This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Is it possible to have a side hustling career? A whole career of side hustles, not just a side hustle or a side hustle to your hustle, but in fact, a side hustling career, or is that an oxymoron? Also, am I defining oxymoron correctly there? I think so, but I started worrying about that as I wrote these notes. So I guess you'll have to be the judge there.
Side hustling career, our caller is thinking of going all in on the world of multiple small businesses. So this is a little bit different from a question like, when do I quit my job? When do I pursue my side hustle full-time? It's more like, as I said, having a whole career built around a series of projects. So is such a thing possible?
What does that look like? Let's talk it out in this episode. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Joe, and I've been following the show for some time now. I wanted to ask you a quick question. Has anyone been able to build a career out of just doing side hustles?
In some ways, I suppose the phrase refers to people doing things apart from one main irregular job, but some of these projects really take off and go on to earn full-time incomes. I'm just starting out, but have enjoyed learning about so many different ideas. Do you think I could make this a career instead of a hobby? Thanks, and looking forward to what you have to say. [Music]
Joe, thanks so much for listening.
Thanks for the call. First things first, you can do what's good for you, right? I think that's always just important to put that right up front. I also don't know if you need to decide. I don't know what you need to be like, this is a side hustle, this is a small business, this is an entrepreneurial project.
The only thing I would pick up on is Joe used the word hobby towards the end of his question. And I always think of a side hustle as an income-generating project. Not every hobby has to be income-generating, but if you want it to be a side hustle, I think of it as something that makes money, okay? So I would just be clear about that. But overall, this is a kind of question that I think you don't necessarily have to worry about.
You can just start projects and see what happens along the way. It's kind of like asking, how will I handle too many customers? What if my business makes so much money that I owe a lot of taxes? If the business takes off, how will I balance my day job and other responsibilities? Those are important topics, no doubt.
But in the beginning, when you're just getting started, it's much more important, I think, to consider where is income going to come from? How do I actually get paid? What is my product or service? How do I take a business idea, which ideas are everywhere and ideas on their own don't have a lot of value? How do I take my business idea and turn it into an offer?
An offer is what people pay for, right? An offer is what customers exchange their money for. And by the way, who are your ideal customers? Those are the things that I think are so important to think about in the beginning. Anything else can be solved along the way, whether it is this career of side hustles or something totally different, however you like to think about it.
But without clear answers to those questions, those things like what's the product, where does the money come from, et cetera, then you don't really have the side hustle or the career of side hustles or even a single hustle at all. So do that first. That's my advice, Joe. Good luck. Listeners, if you've got a question and experience, something you wanna share, even if it's just the project you're working on, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them every week, along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects. That's it for today. Hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
