Once you’ve tackled the mental world, it’s time to move on to the physical world. If you’ve got a fairly simple web-based side hustle, you’ll have very limited physical needs.
“I just needed a laptop, a logo, and a website,” says Julie Bee, President and Founder of BeeSmart Social Media and Lead From Anywhere in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I purchased these with personal savings.”
An information-based side hustle has this advantage. Still, depending on your deliverable, you may need a more complex physical structure to accomplish your mission. This can include the system itself, which may be nothing more than a flowchart or template for you to follow.
“In the beginning, I needed to figure out how to publish content and monetize,” says Brian Robben, CEO of Robben Media in Cincinnati. “What I discovered is people will pay for value. So I wrote the best posts I could, drove people to a newsletter, and then wrote a book with even better content, which I promoted to my email list.”
If you’ve created a physical product, your side hustle will take on some aspects of retail businesses. This isn’t just the storefront but the entire supply chain and logistics that bring the product to the shelf.
“There are many parts to getting a product to market,” says Dallas, Texas-based Kathy Thomas, an executive for a bookstore chain, Half Price Books and CEO of Ready Ritas, a margarita mix company she started in 2016. “Since the packaging is unique and not on the market and the idea is different, I needed a trademark attorney. I hired an art director to design the logo and develop the graphics for the bag. Since the bag was new to the market, I had to contact 25 manufacturers to get one to agree to handle the project. I needed a manufacturer to make the mix and actually pour the mix into the unique bag. Most manufacturers want the mix to come in a standard 750-liter bottle. Making the product was challenging, but getting retailers to carry it has also been an issue. Trade organizations have been very helpful with just getting information on the basics of starting and promoting a business.”
There’s a good chance you’re overlooking a critical component of your physical plant. People are an important part of your side hustle. Even if you plan on doing everything by yourself, you’ll still need to work with others that are providing a service to you.
Daniel Polotsky, Founder and Chairman at CoinFlip in Chicago, says, “I needed a lot of things to go right when I first started CoinFlip, but I trusted myself and the team to get it done. I needed to build banking relationships and deal with regulators to keep the company afloat. I needed to find people I could trust and make every hire count. I needed to always stay a step ahead of my competitors and be wary of big companies entering the market. CoinFlip has been self-funded since the start, and being at the forefront of a new industry; there’s no playbook we can reference. But that’s what makes it exciting!”
In addition, chances are your customers are part of your physical plant, too. And that will require navigating the social world to discover prospects and possibly even relying on other people to provide useful references.
“In order to start my business, I needed a lot of hard work, determination, luck, and the right connections,” says Flynn Zaiger, CEO of Online Optimism
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Finally, don’t discount the fact that you might need help, if only for a brief time.
“I needed a mentor,” says Lauren Hyland, CEO & Founder of Hyland Consulting LLC in Pittsburgh. “Someone to show me a blueprint, the things that were necessary and the things that would bring in income.”
This need arises more often than not. You should consider it, if only to help steer you in the right direction or bolster your confidence when you’re first embarking on this new adventure.
“Simply put, I needed guidance,” says Tanner Chidester, CEO of Elite CEOs in Miami. “I just needed to know what path to take. Before, I had always been guessing what to do next and was completely clueless. Getting coaches (even bad ones) helps you find success by following a role model who has done it before.”
The physical world often poses the greatest challenge to creating an enjoyable side hustle. You can deal with some aspects more quickly and easily than others. For example, buying office supplies is easy. On the other hand, depending on the kindness of strangers can vex you.
Still, if you know what to expect and prepare yourself accordingly, you should be able to devise a successful strategy for filling the necessary physical inventory.
Of course, in the process, you may discover you’ll need a little capital infusion to complete your that supply list.