Q&A: “What are the best renewable markets for a side hustle?”

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

What are the best renewable markets for a side hustle? This is a super smart question. I don't think we've ever covered it in more than 3,000 episodes of the podcast. Our renewable market is a continuously refreshing customer pool. Like you have a group of customers, they're perfect for your product or service, and then time moves on, maybe they age out, but there is a new customer pool waiting. So our caller today, he mentions high school graduates.

If your product or service targets high school graduates, well, you know that every year, there is going to be millions of those. So if you figure out how to reach those people, you've got an offer that converts, then you can just repeat that offer year after year, because you know that there's always going to be that customer base. What else might be like that? Like I said, this is a smart question to ask, because if you're trying to figure out what do I sell, it's so much easier if you can sell to a group of people that just kind of continues to crop up. So I'm going to give you some examples in my answer. I hope it's going to be helpful to

somebody out there. Welcome to Side Hustle School. It's Chris Guillebeau. Detailed question from our caller and my answer coming right up. Hey, this is Kevin calling from Orlando. I've been

listening to your show for a while and wanted to ask something a little different. I'm interested in finding a side hustle idea that taps into what I've been calling a renewable market, like high school graduates, where there's a fresh group of customers every year. I like the idea that even if you capture one batch, there's always another wave coming in. Are there other examples of markets like this where demand keeps renewing itself naturally? And how do you build a business around one without becoming too seasonal or starting over every time? There are lots of different ways to

come up with your first side hustle or your next one. You can think about the skills you have, the knowledge you have, maybe you already have an idea, maybe you think about something you want to do, but it's also okay to flip the whole process and think the way that Kevin is thinking here and ask, where is the best market? Where is a renewable market? As mentioned, it's valuable because the customer pool resets over time. So you're not just endlessly trying to sell to the same group, hoping they'll buy more. It can make for a really strong business. So let me give you a list of some

strong examples across categories. So first of all, and Kevin kind of led us here, life stage transitions. So he gave us the example of high school graduates, but you could also look at any part of the educational spectrum. You could say college freshmen or college seniors, college graduates, you know, those are different than high school graduates, newlyweds or engaged couples. You could also say newly divorced people as well. They have needs first time parents or new

grandparents, obviously very renewing recurring market and one with a lot of needs, a lot of income that tends to go toward paying for those kids, retirees entering a new lifestyle. So as I said, you look at a whole lifespan or stages of life and you can identify a number of cohorts. And that's great because you can sell products, services, experiences designed specifically for them. Okay, but what else could it be? Well, it's also annual events, annual events plus seasonal needs. So holiday shoppers, you know, people are shopping for holiday gifts. So there's a whole

enormous gift industry. Like a lot of businesses do the majority of their sales in November and then they're kind of quiet the rest of the year. Tax filers, people paying taxes. Well, they need accounting help or tax prep tools at a certain time of year. Some are vacation planners back to school shoppers. So these are kind of seasonal opportunities that also have recurring or renewing

markets. What else might there be? Let's try to give you a few others, professional or industry license holders. So we've talked about continuing education a number of times on the show, real estate agents or healthcare workers or anybody in any type of field that requires certification that are getting their licenses or taking tests, certifications, or they need continuing education CE. And then lastly, let's point out membership based communities. Think about groups where the

people cycle, but the need remains such as local sports leagues or youth teams. They need uniforms, they need equipment, they need coaching. There's always various needs, conference or event attendees, especially at the event draws new faces annually. So you can kind of see where I'm going here. I just gave you like 12 or more examples of renewing markets and these are valuable because they're not dependent on loyalty or repeat business. You can build a repeatable sales process and then run it

over and over with fresh prospects. So I definitely think that's a good way of thinking. If you don't already have an idea and you know what you're doing next, it can be worth thinking about one of these markets just because it can be so much easier from there. So I'll leave you with that today. I hope that's helpful. Listeners, let me know what's on your mind, sidehustleschool.com.

You can also download the complete archives of the show, more than 3000 episodes there or stream it or subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. Everything is always free. More to come. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.