The Side Hustle Series 4 - Tell the World

There is a saying that said, "if you build it, the customers will come to buy from you." For those that have started some sort of business, you know that this saying is not true at all.

 

No matter how good you built your products, if no one knows about it, no one will come to buy it from you. So, if you want to sell your products, you will have to tell the world about them. And the best way to tell the world is without spending any money.

While it may not be easy in the past, the current world has changed so much that there are a lot of methods available to you to use to promote your products to the world without using any money. The only thing that you need to put in will be your time.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, blogs, etc have become a part of our lives. And these platforms help a lot to spread the news. And best of all, it is free to use.

Also, another way to get people's attention is to give some samples for others to try. If the product is good, it will definitely capture the audience's attention and, hopefully, convert them into your customers.

In The Malaysia Dividend Champions List, we also gave some samples for free so that potential customers would know what they are paying for when they sign up as a subscriber.

Many people would have forgotten that the services are also very important. When you give good services, the customer would be happy, and in turn, will share about the good experience that the customer got from you. This is called word-of-mouth marketing. It is the same on the other end. If your services suck, it will be spread even faster.

The Side Hustle Series 3 - Use other people's Ringgit

As discussed in the previous posts, it does not take money to make money. What it actually means here is that you don't need to use your own Ringgit to make more Ringgit for yourself. Don't get me wrong here, I am not asking you to steal other people's Ringgit. It is another method of doing business.

For some business idea, it is possible to use someone else Ringgit to makes Ringgit for yourself. I don't mean it in any way that is deemed illegal, such as robbing the bank or cheat someone off their lifetime savings. I am not asking you to go and take a loan from the bank or loan sharks. Those are technically suicide for your side hustle and yourself. So, please don't... It is not worth it.

Rather, I am referring to get part of the Ringgit from your customers first. Let me share an example.

Makcik Kiah is starting a homemade nasi lemak business. It is a make upon order business to make sure that the nasi lemak will be freshly cooked. When an order of 100 packed of nasi lemak comes in, Makcik Kiah might not have the Ringgit to buy for the required ingredients. It is unwise to borrow from others. What do you think is the best option for Makcik Kiah?

The best thing that she can do is to take a deposit from the customer. Maybe around 50% upon confirmation. That way, Makcik Kiah will have enough Ringgit to pay for the ingredients.

Another advantage of this is actually to get the commitment from the customer. Imagine if Makcik Kiah pay for the ingredients and once the nasi lemak are made, the customer have a change of heart. He didn't honour his part of the deal. When this happened, Makcik Kiah will have 100 packs of nasi lemak that no one wants. She can still sell it somewhere but it needs to be cheap so that people will buy. The unsold nasi lemak will be considered a loss in the business.

With the advance payment, the chance of default by the customer will be much lower. Even when the customer defaulted, Makcik Kiah still has the advance payment to cover for the ingredients.

It is also very important for us to keep our end of the deal. Else, the customer may make a police report, and we will land into a bad situation.

If you have not read the rest of the Side Hustle Series, you can check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

The Side Hustle Series 2 - Don't Just Sit There, Take Action

This is part 2 of the side hustle series that I am writing to guide those that want to take the side hustle method to increase your income. If you have not read part one, the link is here.

Now that you have validated your idea (or even if your idea is not validated), it is time for you to make your idea into something concrete. With the advancement of technology, especially the internet, it is possible for you to start something without paying a single cent. Remember that your main aim is to create a mini-experiment, not the final product. This mini-experiment will let us know if the idea that we want can become a viable side hustle or if it is not something that the market is looking for.

Storytime

When we started The Malaysia Dividend Champions List, we started with the most basic structure. We only have a few parameters that are critical to our needs. We didn't focus on the aesthetic factor because it was not important yet. It took a while for us to get it to be acceptable for our soft launch. We called it the beta version. Once it was launched, we continue to improve it week after week. By the 10th issue, what we deem good has been created. Thus, we launched the official product on our 11th issue. Still, improvement continues to take place with feedback from our subscribers.

The main idea here is that it is okay to launch a not complete product as long as there will be continued improvement taking place. Let your customers know about it. If it does bring value to them, they will not mind. The customers may even help by giving constructive feedback to improve it.

 

It is important to get the product into something tangible or it will continue to be an idea in your mind only. And when someone else does the same thing and succeeds, you would only have yourself to blame because of your inaction.

But if your side hustle actually takes off, you will have to think of the following:

1. What do you think about your side hustle?

2. Do you like it?

3. Do you mind taking the time and effort to continue this side hustle?

4. Does it bring you the joy that you hope for?

5. What now? Do you have any plans for the future?

6. Would you want to continue with this side hustle?

7. Would you want to bring it up to the level of a full-time business?

Again, take action. At least even when you failed, you can tell others that you have tried but it was not meant to be.

If you have not read Part 1 of the Side Hustle Series, you can click here.

The Side Hustle Series 1 - Validate That Idea

There are many ways to increase our income. Some prefer to invest in the stock market for passive income, and others would work on a side hustle. There is no right and wrong way. Each has its pros and cons. This article will be a series of articles that will discuss mainly on starting a side hustle.

Let's admit it, we all have that one big idea that we believe will change the world. Some of us may have more than one. I personally have quite a few and at least one of it has become a small side hustle for myself. I was lucky because I took action on the idea. And the results are showing that I am on the right track.

Have you taken the action for your big idea?

Many of us would not dare to take action because we have been told that to start something, we need to have Ringgit first. (And for those that did, chances are, it didn't work out.)

This thought came from the saying that "It takes money to make money" but it is not real. Do you know the origin of the saying? It was to by a comedian for a play as a joke! And yet, many of us actually choose to believe that it is true.

And because of this saying, there are a lot of "starting a business" guide on the internet would tell you that you would need a business plan prepared by a professional first because that's the way it should be. In the business plan, you will put in a lot of information. You would find out that you need a lot of Ringgit to start because you will need to rent/buy an office (not forgetting the furniture and all related office items), registered the company, print name card, etc. according to your business plan.

I am sorry to tell you that this is all BS. It is on the internet to makes you believe that it is real so that you would engage the professional to write a business plan for you. What happened in the end? You will pay a certain amount of Ringgit to the professional even before you start.

You don't need a business plan to start. You need an idea to take action on. With the power call internet, it has become so easy to take action without breaking the bank. I started mine with 0 (zero) Ringgit.

But I have so many ideas. Which one should I focus on?

It is easy to feel overwhelmed because we are not sure which idea we should focus on. It was the same as mine and in my opinion, the best way is to focus on an idea that came about from our own needs.

In early 2020, I was looking for ways to find the right companies to invest. I was particularly intrigued by the idea of dividend growth investing where we invest in companies that pay out increasing dividends on yearly basis. This concept leads to the creation of the US Dividend Champions List and many similar lists have been created for a few other countries. Unfortunately (or should I says, fortunately), there is no such list in Malaysia yet (at least I don't know). So, I took the time to start researching the market and after a few months, I have established basic criteria and more than 30+ companies are able to meet these criteria.

With some help from my partner, we work out the concept into "The Malaysia Dividend Champions List" and we start promoting it to the world. It takes a while for it to start moving (people signing up) but things have been steady now. All these are done without using a single Ringgit to start but it does take a lot of our time.

Our own story for "The Malaysia Dividend Champions List" is just one of the side hustle that was started without putting in a lot of money. Some started without any Ringgit and yes, it can be done.

So, if you have an idea that you wish to test if it is workable, you can try to pitch the idea to your relatives and friends. Most of the time, you will not get real feedback because they don't want to hurt your feelings. To counter this, tell them how much you are charging for it and ask if they will sign up right there and then and become your first customer. When real Ringgit is involved, you will get their true feedback. If they rejected your idea, don't be dismayed. Use the feedback to improve your product/services or the reason to stop and focus on the next idea.

If there is at least one who signs up, you already have a winner. You have validated your idea.

Side note - even when you didn't confirm your idea, it is okay to move on to the second stage to build up your idea.

Check our Part 2 of our Side Hustle Series here.