2007 Early days of selfies. Success, Saskatchewan.
As I mentioned in our last post, New Year, New Start, there are many that believe if you are a true entrepreneur that you can’t have a day job and work for ‘the man’.
The Man is the head of “the establishment” put in place to “bring us down.” Though nobody has physically seen “the man,” he is assumed to be a male caucasian between the ages of 25-40 and is rumored to have a substantial amount of acquired wealth, presumably acquired by exploiting those whom his “establishment” is “keeping down.”
Robert Kiyosaki shares Seven ways to start a business without quitting your day job. His first point is interesting: Focus on a product, not a service. His point is simple: If you run a business based on a service – which requires your time, all you have accomplished is owning a ‘job’.
A lot of employees’ first thought is to take the skills they use in the business world and to offer them as a consultant – in short, to build a service business. The problem with a service business, especially if it’s on the side, is that you don’t own a business-you simply own a job. Services are a tough business because you have to sell your time. If you’re not working, you’re not making money. And when you work full-time, pulling long freelance hours is a surefire way to burn out.
Rather than sell services, figure out a way to create a product. If it’s consulting, put together a course that you can sell. Or if you’re a writer, create books that you can sell. Many writers sell their books on Amazon as e-books for $1 a copy and generate income even while they’re sleeping.
The trick is to look at what services you can provide and find the product angle. If you can do that, you’ll be making money even when you’re not working. That’s a true side hustle.
So what if you are a designer, an accountant, or an artist looking to find clients outside of day job?
I fully agree with Robert’s sentiment. Personally, I will be building toward being the strategist and general contractor and have a team of experts do the tactical work. I will write about this topic in the future, but, I truly believe it is best to focus our time and attention on what we do best rather that trying to become skilled at everything.
With that said, there are many people that want to be a small contractor and supplement their income. There are many others that will be small business owners in the future and currently have ideas in development.
Either way, whether you were the kid in school to sell kids their lunches back, or you love that you have steady income while you build you business, The Farmers Report (Farmers Marketing’s blog) will be a great resource for your to learn and discuss the process of building a business in the digital world.