Prepare for Tightening of Cyber Jobs by Creating your Own (part 1 of 2)

New Cybersecurity Founder’s Framework for starting a side hustle or business

As cyber jobs tighten, the threat remains. Businesses will increasingly outsource to reduce their risk. Smart cyber professionals are building side hustles to absorb that opportunity and chart a new future, for themselves and others.

Note: This is part 1 of 2, stay tuned to my site , for part 2.

Today, most people in cyber are content in their current position and not aware of the tightening of jobs or they have already been displaced and are searching for new opportunities. For both, I suggest considering a side hustle, whereby you hedge against automation of the workforce and ride the wave of AI, not be crushed by it.

For those looking to get into cyber, facing a tightening job market, you too should consider creating your own job, after you obtain the required cyber skills.

A side hustle is the best way to learn and prepare for the?future

— Dr. Allen Harper

You learn best by doing. By standing up a side hustle, you will learn new skills, high value skills, that will only help you become more resilient and open new options for you.

Here is what you will get out of this article:

• A roadmap to create your own side hustle and ultimately business
• The benefits of each step in the roadmap
• An explanation of how AI can be leveraged throughout as a force multiplier
• Actions of each step of the roadmap

Modern Social Business (best way to Side?Hustle)

From a 10,000 foot view, the modern social business is built around social media, and seeks to provide 1 solution to 1 problem for 1 ideal client.

This is done by iteratively attracting a community, engaging with them, and delighting them. In the process, you are turning strangers into prospects, into customers, into promoters, as shown in the following marketing flywheel. Over time, you grow and gain authority, which helps attract more people, and so on…

The process never ends.

Simple and Practical Example

Before we get into the details, lets bring it down a level, to a 1000 foot view.

It will be helpful to provide a simplified example of what getting started with a cybersecurity side hustle looks like.

1. Joe has a set of skills in cybersecurity.
2. Joe starts writing about some aspect of cybersecurity, daily, on social media.
3. Joe becomes aware of specific problems others face, by listening.
4. Joe solves a big problem, that many are interested in.
5. Joe presents the solution and builds a community around it, further refining it.
6. Joe monetizes the implementation of the solution and now has a side hustle.
7. Joe scales the side hustle into a full business, adding more services and solutions.

In reality, this seemingly linear process is more like an infinite loop, but we will describe that in a moment.

Now you have the overall gist of what we are talking about and where we are heading. This simple process is what I recommend to start any side hustle, or business, in any field, but we will focus on Cybersecurity.

Remember, audience first, then product or service.

Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap

Now, we will drop down to a 100 foot view of creating a side hustle.

I have created a Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap, to explain how to most effectively create a side hustle, that can scale into a business, if you choose.

It is intentionally very similar, to the Value Creator Cybersecurity Job Roadmap . This is because many of the same skills apply and once someone has the cybersecurity skills, of a job, they can easily apply them in a side hustle.

Value Creator Framework (Soft?Skills)

The Value Creator Framework is the foundation of the Cybersecurity Founder’s Roadmap.

That framework sets out the inputs and outputs of a value creator. If you missed this before, be sure to read it. It will make it clear, the soft skills that are required for both an employee, but an entrepreneur. By becoming aware of the aspects particular to an entrepreneur, you will be ahead of the game.

For example, all business is about value creation and exchange of that value to another for a profit. Value creation is about solving problems for others. When you obsess over another’s problem, more than them and demonstrate that to them, they will throw money at you, to solve that problem.

AI can help you become a value creator. For example, part of being a value creator is being a life long learner. AI can help you learn new topics and outline your thoughts as you begin to share with others, another tenant of being a value creator. Also, when it comes to creating solutions to problems, AI can help you ideate and frame out solutions to problems.

Actions:

• Read the Value Creator Framework
• Adapt the principles within
• Become a value creator, so you are ready to do the things required to have what you want to have.

Cybersecurity SME (Hard?Skills)

It almost goes without saying, to start a business in cybersecurity, you will need to be a subject matter expert, in some or multiple aspects of cybersecurity.

However, you only have to be one to two steps ahead of your client, to sell a solution to a problem they have. You DO NOT have to be a seasoned expert in anything to package and sell what you have learned, in order to help others learn or solve the problems they have. If you have the solution to a problem someone else has, it doesn’t matter your experience, only the results matter. Never forget that.

So, cybersecurity skills are required, but not necessarily time in the field.

If you are new to the field, but have obtained the skills required for cybersecurity, you are set. I mean the hard skills, outlined in my previous writings, which includes foundational and focused hands on training. If you have these skills, then you can bypass the waiting line for jobs and create your own.

If you are lacking in any area of Cybersecurity, AI may assist you in learning those skills.

You can ask (prompt) AI to quiz you on a topic, and provide you the answers if you get the question wrong, to shore up your knowledge in a particular area. You can also use AI to refresh yourself on a set of knowledge, or even to summarize your notes or files on the topic. In this way, AI can comb through your second brain of files and notes and help you get new insights and ideas from the data you have already collected. Further, AI is a great way to learn new topics.

However, do realize that AI can and will hallucinate, so it is best to cross check references it uses. Perplexity.ai makes this type of research and checking easy.

Actions:

• Obtain, if you have not already, the soft and hard skills required for cybersecurity
• Reflect on your skills and your particular area of expertise
• Recognize that all you need are the skills, not necessarily years of experience applying them, to get started.
• Leverage AI to conduct research of new or existing materials you have collected

Business Admin

This block contains the business administration of any business. There are some basic things you need to know, such as formally establishing and registering your business, setting up a business account, and filing for taxes.

However, I want you to know, that this is NOT required, out the gate. Until you are making more than $1000, I recommend that you not focus on this, because (1) there are cost associated with establishing the business and (2) the process can be distracting and suck up a lot of your time, if you are not careful. I recommend that you get started, finding work, get some wins under your belt, then formalize the business.

I have made this mistake in the past, setting up a business too soon, only for it not to work out and I lost all that time and money.

There are other elements of this block, including building your business team, of a strong attorney and accountant. It is important, when selecting these team members, that they keep you out of trouble, but also give you creative solutions to problems you may face.

When you bring them a challenge, you don’t want them to always say yes, or always say no, you want to have meaningful discussions with them and some back and forward on the pros and cons of the situation, then you as the business owner make a decision, of the best way forward.

AI can assist you when you get to this step to (1) research all the requirements of establishing a business in your country and (2) giving recommendations for taxes and laws in your jurisdiction. As always with AI, cross check references, it used.

Actions:

• Wait until you have made at least $1000 in revenue, before formally establishing a business. Until then, you will be a sole proprietor.
• When ready, use AI to perform research on the laws and requirements of establishing a business in your location.
• When ready, start building your team, including an attorney and an accountant

Note: if you are interested in learning more on starting a cyber side hustle, or full blown business, join my new Cyber Value Creator Founder’s group .

Agile Social Business?Loop(TM)

This block is the heart of your business, so I placed it in the center of the roadmap. The ability to gain leads, through organic social media marketing, and present offers to solve problems for others, is the life blood of the business and will either make or break your business.

In the “old days,” more than 3–5 years ago, a business would form, start producing products and services, and then build a social media presence, perhaps. Now, it is critical to start with the audience that social media brings, and then learn what their problems are, through interaction, then and only then, build the business on top of that.

Again, I have made this mistake, many times. Each of the businesses that I started, that failed, failed due to a lack of an audience and a lack of awareness of their problems. A business which is not grounded in real problems from real people, will fail.

Ideate

This part of the loop is simple. Start by collecting a list of ideas you have, of problems to solve in a given niche. For example, in cybersecurity, you may want to focus on a sub-niche, such as GRC, or Penetration Testing, or SOC, or Security Engineer. Since you already have skills in that area (right?), you may be aware of problems you face in the performance of your duties, and others may have those problems too.

Learn

Next, you will use AI and other tools to conduct research on the topic. Perplexity.ai is a great tool to do this, as it pulls together search results and helps you analyze them quicker. When just starting out, simply provide a prompt, like: “Common Problems that those in Cybersecurity Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) face in their daily duties.” Immediately, you will have a list, with references, that you can read to understand more.

The list goes on, I have truncated it for brevity. Now, that you have an initial list, it is time to get feedback from others, continuing around the loop.

Listen

Establish a social presence by joining or starting a community around a particular topic. As you become active in that community, you can share some of the information you have found about problems and make note of problems they have.

You are looking for signal, in the noise, where a particular problem seems to resonate most with others. The bigger the problem and the more people that have it, the better.

Although you came with a list of problems, be sensitive to others’ problems and be ready to focus on theirs, over yours. During this phase, you also develop a ideal client profile (ICP).

This ICP will be an avatar or reflection of all the people you are interacting with, it is best to write down their characteristics, what they do, how they do it, what problems they face, where do they work. The more specific you can get, with the ICP, the better. Again, the ICP will allow you to write to one type of person, but reach many, if created properly. Ideally, at this point, you will have one problem and one representative person (ICP) to solve it for.

Solve

Then, from your refined list of problems, you look for problems that you can solve. You obsess over those problems, using AI to research them, and then you use your curiosity, imagination and creativity (Value Creators Framework) to develop a potential solution. The solution should bring relief to a set of pain points of your ICP. It should bring results, faster, and better than anything they have tried to this point.

Teach

Next, you start to write about the problem and the solution to the problem, in public. This can take the form of blog post, or other social media posts. Obsessing over another’s problems is another output of being a value creator, described in that framework. If you do this, your audience will be drawn to you like moths to a light, and then you will refine the solution, based on feedback they are giving you.

Offer

Then, you will package the solution into your first offer, and give it away for free, in some format, to provide massive value to that community. Yes, you read that correctly, give it away for free. I will explain in a moment.

Perhaps you create a tutorial or an ebook or a simple course on the topic. When you do this, you will gain even more fans in your audience, who will appreciate you as an authority on the topic.

Sure, you don’t have to give it away for free, but if you have less experience in the space, this is a great way to build deeper relationships and fans and they will give you references and testimonials, that may be used in future efforts and offers.

Please note, there is nothing bad with giving something away for free. Trust me when I tell you that this is a tactic that many business owners do, throughout their business life, but particularly at the beginning. Sometimes as a business owner, you are interested in more than making money. There is great reward in helping people solve their problems, with no expectation of that reward, at least, at first.

Analytics

Now, you will watch the data analytics of your posts, looking for signal from your ICP. You should see an uptick in engagement and acceptance of the free offer, if not, improve the offer.

Soon, those fans will be reaching out for you to help in some other, more meaningful way. Eventually, after you do this a few times, don’t be surprised if you are approached with offers from others, to provide them consulting, or otherwise help them. As you engage with your ICP, you will learn the deeper problems, holding people back.

Now, as you gain new ideas, add them to your list, and repeat the process, conducting research with AI, and coming up with better solutions to their problems.

Why Agile?Loop?

I called this the Agile Social Business Loop(TM) because it is an agile process, similar to agile software development, whereby you are interested in small incremental value delivery, then feedback, then many iterations, to build up value over time.

Next Offer

The next time around the loop, you may package the solution into an offer and charge them for it. Just like that, you have a profit, since you have invested little to date, in your business, but time.

This small incremental process is the preferred way to start and execute a social business, which is the modern way to conduct business. This process works for any niche or topic, and for any size of a problem.

It doesn’t require business experience or work experience to solve other’s problems. In fact, your lack of experience may help you by not clouding your thoughts or bringing in some bias that will prevent you from solving it.

Actions:

• Build a list of problems around a particular niche you are interested in
• Conduct research to refine your understanding of the problems
• Create/join a community around a topic and listen for the problems of your ICP
• Obsess over the problems of others, prioritize those problems
• Solve those problems in a creative way and give it away for free
• Teach others how to solve that problem
• Refine the problem and solution, through feedback
• Package an advanced solution or implementation of the solution into an offer
• Profit from your efforts, after others have received value, it may take a couple times through the loop to accomplish this.
• Rinse and repeat, it never ends, thus the infinite loop

Social Media

We have mentioned social media, but what platforms do you want to be on? Recognize that each platform has a different purpose and intention of their users. Some are for education, some for inspiration, some for entertainment.

Some platforms, such as Tiktok, are intended primarily for one purpose, such as entertainment. Sure, it can sometimes be leveraged for other purposes, such as inspiration or education. Those who can understand and navigate social media, as a creator, and less so as a consumer, can identify these opportunities and seize on them.

Prefer Text Based Platforms

I recommend, when you start out, you target a platform, such as X, which is intended to express the “text” format of media. The reason I recommend that you start there, is “text” is easier to produce than video and voice. The production time and therefore cost is substantially less and therefore, you can get more cycles in faster and learn faster.

Each platform will require you to learn the way it works and most importantly what the users require for engagement and how to grow on that platform. Notice I did not say algorithm, as the algorithm of each platform is simply trying to help its users stay on the platform. If you learn user (human) behavior, you will learn the algorithm.

The Algorithm Hates?Me

A common trap that many creators fall into is thinking the algorithm is against you. Nothing could be further from the truth. The algorithm’s job on each platform is to push your content to all who may be interested… you just have to work to learn how to make it interesting.

This is the key benefit of social media, over other types of media. The job of the platform is to push your content, for free. Sure you can pay them, but it is not necessary and may even hurt you in the long run. This is because over time, the algorithm will test your new content with your audience of followers first.

If they are not engaging with it, it will not send it to others. So, if you gained a follower through some advertisement, they may have just liked that one ad and may not like or engage with the rest of your content. In this way, they will harm you if they are in your following.

I recommend you stay with one platform, until you master it, fully understand it, and have achieved success on it, with at least 5000 followers, before you branch out and try other platforms. It is important that you go deep on one, before branching out, otherwise, you may not be maximizing your potential to be “great” on any one platform and just being “average” on all of them.

Also, after you master one platform, you can repackage your best content, that you know readers will engage with, on the other platforms, and dominate there.

Data Analytics is?Key

Use analytics and data to receive feedback from your viewers on what works and what is not working. Double down on what is working and not on other content. Again, by selecting a text based platform, such as X, Linkedin, Threads, Truth Social, you have an advantage of quicker feedback cycles. This is key to your growth.

Use of AI with Social?Media

AI may be used throughout the social media process. It may be used to conduct research of topics, to create content, to format the content, to improve the content, to create images for the content, to find ideal times to post the content. Some AI can even be used in the engagement of content.

However, I caution against using AI too much in your process. At the end of the day, people want to connect with people. I am careful to not yield my “voice” to anything or any person, besides me.

Actions:

• Select a social media platform that is text based
• Focus on one platform until you master it, before moving to another
• Get the reps in, with many experiments, to learn the platform and how to grow
• Take feedback, through analytics and data, to adjust your content

Note: This is part 1 of 2, stay tuned to my site , for part 2.

TL;DR

In this article (Part 1), we have covered:

• A roadmap to create your own side hustle and ultimately business
• The benefits of each step in the roadmap (half way there)
• A deep dive on the Agile Social Business Loop (TM)
• Actions of each step of the roadmap (half way there)
• An explanation of how AI can be leveraged throughout as a force multiplier

If you made it this far, and are interested in learning more on starting a cyber side hustle, or full blown business, join my new Cyber Value Creator Founder’s group .