I realized that I could blog to accompany the books I was writing. Tens of thousands of programmers were already buying my books so it made sense to offer them a bit of extra, free available content online. It was something to differentiate my books from competing titles.
From a business perspective the idea had one important feature going for it. I already had experience writing.
Choose a side business with transferable skills to make starting up much easier
But I missed out on an entire world of opportunities because I failed to draw up a business plan.
A business plan helps you understand the niche market and provides insights into opportunities you may not initially know about.
A business plan should also do two other extremely important things. You:
- Understand how to make money early on (i.e. who your customers/readers are, what they're willing to pay, how to convince them to pay, etc).
- Understand what differentiates your business from competitors.
A good business plan takes the luck (insofar as it possible) out of starting a successful business. The more knowledge you have the more likely you are to know where to focus your efforts for optimal growth and how to avoid potential pitfalls ahead of time.
Pretty soon I realized that instead of writing for programmers, I could write for the businesses that employed them.
I began using my knowledge of web development to help less tech savvy small business owners and entrepreneurs accomplish their goals.
Publishing a comparison of top website builders, for example, helped people understand that choosing the right web platform early on could potentially save time and money — compared to expensive custom web development they might otherwise have undertaken.
This turned out to be a game changer. Instead of blogging about whatever came into my head, I now had a specific, valuable audience of small business owners with niche demands for technical information that I could meet. It wasn't long before I started generating a stream of passive income from my content.
It transformed my side hustle from what was a second job into a true business.
A job pays for work you do. A business pays for work you've done.
If earnings are directly tied to the hours you put in, you have a job — even if you're the boss. Conversely, if income is not dependent on the hours you personally put in, you have a business.