, but product and market are connected. The candles include quotes of inspiration and artwork featuring black women. And Selena mentions the market being black women. I would suggest that she keeps the product the same, but think of the market a bit differently.
I would actually think of the market a bit more broadly, partly because over the past year, there's been a lot more awareness and sensitivity to racial issues. Books by black authors in particular have greatly outsold most other books, at least many other books. There were a number of weeks on the New York Times bestselling list where more than five of the books were by black authors. I've also just heard anecdotally from black creators and entrepreneurs, side hustlers in our community that they have seen increased general interest in their products and a desire from a lot of people to buy black or to support artists of color or makers, creators of color. For example, we featured a story of a black woman healthcare worker in Toronto who published a children's book about COVID.
And then her second children's book is about unconscious bias. I mentioned that she's black in this case because that second book is about unconscious bias. I'm not mistaken that book has a black child and a white child in the book and together they're learning about this topic of bias. So all that to say, the product sounds interesting. It could be a business, it could be a hobby, depends on what Selena wants to do.
I would just suggest that the market could be a bit broader perhaps than what she is thinking. So Selena, good luck, let us know what happens, hobby or business, however it goes. If you get a website, let us know that as well so we can share that with our community. And listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you have a comment, a question, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
I very much enjoy this ongoing dialogue. I've got some cool stuff coming up for you including that online course I mentioned as well as many more stories. That's all for today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
