While the allure of a one-person business is tempting, it's worth noting from my experience: over 70% of such ventures struggle to scale beyond a certain point. The lack of personal branding merely exacerbates this challenge, creating a ceiling for growth.
Great point Renzo and I completely agree! Personally I like the ceiling I've established since in the times I've broken beyond it, quality of life has dropped significantly. But agree that scaling hits a wall unless you outsource, delegate, or build the viral personal brand.
I think many of these hustles are great to do alongside freelancing or a job. This is what I did for years. It took about 4 years for my YouTube channel to grow into something that could be a full-time job.
I’ll admit though, growing a side business while working a 9-5 job can be a grind 😅
I’ve tried to get my YouTube channel with 74k subscribers to be a source of income with no avail. I love creating videos but I make about $200 a year on Adsense. To this day I’m not sure what I do wrong.
Why not use your YouTube channel as an entry point for your Substack? I guess you've already converted some YouTube subscribers to Substack, right? You may want to optimise for that.
I don't know your audience, but what product would they be interested in? A book, some merch, a paid community?
Great question Frank! I'm actually building a new YouTube channel that overlaps with my Substack content. My main channel covers simple online gigs, hustles, and the world of beermoney apps so it's very low ticket. I have some some ebooks but generally focus on CPA affiliate offers and low ticket items :)
Wow congrats on 74k though, that's impressive. Do you mind sharing more info? Do you happen to have a few videos that got most of the views and subscribers and then the newer videos fall flat? This was my channel for several years but eventually i started making more similar content to the winners and that helped. Reviews and affiliate focused content also, but this depends on the niche. But well done that is a massive accomplishment 😊
Idea paralysis is a real problem. When I work with clients, I try to remind them to become attached to the idea. And instead become attached to the experimental process.
9 in 10 business fail. So it’s about testing as many ideas as you can to find that one in 10. While also learning as much as you can to increase your odds to say 2 in 10 or 3 times in 10.
But going in with a disconnection from the idea, and just experimenting in order to test your hypothesis, and validate is the best way I have found to move quickly and early.
Though I’d love to learn how to create Micro SaaSs as I think that is a fantastic area to operate in.
Currently I focus on offer myself as a service and I’m growing into digital products.
Great point, I've seen the same thing and experienced it myself over the years. And now with so many tools and paths, there's even more options and paralysis. I think many people (myself included) often overestimate competition and underestimate market size though. Just doing something consistently and doing it well usually works out
nice list!
Thanks Benjamin!
Totally agree with the whole 'you're the product' I do NOT care if you know me or not, I just want sales 🤣
I definitely like this path the best versus making TikTok morning routines haha
This reeks of ai and desperation but i guess thats crapitalism for ya… thanks for all the fish.
I think people using tools and tech to become financially free and not work in a cubicle until 65 is awesome.
Great Share!
Thanks Manuel!
These are cool examples! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Taryn for reading, I'm glad you like them!
While the allure of a one-person business is tempting, it's worth noting from my experience: over 70% of such ventures struggle to scale beyond a certain point. The lack of personal branding merely exacerbates this challenge, creating a ceiling for growth.
Great point Renzo and I completely agree! Personally I like the ceiling I've established since in the times I've broken beyond it, quality of life has dropped significantly. But agree that scaling hits a wall unless you outsource, delegate, or build the viral personal brand.
dream
The real business secret is how do you find subscribers who don’t care that your article is AI?
Thanks for reading!
Tried POD, affiliated marketing and youtube.
Now I had returned to full time job.
I think many of these hustles are great to do alongside freelancing or a job. This is what I did for years. It took about 4 years for my YouTube channel to grow into something that could be a full-time job.
I’ll admit though, growing a side business while working a 9-5 job can be a grind 😅
Once you stated YouTube as #1 I stopped reading. Cheers.
List is a list, not ranked by priority. Cheers
It is already messed up that substack is monetizing people's anger over this Fascist regime and you want to sell products through substack? No way!
Take care David!
I’ve tried to get my YouTube channel with 74k subscribers to be a source of income with no avail. I love creating videos but I make about $200 a year on Adsense. To this day I’m not sure what I do wrong.
Why not use your YouTube channel as an entry point for your Substack? I guess you've already converted some YouTube subscribers to Substack, right? You may want to optimise for that.
I don't know your audience, but what product would they be interested in? A book, some merch, a paid community?
Great question Frank! I'm actually building a new YouTube channel that overlaps with my Substack content. My main channel covers simple online gigs, hustles, and the world of beermoney apps so it's very low ticket. I have some some ebooks but generally focus on CPA affiliate offers and low ticket items :)
Excellent! Beermoney apps sounds like a fun topic 😊
Wow congrats on 74k though, that's impressive. Do you mind sharing more info? Do you happen to have a few videos that got most of the views and subscribers and then the newer videos fall flat? This was my channel for several years but eventually i started making more similar content to the winners and that helped. Reviews and affiliate focused content also, but this depends on the niche. But well done that is a massive accomplishment 😊
Hi Christopher.
Idea paralysis is a real problem. When I work with clients, I try to remind them to become attached to the idea. And instead become attached to the experimental process.
9 in 10 business fail. So it’s about testing as many ideas as you can to find that one in 10. While also learning as much as you can to increase your odds to say 2 in 10 or 3 times in 10.
But going in with a disconnection from the idea, and just experimenting in order to test your hypothesis, and validate is the best way I have found to move quickly and early.
Though I’d love to learn how to create Micro SaaSs as I think that is a fantastic area to operate in.
Currently I focus on offer myself as a service and I’m growing into digital products.
Great point, I've seen the same thing and experienced it myself over the years. And now with so many tools and paths, there's even more options and paralysis. I think many people (myself included) often overestimate competition and underestimate market size though. Just doing something consistently and doing it well usually works out