This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
I always like hearing your ideas. If you've got an idea for a side hustle, something you're trying to think about, or you are thinking about, you're trying to decide, "Do I take action on this idea or not?" I'm always encouraging people to move forward and fail quickly if that's what's going to happen. Not that you're going to fail, you might actually succeed. But it can also be helpful to think about ideas on the front end, especially when you have multiple ideas and you have limited time because I make this podcast for busy people. That's why it's 10 minutes a day or less. So you want to choose the right idea, the idea that gives
you the most potential, the most bang for your buck, as you might say. So today we've got a caller from Massachusetts who currently has a small moving business. And he's thinking about, I guess it's a bit of an offshoot or an additional service, starting a directory website that provides listings to movers from around the country. So this is a common business model, or at least it is a common model of days of old, where you're charging business owners, movers in this case, to be listed in the directory where customers will find them and hopefully everybody is happy. It's good for everyone. But he's wondering, our caller, is this business model outdated or might
it still have some potential? Now, I would just say upfront here, is that the right question to ask, which I'm going to come back to in my answer. I know this is so important. Sometimes we waver on something that isn't actually a key factor in making the right decision. So I'm going to talk about all of that. Is it the right question to ask? And what about this business model in particular?
Is the directory website model outdated? Here's a detailed question, my answer coming up in just 30 seconds. Hi, Chris, this is Elgin from Just Outside Boston, Massachusetts. I've been listening to the show for years now and love the inspiration and advice. So my current side hustle is a small moving business, basically myself and a friend of mine. He's not a partner in the business,
so I pay him an agreed amount for each job and it's working fairly well for now. My question is about potentially creating a directory website of movers from around the country and charging lead referrals, sponsor listings or other ad related revenue. I'm choosing the moving business since I already know the industry and it seems like a good fit. Now, is the directory model outdated when a simple Google search of moving companies might suffice? I asked this question because you've covered directory websites in past episodes and they seem a little more specialized from what I'm proposing. Thanks and look forward to hearing your advice. LJ, what's up, man? Thank
you for calling in. Congrats on the business so far. It definitely makes sense that you would choose this industry as a natural next step. As you said, you know this industry, you're thinking about different ideas and such. So a few things here. Is it outdated? Is this directory website
model outdated? I mean, in some ways, I think you could probably make a case that it is outdated. Does that matter? However, you know, I think that's the bigger question. And I think the answer to that is it depends because what matters most in this situation for a directory website in which, you know, you're sending leads to companies, they have paid for those sponsored posts, those listings and so on. What matters most is qualified traffic. You know, imagine a world
in which you had, you know, this website, this directory, you put in the work and there is a good amount of quality traffic, you know, coming to the website every day. So you have leads, like there are people that actually want to hire movers, you know, would that be valuable? Like, would that be a valuable resource? Of course it would, you know, it's a that would be a valuable, monetizable resource. But now imagine, and this is, of course, the more common scenario, imagine you have a website that no one visits, you know, it's getting four visitors a day, and none of those visitors actually want to move, or they don't, they're just looking for information, they're not ready to commit. Is that valuable to movers? Not really, right? So this is where you focus your
attention, you know, the gap between those two experiences, and the gap between those two experiences, that healthy website with lots of qualified traffic, you know, and, you know, the website that no one goes to, you know, that's where value is created the gap, you know, filling that gap. And Elgin said, you know, when somebody's moving like a simple Google search might suffice, that's true, but all those searches have to end up somewhere, right? So I'm sure it's a competitive industry. But depending on which search phrase, maybe a less common search phrase that, you know, still enough people are searching for, Elgin ends up getting ranked for, you know, those searches end up on his site, right? So the question you need to answer is, can you build a resource that attracts both groups, you know, the movers who pay and the leads they're looking for?
And I think it's more important to focus on the leads, because if you have the leads, you know, you can find the companies that will pay for them. But the other way around, it's difficult. So I see it as a two year project, you know, just because building up that traffic is going to be so important, it will take time. And for that, you know, really SEO is the answer, just like digging in studying that, really trying to learn about how to get pages ranked, building some pages, allowing time, you know, to see what happens and so on, especially since these are going to be one time customers. Also, you know, you don't have like a long lifetime customer value with people who are moving across the country or wherever they're moving, because they're not going to move that often, you know, they search for this information, they get what they need, then, you know, they move on literally with their lives. So there is a world in which this model could work,
and I don't think it's outdated. I just think it's going to be a good amount of work, you know, to reach a sustainable level of visitors. That's what I think about that. Again, Elgin, thank you listeners. Thank you. If you have a question, if you're trying to figure out your next
steps, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We've got tips, we've got case studies, we've got, you know, interviews and features with real people out there who are all taking action on something that's important to them. That's what it's about. Got a new episode coming out every single day. I hope you'll subscribe or follow wherever you like to listen. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side
Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
