Real world examples to start and then grow your side hustle.
I am taking a Permaculture Business Design Course through Regeneration Nation CR. The exercises and worksheets are fantastic and have helped me to focus more on the customer.
- What is the problem you are trying to solve? What does your customer actually want? Are you trying to solve what YOU think the problem is?
Example: If you are evaluating someone’s land and doing a permaculture design, have you asked: “what do you like to eat?”
So many people plant things that they actually don’t eat, or will not likely eat.
If no one in their family likes horseradish, then don’t put horseradish in the design.
Listen on your fave Podcast app:
Thriving The Future Podcast on iTunes/Apple Podcast
Thriving The Future Podcast on Spotify
Tips:
Define who your customer really is and let your customer define themselves by what they really want.
- Niche down and then niche down some more so you are known as an expert in that space.
- Let your customer ultimately decide if they are your customer. Don’t chase after someone who doesn’t want to be your customer.
- Quickly go to market with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test the response and whether it is worth throwing money (and more importantly TIME) at.
- Charge less for it in a beta test. Get real world feedback.
- Note the Sales Cycle. When I worked at Box company in Wichita in the 90’s, in the Sales bullpen they had a poster from the 1800’s. It said:
- Learn skills while doing. Charge less while learning those skills, build clientele and experience, then raise your price.
- Become a producer and not just a consumer.
- Like the permaculture principle – Use your yield. It can be used to give, trade, or sell to grow your forms of capital.
- Don’t grift for the sake of the grift or people will easily see through you.
- Wisdom from a late 1800’s-early 1900’s sales poster:
- The first time a customer sees your product, they don’t see it.
- The fourth of fifth time they see it they say, “there is that blasted thing again.”
- The twentieth of fiftieth time they see it, they buy it or direct their buyer to buy it.
Use Research Tools
Use Google Trends
I was frustrated that I wasn’t selling comfrey and trees in February and March. Homesteaders buy plants in February and March, but Normies don’t buy plants until May.
Use Answer the Public for Research
Use AnswerthePublic.com for keyword research, topic research, and to help overcome writer’s block. It includes the most searched questions, topics, and comparisons on a keyword.
Take Homesteading. These are the most searched questions around Homesteading. Many of these could be a topic for a podcast episode, a blog post, or a Tweet.
I do a deep dive on How to use Answer the Public in the latest Thriving News article on How to Overcome Writer’s Block.
Business has a Cycle
Another side hustle tip is that Business has a Cycle. There is a startup, and there may be a time to sell, divest, or cease the business. That is normal.
Plan for it. Don’t fool yourself that it can go on forever. Have an exit strategy.
Tell Your Story and What Sets You Apart
Most importantly – tell your story and what sets you apart in the market.
Example: Grow Nut Trees.
Chestnuts and hazelnuts are mostly grown and sold by companies in the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, or the Northeast. None of these do well in Kansas.
Seeds have a memory. They remember where they thrived.
At Grow Nut Trees I grow chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey (as well as mulberries) that are adapted to the Midwest. They will do better on your place if you live in the Midwest.
GrowNutTrees.com
Check out the Companion Planting Guide on All Garden Advice. Grow Your own Food. We can help you start. With tips and ideas on gardening, food forests, and permaculture.
Gear that I use and recommend: Meadow Creature Broadfork 14. I have used this to turn over sod for new Milpa garden beds, and even hand dug swales with it. Bulletproof.
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