21: Why Most Side Hustles Fail, and How You Can Beat The Odds

In this episode I'm going to tell you why most side hustles fail.

You'll learn the reasons, and then you'll learn what you can do to win!

You'll learn how to succeed with your side hustle, and feel accomplished.

Subscribe to the Legit Side Hustles podcast To get weekly short, actionable episodes to help you launch and grow your side business.

Thank you for listening, and have a fantastic day!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, it's Miles and you're listening to Legit side Hustles,
where I give you short, actionable episodes to help you
launch and grow your side business the smart way. And
today I'm going to tell you why most side hustles
fail and how you can beat the odds. So let's
be honest. Many side hustles don't make it. Some don't
even make it past the one week mark. And it's

(00:23):
not because people are lazy or even burned out. It's
usually because they run into little mindset traps like these
For starters no clear reason. Some people just start their
side hustle to make money and they have no deeper goals, mission,
or interest, and without an end goal in mind, motivation

(00:44):
can fade so fast. And second, picking the wrong idea.
Some people start with ideas that don't align with themselves,
such as chasing trends or picking niches they don't particularly
enjoy or understand. And sure, trends and fancy niches can
be profitable, but profit only comes from execution and consistent work,

(01:11):
which means you need to pick an idea you can
stick with. Three is no time management skills. Tasks that
get allocated, get completed, and what gets measured gets managed.
You can't try to fit a side hustle into the
cracks of your schedule. Doing that is a surefire way
to burn out, feel sense of dread, and ultimately fail.

(01:35):
Four is no validation. Some people build their side hustle
before they test it, then when they launch, no one buys.
This is a waste of time, money, and resources. And
last is they just quit too soon. Too many people
expect overnight results, but they need to remember that most

(01:56):
side hustles and small business ideas take several months of
consistent work and experimentation before traction truly starts. So how
can you avoid failure and ultimately win, beat the odds
and feel accomplished. Well, One is to start with your why.
You need to tie your side hustle to something personal.

(02:18):
This could be something like long term financial freedom, creative passions,
or a personal mission. In fact, the best types of
side hustles will scratch multiple itches at once that pique
your curiosity. A common example is educating people, and here's
one of my favorite quotes from the iconic physicist Richard Feynman.

(02:39):
That is, if you want to master something, teach it,
and when things get hard in business. You can revisit
your why and it will remind you why you're doing
this in the first place. The second thing to consider
is pick something you enjoy or know well. You don't
always need to be extremely passionate about the idea you pick,

(02:59):
but you definitely can't pick something you dislike. And there
are lots of unique exercises and ways to find your
big idea, and he usually comes back to identifying two things.
One your interests and two your existing skills or skills
you're willing to improve. You can understand this even more

(03:20):
by looking at what's called your zone of genius, and
this is explained well in the book The Big Leap,
where in the book it outlines four different zones of work,
zone of incompetence, Zone of competence, Zone of excellence, and
zone of genius. And your goal is to stay as
close to the zone of genius as possible, which is

(03:41):
your highest level of skills, knowledge and expertise. Stay in
that zone and you'll be far more likely to succeed.
Three is schedule it. This is simple, but it's very
easy to ignore. Don't wait around for extra time, just
schedule time and keep it reasonable. Start with like thirty

(04:02):
a day. Sorry, Starting with like thirty minutes a day
or just a few hours of work during the weekend,
we'll add up and if you schedule something consistently, it
will eventually become a habit. This makes it easier to
remember and stick with it. And four is to test
and validate fast. Validation is vital for your success and

(04:23):
can you sell your idea before you build the initial
viable product. Pre Sell your idea to your family and
your friends. Are trustworthy, courteous, and open minded, and post
your idea in Facebook groups and other social media platforms
where people can express interest in your offer before you
even spend a penny. Validation is much more productive than

(04:45):
shipping a perfect offer or product with no audience awareness.
And last, but not least, is try for at least
ninety days. You can think of your site hustle idea
as like a ninety day experiment. Not every experiment will
be successful or perfect, but it'll lead to motivation and clarity.
So track everything you do for the ninety days and

(05:06):
see what your results are, and then identify what isn't
working and either ditch or fix your idea. But remember
you may only be a few steps away from a winner,
so please keep trying and in the end, the reason
why side hustles fail is because people start without a
good reason. They quit too soon, and they don't manage

(05:29):
their time, and they skip the hard parts rather than
searching for better solutions. But you're not most people because
you stuck with me until the end. So you can
put together a one page action plan, identify your zone
of genius, and show up consistently. And if you do this,
your side hustle will skyrocket to the move. If this

(05:49):
episode helped you, subscribe to the podcast and share it
with another side hustler. I'm Miles, thank you so much
for listening to the legit Side Hustles podcast. I look
forward to catching you in the next episode, and you
have a fantastic day.