How can one income stream become something more?
Simplify first, diversify second is an idea I’ve always advocated on the show.
The first step to diversification is having something that works. But how do you know when it’s time to diversify?
That’s exactly it Bjork Ostrom (our guest before episode 46) he (and his wife Lindsay) did as he masterfully did “Collected” a large number of online businesses evolved from the original food blog, A pinch of Yum.
This has been the launching pad for 10 years of blogging Food Blogger Pro (a guide for food bloggers), clearly (to optimize the content of your site) and the holding company, TinyBit.
And it’s the framework he uses to decide whether an idea is worth pursuing.
- The Next Wave – Your personal Chief AI Officer to apply AI to drive business growth.
- Indeed – Get started NOW with a $75 sponsored job loan to upgrade your job posting!
- Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!
The Brilliant Object Quiz: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Next Project
1. “Does the opposite make you better at the main thing?”
If you can create another task that complements your original task, it reduces the chance of missing out on ROI because your current task is likely to to make progress.
But don’t just spread your wings. Rather than constantly looking for new opportunities/diversifying too quickly, stay focused and dig deep into what works.
If you find something that’s successful and attractive, stick with it and get as much value out of it as possible before exploring other opportunities.
2. Think about who you are as an individual
Follow your excitement.
What excites you? What are you interested in?
If you don’t understand yourself well, it’s easy to lose interest and give up on something in the long run.
3. Is it time to diversify?
Diversifying revenue streams is especially important for online businesses that are subject to algorithm updates and policy changes.
You basically create a financial safety net.
Ideally, these new streams should be unrelated to your core business, like Bjork getting into SEO tech tools like Clariti, as opposed to her food blogging business.
Or like investing in real estate while running an online business.
Round 2: Submit a Business Idea
“What are the support mechanisms that you can build an adjacent practice in that area that can accelerate you to revenue, whether it’s a service-based or a productized service?”
Provide a specific service/product that can support the needs of “participants” in the industry.
For example, with more and more people becoming content creators, there is a need for things like organizing files, understanding analytics, editing videos, and backing up data.
Optimizing things like Google Analytics and data pipelines can make an interesting agency or SaaS proposition for creators with very specific needs.
It’s like finding ways to help them do their jobs better by offering useful services or tools.
What services can you “manufacture” to sell to these new data entrepreneurs?
Round 3: Triple Threat
Bjork preached these three things:
- Marketing tactics: hands-on assistance and actually having real one-on-one conversations with potential partners and customers to understand their needs and goals. It has not scaled, but it has been effective.
- Tool: Monarch Money – an all-in-one dashboard to track finances across your personal and business accounts.
- Book: Take Back Your Time by Dan Martell – A resource for those looking for a strategy for delegating tasks and making time for strategic work.
I hope you were able to pick up some practical tips and strategies to implement on your side hustle.
Continue to reach your goals every day, build additional income streams when it makes sense, and don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas that excite you. When you show discipline over time, extraordinary things can happen.
Bjork’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation
“Get a little better every day.”
Episode links
