This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Weekend Workshop time. Today we're gonna talk about asking people for help. How do you build a support network of people who can help you in specific ways? And that's a big part of the process, asking for specific help. This segment, Weekend Workshop, it's all about helping you learn the key steps to a new side hustle in 2025, one step or concept per week.
We are using the book, Side Hustle, from idea to income in 27 days as our text. It's available wherever books are sold. And basically, I'm kind of taking you through the key steps along with listener stories and some examples, well, throughout the year. Today's episode comes from day 19 of the book, which is all about building that support network. And we're gonna focus on this concept of asking 10 people for help, 10 people.
Yeah, that's a lot of people, but you can get a lot of things if you ask the right people for the right things. So our learning objective is to learn why and how to recruit help for your business, your next side hustle idea, whatever it is, rather than trying to do everything alone. There's this whole myth of the solo entrepreneur who's like working alone in their garage. And it really is just that. It's like a myth because ultimately, every successful business relies on help from others, whether formal or informal.
And so the sooner you can build a network of people to talk with about things and check in and indeed ask for help, the better your chances of success. So when I wrote the book "Side Hustle" a number of years ago, I told the story of Brianna Faith. Brianna was 16 at the time. She's a good bit older now. I think she's in her young 20s living in Canada.
She turned her love of bold makeup into a thriving side hustle. In fact, it was a whole business. And while she could have tried to launch entirely on her own, she took a different approach. Through her mentor, she secured free retail space for a holiday pop-up shop. This pop-up shop brought in over $7,000 in profit.
There were local business leaders who taught her how to run a point of sale system and manage inventory. She had her friends from school help staff the shop. And as I said, she brought in $7,000 in profit, not just sales, but profit in that holiday season. Pretty cool, pretty amazing outcome for a 16-year-old in particular. And even though Brianna is quite resourceful, none of that would have happened.
At least it wouldn't have been nearly as impactful if she had tried to do everything on her own. So one of the smartest decisions she made was to ask for help. And let's break it down more specifically. Your business, your side hustle, likely needs four types of support. Now, first type is mentorship.
And I just use that word loosely. Longtime listeners know I don't always love the idea of having a mentor who's guiding you on everything. Like you can figure out a lot of stuff on your own. So let's just use that word loosely. But basically someone who can offer specific guidance based on experience.
Number two, supporters who can provide encouragement and help spread the word. Connectors who can introduce you to potential customers. That's the third type. And then subject matter experts, number four, who can help with specific challenges, okay? And I'm using that word specific a lot.
The key is being specific when asking for help. So don't just go to somebody and say, "Hey, can you help with my business?" Instead, you wanna make some clear focused requests that are easy for people to say yes to. So in that story about Brianna, she asked her friends to help staff the shop. She asked people specifically how to run a point of sale system. She asked for help getting retail space for her holiday pop-up and so on.
So let's take a quick break when we return. How can you make the ask? What should you ask for? And how do you do it? Coming up right after this quick break.
[Music]
So a core lesson of this whole concept. Maybe I should have led with this, but you're listening now still, so that's great. Most people are happy to help. Most people are happy to help if you make it easy for them to do so. In fact, helping people can be really enjoyable.
If you think about a time when someone has asked you for something that you could easily provide and it makes their life better, you usually go away feeling better yourself. So the trick is being clear about what you need while respecting people's time and expertise. So start by identifying 10 people who could help your business grow. And if this feels intimidating, you could start with five. But just think about as many people as you can.
And for each person, determine what specific help they could provide, why they might be motivated to help, and how you can make it easy for them to assist. And then you wanna craft your request carefully. Like a good ask, as mentioned, is specific and clear. It also explains why you chose them. It makes it easy to say yes or no, like give them an out.
And it shows appreciation for their time. So we use those examples of what Brianna needed for her business. What is it that you might need? Maybe you need some tech help. Maybe you need some help setting up a website.
Maybe you need some help with e-commerce or figuring out fulfillment by Amazon or drop shipping or something else. Write down those names, as many as you can think of, up to 10, and those specific ways each person could help. Draft a short message to each one, being careful to make each request individual and meaningful. This is your action exercise. And then don't be afraid to reach out.
As I said, you're gonna give them an easy out. You're gonna give them the chance to say no. Hey, no worries if you can't, no problem. Just thought I would ask because you're really good at this, because I respect your opinion, because you have been successful with this. If you frame your language in a way that creates win-win solutions or easy off-ramps, as I said, people are just more likely to help.
So building a support network is not at all about using people or taking people for granted. It's actually about creating mutually beneficial relationships that help everyone succeed. And remember, people want you to succeed. They want you to win, all right? Gonna leave you with that today.
Ask 10 people for help, or at least ask as many as you can, up to 10. And as always, like I say in this segment each week, it's better to have a simple idea you can start right away than a brilliant idea that never launches. I hope that you're gonna launch a new idea this year. If you have not already, I hope that this is the year that you take bold action. I would love to support you all along the way.
So I make this show for you every day. Short action packed, of course, new episode out tomorrow. Follow or subscribe wherever you listen. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
