This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello and welcome to Saitosle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau, your host. Today we're gonna hear from Nalani, who is calling in from beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii. I haven't been to Hawaii in many, many years, but long, long ago I spent three months in Honolulu, and it is indeed a beautiful place. What can you say about Hawaii?
Well, I'm not gonna say much more about it because Nalani has got a story for us. She also has an idea. And one of these ideas that I really like, meaning something that I've never heard of before. It is a long running favorite of mine to work on this podcast and hear from people who have all sorts of business ideas. Sometimes, as I said, stuff that is just completely brand new or out of the ordinary.
I'm gonna stay out of the way here and let her describe the idea. I'm excited to hear more about this innovative approach and the challenges she anticipates in bringing it to life. Let's see what we can do for Nalani. Her question is coming right up. [Music]
My name is Nalani, and I'm calling from Honolulu, Hawaii.
I've been thinking about starting a business that creates customized 3D printed prosthetics for animals, specifically for marine animals like sea turtles and dolphins that are affected by plastic waste. This either seems like a crazy idea or a brilliant one. And I can't decide which it is. Given the growing concern for environmental issues, do you think there is a market for such a product? Who would pay for it and how would I get funding?
[Music]
Thank you for sharing your idea with us, Nalani. You know, I mean, where to begin. Customized 3D printed prosthetics for marine animals. I'm a little bit out of my depth there. It's definitely an interesting concept.
Nalani mentions the growing awareness of environmental issues, as well as the market for products that help preserve marine life. And that's kind of what I want to pick up on here. The market for products, you know, for whatever your idea is. What is the market for the products? The market is, you know, consumer or business demand.
You know, a demand, a willingness to purchase. Like the willingness to say, here is my money. You know, I want this product or this service. Here is my credit card, my check, my Bitcoin, you know, whatever the currency is. And so you have to have a market.
Like nothing works without a market. So we could talk a bit about the creation of this kind of product, about how do you like find the right materials, you know, the right 3D printing technology. Could go down a whole path there. But I think Nalani is smart to think, you know, first of all, what is the market? You know, so, you know, you could reach out to experts, perhaps, you know, in the field of marine animal rescue, rehabilitation, marine biologists, veterinarians, perhaps, I'm not even sure.
You might talk to marine conservation organizations. But whoever you talk to, or however you do the research, the one fundamental thing you want to be focusing on is, is there a market? You know, who will buy this? And so, you know, if the question is for me, is there a market? My answer is, I don't know.
Like I don't, I'm not sure, you know, but I know enough at this point, since I've done so many episodes and heard so many stories and done books, like I know that there are all kinds of markets for all kinds of crazy things. So I don't want to just say like, no, it's not possible. You know, my inclination is it's kind of a tough sell. But, you know, I don't really know. So I would say the first step is to talk to lots of people.
So I appreciate the question, but you need to be asking this question of other people who have some actual expertise, you know, in this field. But again, not just talking to them about how to do it. You want to ask who's going to buy it? Like, where is the demand? And if there's not demand, you have to do something different.
You know, you have to find, you know, you have to ask yourself first, why am I doing this side hustle? Is it because it's a cause that I believe in? If so, there might be a better way to volunteer. Is it because you want to make money and nothing wrong with that whatsoever? You know, but if that's the answer, you might want to choose a different project.
So that's my two cents on that. Again, I always appreciate the creative ideas. Listeners, if you have a creative idea or just a regular idea or just a question in general, sidehustleschool.com/questions, we'll continue to feature them each week. We've got a new episode every single day. Of course, it's all completely free.
My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
