Four Types of Side Hustles - & PROS and CONS with Each by Mike-the-Pharmacist

To start, what is a SIDE HUSTLE? Well a quick definition is it's an extra income stream, and extra paycheck each month. You probably can't go to your boss and say, "you know what, I find there's too much month at the end of my month, so do you mind giving me an extra check so I can start getting ahead?" It would be appealing for most people to have a dependable and consistent (And hopefully growing) extra income stream each month.

Warren Buffet said it best, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” That’s a pretty difficult truth that your college teachers probably didn't tell you. But I think more and more we are seeing there has to be another way, if not a better one. That’s why you’re reading this article right now.

I will break them up into the various categories.

1) The first group doesn't really have a name but it requires either upfront investment or the right timing with your talents.

How does that work? Well, if you have tons of money, you can buy stocks and live off the interest month after month. If the Market doesn't crash.

Or you can buy some rental properties. Every month, you can depend on some rent money to come in. You can buy a duplex and rent out the other half to your brother in law. Except when you don't have tenants, or your broke brother in law realizes you won't kick him out after falling 7 months behind, or COVID hits and tennants live there but don't have to pay and you can't kick them out.

If you have tons of talents, you can write a hit song or a catchy song and be a one hit wonder - and every month you will earn royalties for your song. Assuming folks are still buying CD's and records these days. Elvis is still making money today. It's not helping him right now, but it's still pretty cool to get paid for not just what you do, but what you started. Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, who died in 2008 is still making money off books he wrote one time. Or at least his family is. Charles Shulz is still making money from the Peanuts reruns, even though he died over 20 years ago. I wonder if their families are fighting each month a check comes in like they do at the reading of the will.

The obvious appeal for finding ways to earn residual month-after-month income is obvious. You make money whether you get out of bed, or stay in bed, or even after you're dead. When I die working for a hourly wage, the company I work for will have me replaced the next week, because if you are just working time for dollars, your income stops when you do. Are you able to save 35% of your income, starting at age 20, finding some great places to invest it in, and are you able to stay in the same company for 40 years and invest in their 401K match program? If you are, you are becoming more and more of the few. Most companies now won't last 40 years. Most CAREER options today won't be here in 40 years. I am expecting pharmacists to be replaced by Amazon and trained monkeys from the Amazon at any moment. If you think that you can be good enough in today's economy to last 40 years, you might want to rethink that. Because if you are that good - guess what? Then you are a target and they will look for ways to replace you. Or bring in Amazon trained monkeys.

And today more and more of us don't have pensions, many have nothing saved for retirement let alone have tons of debts currently, and most people are not confident that they will have enough money to survive retirement. Many of us will be lucky if we don't have to work until 4:30 the day of our funerals.

However, if your kid starts a YouTube channel today, they may be able to support you in retirement. That is the beauty of residual income.

Obviously the challenges of the above scenarios - having tons of money OR tons of talent, is many folks don't have either. We are shackled often by our degree. If our degree becomes irrelevant, we don't know what to do except go back to college and get another degree which by the time we graduate is already irrelevant. And those of us who are talented don't know what it takes to leverage that talent. You are reading this blog article - but how did you get a hold of it and why aren't 1,000 more folks seeing this? If a 1,000 folks would read it, does that mean I could make this into a book and sell it on Amazon? Are 1,000 folks going to read this - or is my only readers going to be Corporate Generals reading this now looking for ways to report me to the Facebook Militia? The only thing you know for sure is there are plenty of people out there who promise you they know how to turn your talents into dollars. The only problem is that everyone of them guarantees their way or method is the one to use, and they have plenty of free material to get you engaged and then they hit you with a $3,997 Master Class. You will probably do more with it than at $39,997 College degree, but the difference was in college you had family and parents and professors and dorm captains and supportive uncles hounding you if you don't finish. If you buy the Master Classes family will just hound you why you aren't enrolling in college.

You don't really know what is going to work to get that touch of success. You can control your activity and actions - but if things don't happen fast enough you can feel like a failure.

That doesn't mean you can't still help people as you figure things out. For example, I got a question on Vitamin D today on my health group I run - someone is taking 50,000 units daily and their levels are still not good. I know that D3 is better than D2 because D3 is natural. I know that it's fat soluble so I can ask how they take it. However, I couldn't think of much more than that. So I went on Dr. Google, found a good article, and can spend 5 minutes reading it, do a nice Facebook live where I can regurgitate what I found, and offer them the article at the end of the video. I am not charging them, but I can circle back and those that watched the article are LEADS. They want to know more about Vitamin D and health, and I can see what problems they have and maybe I have a product to help them. And that product may be something I sell, or it may be something I will send them on Amazon.

What I am trying to say is the above options you may or may not have much control over what happens. These type of things are maybe hobbies - and at some point in life, you may get "discovered". Or you may get overlooked. The starving artist who was in the right place at the right time like an Ed Sheeran, the elderly businessman who at age 65 starts his chicken business and it's found to be finger lickin' good with 11 herbs and spices, Samuel L. Jackson getting his shot at age 40 and finding that breakthrough role at age 45. These can be all "take it or leave it." Ed would still be singing if he never was found. The Colonol would be making chicken for friends and family the rest of his life if he had to take a job at Radio Shack instead because his business failed. Samuel L. Jackson would still be Samuel L. Jackson.

Life isn't fair -- just when you thought there was nothing that made you want to run from man-eating sea creatures as much as the JAWS theme song, out came Baby SHARK. Sometimes talent and skill and dedication for your craft is no match for 2 year old's begging for every toy under the sun that plays that song. I give out a lot of my info both when I work the retail counter in pharmacy and online. You can't exactly bill someone who asks you a Vitamin D question even though you might spend 1/2 hour researching the answer and giving them it. It's like when my wife crochet's- she may spend $25 on yarn, 6 hours of her time making something, $15 in shipping, and the person will send her a $10 gift card.

So in summary with the above scenario, this one is your dream. Keep taking steps to see that dream get in position to be discovered. Just don't expect this to pay the bills. This LONG blog post may be too long for folks to read and this likely isn't going to be my big break - but if I never wrote it, then for sure nothing would happen. And I am not writing this demanding that I get 1,000 readers. I am giving good free content, with my God given talent, and trusting that in His timing, a break will happen with my writing. More likely the break will be someone reading this and saying, "Mike, you write too long. I can help you edit this to 2 paragraphs with my $2,997 Master Class. You need that, buddy! Operators are standing by!"

This one is like playing the Lotto. Play it because you love to scratch off cardboard games and you love Bingo. But don't see it as a retirement strategy.

But find that thing you are passionate about and do something regularly to keep the dream alive. If you love blogging, start a blog, write regularly weekly or daily or whatever, and then save for a blogging course AFTER you exhaust the free content on YouTube. And don't expect anything from it. Do it because you love it. I LOVE TO WRITE. I am not expecting anyone to read this. IF they do and offer me money (maybe something like, "Mike that was the worst article I ever read. I would get more enjoyment reading the Yellow Pages. Here is $25 if you promise to never write again!") I have written for my whole life and I think I made $15 total because I asked someone to test my donate button on my ministry blog to see if it was working. And they sent me $15. Well, it's $13.75 after fees are deducted. That works out to $ 0.000000095 / hour I think.

2) Affiliate Marketing - People like this one because they will see a few dollars come their way. This is where if you like say an online coffee or shaving club or essential oil, and have a big following on a group you run, and you contact them promising that you have influence and that others will buy their coffee or oils or whatever because your group does whatever you tell them, and then you can become an affiliate. Reality is I have about 1200 members in two groups and they won't even use a FREE app if I give them $5 to try it.

But some people have that gift. I think maybe the key to sales is being like my kids who want my cell phone. They hound me and act like they are going to die without it and they beg and cry and offer hours of free labor in exchange and you give it to them to avoid going insane. I don't have that much persistence because I am like, if you don't want what I have, FINE! I won't give it to you! Miss out!! HAHA! And I pull it away and I don't care enough to bother realizing that it takes people 6-12 times to say YES. I give up at 0. Meaning, I assume they will tell me NO before I even say anything so I don't even get to the follow up. Instead I blog about my sales ventures. I do hesitate to be vulnerable on my writings but that is what helps people. However, I find when I am vulnerable for some reason that translates for people to try and bring them into their business or to take their MasterClass or use their FREE APP.

So if you want someone that has tons of success in sales that is not me. If you want someone that has faced failure and been punched in the face and gut every day for 10 years and is still in the ring, that is me. I refuse to quit and I won't stop UNTIL I figure this out. Until I know what people need. Until I can figure out how to make money so I can start my addiction program ministry. I have YET to crack the code, but I am still in the game.

Anyway, I have been an affiliate a few times. You get a website referral link and anyone who buys on THEIR website you can get a small commission. This works best I would say if you have 145,000 followers and can have dozens of people who might like that coffee or brand of oil. The one challenge is folks seem to collect your coupon codes and apps and never pull the trigger. I have referral links for a very affordable essential oil company and if you use my link you save 10% off the order. I can make a small commission for anyone who uses my code. The challenge is the company itself runs it's own promotions that are better than my coupon code. So Grandma one time may use my coupon code, but the person looking to save money is going to choose the 20% savings over using my little 10% coupon code. You can be an Amazon affiliate as well but again the competition is fierce and you need a lot of big numbers to get substantial income. Also, you likely aren't going to get residual income as these tend to be one time purchases. I would say they are nice if you would recommend the products whether you benefit or not from someone buying. I like helping people, so for them to spend $60 on oils at the company I recommend instead of spending $300 on the big names is nice for folks. But you are earning commission on $60 of oils instead of $300, so unless you generate big numbers, you probably aren't going to get too far beyond some free oils for yourself.

The one BIG concern for affiliates is to avoid the affiliate shell game I call it. There are some affiliate programs that teach you to start an affiliate program by buying an affiliate program and then you learn to sell that affiliate program to others. You are essentially buying training that trains you to sell more training. I am a big believer in offering products or services you would normally buy if there was no financial incentive to purchase.

3) You can always make extra money by working more hours, moonlighting, babysitting, Door-dashing (or GrubHubbing!), being a pizza delivery driver, selling things on EBAY, open a gym, or selling plasma or a kidney or raise puppies. Raising puppies is harder if you have young kids as they will want to keep them all! These are not bad ideas, but after working your job, do you really want another job that pays you one time? If that doesn't deter you, have at it.

You can also open a franchise or start a business. That usually is a fulfilling option, but do you have a lot of money for whatever equipment you need, the accounting, the franchise, the marketing, the materials, and more? I found out a McDonald's franchise is 2 million dollars, and they won't even give you a free Big Mac after you buy one. I have friends who after time are doing well selling flavored coconut oil or wall signs or opened restaurants but they took a lot of investment, a lot of capital, and a lot of years where it didn't look too promising. Then you can build a whole wonderful small business and have it look amazing and Pinterest perfect and something like COVID hits and wipes you out. The plus side is there is a lot of satisfaction having your own business and being able to have your own dream and truly be your own boss. When life gives you lemons, you can always open a lemonade stand.

Speaking of lemonade stand I wrote this the other day to contrast how kids start a business and how adults do it.

Child: Gets an idea for a lemonade stand. Gets a dozen lemons, sugar, water, cups, markers, cardboard. Makes lemonade. Open for business an hour later. Makes profit on day one.

Adult: Gets 4 year degree in Lemonomics. Goes on for Masters degree and MLA, Master's of Lemonade Administration. Applies for licenses, hires fruit inspector, visits South American plantations for best tasting sugar, opens plant to make biodegradable cups, applies for bendy straw patent, gets LLC, $1500 logo, $6000 LED Lemonade sign, does 6 month research and development for best taste, hires marketing team and starts FB group, partners with water purifying company, hires architect for stand construction and has stand built, has health and building inspector visits, changes locations 4 times, develops Avatar for ideal Lemonade consumer, shares vision on Shark Tank, sets launch date 6 months from now, develops business plan and gets loan from bank, plants lemon trees, waits for lemons to grow, hires Consultant to tweak business plan who is the Child from above, now 70 years old and a retired self made millionaire.

When life handed people lemons in 2020 and they saw a need to start a business- many are still waiting in almost 2021 to get started. The kids are the ones enjoying fresh squeezed lemonade.  

4) My final type of side hustle gets the worst press but may be the best one to start with- and that is Network Marketing. I find it is very misunderstood, and a lot of people have tried it before, told two friends about it who laughed in their face, and then spent the rest of their lives warning folks about pyramid schemes. I really think the reason it gets negative press is two fold - first, the math works BUT it's not instant so 99% of folks give up too soon. And second, it becomes easier to see it as a lottery ticket and so you spend the bulk of your time trying to recruit that rock star so you can sit on your coach and eat gummy bears and drink the Jolting-and-Jiving energy drinks you are marketing.

I have been studying various Network Marketing companies for years and been involved with several of them and seen the positives and negatives of not only the industry but also of the various kinds.

IF you don't know what Network Marketing is I can explain it as simply as I can but I will use the type of company I am with now. I am currently in a service type company that offers real savings on gas and electric bills, as well as Sprint Wireless, shopping and dining, and hotel/car rental discounts and Brinks Home Security. They are major companies, this offers legit savings, and you essentially are partnering up with a mini franchise that you can run on an app on your phone.

How the commission structure is set up is quite fair, and that is where I think a lot of people have the hang up. If I go out and gather 200 customers on my own, I can earn about $10/ commission myself and make $2,000 / month in that scenario. These customers sign on long term usually so you essentially are getting $2,000 / month after month ongoing. For something you basically did one time.

That in itself is impressive as if you work at Tmobile or Sprint or Verizon, you aren't getting even a nickel out of every customer you enrolled long term. You get a one time commission and $15/hour or so.

Now where Network Marketing differs from regular commission is you can also build a team of Customer gatherers. Say instead of 200 personal customers I have 20 personal customers and a team of 200 people and they average out to 10 customers / associate. Some enroll ZERO, some enroll 2, and some enroll 100 but my team total customer amount is 2,000. The commissions then get fairly split so we each get about $1 / average per associate and I would get $2000 a month that way. The pro to doing it all myself is I make more per customer BUT I am also in charge of more. I would need to follow up, keep in touch, and thank 200 people. Or 20 people. Yes I would have 200 associates, but really I have 10-20 I personally sponsored, and they sponsored people and so forth.

You can build a one level "pyramid" or a multi-level pyramid. Don't let that term freak you out. In my experience, people won't join because they think "pyramid" but then they join and find out it takes work and it's not easy and they can't just go and build a pyramid and they get disillusioned it's NOT a pyramid scheme. Anything you map out - your job, the government, the Girl Scouts- will look like a pyramid. The joke then is, "I didn't realize there were so many pyramid schemes out there."

In Network Marketing, you have no inventory, you pay a small fee to join but it gives you a website and app you can run your entire business from, and you get training and access to the top leaders and top trainers. You can choose product based like weight loss or creams or vitamins or whatever or you can try service based like the one I use. I like service ones because people don't cancel their electric bill when times get rough. They may stop taking vitamins and cut the coffee and the dining out - but they usually don't say, "I think I am going to start taking cold showers. In the dark. And get rid of my cell phone."

These are side hustles. Done in the nooks and crannies of your day. And you are not cramming things down people's throats. You just want to see if anyone is open to take a look at what you are doing.

Hey Jim, I found a great way to save money on my electric bill. If I can match what you are paying now or even beat what you currently pay, would you switch to be my customer?

Hey John, I just wrote a brand new song that I think is going to be the next big annoying hit with the toddler crowd! I am calling it Santa Baby Shark. Would it be ok if I played it for you, if not no big deal!

Hey Julie, I found a way to cut my essential oils in half and they even have my favorite essential oil, bacon grease! If I send you my coupon code, will you use it?

Hey Terry, I just wrote a 4,000 word blog article because I have nothing better to do, if I send you a copy will you read it?

And so on. I am controlling my activity. Not my results.

And having fun in the process.

Mike-the-Pharmacist