After spending time identifying your passion and thinking about how to make it profitable, you may feel your side hustle idea is incredible and disruptive; however, it is important to know if your potential customers will see it the same way. We live in a world where the majority of “great ideas” either do not see daylight or are simply ignored given the number of daily distractions and marketing we are exposed to.
It is crucial to validate your side hustle idea with a paying customer before getting too invested into the business to make sure you are not developing a solution to a problem that does not really exist. One of the main causes of startup failures is the lack of market need. There could be a good chance that you are investing time and money into an idea that not enough people will find value in.
To avoid this does from happening, make sure to test those waters! By that, we mean to validate whether your idea will gain interest in the real world. Objective feedback from potential customers is your best ally here. Surveys are great tools for this purpose. Other strategies include asking your potential customers to join a waiting list, pre-purchase your solution or hire you as a service provider. If you are not really getting positive responses, it may be a good practice to quickly abandon those ideas and consider other alternatives and opportunities.
1. Surveys
Using surveys to test and validate your side hustle is great practice because you have to actually go out and interview people. This gets your side hustle idea off the computer screen and forces you to research, think critically about what your survey participants are saying, and apply that information.
One of the most important things you can do when researching your market online is understand what problems your target customers are trying to solve. That’s why it’s so important to talk to them in person so you can ask them questions about the problems they want solved, not the solutions they’re hoping for.
2. Waiting list and pre-purchases
A great way to measure interest in your product or idea is to create a call to action. There will be cases early on where you do not have the infrastructure in place to drive your potential customers to take a specific action. This is when a waiting list or allowing for pre-purchases play a crucial role. Your customers will be able to move forward in the customer journey and you will be able to test your idea for interest.
3. Get hired as a service provider
The last strategy is to actually go out there and make yourself available for hire to provide the service in question. This option will give you clear and direct feedback on interest and potential issues with your idea or service. Another benefit of offering your services early on is to gauge your price point and be able to compare yourself with the competition.
In summary, testing your side hustle idea is crucial to save time and resources. The earlier you do it, the better to either confirm the value of your idea or to move on to the next. Good luck!