This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome, Side Hustle School listeners. Episode 2,194, your host, Chris Guillebeau, kicking off a new year. We've got a question from a listener. That's right, all year long, I'm gonna be taking questions from listeners. We've got an amazing community of people out there trying to start a small business, trying to start a little side hustle, grow their side hustle, perhaps, whatever the situation is, or if you just wanna make some extra money without quitting your job, you know, that's good too.
Whatever the situation is, I wanna help you with that by shining a spotlight on so many different stories and examples. So without further ado, today's listener wants to start a retail business, but they aren't sure whether it should be a clothing line or a home decor store. They also have other business ideas as well, which is great. They're flush with inspiration. Inspiration is good.
But as I sometimes say, inspiration is good, inspiration with action is better. So how do you turn inspiration into action? What can we do for our caller? And what can we do for you? How do you choose what to focus on?
That's today's question, the detailed version from our caller and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hey Chris, it's Carolyn from Fayetteville. I'm trying to start my own business, but I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the different ideas I have. Can you share some guidance on how to choose which ideas to focus on and which ones to set aside? For example, I'm considering starting a clothing line or a home decor store.
How do I decide which one to go with? Should I prioritize the idea that has the biggest potential market or the one that I'm most passionate about? I'd love to hear your perspective on this. Thank you. - Hey Carolyn, thanks for being out there.
So listen, this is a common issue, not necessarily trying to choose between these two particular ideas, but just trying to choose between different ideas. So when it comes to making the right choice, there's a few things to consider. First, your own interests, your own skills, like what are you passionate about? What are you good at? I think it's always important to focus a bit more on skills, perhaps, because you tend to be passionate about what you're also good at.
So let's focus on skills that are valued by other people. If you are skilled in fashion, if you've got a lot of knowledge and experience in fashion and the clothing industry, then of course, starting that clothing line might be a good fit for you. Otherwise, if you have this background in interior design, then maybe it's the home decor store. But that's just starting with some basic passions and skills. You also wanna think a lot about the potential market for your product or service.
Like what's the demand? What's the demand? What's the feasibility? How hard or how easy will it be to get these things going? Both these businesses are probably gonna require some capital.
Like most likely they can't be $100 startup. They're gonna have to be at least a few thousand dollars, maybe even more than that, depending on what you do. So you wanna make sure you have identified a gap in the market, something that is missing. You can provide a clear understanding of who you're going to serve. Ultimately, it's gonna come down to a variety of factors.
The skills, the passion, the interest, what the demand is. And ultimately, ultimately, that's two ultimatelys, you really just have to decide something. So if you're still stuck at the end of all this analysis, you just have to close your eyes and pick something and try and see how that goes. And if you do that for a few months and it doesn't feel right, then try something different. I think it's much better to move forward with action than just to kind of remain paralyzed in this point of analysis.
So that's my perspective, my two cents. Carolyn, good luck. Listeners, let me know what you think. If you have an update or a question of your own, sidehustleschool.com/questions. All year long, every single day, a new episode, we're gonna look at what's important to you and I hope you will continue to listen.
All right, I'm cheering you on. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
