Alan R. Simon - Side Hustles For Dummies

How to figure out if a given MLM’s compensation model is good for you

Whether you can make any money if you’re way, way down the sales ladder

How sales territories are allocated

If you’re required to purchase a monthly allocation of products, or if you can purchase products as you sell them

From a side-hustle perspective, MLMs have some interesting advantages and possible disadvantages. On the plus side, you can find an MLM for almost anything that you want to sell for your side hustle: clothing, health and wellness products, cleaning supplies, cooking-related products, makeup, and even (ahem) “adult” products. If you can imagine something, you almost certainly can find an MLM to join!

One possible drawback, however, is that if you join an MLM, much — maybe even most or all — of your selling will be to family members and friends. Before you head down the MLM road for your side hustle, think about the possibility of constantly pushing new products on your friends and family, or dealing with them as dissatisfied customers, or telling your sister or a parent that the automatic payment on their credit card was rejected last month…. Yeah, might not be a whole lot of fun.

When I first jumped into the side-hustle game, I stuck with something very close to my day job as an Air Force computer systems officer by starting a small computer consulting and software development firm. I also began teaching and again stayed with tech topics for the classes that I taught. Then, when I wrote my first book, I once again stayed close to home, synergy-wise, and authored a book called How to be a Successful Computer Consultant (McGraw-Hill).

Your side-hustle adventures may also have a high degree of synergy with your day job.

Jack, the Scottsdale software developer who is doing part-time community college teaching, aimed for synergy with his side hustle, as did Mark, the Boston accountant who is creating a series of small business accounting videos that he’ll try to monetize.

But what about Mark’s coworker Miguel, who will also be creating and uploading videos that he hopes to monetize, but whose videos are about bartending and related topics? Accounting … bartending … nope, not even close!

Your side hustle can be closely related to what you do for your day job, or it can be totally different. Miguel opted for the totally-different fork in the road, as did Cindy, the Seattle mechanical engineer (though in Cindy’s case, she’ll actually be doing bartending).

If you’re trying out a side hustle to experiment with or begin the journey to a career change (see Chapter 1), then “something different” is a pretty good strategy for your side-hustle efforts. Or you may be like Cindy and Miguel, who enjoy their respective day jobs (for now, at least) but just want to do “something different” and make a little bit of money at the same time.

In my case, I eventually got burned out writing business and tech books, but I enjoyed the process of writing. Because I read a ton of fiction when I was a traveling consultant, I shifted my writing efforts away from the technology books to novels. For about 15 years, my side hustle writing business and tech books not only earned a little bit of extra money, but also helped establish credibility in my day job. I reached a point, however, where I had maxed out the career benefit from business and tech writing, so it was time to switch to what I enjoyed more, which was writing novels.

You can follow the same strategy: Have some synergy between your full-time career and your side hustle at first, but eventually shift your side hustle to provide a break from your day job. Or you could head right for the “something different” road right from the very beginning.

Earlier in this chapter, I introduce you to Lori, who began doing gig-economy side-hustle work at Instacart when her hours at her full-time job were cut back. One of the main reasons Lori headed for the gig-economy side of the side-hustle world was the predictability of what she would make in exchange for her efforts. She was fairly confident that she could do 20 hours a week, maybe even a little more; and she knew what Instacart paid and what she could expect from customers’ tips in addition to her contract pay.

Likewise, Jack, the Scottsdale software developer, is absolutely certain how much money he’ll make from his community college teaching side hustle — the payment amount for each class is right there in his teaching contract.

Some side hustles come with highly predictable incomes. In Jack’s case, he knows exactly what he’ll make; in Lori’s case, she’s highly confident of the range in which her income will fall each week, and she knows that if she decides to work extra hours one week and fewer hours another week, she’ll make more or less money, respectively.

But what about Cindy, the part-time weekend bartender? Cindy’s side-hustle income is less predictable than Lori’s or Jack’s. She won’t necessarily have a bartending gig every weekend, so in any given month, she could make more or less than she makes in another month, depending on how busy she is (or isn’t).

What about Miguel and his bartending videos? Or Mark and his accounting videos? Or Max and his hiking-and-biking-comedian-around-Boston videos? All three of these guys work together during the day, yet any one of them could be wildly successful with his side hustle while the other two could flop miserably and make little or no money. Or two of them could be successful; or perhaps none of them will be successful!

Some side hustles come with highly predictable incomes, or at least a high confidence for the range of money you can make, while other side hustles could wind up bringing you anywhere from no money at all to literally millions of dollars! So, how do you align your side-hustle selection with your financial needs?

If you need your side hustle to help you cover monthly expenses or to meet some specific financial obligation, then choose one that comes with “guaranteed” — or at least predictable — income. Think of these types of side hustles as having “lockstep income” — in other words, the income you make from your side hustle moves more or less in lockstep with the effort that you spend on that side hustle.

You don’t necessarily need to do a gig-economy job or a part-time job in pursuit of predictable income. Most of the time, a real estate–oriented side hustle such as a second home that you lease out, or a condo at a resort location that you rent through Airbnb or Vrbo, can also provide somewhat predictable income.

But what about the various monetized videos that Miguel, Mark, and Max plan to do? Or whatever Sandy decides to do related to his recently rediscovered sports cards and memorabilia? True, none of those side hustles could turn out to be a winner … or each could bring in ginormous amounts of money!

Many side hustles are built around the concept of passive income, which is actually a widely misunderstood concept. Many people think that the term passive means “no work required” — sort of like a side-hustle version of the old Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing.” Actually, passive-income side hustles do require work, but that work and the resultant income do not typically occur in lockstep with one another.