This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
It's the ultimate chicken or egg problem. And it actually has nothing to do with chickens or eggs. That's just an analogy. But the problem is, how can you grow a business with no existing audience? How do you even start with no audience?
Well, fortunately there is an answer, actually several answers. I'm gonna try to keep it concise. Let's see if we can help a listener. We're gonna hear from Maya from Fargo, North Dakota. Maya has a flair for creating natural skincare products.
She wants to transition this passion into an online business. But she faces a common hurdle, starting from ground zero with no existing audience or customer base. Let's see what we can do to help her. She's looking for actionable steps to build this audience. Maybe somebody else out there also wants to get started.
And they're like, hey, I'm not a famous Instagrammer. I'm not an influencer. I don't have a big email list. How do I actually get going when I'm starting with no or little audience? Let's talk about it.
Detailed question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
I'm Maya from Fargo, North Dakota. I have a passion for creating natural skincare products and want to turn this into an online business. However, I'm starting with no audience or customer base. How do I build an audience from scratch and effectively market my homemade products?
I came across your podcast while searching for marketing strategies for startups. [Music]
Maya, I love the question. And when you say no audience, my first thought is everyone has some audience. Like no one is starting from zero. So yes, you may not have a customer base.
Yes, this may be a new niche or your first side hustle, but you still know people. And I always go back to my own experience of starting out. I didn't know anybody or I thought I didn't know anybody. Nobody certainly knew me, but I wrote to my graduate school friends, like people I went to school with when I started my blog and people I'd served with overseas. I was a volunteer in West Africa for several years.
So I wrote to all those people. I wrote to my family. My grandma joined my email list. So I kind of started with anybody that I knew and I asked people to share from there. And it just really built up over time.
Now it did take a while to be clear. So it's possible to accelerate that process, especially for e-commerce. So here Maya is trying to build a natural skincare product business. So there is a whole startup model of, okay, I'm gonna create this product, then I'm gonna start running ads and split testing and bringing in people over time and spending a bit of money. So money is a key word there.
That's not free, but there is a path to that. And of course, social media. You're starting with not a lot, but there are hashtags where you can go and post and follow those hashtags, see who else is posting. You can follow influencers, you can pitch people, nothing wrong with that. I mean, it may take time.
I think that's the key point. Are you trying to see success within the first 30 days? If so, then you're gonna have to choose the right kind of project because most projects will take time to build up. And I think the most meaningful ones take time to build up as opposed to just being a hit right out of the gate with no audience. But your passion for natural skincare or whatever your topic is, that can be a driving force.
And you will connect with people over time. Maya and everybody else out there who's starting new projects. Listen, I'm cheering you on. I know it's hard. I like to share lots of projects here and on my social media.
I'm always trying to promote other people. We're all in it together ultimately. And of course, here on the podcast, we'll continue to feature new projects from listeners throughout the year. But that's it for today. New episode tomorrow.
My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
