Q&A: “What's the best platform for my idea?”

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

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What's the best platform for my side hustle idea? And in fact, do you start with your idea, if you've got a bunch of ideas or you settle on one idea, let's say, do you go out and say, okay, I've got the idea, what is the best platform? Or perhaps do you kind of go the other direction and say, I've got a platform in mind. I really like TikTok, for example. I really like LinkedIn, or it could be like a medium.

I really like podcasting. What is the best podcast I can create? Like which approach do you take? And honestly, both approaches have merit. And so we've seen plenty of case studies that go one way or the other.

Today's caller is trying to figure this out. They wanna remain platform agnostic. And they're like, I wanna focus on my idea and not think so much about the platform. Should I start with business fundamentals? What do you think about that?

And it's a helpful way of thinking when you're trying to figure out, okay, what is the best next thing for me to do? There's all kinds of things I could do. How do I make this choice? How do I not just be swayed by all the different content and data and information that's coming my way each day when I think, oh, I should be doing this. I should be doing that.

Really, you wanna be strategic or at least a little bit intentional about thinking through. How do you spend your time? Which side hustle ideas are you able to move forward with? So let's hear from this caller. As I said, I think this can be helpful to lots of folks.

Teach out a question and my answer coming right up. [Music]

Hi, Chris, this is Ray. And I've been following the show for a couple of years. Is there such a thing as being platform agnostic? I think a lot of people get their ideas for a business by looking at Instagram or TikTok or some other app, then developing a version of whatever seems to be working.

From what I can tell, this is especially true in the beauty of makeup category, which is what I'm interested in. But might it be better to not have a platform in mind at first and instead start with business fundamentals like customer avatar and my unique offer? What do you think? Thanks. [Music]

Thank you for the question.

You can absolutely be platform agnostic. And as I said, people go either way, but I actually think is often better to have that mindset, your mindset, because platforms and networks come and go. So much more important to think about the actual business model, those fundamentals that you mentioned. The only reason you wouldn't be platform agnostic is if your idea was specifically developed with a certain medium or network or platform in mind. And some people do that.

And as I said, it's fine. But otherwise you need to be aware of the general vibe and style of any network you participate in, but you certainly don't need to modify everything for that. And then as for this category, the beauty and makeup category, well, that is a visual category, but it also relies on warmth and personal connection. That's why YouTube and TikTok influencers in that category tend to do particularly well. It's not only the visuals, it's the connection that they're making with viewers, followers, subscribers, et cetera.

Now there are beauty podcasts and blogs as well, some of which are successful, but it's probably most important or most appropriate, let's say, to think about who your potential customers are, how you can best communicate with them, and then make any decisions about where to publish based off of that information. So you absolutely can do it either way, but I tend to think it's better to follow where you're leaning and focus on the business idea, those fundamentals, and then think about the platform. Listeners, let us know how it's going with you. Are you having success? Are you having challenges?

What's good? What's challenging? What's difficult? sidehustleschool.com, let me know. Of course, you can access resources and notes pages for every episode, everyone we've ever published, more than 3,000 in total.

And of course, new episodes drop every day, seven days a week. I want this to be helpful and actionable to you. Let me know how we're doing, how we can improve. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to Side Hustle School.

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