This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
The business challenges of helping smokers switch to vaping. This is a really interesting question to look at, interesting little case study. Come to you in the form of a failure Friday segment. This is something we do every Friday. A story of something that doesn't work very well or a challenge that a side hustler encounters.
Sometimes a really big challenge, a mistake, a misstep, a disaster, and what do they do about it? How do they navigate this experience? How do they transition from the reality of expectations being unmet or otherwise encountering something difficult as noted? So you get to hear directly from a side hustler who has struggled in this way. Today's short story features Chris from Palo Alto, California.
He is a tech employee and has what is pretty noble effort. Just to be clear, I don't think vaping is great, but transitioning from smoking cigarettes to smokeless tobacco. Smokeless tobacco is at least better in some ways. So he wants to help people do that. And sometimes that can actually be a transition to quitting smoking entirely, et cetera, et cetera.
But it's hard to do it as a business. So it's hard to kind of educate your customers. It is hard to convince people to pay you for this information or this coaching, whatever it might be. Chris will explain it a little bit more of the other Chris. So in the end, it turns out maybe a different business might be better.
It's more of a mission, perhaps, than a business idea. But let's hear the story from Chris. I'll have a few words at the end to wrap us up. [Music]
Hi, I'm Chris. A few years ago while working in tech, I decided to start a side business aimed at helping smokers transition to vaping and other smokeless tobacco alternatives.
With vaping on the rise, I thought that there was a real opportunity to help people quit smoking traditional cigarettes and in the process build a successful business. But things didn't go exactly as I hoped. The idea seemed like a win-win. It'd create personalized plans, offer support, and sell products that could make the transition from smoking easier for people. I was excited to combine my tech background with a passion for helping people live healthier lives.
I built a sleek website, set up online ads, and began promoting the business on social media. That's how the formula works, right? But right from the start, I hit a major roadblock. People just weren't interested in paying for this service. I got some inquiries, but when it came time to actually close a sale, almost everyone backed out.
They were intrigued by the idea, but not enough to part with their money. What I quickly realized was that my potential clients didn't see the value in what I was offering. They needed to be educated and convinced that my services were worth paying for. And that turned out to be much harder than I expected. Most smokers I spoke to were either skeptical of vaping or didn't see the need for a structured program to help them make the switch.
Some had already tried vaping on their own and didn't feel they needed help while others were simply resistant to change. I found myself in endless conversations trying to explain the benefits of vaping over smoking and why a guided transition could make a difference. But these discussions often ended with, I'll think about it, or I'm not sure this is for me. The challenge wasn't just about selling a product, it was about selling an idea, and that's a much tougher task. Another issue was that I underestimated how much time and effort it would take to educate potential clients.
I had planned to spend my time refining my services and expanding the business, but instead I was spending most of it trying to convince people that my services were necessary in the first place. And even when people understood the benefits, getting them to pay for something they perceived as unnecessary was an uphill battle. In the end, the business never gained the traction that I'd hoped for. After months of struggling to get clients, I had to face the fact that this wasn't working. I shut down the business, closed the site, and went back to focusing on my tech career.
This experience taught me an important lesson about understanding your market before diving in. Just because you believe in a product or service doesn't mean others will see the value right away, especially if it's something they're unfamiliar with or unsure about. Selling an idea is often harder than selling a product, and it requires a lot of groundwork in educating and convincing your target audience. While it was disappointing that the business didn't take off, it gave me insights into the importance of thoroughly testing and validating a concept before investing too much time and energy. I'm already applying this to my day job, and I hope that I'll be able to apply them to a new side business whenever the time is right.
Chris, thank you so much. Appreciate you sharing that story. I always love people who are open and honest, just kind of transparent about what doesn't work in their business or their side hustle ideas. Really helps all of us, because pretty much everybody has at least one story of something that hasn't worked out very well in their life, if not a side hustle. And we can learn from these experiences, both learn practically, what are some practical steps, how could we do better market testing, or maybe just kind of think through a business idea a little bit more coherently before beginning, but also just kind of the notion of like, okay, problem solving, what do we do when we get in a situation and we discover that our expectations are in fact likely going to be unmet.
And as I always say, or as I often say in these situations, never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. You can always get back on your feet and try something else. Thanks again to Chris. Thank you listeners. If you have a question or an update about your side hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions, this has been episode 2,834.
I'll be back with you tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
