20 No BS Ways to Grow Your Side Hustle Business: A Definitive Guide
You may have seen other articles with ideas about the fastest way to grow your side hustle business that, honestly… aren’t that helpful.
Stellar suggestions like “Expand into a Global Market” or “Create a Franchise”.
Wow.
Seriously, dude?
In the following guide, I’m laying out the 20 steps that I used to build my side hustle into a 7-figure business – just for you.
Some are no-brainers like locking down your lead gen game plan.
Others are incredibly effective strategies most people overlook.
Mostly, these are proven methods to help you grow your side business that you can start using right now.
So if you’re working full-time, making sales calls on your lunch break, and hustling like a maniac nights and weekends (and you still can’t afford to pay yourself)…
This one’s for you.
How to Set Yourself Up to Crush It
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran to the side hustle, just starting out, or you’re thinking about getting started…
There’s going to be a time in the not-so-distant future (maybe the future is now)…
When you need to get off the “hustle treadmill”, stop working full-time (plus another 6 hours a day and weekends on your side hustle) and take your business revenue from “meh… I still can’t pay myself” to announcing your two weeks notice with a cake that says “Sorry for your loss!” to your boss and that a-hole, Rodney in Accounting.
Your business thrives or dies on your ability to masterfully set up a revenue stream that brings in cash – without your micro-management.
And then doing it again… and again… and again…
Not just that one time you got excited, set up an opt-in, got 5 leads you weren’t related to, and humble-bragged to your wife while slurping down a victory beer.
But repeatedly.
On demand.
Or at least for as long as you plan to keep making money.
Meaning, if you’re still constantly building your business with no idea where it’s heading… or worse, you don’t know what to do to make enough money, finally quit your day job, and stop guzzling gallons of coffee, frantically searching Google for “the answer” to getting out of the side hustle black hole…
You need to learn how to grow your side business like a freakin’ machine.
Let’s get started:
1. Decide What Kind Of Expert You Are
You’ve got the answers that someone out there is desperately searching for.
How many people do you want to reach?
To be taken seriously, you have to prove you’re an expert, provide a lot of value, and, truthfully, you need to be a bit of a celebrity.
Not to everyone – just to the people you want to work with.
So… in what areas are you an expert?
In other words, what specialized knowledge or experience do you have that can be used to help people solve their problems?
If you want to be known as the go-to guru for something, what is it?
2. Define Your Unique Expert Position
Once you’ve figured out your area of expertise, you need to figure out your UEP (Unique Expert Position).
This is where you start to become the badass problem solver that people seek out for answers.
Start finding your UEP by diving into these 3 areas:
- Passion. What are you deeply passionate about? What excites you? What gets you revved up when you talk to other people? What problems do you love solving? Is there anything you love doing so much you would practically do it for free (you know… if you didn’t have to eat)?
- Proficiency. What can you be the best at in the world? Doing a SWOT analysis and a USP Analysis will help you define the areas where you’re truly a badass.
- Profit. Within your business, what are the areas that most of your income is coming from? What products/services produce the greatest financial outcome for you? What would you need to change or shift to offer your best money makers on a larger scale?
Once you’ve done some digging in these areas, you’ll start to see some overlapping ideas. Bring them all together, and you’ll find your sweet spot somewhere in the middle – otherwise known as your UEP.
Go ahead and figure it out… I’ll wait here.
Got it?
Awesome.
Now that you’ve got a handle on that, let’s find out what niche you want to focus on.
3. Get Clear On Your Avatar
So… about this niche of yours…
If you respond to the question, “who is your perfect client?” (a.k.a. your avatar) with “anyone with a pulse and a wallet”…
You’re not only missing the point – you’re driving away sales.
The needs and mentality of an 18 year-old about to start college are completely different than a 28 year-old about to have his first kid and trying to buy a house.
Every piece of marketing, every course, ebook, and blog post is going to be talking directly to your avatar.
Get clear on who you’re serving.
Master your understanding of who they are, what they value, and what they need from you.
Once you understand who they are on a personal level, you can connect with them right where they live.
You may even have more than one avatar – depending on your business plans and offerings, but for now, focus on fully developing one at a time.
4. Figure Out Your Avatar’s Biggest Problem
If you want to create loyal fans that see you as their trusted advisor and come back to you for more, you need to solve their problems and give them what they want.
I can hear you saying:
“Great. But how do I do that?”
Become a mind-reader.
Here are 3 ways to “read” your avatar’s mind and find out what they want and need from you:
- Ask. Create a survey or poll that asks in-depth, probing questions to find out what they’re struggling with, what’s going on in their lives and businesses right now, and what answers they’re trying to find.
- Review Mining. Whether you use Amazon, Yelp, or your competitor’s websites, review mining is a great strategy to find out what your avatar values and what they’ve been struggling with.
Pro tip: You can find ideas for your sales copy in what people are already saying. It’s how conversion copywriters get that “Woah. You’re reading my mind.” response for their clients. Check out this great review mining demo from Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers to see it in action. - Search the Forums. Similar to review mining, this strategy takes it a bit further. Rather than seeing one side of the conversation, you can get the bigger picture of public opinion and insights.
An easy way to search for forums talking about your topic is to go to Google and type in “[subject, topic, or relevant keyword]” + “[forum of your choice]”.
Look through the results and see what’s being said. Take notes about their problems, and the answers they’re seeking, as well as what other problems they have that are related.
What stories, concerns, and struggles do people have around the issues you know how to solve?
Once you’re loaded with an arsenal of understanding, let’s do something about it.
5. Find The Solution
Once you know what solutions your audience needs and the experience they want (i.e. ease of use for a software, freedom from frustration, etc.) it’s up to you to give them the answer.
It’s a nice start to becoming the authority on the subject.
You can serve the answers up through a number of lead generating options, like a webinar, an ebook, etc. – which we’ll get into in just a bit.
You’re not going to know how to solve every issue you run into and you shouldn’t have to either.
When you find an area that isn’t a strong point for you, bring in an outside expert to help.
Not only will you serve your community better, but your know-like-and-trust factor increases big time for those searching for answers.
6. Be Ready to Bring In Expert Help
When the solution isn’t in your wheelhouse, it can be tempting to pretend you’re the only one your audience will ever need and serving up some half-baked knowledge you found after doing Google searches ’til 3 am.
Do not do this.
Most people have a pretty solid BS meter, and pretending to be something you aren’t is a sure fire way to lose credibility.
Instead, find an expert that’s crushing it, spend a little time developing a relationship with them, and invite these heavy-hitters to come on your platform, showcase their authority, and help your audience solve their problems.
Not only is it a great way for you to serve your community while giving them top-line solutions, but it helps you become an “expert by association”.
It also gives your guest expert an expanded audience.
Bonus: their fans will get an introduction to you too.
Magnetize Your Cold Traffic
Now that you’ve laid down the groundwork and you know who your perfect client is, let’s get them interested in working with you.
7. Lock Down Your Lead Generators
There are so many channels for generating leads.
Maybe you have a lead magnet that’s giving away something of value like an ebook, a checklist, a webinar, or a 5-day challenge to help people break the news that they’re an entrepreneur to their parents.
Who knows.
Whatever it is, I bet you’ve had little-to-no luck with it so far.
According to Sumo, a good email opt-in rate is only 1.95%. They also said, “Anything above that and you’re doing better than half the world. Nice work :)”
Yeesh.
Not only that… your leads are often unqualified, and that’s if they even go past the opt-in.
However, all is not lost, young Padawan.
If you can connect with your audience and start providing answers that are incredibly valuable, outside of your opt-ins, you’ve got a good shot of people seeking what else you offer.
Don’t get me wrong, the money is in the list, and opt-ins are a damned good tool for growth and traction.
When you do create your opt-in, it’s vital to make sure it’s highly compelling and that it adds a lot of value to your target audience.
Also, cut yourself some slack. Remember, 1.95% is doing damn good.
When you’re putting out some baller content and creating incredible opt-ins, your list is going to grow fairly quickly.
Check out my buddy Pat’s video to learn about creating powerful opt-ins that generate leads and help you get started on the path of being the “go-to guru” for your audience and building your list.
8. Find Your “Sweet Spot” Promotional Channel
According to the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares, there are 19 channels that every business can use to get traction.
Not all of them are going to be winners, but testing different channels to find the one that works best for your business (and then focus your marketing efforts on that one channel) is the key to getting fast traction.
The 19 channels are:
- Targeting Blogs – Contributing to or being featured on blogs that your target audience reads.
- Publicity – Getting your name out there via traditional news outlets like TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.
- Unconventional PR – Creating buzz to generate media coverage by doing publicity stunts. On a smaller scale, holding a contest or sending hand-written letters to your clients.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Placing ads on search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
- Social and Display Ads – These are the banner ads you see on websites and social media.
- Offline Ads – These are ads placed in offline spaces like TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, billboards, direct mail, etc.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The art of improving your site and content to rank higher in search results.
- Content Marketing – Creating content, like videos and blogs, that are likely to be commented on and shared widely.
- Email Marketing – Messages from your company to connect with your audience and send promotions to their email inbox.
- Viral Marketing – Expanding your customer base by getting your existing customers to refer others to you.
- Engineering as Marketing – Making useful tools like calculators, widgets, and educational microsites to get your company in front of potential customers (like Hubspot’s Blog Idea Generator).
- Business Development – Creating a beneficial partnership between your startup and another company to refer customers to each other or to collaborate on projects.
- Sales – The process of getting people to hand you money for whatever you’re offering.
- Affiliate Programs – You pay people or companies for sending people your way if it ends in a sale or becomes a qualified lead.
- Existing Platforms – Websites, platforms, apps, or networks with lots of active users (i.e. Facebook)
- Trade Shows – An event that allows you to showcase your products or services in person. Often industry related.
- Offline Events – From small meetups to large conferences, offline events are a great way to engage with your audience face-to-face.
- Speaking Engagements – Public speaking gigs are a great way to get visibility and gain credibility.
- Community Building – Building the connections among your customers, fostering relationships and helping them bring more people into your community.
Gabriel and Justin recommend testing 2-3 channels at a time (even those you might not be familiar with).
It’s important as you’re running these tests, to track the results for each channel (i.e. cost per click, conversion rate, and customer acquisition cost).
Figure out what’s working and what isn’t, and adjust your strategy.
Once you find a channel that’s out-performing the others, lean into it and give it all you’ve got.
9. My #1 Not-So-Secret Weapon
Remember when I said I’d teach you about the incredibly effective strategy I used to grow my own side hustle to a 7-figure business?
It’s time, grasshopper.
One of the longest-running, most effective strategies (that goes completely under the radar) is hosting a virtual summit.
A virtual summit is an online event that’s structured like a conference with content that gets trickled out over a few days.
They’re also one of the fastest, most reliable ways to establish yourself as an authority and build your influence.
Don’t believe me?
Even Forbes says virtual summits are great for building influence!
Virtual summits focus on the biggest problem the target audience is dealing with and brings the top minds in the industry together to give the viewers the answers and strategies they need to solve it.
The summit is made up of a collection of pre-recorded interviews or presentations from these leading experts. That way, summit attendees get to watch the videos from the comfort of their own home (pants optional).
Typically, the videos are edited to provide the best high-quality content and are only available for a set number of days.
Lifetime access to those videos is often offered for a small fee.
Most people overlook virtual summits because they seem like a ton of work and they’re not sure how they’d even get industry leaders that are willing to come on board.
Getting experts to come on board is easier than you think, so don’t be intimidated!
There are also some powerful revenue opportunities with summits that make it well worth the work.
Here are a few quick examples:
- Affiliate marketing
- Paid lifetime access to the summit recordings
- “Ever-Summits” (where the summit is utilized as a powerful funnel on an ongoing basis)
- Following the summit up with a relevant, powerful course
- And much more
It’s also one of the fastest ways to establish yourself as an industry leader – since you’re the one coordinating and hosting the event.
10. Make It Last
As I mentioned above, an Ever-Summit is a great way to make money with virtual summits.
An Ever-Summit is a “Forever Summit” – meaning that it brings in leads on an ongoing basis for as long as you keep it active.
It’s easily one of the fastest, most effective ways to grow a side hustle, gain influence and get traction.
Monetizing (AKA – The Fun Part)
A virtual summit is great for building that know-like-and-trust factor, generating motivation to solve their problem, as well as giving your avatar lots of solutions from your experts. Keep in mind, summits offer a huge amount of information in broad strokes, which can sometimes be overwhelming.
After the summit, some of your attendees may need more in-depth guidance to help them get specific results and a plan that helps them move forward. It’s a good thing you’re here!
11. Create Even More Value
Once the summit closes, it isn’t finished being useful…not by a long shot!
If you used a software like Virtual Summits Software, to host your event, you can turn it into a nice ongoing funnel for other people looking for information on your topic.
You can also reach out to everyone who registered for the summit (even the people who didn’t show up the first time) and offer them lifetime access to the summit for a small fee.
This gives them a chance to go over anything they missed, replay parts that stood out to them and stay inspired!
It also gives you a great passive income stream that will increase over time.
Since your summit is pre-recorded, it can also be re-launched a few times a year to bring in even more leads and revenue.
We’re not quite done yet.
There’s still money on the table, so it’s time to take things even further.
12. Get Laser-Focused And Become The Hero
Since your audience still has questions and needs guidance, it’s time to create a course that gives them the specific steps, and tools it takes for them to overcome their biggest headache and achieve their #1 desired outcome.
You’re not trying to solve everything they struggle with – just the big one.
The goal is to teach them what they need to know and do to bring themselves out of the struggle they’re in.
Sounds heroic to me.
Not sure what their biggest problem is?
Your answers will be found in the tactics from step 4 and in your post-summit follow-up.
Once your summit has wrapped up, send out a survey and ask your attendees what they liked about the virtual summit, what they’re struggling with most in their businesses (life/romance/insert summit appropriate theme here), and what information they would have liked hearing more about.
Be sure to ask open-ended questions like…
“What could we have done better?”
“Was there anywhere you feel we missed the mark?”
And “Is there a topic or information you’d like us to dive into next time?”
There are a number of questions you can ask, but the point is to get feedback and use it to find out what they really need!
13. Listen – Learn – Tweak – Launch
Your course doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to offer a lot of value.
Creating a beta test for your course at a lower price point, for a small group of people, allows you to figure out where the kinks are and get some powerful case studies for your launch promos.
It also helps take off some of the “gotta be perfect” pressure.
As you get feedback from your beta testers, make the tweaks that are needed and remove any snags in your funnel and on-boarding process.
After the beta round, you’re ready to launch your course.
You already have a warm crowd – your summit attendees.
They’re likely to buy your course because they’re clearly interested in the summit topic, they’ve already gotten a lot of value from you, and they’re more likely to pay for additional help to get the in-depth guidance they need.
You’re also a bit higher on their know-like-and-trust list.
However, don’t assume they’re the only ones that will enroll and ignore your other options, like other subscribers on your email list and fans that are engaging with your high-quality content.
14. Implement Fast
I want to pause here briefly to make sure you’re not overthinking any of this and that you don’t get stuck in “workshopping” mode.
I can’t stress this enough:
Be fast to implement the changes that are needed to make your business better.
I’m not telling you to pivot every 3 weeks or to apply any half-baked idea to your business.
What I am saying is…
Learn as much as you can from audience feedback, books, the experts you meet, and the experience you gain, and apply the lessons that you think could make your business better.
Not sure if what you’re thinking is a good idea?
Test it and see.
If it’s a bad move, you’ll know it pretty quickly.
If it’s a winner, stick with it!
Be quick to try new things and discard the ones that aren’t working. Don’t waste your time trying to make a lame idea good.
In the end, you’ll be wiser, a better leader, and you’ll have a stronger business – not to mention some good stories.
Maximizing Your Revenue Potential
Hosting a virtual summit and having a course is a great start, but to really make it rain, you need more steps in the revenue chain. Steps that can be automated, scaled, and made to work for you.
Now is when we start to play with the big kids.
Between the summit and your course, you’ve already got some pretty hot leads.
Now it’s time to take your relationship with your audience to the next level: a high-ticket offering.
15. Create A High-Ticket Offering
There are a lot of options for high-ticket items like coaching, consulting, certification programs, live events, paid masterminds, etc.
The goal is to create an offer that gives your customer base a limited, high-end experience that is going to drastically improve their lives.
When considering what your high-ticket offering should be, think about what’s going to get the best results for your client while also allowing you freedom and flexibility.
It should be easy to automate and scale while minimizing the amount of time and effort it takes for you to keep it running smoothly.
16. Focus On Transformation
In your course, you focused on solving your audience’s biggest problem.
In your high-ticket offer, your focus needs to be creating a transformation that has a huge impact on their quality of life.
I’m not trying to convince you that creating a product that leads to transformation is going to be easy…
It’s not.
However, because this transformation offers so much value for them and takes much more work and effort on your part – it’s worth the high-ticket price for your audience.
17. Be The “Go-To” Problem Solver
Your audience is going to go through some major shifts through this whole process and you’re going to be the one they look to for answers (after all, you’ve been their expert problem solver up to this point).
It’s up to you to be the one that minimizes, reduces, or eliminates the problems they run into after their high-ticket experience with you.
For more details on setting up your “hustle funnel”, click here to get my Hustle to Scale Blueprint. It’s the definitive guide for putting these steps together and spiking your business growth.
Multiplying Your Cash Flow
At this point, some of your audience may be getting into uncharted territory, they’ll be facing new challenges that they may not have thought of yet.
You can and should take the opportunity to help them with these next steps too.
How?
I’m so glad you asked…
18. Create A Membership
Even after your audience has been through your other products and services, there’s still more you can do for them.
Your fans need help getting to the next level of success in other areas of their lives too (like family, love, health, etc).
For example: A graphic designer may have been struggling to get clients (which is something you’ve helped them overcome), but now they’re struggling to manage their time, or their stress levels, and all those shiny new clients!
To help your community with the other problems they’re dealing with, create a membership to give them the extra help they need.
I’ll go into how you can help others in areas outside your expertise in just a moment.
Before I do…
I want to stress the importance of making sure you have a solid onboarding strategy for new members.
The first 60 days of your membership are the most important for over-delivering value and educating your customers in order to avoid buyer’s remorse and confusion. Of the initial 60 days, the first 14 are crucial.
Make sure you have it locked down.
19. Recruit Expert Help
As we’ve talked about, you’re not the expert in every area (that’s a good thing)!
First, find out the specific areas that can either add the most value to your audience’s lives or the issues that are the most challenging for them.
Next, you’ll need to seek out the top thought-leaders in areas where your audience is struggling, but you aren’t the expert.
Each month, pick a theme around the needs of your community. Bring in an expert who can really dive into that area and serve up exclusive, insider solutions.
By giving your community access to top experts on a regular basis, you’ll add a ton of value to their lives and help them solve their problems.
Your members will happily pay a monthly (or annual) fee to have that kind of access and support.
20. Serve Through Your Own Lens
It can be incredibly tempting to fall into the trap of trying to be “all things to all people”, but stay focused on your sweet spot and serve your fans through the lens of your Unique Expert Positioning (UEP).
Wherever you’re not an expert, find the people who are and bring them in to round out your solutions.
However, be sure that the experts you bring in are relevant to your UEP.
Let me give you an example:
Marie Forleo and her online course, “B-School”.
Marie’s UEP is online marketing strategies and she’s got a lot of loyal fans seeking her guidance on all things business.
She’s been through a lot in business and can speak with authority on almost everything she’s asked, but she still wants to help the members of her B-School community with areas they struggle to reconcile.
Even when she’s not the expert.
For instance: Copywriting.
Copywriting isn’t something that she’s an expert in, so she’s brought in copywriter Laura Belgray to create another offering: The Copy Cure.
Her guest expert is addressing the problem, adding value, and still lets Marie serve through the lens of her UEP.
After all, what is an online marketing strategy without solid copywriting?
How You Can Use These Steps For Your Side Hustle Today
This article, taken a step at a time, will lay the groundwork to establish you as an authority, grow your side hustle, and generate recurring revenue.
That said…
I know it can be overwhelming to plan how you’re going to apply these steps.
That’s why I’m giving you my Hustle to Scale Blueprint for free to help you get started. Click the big, beautiful graphic below for your copy.
Looking for some extra support? We’d love to have you in the Hustle & Scale Community. We bring people that are still working their side hustle together with those that have made it into the 6 and 7-figure brackets. It’s a great place to get ideas, find inspiration, and a kick in the ass when you need it.
