30 Side Project Ideas: Extra Money and New Skills
For the first 10 years of my career, I had many side projects with varying degrees of success.
While most of them didn’t make me a lot of money, each of them helped me learn new skills and gain confidence before I went full-time on my own business. Without side projects, I never would have had exposure to marketing, sales, or financial modeling, and all those skills came in really handy when Draft.dev started to take off.
So this week, I wanted to share a bunch of worthwhile side project ideas that you can explore. If you have other ideas, hit reply so I can add them to my list!
Why Your Employer Might Just be Your First Client
So many entrepreneurs start by selling their services to former employers.
This month on my podcast, Retained Trust, David Flanagan explains why this works so well and how he used his existing network to get his first clients at Rawkode Academy.
Your Network is Often Your Most Valuable Asset
Similar to the above advice, leaning on your network to get your first customers is also a really common path.
Jared Gibson is exceptionally good at building and maintaining a network, so I really enjoyed talking with him about it for the Retained Trust podcast a couple weeks ago.
But, it's not all about shouting into the ether; you have to offer valuable things to people - often for free - for years before it pays off.
So, what are you doing to build and offer value to your network today?
Can You be a Founder Who's not a CEO?
Many founders can run financially successful one-person operations but hit a plateau when they become the bottleneck.
If you're contemplating starting a business, consider what your day-to-day will look like once you succeed. It's a lot different running a 10-person business than a 1-person show!
Check Out Retained Trust on YouTube
My new weekly podcast, Retained Trust just crossed 10 episodes, and we've got dozens more in the pipeline!
If you like the show, I'd really appreciate a sub on YouTube, and if you don't like it, let me hear what you want to hear in a podcast for digital agency owners.