I googled “how to earn money online“ the other day. I read through ALL the articles in the first 5 pages, that’s like 50 articles (yes, I know nobody scrolls through 5 PAGES of google, but I did!!)
So, let me save you the time and tell you what happened.
- All the articles still talk about the same thing (“top 27 ways to earn money online in india“, “best 44 ideas to earn money online”)
- Funny thing, none of the authors of the articles have actually tried all the “top 27 ways” that they actually claim
- You’ll quickly realize most of these methods claimed are
- unrealistic (“buy and sell domains”, “affiliate marketing guys”)
- time-constrained (“just start a youtube channel and you’ll make a million bucks” — duh!)
- and worst scammy (ever heard of those “online survey” scams?)
- I vomited
What amazes me still is that I find it again and again people LOVE to throw advises and articles on “ways to make money online”, but which they actually HAVEN’T done it themselves.
Only false, vague, and “motivational” posts, which has 0 results on the readers in the long-term.
I hate it. So, today, I’ll talk about the ONLY 3-steps you need to start making online.
No 56 ways, no scam ways, no unrealistic ways. Just legitimate, step-by-step method that can help you generate revenue in as little as 6 weeks.
I’ve done it myself, multiple times, and have seen many indian people doing it.
I know it can be a tough choice navigating the unknown. But don’t worry, I have been through these uncertain territories many times.
Let’s jump in.
Why Look for Earning Money Online or an Additional Income Stream?
There are many triggers that prompt a person to look for a second income stream. 2020 is a classic case of how difficult times need an additional financial safety net.
With Covid-19 ravaging through every corner of the globe, no one has been left untouched by the pandemic. I feel that this is the right time to start thinking about how you can start a second source of income. This way, you can adequately protect your loved ones.
If you want to start something new or gain additional experience, then such side businesses can help you.
I have also seen many of my friends start with a second business in addition to their regular day job. The reason can vary from a recent marriage, taking care of elders, to saving for kids.
These situations call for additional income in hand. And a side business can help you accomplish just that.
How to Get Started (What to Avoid and What to Focus on)
When you want to get started, I would strongly recommend you to know what you need to spend your time on, and what to stay away from. This will steer you in the right direction from the very beginning, so that the remaining steps are smooth.
First off, see what you need t o avoid. A simple Google search will yield results like ‘Top 100 ideas to start a side business’ or ‘Top 300 new business ideas’.
I am totally against this generalization and compartmentalizing of everything into 10 or 50 or 100 ideas. You are a unique individual, and your new side business should be a reflection of your values, your aptitude, and your skills.
And a listicle of 10 or 50 or 100 ideas will simply not be helpful to do justice to your specific need.
You may also come across some quick fix options like taking paid online surveys, data entry jobs, or sell XYZ on Amazon.
But most of them have proven to be a fraud. Areas like mystery shopping, multi-level marketing, copy editing, medical billing, or cryptocurrency investing are fraught with unscrupulous people taking advantage of the naivety of people.
I have seen multiple cases of innocent victims spammed in the most innovative way possible. Some may ask upfront payment, some may cancel gigs, leaving behind the freelancers to pay for transaction charges.
Others charge for training at the beginning. I have seen many ways in which gullible people have been tricked. And this was one more reason for me to come up with this post.
The path that I am about to take you through is not very complicated. Plus this process is developed for busy professionals who are committed to a side hustle, but do not want to expose themselves to the risks of scams and frauds.
So, let’s dive in and see how we can start with setting up a side business that does justice to every hour you spend over and above the tiring full-time job.
How to Get Started, the Simplest Way
Remember the age-old maxim ‘well begun is half done’? This applies very well to your side business too.
When you take the first step towards your own side business, it is natural to feel overwhelmed about the thing to do and the uncertainty around it. When I started out, I had the support of my family, plus I had a realistic expectation about how to go ahead.
Of course, like you, I too researched for hours online to narrow down on the right business for myself.
But after reading countless listicles of ‘40 best business ideas’ or ‘20 businesses you can start right away’, I realized one key thing. They aren’t helpful for a person who is already employed in a full-time job.
I always thought that there has to be a simpler way of doing things rather than going through thousands of formalities. Neither do you have to raise a lot of capital nor you have to complete innumerable formalities to take the first few steps in a business.
The first thing you need to determine is ‘what’ is it that you would be doing as a business. When you focus on this one aspect, you will realize that you can start your business quicker.
This is better rather than worrying about a whole lot of non-trivial things that may be good, but not crucial, to get going.
If you ask me, I follow these steps in order to get going
1 – Narrowing down to a list of ideas where you can be good at generating revenues
2 – Picking one solid idea after validating it thoroughly
3 – Progress further to get your first few paying clients
Interested to see how you can do well on these steps? Then I am happy to take you through in the next few sections with a detailed discussion about these three points.
But before that….
Time is of the essence.
I mean, you really need to remain steadfast and headstrong that you will try to take out at least a couple of hours everyday to make this venture a success.
Either you invest a lot of money or you put in a few hours to give shape to your side hustle. I will show how you can accomplish your dream of a second revenue stream with just a couple of hours daily.
So, ready to dive deeper?
Step 1: Find Few Ideas
It all starts with an idea. You must realize that an excellent idea is a foundation for a successful business. You get all kinds of thought all the time, but how often do you act on it? And how many of your ideas are valid or invalid?
Below I am going to share with you two practical techniques that will 100% help you find ideas. These are not the usual feel-good methods that you read and go back to your world again.
The techniques I’m going to give you are proven, practical and actionable ones. However, you need to keep two things in mind before you read further.
1 – Before you dig into the techniques, you need to calm your inner demons. As you start reading, you might hear unnecessary inner voices. Most of them will be, ‘what if I can’t?,’ ‘What If I don’t have this or that?’ and blah blah. So, you have to ignore all such thoughts.
2 – Keep in mind that you need no technical expertise at the point in time. You don’t have to learn SEO or create a website, etc. All you need to do is a pen and paper. You can easily study these techniques and jot down your ideas.
In fact, here’s an article I wrote on the ultimate guide to find profitable ideas in under 15-minutes.
Now, I hope you’re ready to read the techniques. Also, you don’t have to be super-tactical as you read. Instead, you can enjoy the process.
Two techniques to generate business ideas:
The Y.U.S technique
I discovered this technique while taking New York Times best-selling author Ramit Sethi’s ZTL course. In the course, he talked about idea mapping and how we can find out our expertise.
I call it YUS – Your Unbeatable Superpowers.
You can, indeed, discover your unique talents. To begin with, you can answer the following key elements:
1. What experiences have you gained until now? It can be learning a subject like mathematics, working with finance or consulting, traveling on a low budget, etc.
2. What skills do you own? It can be anything like playing a musical instrument, working on software, photography, programming, etc.
3. What challenges did you face and overcome? You might have had neck pain, trouble losing weight, public speaking, writing, etc.
4. What are those achievements that rewarded you? It can be getting a promotion, cracking any exam, buying a vehicle all by yourself, etc.
The examples that I have given might seem strange. But, hold on because those all are examples of successful businesses out there.
See it for yourself –
• Personal finance (revenues via ebooks, coaching, and consulting) – jagoinvestor.com
• Microsoft Excel (revenues via online courses and ebooks) – chandoo.org
• Performance and strategy (revenues via courses, workshops, and coaching) –mahendradevlekar.com, and there are many such businesses.
You see, people are making their lives out of these businesses. And it all started with them being innately good at something.
When you have a skill, you can share it with others and create a business out of it.
The 3-Detective Questions Technique
Let the detective inside you rise and get ready to answer the three golden questions as below. It will flood you with ideas.
1 – What are those things for which you always receive compliments from your friends and family members?
It’s the best way to find out what you hear from people all the time.
For instance, your friends might tell you that you finish the work with speed and efficacy. Your aunt may tell you that your recipes are lip-smacking yummy. Your colleagues may compliment you about a certain aspect of your work, and so on.
Now, you might say that your friends compliment you for being loving and supportive. And you might ask, how do I turn it into the business?
Well, for now, trust the process. And write down everything to get your creative juices flowing.
2 – What are things that you find easy-to-do, while your friends struggle with them?
You need to think about things that people around you find it difficult to accomplish. Or things where you people always seek your help.
It can be anything, such as graphic designing, arranging a party, ironing clothes, asking for buying advice, planning a tour, and creating an itinerary, etc.
Whatever it is that you can do easily, put them all down on the paper.
3 – What would you do if you get three extra hours every day?
If you get three extra hours every day, how would you like to spend them? You can also look at it like, what would you do on a weekend where you’re free from your routine tasks?
Would you –
• read a newspaper or blog. Also, which ones will you read?
• sign up for online courses on any subject?
• hit the gym or do a calming yoga session?
• catch up with your close friends and discuss some new ideas?
• attend a networking event or a workshop?
It can be anything, so note all of them down on your paper.
After going through the above techniques, you will indeed have at least 10 to 15 ideas noted in your paper.
Btw, here’s a handy list of more 77 ideas to draw inspiration from.
Step 2: Validate your ideas
Validating your idea is essential before you go ahead and start working on your new business. Validating refers to checking whether or not there’s a market for the product or service you are willing to provide through your business.
Validating also means ensuring that people will be willing to pay for your product or service. Before you put your sweat and money into creating something, it is crucial to check whether any customers exist for your business.
Fortune interviewed the founders of failed startups. And the lack of market demand for their product is the number one reason for business failures. So, if you want your business to work, then be sure to confirm the demand for what you can offer.
Also, validating doesn’t mean your business will succeed. Instead, it’s more like an assurance that there exists a sustainable and paying audience that will grow over time. You can validate your idea by referring to the steps below.
Check for Demand
Whatever it is that you want to offer, you have to check for its demand. You can look up the sites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr to see if there’s a demand for your idea.
If you are offering services like web development, content writing, etc., then a quick search on Upwork can give you an idea about the demand. If you’re planning to develop a product, then look up the internet and see if it already exists.
If the product or service you want to provide already exists in the market, then you don’t have to lose hope immediately. Instead, it’s a good sign for your business. It’s proof that the demand exists for your product.
When similar products/services exist in the market already, then you need to stand out from them. You can achieve the same by offering your Unique Selling Proposition or USP. You can also look for ways to better the existing product.
When you see a lot of people asking for a similar skill or talents you have, then you can be sure that your idea will indeed make money.
And if you find out that there’s no demand for your idea, then pat your back! You have saved the time, money, and efforts of three to six months.
Check for Supply
To begin with, you can look for people in your personal and professional network who are already providing the same thing as you.
If you notice any supply for your product/service, then it’s a good sign.
When you see adequate supply in the market, it means more people are paying for what you want to offer.
So when you put out your product in the market, it’s sure to attract customers and earn you revenues.
Get Feedback in 5-minutes
You need to create an early feedback group and share your work with them. Indeed, it is difficult to make yourself vulnerable and allowing people to judge the quality of your work. But, that can help you on the journey of creating a successful side hustle.
Before you start sharing your business idea with people, you need to have a rough structure to help you with pitching. You need to have a value approach in your pitch; it means you need to offer better things than other businesses in the market.
Once you create your minimum viable product (MVP), you need to seek objective feedback from people. You can ask your friends, colleagues, batch-mates to test and review your product. Your e-mail list can also fetch you some useful contacts.
When you get enough validation for your idea, the next step is to find your first few customers.
Step 3: Get your First 1-3 Paying Clients
You don’t need to launch a website or set up your office to get started with your side business. All that will follow later, but now you need to get your first 1-3 paying customers. It means you need to find ideal people who are willing to pay.
You can find many of the great tools and strategies to find your ideal customers. But, in my opinion, it has to start with the age-old technique of brainstorming.
So grab your paper and pen again. And jot down some points by answering some of the basic questions as below.
- What problem does my product or service solve?
- Who can get interested in my idea?
- Are you targeting individuals (B2C) or companies (B2B)?
- What are their age, gender, and location?
- What is their occupation, and how much do they earn?
- What problems do they have?
- Where do they go to seek for solutions?
With the help of questions above, you can get a perfect foundation to find ideal customers, as I walk you through the further process.
Reach out
Whatever business you are planning, it always starts with your network. So you have to tell about your idea to your friends, family, and people from your workspace. They can get a word out for you and help you reach your first few ideal customers.
Keep in mind that you have to be clear with what you are offering. It enables people to refer others to you. Your closest network might not need your product or service, but they might know someone who would like to interact with you.
Say, if you’re offering a prep material for students taking up engineering entrance exam, it becomes easy to get referrals. Depending on what you are offering, it might take too long to get started. Or you might even get flooded with requests in no time.
How to find time
I suggest side hustlers plan your schedule: you need to set aside a few hours for work per day or week before you start seeking for customers.
If you say ‘yes’ to every single request you receive, then you might get burnt out by over-working. Also, working for long can hamper the quality of your work.
You would want to make your clients happy and retain them too. So I would suggest drafting a work-plan for yourself before you start pitching to clients.
No 100 clients, get 3 paying client first
As a side hustler, you need not rush to reach your first hundred or thousand of clients. It’s just beginning, and dealing with one to three clients at the beginning of your business is good enough.
Focusing on the handful of clients allows you to dive deep into the client’s business. It helps you learn the overall needs, pain points, expectations, and roadblocks, of the type of clients you’re serving.
One client is easy to manage as compared to numerous clients; it also enables you to provide a better service. You need to understand that side hustle is all about relationship building.
If you could satisfy your first one or two clients and develop a good relationship, then they might refer you to other people in their network. That brings me to my next point, which is getting more clients.
The one most common and yet most effective of getting more clients is through the referrals.
So, do excellent work and gratify your first few clients, then they will indeed get the word out for you. Also, you would be more likely to work with personal recommendation than dealing with a stranger.
How to go beyond 3 clients, and get your next 10 clients
When you get your first 1-3 clients, then after working with them sincerely, you would want to grow your side hustle. It boils down to increasing your number of customers.
Initially, you might start as a freelancer, and get your first 1-3 clients. But your goal might be to grow your side venture to a point where it generates excellent revenue and enables you to quit your job (if you want to).
Well, by following the step-by-step approach, you can indeed get more clients for your business. If I do simple math, then here’s what the results will look like –
- Say, in the beginning, you reached out to 30 potential leads. And out of which, you received 7-8 replies and one actual client.
- And you can offer your services at 10-20K per month.
- Now when you have one client, you continue with the same process for the next 3-4 weeks.
- In the next couple of weeks, you will get two more clients.
- So, by having 3-4 more clients, you can earn about 50-60K per month.
- That’s some serious revenue you’re making, owing to the step-by-step approach.
- The fundamental math you need to keep in mind is – you reached out to X number of people, to which Y number of people responded, and Z number of people turned into clients.
So, that’s how you will grow from a single client to many clients. All you need to do is trust the process and keep working with perseverance.
Along the line, you can also incorporate some hacks to grow your side hustle as below.
Real Examples of People Who Started as Beginners
By now, you know the process to start and grow your side hustle with the help of steps above. So, that’s that, but some of you might still be wondering whether the process will work?
Well, of course, yes, if you follow the above steps, you can 100% build a side hustle and even grow it bigger.
All you need to do is put in the hours. But, I won’t lecture you on qualities like patience, perseverance, hope, and blah blah blah. I’m sure you know all that already.
And I would rather share with you some success stories.
There are many Desi people out there, who started their side hustle while holding onto their existing jobs. Ultimately, they were able to resign their job and turned their side hustle into a successful full-time business.
Chandoo.org (online courses and ebooks on Excel)
Purna Duggirala runs and owns Chandoo.org and a YouTube channel with the same name. He teaches Excel and Power BI through videos, ebooks, and online courses on his website.
Now, the website gets over five lakhs of views per month, and it has over 16 lakhs of people on the mailing list.
The blog got featured across various media channels. Also, Purna got awarded as an MVP (most valuable professional) from Microsoft.
The Dogfather Training Services (Dog Training)
Alistair Fernandes is the famous dog trainer in India. He turned his passion and love for dogs into a full-time business, which is apparently, successful.
He is a college dropout who had a rough life. He worked at Wipro and JP Morgan in the customer service department. Later, his marriage broke, and so his job.
When he started living alone, he would take his dog for training on weekends. He was happy seeing his god get trained, and that inspired him.
He took formal training and became a certified dog trainer in Mumbai. He got more recognition when he got the approval for 14000 sq ft park for pets from BMC.
That recognition led to more clients and successful DogFather training business. You can read the full story here.
Writefreelance.in (Content Writing)
Ritika Tiwari left her IT job in Mumbai and went on to become a full-time content writer.
She runs a blog, Writefreelance.in, that’s where she shares guides for aspiring freelance writers.
The website also holds her excellent portfolio and past work history.
Mumbai Mirror, The Hindu, NTPC, and Canva are some of her clients. She creates content for print channels as well as digital ones.
And that’s what I have been talking about-using your skills and passion and turn them into your business.
“But, Zubin, What if……….”
Mental scripts are nothing but the thoughts behind your behaviour or your reaction to a particular situation. And the good news is, it is possible to re-write your mental scripts.
Here, I want to talk about mental objections you might face as you start on the journey of the side hustle. I will also share how you can re-write mental scripts and overcome those mental hurdles.
What if I don’t have ideas
I have already discussed two techniques to find ideas in the beginning. You can also check my detailed article on how to find ideas.
What if there is too much competition
Repeat after me – competition is a GOOD thing! If people are already doing the business with the same idea as yours, then it’s good news.
It means that the demand for your idea (business) exists, and all you need to do is get started.
What if I have too many ideas
Pick a single one out it and move onto the next step.
What if I don’t know how to get a company registered, or hire someone?
No, the first step is you have to come up with an idea. That’s it, and we will talk about other things later.
What if I don’t have time?
I have shared with you three steps, which are finding an idea, validating it, and getting your first 1-3 customers.
And in my experience, you only need 5-10 hours per week by following those steps. If you cannot commit that many hours, then I suggest not following this post.
More on how to find time.
What if I don’t have money?
You don’t even need money at this point. All you need is an idea inspired by your skills and passion. Later, I will tell you how to turn it into a business.
What if this doesn’t work for me?
Of course, yes. You only have to work consistently and watch your side hustle turning into a business.
You need a clear purpose and constant efforts to make your mental script work for you, rather, against you.
Conclusion
These were a few of my suggestions to stay on the right path to venturing into a new income stream without any outrageous capital outlay or mind-numbing administrative formalities.
Let me know if I can be of any help in providing traction to your dreams of setting up side hustle. Share your potential ideas with me and I will be happy to assist you in any way I can. And I hope this “How To Earn Money Online” piece of article gives much needed clarity!
