MBA2329 Q&A Wednesday: How do I choose which side hustle to go all in on?

0:09Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, the place to be to build a business you want with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014. And today's episode is Q &A Wednesday. On Q &A Wednesdays, we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. Today's question is from Fred. And Fred asks, hey, Omar, I got a few side hustles going, but I want to go all in on one. How do I choose which side hustle to go all in on?

0:47They all have pretty much the same potential and are earning around the same amount of money. Would love some advice. Thanks, Fred. I love this question because it's honest, it's real, and it's probably a position where a lot of entrepreneurs will be in, where they have to choose which of their darlings, which of their little babies that they built are they going to go all in on. And in today's episode, I'm going to give you my take. I'm going to tell you what is the deciding factor? What is the thing that's going to help you choose between these side hustles to allow you to have as much success as possible in that venture, not just now, but for the long term, five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now?

1:25This is an important decision, so let's make a smart one, a smart decision based on reality, based on truth, based on what's going to work right now, tomorrow, the day after, and for decades to come. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So Fred needs to choose one of his side hustles to go all in on. I commend him because a lot of people never go beyond the side hustle stage because it is a risk to take that leap and say, I'm going to put all my effort into one thing. It's really surprising to a lot of people that I really think that going all in can help you tremendously have a lot of traction because you are focusing all your efforts on one project.

2:05You're not splitting your efforts, your attention, your energy, your finances across the different efforts, plus all the energy of switching back and forth. So it's a really good decision once you've said, OK, I have some options. This is what I want to choose. And you choose and you go all in and you focus on that for the future. Now, when we talk about success, we have to remember there are different levels of success. There's different kinds of success. Success could be you're making enough money to live a very comfortable lifestyle and have a rainy day fund. and with plenty of time for yourself to think, to travel, to read, to explore, to have fun, to exercise.

2:41Some people, that is success. They don't need to have a company that's worth a billion dollars to be successful. Heck, they don't need a company that's worth a hundred million dollars or$10 million as long as the company is taking care of their needs. That is a form of success. Some people, the opposite. They're like, this company that I'm about to go all in on has to be, you know, a hundred million dollar, $200 million, a billion dollar, a unicorn business, or it's not successful. Pump the brakes because number one, there are not that many unicorn businesses out there. And if that's the only definition of success for you, then you're setting yourself up for disappointment because I'm not saying it's impossible that you can't do it, but I think you should reevaluate what success means.

3:22Why? Because everything beyond that is gravy. So for me, my definition of success, when I started to become an entrepreneur and go down this journey, go down this path, was I want to make enough money to live comfortably, pay all my expenses and do what I love every day. So as soon as I got to that point and went beyond it, every day was successful. I was living the dream. Everything else was gravy. So I just wanted to address that at the start because it's important for you to set your goal in the beginning and understand this is what success means to me. Write it down. Put it on a journal. Put it on a post-it note.

3:57put it on a piece of paper and stick it on your wall in your office, just so you understand what scoring a goal means in your life and your business. Now, how do you choose the side hustle? How do you choose which one to go for? Well, it's actually quite simple. In order for you to be successful in anything in business, you need to be able to do what you do to be successful consistently. So say, for example, the business you're going to go into is an email newsletter that has sponsorship and that's how you build your revenue and you sell ads to that sponsorship. And your whole thing is that I'm going to write incredible content every single day to grow this email newsletter and be able to bring in new people into my list.

4:38So a big part of the way your business is going to be successful is you writing really great content every day and then marketing that content so that email list, that email newsletter grows. So if you don't like to write and to market your own writing, something that you're going to have to do consistently every single day, the core tenets of your business, then it's going to be really hard for you to do it for a long period of time enough to get traction to get success and to sustain that success. Because one, you've got to get better over time. And then two, you've got to do it long enough so that you can actually get some traction.

5:14This is applicable to anybody who's successful in anything in life, whether it's an Olympic athlete or a podcaster or a surgeon or a master chef. They just need a lot of reps and so do you. So you got to choose which one of these things that you would do anyway. You would do it for free or at least if you're getting paid in terms of sustaining your lifestyle, you're happy to do on a consistent basis. For me, a good example of this is podcasting. I've been podcasting since 2014. I have published over 2 ,300 episodes on this podcast. This would not be possible if I did not enjoy recording podcast episodes.

5:53If it was painful for me, if I didn't like it, if I didn't look forward to it, it just wouldn't be possible if you were to have that kind of willpower to be doing this for almost nine years. So you gotta choose which one of these businesses that are gonna require you to do the activities every day that you enjoy, that you at least feel fulfilled by. Now, when I say that you enjoy, that you're fulfilled by, it also is coupled by it's not painful and not something that drains you. It's not something that takes away energy from you. If you feel exhausted afterwards, after doing an activity, and I'm talking about mentally exhausted, then that's not great.

6:36You want things that energize you mentally. So after I record a few episodes when I batch. I might be tired physically because I'm on my feet, I'm recording, I'm using my energy, but mentally I feel energized. I feel motivated. I feel a sense of accomplishment, a sense of I've put something good out in the world and something I'm proud of. That gives you fuel to keep doing it again and again and again. Remember, just like what Al Pacino said in that movie, The Longest Yard, he has a speech where he's talking to the American football team he's talking to or coaching, that life is a game of inches.

7:10You're scratching for each inch. And each time you're doing that activity in the business to generate content or generate a product for sale or do the actions to actually make the business go, that's one inch, one inch, one inch every day. And that gets you to where you're going. And the more you do it, the better you get at it, the more focused you are, the more impressive results you'll have. So that's really how you choose. Choose which one of these things are going to require you to do something that you don't mind doing every day, every day, day in and day out for the rest of your life. Be part of your life.

7:44That's what you do. I was watching that three-part documentary called Arnold about Arnold Schwarzenegger on Netflix. And Arnold is 75 years old and he's still working out in the gym every day. Why? Because it's part of his life. He's not trying to compete for Mr. Olympia. Those days are over. He stopped competing in his late 20s. He does it because it's who he is. It's just a part of his life. So choose something like that that is a part of who you are, something that you would really miss if you didn't do every day. And like Arnold says, I go to the gym every day, the same reason why you eat breakfast every day.

8:16It's just what I do every day. It's a part of my life. And then you'll be willing and able to do the work that's required to be successful, to grow that business. That wraps up today's episode. Thanks, Fred, for asking today's Q &A Wednesday's question. If you've got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me. Go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. I'll make sure to answer it right here on Q &A Wednesday. I can keep it anonymous if you like. Just let me know in the email. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you're wondering what is that one activity that is going to be required of me to run the business, to have the successful business, just think about each business that you have in your hands or a business idea and ask yourself, what is the one thing I have to do in order for this business to grow, to actually be a business, actually be sustainable.

9:00For example, if you are a YouTuber, you have to produce videos. You have to be able to shoot videos, right? The editing, maybe you can get somebody else to do it, but you got to be on camera or shooting content. You got to come up with concepts. Without that, you don't have a YouTube channel. You got to have the content. If you're going to start a Chinese restaurant, it'd be a fine dining cuisine experience, you got to know something about good Chinese food. You got to know what makes good Chinese food. You got to be a foodie. You got to come up with recipes. You got to be able to at least be able to assist your head chef that you hire on creating these dishes and creating new menu items.

9:40This got to be your jam because that's what actually the restaurant's all about is the food. So just think about without this thing, the business would not be able to function. So that's the thing that you're going to do day in and day out as the head of the business, At least you're going to be the mind behind it. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll check you in Friday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

10:23Thank you.