In today's episode, you'll hear from the side hustle king Nick Loper from Side Hustle Nation.

Nick got an eye-opening opportunity in college and knew he had to be his own boss.

He would eventually work three years in the corporate world. During that time he was building his side hustle.

It was quickly covering his expenses and he never looked back.

Listen and learn all about side hustles and let us know what you think.Episode Summary

He started paying attention to money when he started realizing how expensive things wereThings such as renting a tux for promHis parents didn't let on that they had the money that they didn'tIt wasn't that they were rich but they did wellHis first memorable job was through a program called College WorksThey pitch entrepreneurship, sales, and customer serviceYou don't know what the job is until the pitch is overIt turned out to be house paintingThey gave him an area of responsibility and taught him several skillsHe was in charge of hiring, firing and solving customer issuesThey warned Nick that he may never be able to work for someone after this experienceNick mentioned how important this experience was to applying his educationHe would go on to work for three years in corporate America

Nick's 1st Side Hustle

Nick built his first side hustle at 22It was a comparison shopping tools for footwearEvery day he'd come home and work on the side hustle from 7-10pmAt his normal job Nick was making ~$50k per yearBefore long the shoe site began earning enough to cover his expensesAt this point, Nick was ready to take the side hustle full timeWhat really flipped the switch for Nick was a quote from a conferenceIt was "Work on your business, not in your business"Nick took this to focus on growing the business and less of the day to day grunt workThat lead to the next side hustle which was a yelp type site for finding a virtual assistant

Choosing Your Side Hustle

Nick recommends finding two areas you're in the top 50% inThen find a way that those two things intersectHe also suggests trying out things to experimentYou'll often find your true golden idea once you get started on a projectIf you begin to dread the work, it may be time to stop working on that side hustle

Tiers of Side hustles

Nick says side hustle fall into three categories: Service, Product, AudienceFor Services, Nick really recommends branding fragmented servicesHe gives the example of building a maid service that has great customer service and ease of bookingFor Product he recommends a "buy low, sell high" model like print on demand shirtsThen for an audience, you can sell clicks to ads or affiliate linksAlso once the audience gets large enough you can sell something like an ebook or course

Key Takeaways

Expertise not required: Nick's first side hustle was comparing shoes and Nick knew very little about shoesBe better, not necessarily different: It's more important to provide a great experience than something that's never been doneThink in scale: When building a side hustle focus your energy on how it will scale. Remember work on the business not for the business

Call to Action

Go check out Nick's giant list of Side Hustles and find a few today

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 Learn more about NickVia his blog at Side Hustle NationLearn More About Your HostsFly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)