I think most people assume it will be hard to figure out what their service based side business will be, but the truth is, everyone has a skill that companies would pay money for. In fact, this is already happening. The company that employs you full-time is paying you for a specific skill(s) you have. But go beyond that. Do you have any skills not related to your full-time job that businesses would pay you for? What do your friends or family ask you for help with?
Ask yourself:
- What are you good at?
- What are you known for?
- What do you do at your day job?
- What do you love to do?
- What do people ask you for help with?
Here’s a brain dump of ideas to help you brainstorm.
Are you good in one or more of these areas? I’ll add to this list as I think of new ideas, but feel free to leave a comment with your ideas and I’ll add it to this list!
- Computer services
- viruses
- IT services
- software installation
- help with software (Excel, etc.)
- Sales
- prospecting
- data entry
- CRM
- Direct marketing
- direct mail
- analytics
- copywriting
- graphic design
- Online marketing
- search engine optimization
- pay per click
- analytics
- social media
- content marketing
- conversion optimization
- web design
- video marketing
- Photography
- wedding
- corporate
- headshots
- babies
- Business consulting and strategy
- Accounting and bookkeeping
- Ghostwriting
- Proofreading
- Illustrations
- Consulting – yes, very broad
- This is broad too, but a side business you can use your weekends to fulfill. Weekdays are spent growing your business and weekends are spent executing. For example, photography or lawn care could fall under this.
Super Tip
Here’s an easy way to get your brain juices flowing. Just look through the job boards of companies hiring in your area (Monster, Indeed, etc.). What are companies hiring for? What skills are they requiring? Do you see anything mentioned that you’re skilled at? Or maybe even just semi-skilled because you can easily study and practice to get to a level where you can take on clients. Looking at job boards shows you which skills (i.e. services) companies are paying money for.
If you have a few skills that you’re deciding between, you have to ask yourself what you feel most confident providing as a service because you’re going to need to sell yourself to potential customers.
It’s also important to pick a service that comes with a high customer value and preferably a service you can charge monthly for. For example, with WPamplify, I usually charge $400 to $500 per month for SEO and blogging services. Not all of this is profit of course but, after my expenses, it’s still a good monthly customer value and allows me to reach 4 figures per month with only a handful of customers.
Let’s talk about the charging monthly part.
This may require some out of the box thinking on your part. For marketing services, it’s very natural to charge per month, but with web design for example, it’s not. But what if after you built a website for someone, you enrolled them in a monthly maintenance plan? Of what if you broken down their payments into a 12 month payment plan so you generated monthly cash flow instead of revenue spikes?
For photography, if you were handling corporate shots, you could sign up companies for a monthly package for a certain number of headshots per month, or pictures for their website
The idea here is, you don’t absolutely have to have a side business that is monthly recurring subscription, but it’s very ideal. So my recommendation is to brainstorm ways you can add a recurring element to your services, but only if it provides value to your clients. If you don’t go the recurring route, I recommend you pick a service where you’re providing tons of value to your client and, as a result, you can charge them accordingly. If your customer value is small, and your billing is not recurring, you’re going to have to fight and claw your way up to a healthy annual income.
Are you passionate?
If you can create a side business that makes money and one that you’re passionate about , man that’s awesome. But I don’t think it’s necessary in my opinion. I”m not really super passionate about SEO and blogging, but I enjoy running and trying to grow the business, as well as helping clients. For me, I’m passionate about building a business from nothing to something that is making money. I like working with my clients. I enjoy SEO and blogging, but I don’t LOVE it. It goes without saying, but you can’t pick a business you absolutely hate. This is a side business…you’re mixing in your side business with your full-time career. What to be miserable? Start a side business that you absolutely hate! Even if it’s making you good money, it won’t matter.
Quick Recap
- Think about what you’re already paid to do…or what skills you have…or what friends and family come to you for…or what you’re known for.
- Can you turn any of these skills into a side business that companies would pay you for?
- Can you turn your side business into a recurring monthly subscription? If not, will your customer value be high?
- You don’t have to be passionate about your side business, but you can’t dread doing it.
