This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's caller is at a crossroads. Should she keep pursuing her side hustle idea, even though it hasn't been profitable? Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name's Chris Guillebeau. Now this question, I mean, this question, almost every person who starts a side hustle or a small business, even a capital E entrepreneur, pretty much we all encounter this challenge. And we encounter this challenge not once, but often repeatedly.
It's really important to develop the skill of evaluation so you know when to quit and when to keep going. And in this situation, there are a couple of things you can do. So hopefully this will be helpful for Sophia, our caller, and maybe even someone else out there. All right, detailed question and my answer coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Sophia from Chicago.
Thanks for all the helpful advice and fun stories. A year ago, I had what I thought was a great idea, but it just hasn't worked out very well. It seems no one wants what I have to sell. How do I know if my idea is bad or if I just didn't develop it properly? I don't wanna chase bad ideas, but I also don't wanna quit if there are a couple more steps I need to take.
Looking forward to hearing from you. [Music]
Sophia, thanks so much for calling in. As I said, you are in good company or at least you're in a lot of company because we have all been there. A couple of things you can do in this situation. When to let go of an unprofitable idea versus persevering, continuing to take steps.
First, let's say, for this idea, did you do any sort of validation before launching? Like you said, you had what you thought was a great idea, but it hasn't worked out super well. Well, validation, market research, testing, it's not always necessary. In fact, I think sometimes it's overdone. There's lots of different projects that you get validation on just by starting and trying things out.
So totally okay, but when it's not working out, maybe it's good to take a step back and do that market research, do some simple testing. I read about this a lot in the book "Side Hustle" from idea to income in 27 days. There's a whole method there you can use to essentially see if there is market demand. Next, do you see something obvious you could change? Sophia says, I don't know if my idea is bad or if I just didn't develop it properly.
Well, what do you change? What might be different? What might produce different results if you change the offer, if you changed the type of service, if you changed how you're doing your marketing? I think one way or another, either you change your approach, you do take some steps to kind of mix it up and see how that goes, or you just decide to put this on pause. You can put this idea on pause for a while while you try something else.
You don't have to abandon it entirely if you feel some attachment to it, if you think, oh, I don't wanna, I'm not sure it's gonna work, but I don't wanna let go of it. Well, just put it on pause, let's say, and you might end up letting go of it that way, but that's okay because it's just on pause. If you wanna go back to it, you can. I think the main thing is whatever you do, your goal is to avoid getting stuck more than making the decision one way or another. That's what I think about that.
As I said, we've all been there, and the best thing we can do is to move forward. So good luck, Sophia, good luck, listeners. If you've got a question of your own, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll continue to feature them. I so enjoy this daily conversation.
Thanks for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
