This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I love hearing ideas from our community. I love to know what you're working on, what you're thinking about, your various ideas for a small business or a side hustle. So today's caller, without further ado, has a passion for creative writing. They want to turn this into a side hustle by offering a series of workshops. Now, as a published writer, they've had some experience, but they're also aware that offering workshops for personal enjoyment is different from freelance work.
And that's totally true. You can have a workshop, a seminar on something that is for a hobby or even something that you might aspire to make money from at some point, like writing, but it's very different from doing a workshop in a corporate environment or for some professional skill. So this is an important distinction. And this caller, his name is David, he wants to know if there's a market for his idea and what steps he can take to create a unique offering and target the right audience. That sounds good to me.
We're gonna dive into his question in just 30 seconds after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hello, my name is David and I'm calling from Denver. My idea is to offer creative writing workshops. I'd love to hear your thoughts on starting this kind of business, including the best ways to create a unique offering and target the right audience. I'm a published writer and I know a good bit about the freelance world, but creative writing for personal enjoyment is a bit different.
So I'm not sure if people will pay for it or not. [Music]
David, great to hear from you. You're definitely not alone in considering the idea of offering creative writing workshops. These do exist in various forums around the world. And I think there will continue to be interest and demand for it.
I think also just don't worry so much about the professionalization kind of thing, like writing for personal enjoyment is a unique and fulfilling experience. So you don't necessarily have to have a writing workshop for people who want to be professionals. Like I think it can definitely be a good side hustle for the right person. And it seems like David has some experience as a published writer and also knowing a bit about freelance. So a couple of tips.
I don't know if you even need these tips because I think you're onto the right track, but a couple of tips. Know your niche, your niche, make sure you have a clear understanding of what makes your proposed creative writing workshops unique. Why are they different from other writing workshops? What makes them appealing to your target audience? Just some kind of clear and concise message that you can use to promote your workshops.
I think that's gonna go a long, long way just in terms of standing out. And then what you're trying to do is build a community. So these kinds of workshops, they can be a great way to build a community of like-minded individuals, bringing people together through a shared interest in writing, whether it's through social media, other writing groups, even just word of mouth, but ultimately building them around the idea of your in-person, or I guess it could be virtual workshops. So building a community, but not getting too far away from the, okay, the workshop is the point, right? Not just having a community that exists as a Facebook group, but something to facilitate, something to support the workshop.
You might also want to, this is optional, but you may wanna collaborate with other writers, especially when you're getting started, some kind of partnership, some kind of like having guest speakers, co-hosts. So I say it's optional because it could also go the other way and might just be better for you to do it yourself. So I'll leave that one with you to choose. But overall, I think branding and messaging is really important here. I think it's the kind of thing that builds if you do it well and commit to it for a good amount of time.
So David, I'm wishing you well with that. Listeners, I'm wishing you well as well, sidehustleschool.com/questions. If you've got an idea of something you're working on, I make a new episode of the podcast every single day. It's all completely free. And you can listen wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts.
That's all for today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
