This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's listener is seeing slow growth after three months of side hustling. We're gonna hear today from a Boston area listener who started a consulting service and unfortunately it's not taking off in the way she hoped. So what do you do in this situation? How should she proceed? Should she just keep going?
Should she try harder? Should she try something different? All good options, of course, but how do you know what's best for you? Her name is Heather and she's facing this challenge that so many side hustlers can relate to. How do you keep the fire alive when your venture is growing more slowly than you'd hoped?
Let's talk about it. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. It's a daily podcast all designed to help you make extra money without quitting your job. I wanna say thank you to our sponsor and then we'll jump into Heather's question.
[Music]
Hey Chris, my name is Heather and I'm from Boston. I started a consulting service three months ago but the growth has been painfully slow. I'm beginning to lose motivation. How can I stay inspired to push through the tough times? The slow pace is affecting both my enthusiasm and my finances and I'd love to know what you think I should do and if I should try something different.
[Music]
Heather, thanks for reaching out. I totally get it, keeping your spirits up when progress is slow can be tough, okay? So first of all, what do we do here? First, remind yourself, the three month mark is still kind of early in the lifespan of most businesses, especially something like consulting that is reliant on building relationships and trust. There are some businesses you can start and see results one way or another in a very, very short period of time and those business models work for some people and not others but for something like consulting, it does take some time, so keep that in mind.
Second, maybe evaluate specifically what is not working. Do you have difficulty having client conversations like with potential clients, is it a sales issue? Have you got any clients that have left? Are you really clear about what your offer is? Are the services priced too high or too low?
It could be a lot of different things. So let's spend some time really looking at what's working and what's not, all right? And then of course, you always wanna ask yourself, like, am I happy doing this? I think that's actually just so important because in life, you could do a lot of different things and we do want to be effective. We do want to kind of do something that has momentum and achieves a good return, like I want you to be able to make money and have a sustainable income.
But ultimately, we have to be happy or at least we should be, I believe. I believe it's so important to do things that bring us joy and bring us good energy as opposed to negative energy. So if you're happy doing this and it's not working, let's see what we can do differently. If on the other hand, you've realized in doing this, like trying to be a consultant that this is actually not the right side hustle for you, then I would say, let's do something different. Don't worry about the three months.
The three months were a time investment in your next project or your next focus. So that's kind of what it comes down to. If you wanna try different things, set some small achievable goals, do some webinars, see if there's other conversations you can have, ask for some referrals, take a close look at your offer. And then alternatively, if it's like, I need something totally new and fresh, then it's like, what's the next thing? Let me just get away from what I've been doing and maybe consider what I did like about it and try to do that in a way that is more sustainable.
Those are my thoughts. Heather, thanks for asking the question. I know that you're speaking not only for yourself, but for lots of other listeners as well. So listeners, my hope for you is that you can find a way to have a sustainable income and do something you really enjoy. Like that is the whole purpose of Side Hustle School and we look at it in lots of different ways and iterations and variations, but ultimately I want you to be happy and I want you to be well in all parts of life.
All right, if you have a question, a comment, a suggestion, a story, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Much more to come, new episode every day, seven days a week, of course it's always free. And I thank you so much for being out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
