An unacceptable fact: Side jobs are not about the level of skills, but about stable customer demand.

After working in the workplace for many years, I always wanted to do a side job, but for ordinary people, it is not that easy to do a side job. The author talks about his views on side jobs from six aspects, hoping to inspire you.

I have seen many videos like this:

As an ordinary person with low income, how did I discover these treasure troves of side jobs, and then started freelancing? After a little effort, I achieved a counterattack and earned tens of thousands of yuan a month.

Then, he will post a screenshot of his income and tell you how good these side projects are. Then he will recommend you his treasure side job.

These videos follow this structure:

• Description of personal status: low starting point, hard process, good results
• Description of the project: low cost, good profit, quick start
• Description of target users: low income, debt recovery, loser counterattack

It is not difficult to see that these keywords are deadly and accurate, and every word has deeply touched the hearts of people who work side jobs.

I was particularly curious for a while, so I checked out the side job channels they mentioned, and found that most of them were scams.

They are either developing downlines or helping some unscrupulous businesses to cheat people into registering, and then they ask you to pay for low-priced courses, which is considered to be extremely conscientious.

However, it is undeniable that the anxiety about side jobs has always existed.

The emergence of Chatgpt has accelerated the globalization of AI. Even the bosses of major domestic companies are thinking about how to reduce labor costs and increase efficiency every day.

During a downward cycle, it is questionable whether ordinary people can keep their jobs, let alone get promotions and salary increases.

The main job is not stable and the income may drop sharply at any time. Faced with such uncertainty, the side job has naturally become the white moonlight in the hearts of many people.

Every day I read different versions of stories like "give up a million-dollar annual salary to start a business" and "you have to quietly learn XX and then surprise everyone" . Today I casually searched for side jobs, and it seems to be all opportunities, without risks. But when you think about it carefully, it's scary.

Today, I want to talk to you about my views on "side job".

01

Please think about this question first: Is the extra work you do to generate income a part-time job or a side job?

Handing out flyers, delivering food, driving Didi, doing odd jobs and the like, these kinds of jobs basically depend on the day and are not always available, so these kinds of jobs are part-time jobs .

The other type is a job that is related to one's professional skills or hobbies and requires long-term management. This is a side job .

The most essential difference between a part-time job and a side job lies in their accumulative potential.

The value output of part-time work belongs to the boss, and it is still in the category of working. There is nothing else except labor compensation.

A side job is not just about making money in the moment, it also helps you accumulate advantages and enhance your competitiveness in the long run.

So can ordinary people do a good job in a side job? Actually, it is difficult.

Here is a set of data from the "Titanium Media 2023 Young People's Side Jobs Report":

30% of the sideline income is below 1,000 yuan;

20% of the population earns 1,000-3,000 yuan from side jobs;

Only 12.6% of young people earn more than 10,000 yuan a month from side jobs;

Another 15.4% of young people do not make money through side jobs.

According to the data in the report, a considerable number of people can earn over 10,000 yuan per month from their side jobs, and their main job income is basically above 30,000 yuan.

It can be said that if you don’t do your main job well, it will be difficult to do your side job well either.

Maybe you will say that someone around you has made money by doing a side job and now earns tens of thousands of yuan a month and has started working as a freelancer.

As someone who has been through it, I can tell you that such people do exist, but there are only a handful of people who can reach this state.

I have said so much not to discourage you from having a side job, but I hope you can have an objective understanding of it: a side job is not as simple as those bloggers say.

"Do xx in your spare time and easily earn 20,000 yuan a month!"

"You can do it with just a mobile phone. There is no basic requirement. Even a novice can make a fortune!"

I advise you not to have such fantasies.

Strip away the fantasies and understand the side job from an objective perspective, only then can you do it well.

So, what are the things you need to know before starting a side job?

02

The types of side jobs can be said to be diverse and complex.

We-media, e-commerce/purchasing agent/WeChat business, street vendors/offline shops, online writers/part-time writers, video editing/dubbing, fund stock investment, tutoring/training, designers/illustrators, accompanying services such as playing/accompanying medical treatment/accompanying shopping, photographers...

If we look closely, you will find that most of them have professional skill requirements.

Now you may ask, what if I don’t have these professional skills?

In fact, in addition to the sale of professional skills, there are several other types:

1. Distributor/Agent

Many platforms have a variety of products/courses that can be distributed. As the operating mechanism matures, you don’t even need to prepare the copywriting and pictures yourself. You can just copy and paste. If you have professional skills, you may even have the opportunity to turn it into a small business.

2. Make money from the platform/brand

For example, the early Toutiao Qingyun Project, or Zhihu's call for submissions, as well as related activities promoted by various platforms, such as the incentives given to Genshin Impact anchors based on the number of views, live broadcast duration, and number of online users, also fall into this category.

3. Resource integrator

You will see that many people in the circle of friends are doing resource integration. Simply put, it is to bring the supply and demand sides together for cooperation, or to put it bluntly, to create a group. Then they can charge membership fees or matchmaking fees.

03

Now that you know the types of side jobs, how do you find the sources?

Almost no one I know has looked for side jobs from the so-called “100 ways to get a side job”.

Generally speaking, their side jobs come from building a good reputation at work, and they also provide external services, so when others need them, they will think of them first. Through one or two sporadic collaborations, they confirm that the other party has the corresponding ability to solve certain problems, and thus a relatively stable cooperative relationship is formed. This is the first source of side jobs.

Another source is that you bought a product/service from a blogger/brand, and the blogger is in an expansion phase, so there will be a need for distribution/agents. At this time, you can start a sideline business by cooperating with them. For example, many friends who run training camps may have been a teacher's assistant or class teacher at the beginning.

In addition to the two sources mentioned above, there is also the possibility that you see an opportunity to do something, take the initiative to collect relevant information and break it down, and finally try it out bit by bit yourself.

A reliable experience is that we don’t need to listen to the 100 side job channels recommended by those side job bloggers, just look at what the bloggers themselves are doing .

For example, some bloggers will share with you some tools or websites they are using. In fact, they may not really use them for a long time. It is more likely that they are helping to promote these tools/websites.

04

After locking the source, what to do next?

A heartbreaking truth: Most people don’t need to learn how to create IP or any other skills to monetize. It just requires two words: willing to sell/dare to sell.

So the first step is to clearly state the product/service you want to sell. If there is real demand, you can basically sell it, it’s just a matter of how much. The first level is often the level of courage.

When you sell it, you will find that it is not as difficult as you imagined. All that remains is to clarify the corresponding needs.

The next step is to find people who have the same needs, that is, your target users.

An unacceptable fact: the key to a side job is not the internal competition of professional skills, but stable customer demand. The second step is to sell to the right people.

So is there a third or fourth?

That's all. If I had to say it, it's strong enforcement.

05

I have a side job, but it doesn’t make much money. How can I develop it?

For a side job, earning less money and investing less is already considered good. Another possibility is that you spend 10 times as much time to earn one tenth of the money of your main job.

Therefore, if this matter is not cumulative, then I suggest not doing it.

So, what I’m talking about here is the kind of side job that has a long investment cycle but strong accumulation, such as self-media.

The development of this kind of side business requires a process of nurturing, which is equivalent to a development game. Once developed, it will bring you rich rewards.

Looking back on my entire journey, it is roughly as follows:

Try to distribute (measure feasibility) - Output content in the circle of friends (induce recognition and demand identification) - Try to do some activities and interactions (wash out target users) - Plan out-of-circle content (content leverage) - Continuously output theory and practical cases (solve trust) - Enterprise cooperation & C-end monetization (try) - Determine your main way to make money (clarify the model)

This cycle is calculated in years, so don't quit your job to do it full-time until your side job can generate enough income.

In the process, I summarized the following experience:

An objective fact:

The explosive growth of self-media requires luck, but it is more likely to be possible through long-term accumulation of potential energy and continuous promotion.

A basic premise:

Whose money do you want to make, what do you sell and what value do you provide, and can you continue to gain profits (continuous repurchases, a high enough average order value, a steady stream of monetizable traffic, and platform subsidies).

A piece of experience:

Maybe many people think that in the early stage, you rely on the output of a large amount of content to gain fans, but this is the thinking of creators rather than business people. If you want to monetize, you must make monetization your first priority. You need to verify the logic first.

Throughout the entire process, many people believed that as long as they had a large amount of content, they could continue to gain fans and then monetize directly from the fans.

But what needs to be emphasized here is that what you are looking for are fans who are willing to pay, and at the same time, the content you create must be content that can be paid for (you need to be clear about your own value point that can be paid for, otherwise it will be useless to just pile up data).

You need to know how big a group you can cover and whether you can support yourself. If you haven't reached this level yet, you need to keep working hard until the group is big enough before you can start working as a freelancer.

If you are still unknown at the moment, but you have enough strength, what you need to do is to find leverage first, plan popular content to go viral, and after gaining a large number of fans, maintain them first, constantly wash out target fans through testing, try to monetize on a small scale, try to expand, and try to copy.

A necessary mindset:

Self-media is something that requires hard work but most likely will not be rewarded. Failure is the norm, and success depends on luck, accumulation, and the management of various relationships. Therefore, you need to treat it with a normal mind, otherwise you will easily collapse.

Remember, a side job is built on “nurturing”.

06

What advice do you have for people who want to turn their side job into a full-time job and become freelancers?

First of all, let me talk about the situation where some people can't help but want to try freelancing.

These people usually have accumulated several years of work experience, may be in management positions, and have achieved certain results in the company's business.

They think they have mastered so much knowledge and want to see if they have the ability to build an "income system". Such people will regret it if they don't try, so they want to try it as soon as they have the opportunity.

It is true that freelancers can earn tens of thousands of yuan a month, but it is extremely unstable. Maybe I earn 20,000 yuan this month, and 1,000-2,000 yuan next month. This is a common thing. Unlike when you are working, the money arrives on time every month, and then your expectations are very stable, and you can plan the use of funds under a stable situation.

Therefore, freelancing is not something that everyone can afford because the uncertainty and risks are difficult to manage.

On another level, if I may earn 300,000 yuan as a freelancer this year, I may not necessarily earn more than this amount next year, and may even earn less.

Because the current environment is extremely unstable, it is very challenging to adapt. If you work in a company, you have a clear promotion and salary increase, and basically a 5% salary increase in one year is relatively certain. As time goes by, the annual "5%" compound interest of working has a lot of room for increase. But freelancers are not so certain, it may be positive or negative.

Of course I cannot use too extreme examples, but basically you can see that there are very few people who do well, and the proportion of those who get promoted and get a raise through working is much higher.

If you really can't hold back, I would suggest setting a timeline for yourself, stop when the time is up, and go find a job.

For example, after resigning, I will give myself 2 months to create an income closed loop. After the final verification, don't continue blindly, but go to work first, gradually iterate this closed loop little by little, until it can be sustained and expanded, and then consider doing it full-time.

The above is today’s sharing about side jobs.

Author: Zhizhong

WeChat public account: Shixian Operation (ID: yyshixian)