I speak at schools and businesses, teach online courses on emotional intelligence, lecture at the University of California, Irvine, do freelance business consulting, and sell the Mind Brain Emotion Card Game on my site and on Amazon. I earn $142,000 a month from Amazon Business alone.
When I talk to aspiring entrepreneurs about how to create a side hustle that best fits their schedule and lifestyle, I always tell them to avoid these three mistakes.
When I started my side hustle, I had Major Imposter Syndrome. To compensate for that deep-seated doubt, we spent a lot of time researching and developing flashy product features that we thought would wow people, like incorporating augmented reality components into our cards. But at the end of the day, this only confused users, created more work for me, and disrupted existing services.
I’ve launched 12 products and heard a lot of pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs, but my best advice is to resist the urge to overcomplicate things. This not only slows down the process, but also increases costs.
We learned that the key to success is not layering features, but understanding a brand’s core values.
So before you start a side hustle, ask yourself two important questions:
- What basic need does my product or service meet?
- What is the minimum number of steps required to get there?
Once you launch, use real-world feedback as a guide. You can iterate and evolve based on actual customer needs rather than assumptions and assumptions. Simple solutions can be a breath of fresh air in a world of cluttered options.
If you have a side hustle, a great way to save money and grow your business is to collaborate with fellow side hustles who share your sensibilities. However, it’s important to remember that when you have collaborators that are constantly growing and changing, you run the risk of unpredictable service delivery.
Last year, I ended up parting ways with my social media manager and SEO vendor, a solopreneur who wanted to turn his side hustle into an agency. In an effort to expand, both companies handed over my business to new employees with little experience in my industry.
I have always believed that people should have the opportunity to learn and improve, but ultimately they were not given the attention or priority they were promised.
The key to success is not stacking features, but understanding your brand’s core values.
On the SEO side, I stayed with that vendor for far too long even though I was unhappy with the service and it cost me real money and affected my revenue for the year. His November, typically the best time of the year, was down 55% compared to the best month of 2023.
While collaboration is beneficial, it’s important to think hard about who you hire. Don’t be afraid to change if you feel something is no longer useful.
As a solopreneur, I craved a clear roadmap, blueprint, and decision-making, so I applied and was accepted to incubators at Harvard University, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Southern California.
I had access to executives and advisors, and I took advantage of that, but these meetings often left me confused and overwhelmed. Even if they had good intentions, many of these advisors ended up projecting their own ambitions and mistakes onto me.
My best advice is to be very careful about skepticism and feedback in meetings like this, but try not to get swayed by the ideas that are thrown at you. We have found that relying too much on external validation clouds our vision and slows our progress.
Ultimately, a veteran’s perspective can be helpful, but the responsibility to act and the wisdom to vet their advice rests solely with you. It’s important to trust your own judgment and remember that this journey is yours.
Dr. Jenny Wu He is a Harvard-trained educator, emotional intelligence researcher, and founder and CEO of Mind Brain Emotion. She has created a series of educational card games and mental health tools to help children and adults develop human skills in the age of AI. her award-winning card game; 52 Essential Relationship Skills, 52 Essential Coping Skillsand 52 essential interview skills Used in over 50 countries.follow her Instagram, linkedinand YouTube.
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