I've been struggling to start a side-hustle/business. I'm trying something new.
For the past 6 or 7 years I've been wanting to launch a side hustle or a business to increase my income. I've struggled a lot.
Here are the main reasons why I struggled (and still do);
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I have a demanding day job, 2 young kids (one of 7 and the other 2 and a half. They stay up late and are pretty hard to get to bed).
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This leaves me with little time and energy to work on a building something.
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I halso have a lot of difficulties posting stuff about myself on social media. I'm ok with giving my opinions/answering to people, but have a really hard time to bring the spotlight on myself/posting stuff.
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I have a hard time having discussions in real life as well. Not that I'm antisocial or whatever, but I might have a bit of social anxiety. Not enough to make me a dysfunctionnal human, but still.
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I feel like I don't have business ideas that motivate me enough to get going or that I feel that they have enough potential to be worthwhile.
So here's what I am trying:
When Chris Guillebeau's book (Side Hustle, From Idea to income in 27 days) launched in 2018, I read through it while on the bus, commuting to work, but I didn't really do the exercices.
I've decided to go through this book again (I love the approach in it). I will limit what I do to 1 exercice a day. I will do it daily. And hopefully will have some income with it in 27 days.
I did day 1 today. It felt good. I'm looking forward to do day 2 tomorrow.
Nice! Keep up the momentum!
Thanks!
I have done the first 5 days in the book. Still need to work on day 5 exercise tho as I don't think I have anything that will be viable/a winner yet.
But I have done 1 day per day. Without skipping. Even when motivation wasn't there.
Small victories.
Yay!
New day! Tell me you hit it again?
Yes I did! And I'm starting to have ideas for a project. Not sure about monetization tho, but it's something I'm looking to build for fun/learning and getting used to build in the open.
Great!
I'll see you tomorrow ;)
@mattgale Hey! You didn't show up! :P
Oh no! I missed our special time!
I hope you carried on yesterday AND today even without me!
How is it going?
Yes, I did. I didn't do as much progress as I had hoped due to other commitments. But I showed up, worked a bit on the exercices in the book.
I also started writing a post about SEO that has been asked by the IH moderators. Will probably finish it tonight.
You, how is it going? What are you working on?
AH! couldnt reply to the last message from you.
Hows it going? KEEP IT GOING BABY
It's going well. I was off work yesterday.
Tried to work on my project during the afternoon but wasn't able to. But I feel like this is a great thing because it was not my usual "project" hours. It confirms the power of habit. Getting into personal project mode once kids are asleep.
We had friends over in the evening so I though I wouldn't be able to work during my normal time.
But I managed to work once they were gone. Definetly, evening are my hours for project work.
No skip since I started yet.
Yesterday I worked on the origin story for my project. I have a good idea about what I'm going to build. Will probably share it in the coming week.
I don't expect to make bank on it. But, getting used to:
Will definitely be helpful for future projects and ideas.
No zero days! Even a little bit of work is still momentum. Good work!
I've been doing mainly idea generation right now. Im doing freelance work and consulting while I figure out something to work on that has demand.
I was chatting with my podcast cohost and he mentioned maybe I should start a podcast focused on interviewing developers about their problems and I think thats a really intriguing idea, so Im going to do some thinking into what format/length/topics to cover.
Keep me posted. I'm curious as to what you'll come up with.
I think I can relate to this in some ways. I have a similar hard time in these social ways. And job is enough to drain me of energy.
I think my problem is this: all my concerns and problems are dev related rather than some other kind of problem I could see myself applying dev solutions to. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to help others or start something outside of my comfort zone, but I think all my "business ideas" are dev ideas instead, and possibly things only I would be interested in.
I can definitely relate. I'm a passionate developper. In my day job I advocate for new tech, coach and mentor junior devs.
I have a few ideas, but nothing that I feel worth pursuing and motivation falls through pretty quick when I start a project.
I understand business well. My girlfriend runs a small business and has for the past 4-5 years. I help her a lot when it comes to marketing and market positionning or give her ideas on pricing/promotions.
So I know see the kind of struggles she goes through. However, I don't have any idea of something I could do that would solve those. I guess it might be more a kind of "feelings" than actual problems with a solution.
Another thing I did was to join this community and commenting on loads of stuff! Just trying to help.
Props on taking the first step!
I also have social anxiety and know the mental warfare that goes with it.
If I had one suggestion, it’d be to talk to the people you want to serve.
My first side hustle turned into my full time hustle after 3.5 years.
I began a career in education 3 years after that (and two kids later) and have struggled to find conviction on another idea (even after having success building audiences) similar to you until this week when I asked a friend in a niche I have a lot of experience in what he needed help with.
We had a follow up convo, I laid out a package, built a website and boom - he signed on as my first productized customer at $250/mo.
Pushing through the discomfort was hard but it appears to be paying off.
Thanks!
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