This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, side hustle school listeners, community, friends, people from all over the world. Thank you for being out there. Thank you for tuning in today, wherever you are in the world, whatever you're up to today. My name's Chris Guillebeau. I am your cheerleader.
I'm your side hustle cheerleader. I'm hoping that you can create extra income for yourself so you can do more of what's important to you. That's what a side hustle is about. It's not just a hobby. It's not just something you like to do.
Hopefully it is something you like to do, but it also makes money, okay? Now it's also true that money sometimes creates conflict, which is a little bit of what we're talking about here today. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where business and family can collide in an uncomfortable way? Well, that's what happened to Brenda in Georgia. She discovered her sister started a business very similar to an idea that she had.
In fact, Brenda was kind of gung-ho about this idea. And then all of a sudden, her sister is doing something very similar. Now I'll say right up front, the category is vintage clothes reselling, which Brenda doesn't own that, right? There could be more than one person doing that. There are lots of people doing that.
Still, it is kind of weird when you're excited about something and you tell your family and then they go and do the same thing. So what do we do in this situation? What's my advice for Brenda? Let me see if I can come up with something that's helpful and not just to her, but hopefully to somebody else by proxy. That's what it's all about here.
We are a community of people trying to advance our interests and make the world a better place at the same time. My sister stole my side hustle. My sister's not making the world a better place. Well, maybe that's a little judgmental. Just hold on.
Let's see what we can do. Let's see what I can say right after the quick break. [Music]
Hi, this is Brenda calling from Atlanta. I had this brilliant idea of selling vintage clothes online, which I shared with my sister. Next thing I knew, she has set up her own online store selling, you guessed it, vintage clothes.
What do I do in a situation like this? This has caused tension between us and I'm not sure how to navigate the situation without causing a family rift. [Music]
Brenda, my condolences. Who knows, maybe your sister also listens to the podcast, in which case you can have an interesting family conversation. But whatever the situation is, no doubt this intersection between family and business can sometimes be uncomfortable or at least sensitive.
So the feelings of tension, they're understandable, especially when it comes to an idea that you were passionate about. Now, as I said in the introduction, selling vintage clothes isn't something that anyone's gonna own as a market, strictly speaking for themselves. So I think ultimately what you can do is discuss this situation candidly with your sister. Obviously it bothers you, it bothers you so much that you leave a message about it and you've been thinking about it for a long time. So try to understand her perspective as well, express how her actions made you feel and see if there's some room for collaboration or at least just kind of improving the relationship.
And business wise, 'cause I'm probably a better business coach than I am a relationship coach, but business wise, consider what sets your approach apart. What are you gonna do differently? What is your unique selling proposition if we wanna kind of get high and lofty about it? And if we don't, we can just say, do you have a particular aesthetic? What kind of clothes do you want to specialize in?
So I think going forward, assuming you're not gonna collaborate, maybe you just don't talk a lot about your business. You don't necessarily share exactly what you're doing because you don't have to, right? It's okay for you to keep something for yourself and not share everything, even with people who are close to us. Sometimes it's okay to just kind of reserve something for yourself, at least that's what I think. Mostly communication, differentiation, and deciding for yourself what you wanna share, that's kind of the way forward.
I'm sorry, you probably can't sue your sister. I don't think you probably want to, but just to mention that it's more important to improve the relationship and also move forward with your ideas, okay? Don't let this be so discouraging that you stop selling vintage clothes or you stop side hustling. Best of luck to you, move forward positively. And of course, we've got more episodes coming out every single day.
It's always free. Listeners, thank you for being out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
