In my latest book, How to Start a Side Hustle, I condense almost 20 years of entrepreneurial experience into practical tips and guidance to help you take the first step towards your own side hustle.

Here’s a sample chapter to get you inspired;

Chapter 8

CHOOSE YOUR AUDIENCE

You cannot be all things to all people. You need to find your niche and then cater for them. If you are targeting all people between the ages of 20 and 60, how on Earth do you know what each separate age demographic is interested in? If you find out, how do you build a single product or feature to cater for such a diverse group of people?

You can’t possibly be targeting all men or all women with your product. They’re all different. So think carefully about your audience. Plan it out and be specific. 

Many founders like to start by solving a problem they have. This ensures that the audience is one that you understand and are familiar with. You, you are the audience in this scenario. 

I have mentored a lot of entrepreneurs who are just starting out and when asked, most struggle to identify clearly who their potential customer is. One person told me that she was targeting 20-30 year olds but she also had a product and feature set for the 40-50 year olds and then she was about to launch a new product for the older demographic. Her business was a few months old and there was no way that she could scale to give every customer the best experience. 

Pick a niche, find your tribe and cater for them with vicious focus. Don’t get distracted by the potential of other markets until you have fully understood and captured the one you set out to target. 

1000 TRUE FANS

Speaking of choosing your target audience, in 2008 Kevin Kelly wrote a blog post titled “1000 True Fans”. In it he proposed the idea that you don’t need millions or even hundreds of thousands of clients, customers or fans to make a living. What you need is 1000 true fans. 

I absolutely love this idea for side hustles or businesses that are just starting out. You don’t need to think about your 100 000th customer, you need to think about and focus on the first 1000 and make damn sure that they all become your biggest fans. 

You know what happens when you find and cultivate 1000 true fans? They tell people about you and spread the love. If your product is good enough and the attention to detail is there you can almost guarantee that they’ll pay you and set you on your way. 

Do the math with me here. If you get yourself 1000 true fans and each fan pays you $2 per month for whatever you are selling then you’ll be making $2000 a month with your side hustle. 

Is that enough to satisfy your definition of success? 

THE 3 F’S

So how do you find your 1000 true fans? You start with the 3 F’s. 

When you have a clearly defined idea you need to start talking about it. This is not the standard advice. Usually, your gut tells you to keep your idea close to your chest and hide it from the world. That's the wrong advice. You need to tell anyone who will listen and you need to start with the three F's: Friends, Family and Fools. 

These are the three groups likely to buy your first products. 

Your friends want you to succeed, your family feels obligated to get behind you and the fools are the early adopters who love trying new things and are willing to put up with a bit of pain to get their fix of the latest, greatest startups or side hustles. 

Talk to them about your idea and gather their responses. They are not going to steal your idea from you, they have their own ideas, I promise. 

Sit with them, pitch them, talk to them, engage with them about your idea or business and then start turning them into believers. 

You can also start to expand your marketing efforts into blog posts, Facebook posts and guesting on podcasts or Youtube shows. Doing one thing is better than zero as Gary Vaynerchuck once said. 

Do lots of one thing and they all add up but do nothing and it’s still zero. 

FRIENDS PAY FULL PRICE (FPFP)

There is this weird, awkward, unspoken situation that exists between friends and family: When using a friend’s service or buying their products you should get a discount.

Most people default to giving a discount to friends. I think this is wrong and here’s why:

Friends should want to pay full price. Friends should want to help you succeed, grow your business and empower you to be better at what you do.

Over and above everything else, if your friends want to buy something from you, you should want to give them the best you can. If you are discounting your product or service, you will immediately want to treat them differently to a full paying customer. That’s not right.

My motto is:

Friends Pay Full Price (FPFP).

I’m happy to offer loyal customers value. Whether they are friends or not, if you support me, I’ll support you.

More businesses should take this approach to billing friends and family. Full price or nothing. Imagine going into Vodafone or PWC and saying: “I know the CEOs brother really well, please can I get your product with a friend's discount of 20%.”

You’d be laughed out of the building. So if big business can take this stance, why can’t small business?

Let’s put a stop to this behaviour. From today, right now, if a friend or family member wants to use your product or service, make them pay full price.