A side hustle is not an involution of high and low skills, but a stable customer demand.

Source: Zhizhong

I've seen quite a few videos like this:

As an ordinary person with a low income, how did I discover these treasures side hustles, and then started freelancing, after a little effort, I realized the counterattack of Dick Si, earning tens of thousands of dollars a month.

Then, he posted a screenshot of his income to tell you how fragrant these side hustle projects are. The next step is to recommend his treasure side hustle to you.

These videos follow this structure:

Description of personal status: low starting point, bitter process, good results

Description of the project situation: low cost, good profit, quick start

Description of target users: low income, debt turnover, and Dick Silk counterattack

It is not difficult to see that these keywords can be described as deadly moves, accurate hits, and every word has penetrated deeply into the hearts of side hustles.

I was very curious for a while, so I went to check according to the side business channels they said, and found that most of them were actually big pits.

It's not the so-called development downline, or it helps some unscrupulous merchants to cheat and register, and it is very conscientious to let you pay to learn some low-cost courses or something.

But, there's no denying that side hustle anxiety has always existed.

The birth of Chatgpt has accelerated the wave of AI globalization, and even the bosses of major domestic enterprises are thinking about how to kill more labor costs and reduce costs and increase efficiency every day.

In the downward cycle, let alone promotions and salary increases, ordinary people will have to put a question mark on whether they can keep their jobs.

The job bowl of the main business is unstable, and the income may drop sharply at any time. In the face of such uncertainty, the side hustle has naturally become the white moonlight in many people's hearts.

Every day, I watch different versions of the stories of "giving up a million annual salary to start a business" and "you have to quietly learn xx, and then amaze everyone". Today, I will search for side hustles, it seems that it is all opportunities, there is no risk, think about it carefully, it is terrible.

Today, I'd like to talk to you about some thoughts on "side hustles".

01

Think about this question first: Is the extra income-generating job you do part-time or a side hustle?

Handing out flyers, delivering takeaways, opening Didi, doing odd jobs, etc., this kind of work is basically watching the sky and eating, and there is no match, this kind of work is part-time.

The other is a job that is related to one's professional skills or hobbies and requires long-term management, which is a side hustle.

The most essential difference between part-time jobs and side hustles is accumulation.

The value output of part-time jobs belongs to the boss, and in essence, he is still in the category of part-time work. Nothing but remuneration for labor.

And the side hustle is not only to make money at the moment, but also to accumulate advantages for yourself and enhance your competitiveness in the long run.

So can ordinary people do a side hustle?

Share a set of data from the "Titanium Media 2023 Youth Side Hustle Report":

3% of the sideline income is less than 1,000 yuan;

2% of the people with a side income of 1000-3000 yuan;

Only 12.6% of young people earn more than 10,000 yuan a month from side jobs;

There are also 15.4% of young people who do not earn money through side hustles.

According to the data of the report, a considerable number of side businesses can earn more than 10,000 yuan a month, and the income of the main business is basically more than 30,000 yuan.

It can be said that if the main business is not good, the side business is actually difficult to do well.

Maybe you will say that whoever is close to you has made money by doing side hustles, and now they have a monthly income of tens of thousands and have started freelancing.

As someone who has been before, I can tell you that such people do exist, but there are only a handful of people who can achieve such a state.

Saying all this is not to dissuade you from doing a side hustle, but to hope that you have an objective understanding of the side hustle: a side hustle is not as simple as those bloggers say.

"Do xx in your spare time, and easily earn 20,000 yuan a month!"

"You can get it with a mobile phone, 0 basic threshold, and novices can also earn it!"

I advise you not to have such fantasies.

Strip away the illusions, and only by understanding the side hustle from an objective point of view, you can possibly do a good job of the side hustle.

So, what are some of the things you need to know before starting a side hustle?

02

The types of side hustles can be said to be diverse and complex.

Self-media, e-commerce/purchasing agent/micro-business, stalls/offline stores, online writers/part-time writers, video editing/dubbing, fund stock investment, tutoring/training, designers/illustrators, companion services, photographers, etc., such as playing/accompaniment/shopping companions, photographers......

If we take a closer look, you'll see that most of them have professional skills required.

At this point, you have to ask, what if I don't know these professional skills?

In fact, in addition to the sale of professional skills, there are several types:

1. Distribution/Agency

There are a variety of products/courses that can be distributed on many platforms, and with the maturity of the operating mechanism, you don't even need to prepare the copywriting and picture materials yourself, you just need to copy and paste them brainlessly. If you have the expertise yourself, you may even have the opportunity to turn it into a small business.

2. Earn money from the platform/brand

For example, the early Toutiao's Qingyun Plan, or Zhihu's solicitation activities, as well as related activities promoted by various platforms, such as Genshin Impact anchors distributing incentives according to the number of broadcasts, live broadcast duration, and the number of online users, etc., also belong to this category.

3. Resource integrators

You will see that many people in the circle of friends are doing things about resource integration, which is simply to pull the supply and demand sides together for cooperation, and to put it bluntly, it is to pull the group. You can then charge a membership fee or a matchmaking fee.

03

Once you know the types of side hustles, how do you find the source?

Almost no of the people I know come from the so-called "100 side hustle channels".

Generally speaking, the source of their side hustle is to accumulate a good reputation through their own work, and they usually have external output, and then they will think of him as soon as others have needs. Through one or two scattered cooperation, it is confirmed that the other party has the corresponding ability to solve a certain type of problem, so a relatively stable cooperative relationship is formed. This is the first source of side hustles.

Another source is that you buy a product/service from a certain blogger/brand, and the other party is in an expansion stage, so there will be a demand for distribution/agency, and at this time, through cooperation with them, the development of a side business can be realized. For example, many friends who do training camps may be a teacher's teaching assistant or class teacher at the beginning.

In addition to the above two sources, there is also the opportunity to see something, take the initiative to collect relevant information for disassembly, and finally try it out little by little.

A reliable experience is that we don't need to listen to the 100 side hustle channels recommended by those side bloggers, just look at what the bloggers themselves are doing.

For example, some bloggers will share with you some of the tools or websites they use, in fact, they may not actually use them for a long time, and it is more likely that they are helping these tools/websites to promote.

04

Once the source is locked, how does it proceed?

A heart-piercing truth: most people don't need to learn to make IP, nor do they need any skills to monetize, just two words: willing to sell/dare to sell

So the first step is to tell you what you clearly want to sell, and if you encounter a real demand, you can basically sell it, it's just a matter of how much. The first level is often the courage level.

When you sell, you will find that it is not as difficult as you think, and all that remains is to clarify the corresponding needs.

The next step is to find people who also have this need, which is your target audience.

A fact that I don't want to admit: the key to a side hustle is not the involution of professional skills, but the stable customer demand. The second level is to sell to the right person.

Is there a third or fourth?

No, that's all. To put it mildly, it is to enforce it.

05

With a side hustle but not making much money, how can I thrive?

Doing a side hustle, making less money and investing less is already good. There is also a situation where you spend 10 times as much time to earn a tenth of the money in your main business.

So, if it's not cumulative, then I'd suggest not doing it.

Therefore, here I am talking about the kind of side hustle with a long investment cycle but strong accumulation, such as self-media.

The development of this kind of side hustle is a process that needs to be raised, which is equivalent to a cultivation game, and once it is cultivated, it will bring you rich returns.

Looking back on my own journey, I can see as follows:

Try to distribute (measure feasibility) - output content in the circle of friends (trigger recognition and demand identification) - try to do some activities and interactions (wash out target users) - plan content out of the circle (content leverage) - continue to output theoretical and practical cases (solve trust) - enterprise cooperation > C-end monetization (try) - determine your main way to make money (clear model)

This cycle is calculated on an annual basis, so don't quit your side hustle until you don't generate enough income.

In the process of doing it, I have summarized the following experiences:

An objective fact:

The explosive growth of self-media requires luck, and it is more likely to rely on long-term potential energy accumulation and continuous promotion.

A basic premise:

Whose money do you want to make, what value do you sell, and whether you can continue to get benefits (continuous repurchases, high enough customer unit value, continuous realizable traffic, platform subsidies)

A piece of experience:

Many people may think that the early stage is to rely on the output of a large amount of content to gain fans, but this is the thinking of creators rather than business people, and if you want to monetize, you must take monetization as the first priority. You need to verify the logic first.

In the whole process, many people think that as long as I have a lot of content, I can continue to gain followers, and then directly monetize from fans.

But what needs to be emphasized here is that you are looking for fans who are willing to pay, and at the same time, the content you make must be billable content (you need to know where the value point of your own payment is, otherwise it is just a data pile and there is no use).

You need to know roughly how large the group you can cover and whether you can support yourself. If you haven't reached this point, you need to keep working until you're old enough to talk about freelancing.

If you are still unknown at the moment, but your own strength is enough, what you need to do is to find leverage first, plan popular content to get out of the circle, and after gaining a large number of fans, maintain it first, continue to wash out the target fans through testing, try to monetize in a small area, try to amplify, and try to copy.

A Necessary Mindset:

Self-media is a matter of hard work but there is a high probability of no return, it is not the norm, it has become a business that relies on luck, accumulation, and various relationships, so it needs to be really treated with a normal heart, otherwise people are easy to collapse.

Remember, a side hustle is made by "raising".

06

What advice do you have for someone who wants to turn a side hustle into a freelancer?

First of all, let me talk about a situation where people can't resist trying to try freelancing.

These people usually have accumulated several years of work experience, may be in management positions, and they are also people who have a certain success in the company's business.

They think they have so much knowledge that they want to see if they can build an "income system". Such a person, if he doesn't try, he will regret it, so he wants to try it whenever he has the opportunity.

Freelancing may indeed have a monthly income of tens of thousands, but it is extremely unstable, maybe I earn 20,000 a month this month, and it may be 1000-2000 next month, this is a regular thing. Unlike when you were working, the money arrived on time every month, and then your expectations were very stable, and you could plan the use of funds in a stable situation.

As a result, freelancing is not something that everyone can afford, as uncertainty and risk are difficult to manage.

On the other hand, if I might make 30W from freelancing this year, I may not be able to earn more or less next year.

Because the current environment is extremely unstable, it is a great test of my ability to adapt. And if you work in a company, the promotion is clear, the salary increase is clear, and basically the salary increase of 5% is still relatively certain for another year. With the passage of time, there is a lot of room for the compound interest of "5%" per year for part-time jobs. Freelancing, on the other hand, is not necessarily so certain, it can be positive or negative.

Of course, I can't use too extreme examples, but basically you can see that there are very few good things that are done, and the proportion of salary increases through part-time jobs is much larger.

If you can't hold it back, I would suggest setting a timeline for yourself, stop at the end of the day, and look for a job.

For example, after resigning, I give myself 2 months, and I first make a closed income loop. Don't blindly continue after the final verification, but go to work first, gradually iterate the closed loop little by little, until it can be sustained and scaled up, and then consider doing it full-time.