This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
With a background in environmental science and a passion for sustainability, today's color from Seattle is ready to launch a sustainability consultancy. But how can she reach her target audience and make her business a success? That's what we're gonna look at in today's episode. Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
Every single day, seven days a week, bringing you questions and answers, case studies, tips, ideas, just different ways you can make extra money without quitting your job, or perhaps make a transition from a job to a self-employment career or whatever's important to you. That's what a side hustle can be. It's all about your goals of doing more for yourself in whatever avenue best uses your skills and is hopefully fun along the way. So let's see what we can do for Sarah. How can I become a sustainability consultant?
That's the question coming up right after the break. [Music]
Hey there, this is Sarah calling from Seattle. I found your podcast through a recommendation from a colleague. I have a background in environmental science and I'm passionate about sustainability. A lot of businesses wanna become more sustainable and I wanna help by starting a sustainability consultancy.
But I'm not sure where to begin and how to actually market my services. What would you suggest? [Music]
All right, what's up? Always good to hear from our Seattle audience. Got a lot of friends in Seattle.
I lived in Seattle two years long, long ago. Hopefully I'll get back at some point. Okay, so Sarah here has a passion for sustainability. She's also got this background in environmental science. She wants to help businesses become more eco-friendly.
What am I hearing through all this? I think one thing I'm wondering is who are the clients? You could start with the problem you're trying to solve or you could start with them, the clients. There's two different approaches here. And this is B2B, business to business.
So what kind of businesses? Who are we trying to serve here? What exactly are you gonna do for them? Those answers are gonna make a huge difference in how you actually market your service. I think that was Sarah's question.
How do I actually market my service? Well, it starts by just having some greater clarity about what your service is. So again, what's the problem you're trying to solve or who are the clients? If you have the answer to either of those, kind of sends you down one path. I might start by thinking about the clients first.
In this case, if you have an idea of like, okay, it's like small businesses, mid-sized businesses in this particular industry or something else that kind of groups them together. From there, you can begin to put together more of a marketing plan. And just remember to build your business around what's in it for the customer because chances are like they value sustainability also, but they also value profit. Let's say that a little bit differently. Chances are they value sustainability too, but they also value profit.
They value cost savings. That's okay, that's good. That's what a business is supposed to be thinking about. So how can your service be a win-win? Like that's what you wanna focus on as you set out to design such a service.
And then of course, you wanna specialize in a certain industry and sector, the usual kind of stuff, but I think just first of all, like who are the clients? What are their problems? How can you then create a unique value proposition? Make sure your messaging aligns up with that and so on. But let's just kind of big picture first.
You know, big picture first, who are we trying to serve? What's the problem we're trying to solve? So let's go with that. Or at least that's what I'd suggest, of course. Feel free to report back and listeners, if you have a question or an experience of your own or a business idea, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them each week. I'd love to give a shout out to your business also. So let me know what's going on. New episode every day. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
