So you have an itching side-project idea but struggling to justify if you should work on it. Here is a comprehensive guide I’ve put together to help decide if you should green-light that idea.
You can download the printable checklist here or read them all below. At the end you’ll have a much better understanding of what it will take to execute your idea.
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1. How passionate are you about the side‐project subject?
- Rate from 1‐10. 8 or above is Green. Go. Now.
- Will I have a ton of fun building it?
2. Why exactly are you building this side‐project?
- To get known as a Maker?
- To make more money?
- To quit my job now?
- To grow a business and hire people?
- To solve my own problem/need?
- To learn a new skill?
- To potentially help my existing projects?
- To form a contingency plan for my current project?
- To build something of value that can help people?
3. Will you use your own side‐project?
4. Opportunity costs?
- Why don't I improve my existing projects with this time?
- Am I procrastinating on a bigger, more important project?
- Have I considering ridding of a side‐project I am less passionate about, to make space for this new one?
5. Will your side‐project solve a real problem?
- Does my idea solve an easy or difficult problem?
- Have I researched if there are already solutions to my problem?
- Are there still pain‐points in the industry?
- How light can I test and validate that my idea is actually solving a problem?
- Are people willing to pay for my product or service?
6. Is the side‐project market progressive?
- Will my idea be relevant in 1,2,3,5,10 years?
- What does my gut say?
- Have I spent an hour in Google Trends?
7. Competition
- No competition = bad.
- Ton of competition = ok.
- Ton of competition but not much within my niche = good. Can I target a niche within the broader industry?
- Do I know how big this industry is?
- How big are the social media followings of my competitors?
8. Are you able to build everything?
- Do I have time to build this side‐project while you are working on your main project or day job?
- How much do I need to outsourcing?
- Do I have savings to outsource?
- Without outsourcing, can I launch at lighter version of this side‐project idea to validate outsourcing?
9. Who is creating content and how often?
- Am I building a community?
- Am I building a standalone tool?
- Does my side‐project promise timely content?
- Does my side‐project need moderation?
- Can I walk away from the idea for a day, week, month, year?
10. Are you fit for the hustle?
- Am I mentally strong enough for the inevitable dip?
- Am I in it for the short or long game?
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If you found this useful please pass it on to a friend. It’s all about being realistic with our expectations and promises on side-projects. If you don’t steer too far from your passion, you’ll be just fine!
All the best,
Rob
@robhope
In your opinion, is there an ideal time after which you launch the project that one should have the ability to "... walk away from the idea for a day, week, month, year"?
Great question Ryan! I personally think it boils down to the lifestyle you want to design. My me, working on One Page Love every day is an absolute pleasure. I get to interact with people all over the world launching new things. When I don't work on it for a few days I feel the urge to go back.
But let's throw in vacation, illness, low motivation periods - I think having a side-project where you can walk away for the above timelines is a smart place to aim.
I'll need to throw in here, if your plan is to build an empire from your side-project, you'll need to hire and replace yourself ASAP as things heat up. This is another convo all together:)
I read through every line of this checklist and was blown away. Great work, Rob. I liked it so much I added it to the home page and startup section of Checkli so anyone can download, copy or share it for free. Of course i added your name and link :)
Your checklist: http://checkli.com/s/5bf4c00ecda71
(I'm not trying to get a back link. I just loved this post.)
No worries about the promo - neat service you have there Marvin! And thanks for the kind words - I genuinely need guidance when brainstorming ideas. It's a dangerous phase where you can sit for ages instead of moving in. I need this guide to speed up that phase.
Been there. That's why i liked the post so much. Thanks again.
🙏
Thanks for sharing. Helpful to me and others!
My pleasure Steve - crazy to think this is almost 10yrs of side-projects to make this list. I actually left out a bit about potential running costs, but not actually a big factor for the types of projects I've personal built.
This is really helpful, Thank you so much for sharing.
My pleasure, I'm hoping to share more content like this. An upcoming article/video I'm doing is "How to get that taken domain name" with about 3 real experiences I've had.
That's awesome! It would help a lot to many peoples. Thanks for this work! 🙌
Cheers Igor! I often find myself slamming my head against the wall - brainstorming with myself - struggling to validate. So created this sort of as a framework for me to eliminiate bad ideas:)
If you add some priority values to every question in your list, you can quickly develop a kind of idea validation service and charge some money for this survey 😁
Ha, not a bad idea, but Email Love is my next project ha;)
That would be a great followup to that very useful article 👍🏽
I'll put aside the fact that I'm such a big fan of Rob's work and just say that I wish I had this list when I started doing side-projects in 2008.
How passionate are you about the side‐project subject?is a harsh but fair step. I've quickly rated two of my sidies already at 5/10 or less.Keep up the good work Rob.
Thanks man - always appreciate it. Yeah 5 is tricky. As I'm sure you have a few 7s in your idea book... and at the end of the day with 10 spare hours a week working on a 5 or less just isn't worth it.
A fall back to passion is simply will you use it. Example: your Thought Train app may not have been a passion project but solving a solid problem you were having. Classic Green-Light!
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.
Cheers Alex - glad it was helpful:)