The Biggest Problem With Side Hustles That No One Talks About

The Side Hustle Mirage

The “Side Hustle Mirage” is the misleading allure of side hustles.

They’re all seemingly easy and highly lucrative, and seeing teenagers flash wads of cash from their side hustle makes you believe they really are.

But in reality, most side hustles are bullshit.

And if these side hustles are such top secret, highly lucrative ideas, why would people blast it all over TikTok and YouTube?

There’s usually a major flaw that the “guru” leaves out when they pitch the side hustle idea.

For example, a side hustle idea I saw recently was to write an ebook and sell digital copies on Amazon.

You can easily write a short ebook and throw it on Amazon in like 2 hours tops.

But actually getting sales? Probably not gonna happen unless you put $100s into advertising.

I’ll tell you the real truth behind side hustles, which ones work, and how to manage a side hustle successfully.

The Real Costs

The reality is that 69% of side hustlers had to spend money to start their gig, with costs ranging from under $100 to over $1,000.

But none of the side hustle gurus ever mention the downsides, just how much you can make.

They’ll blab on and on about how they made $100k in a month with dropshipping but hardly talk about the costs, labor, and risk.

First of all, that dropshipper will have COGS (cost of goods sold) which is basically how much they paid for their inventory.

Usually that’s up to 40-50%, so you’re already down $33,000 in costs.

They also most likely also spent around $40,000 on advertising.

Add in platform fees, shipping costs, and taxes and that $100k in gross revenue could end up as low as around $6k in profit.

And don’t get me wrong, making $6k a month from a side hustle would be some good extra cash. But it’s nowhere near the dream that you were sold on social media.

Not to mention you’ll also be dealing with income fluctuations.

Side hustles empower you to make your own money, but it also means not getting a guaranteed paycheck.

You might think to have multiple side hustles so you don’t rely on just one, but juggling multiple gigs comes with its own set of problems too.

Spreading Yourself Too Thin

The ancient proverb, "He who chases two rabbits catches neither," sums it up perfectly.

A lot of guys will make the mistake of trying to “stack” side hustles to make more money.

And although it’s advantageous to have multiple streams of income, working on them all simultaneously will majorly screw you up.

Especially if you’re still at your 9-5 as you do this extra work, burnout can quickly run you off course.

The trick is to fully dedicate your attention to one side hustle at a time.

Later on, you could start delegating tasks to others to run one or more of your side hustles, and you’d essentially be creating and managing mini businesses.

My Side Hustle Solution

Efficient time management is the #1 most critical skill for the success of any side hustle.

You’ll need to dedicate at least 15 hours per week consistently to make any movement on your side hustle.

A few things you’ve probably seen me utilize before to help with this:

1. Time Blocking: I use my Google Calendar to dedicate specific blocks of time for everything I do, including work and leisure. You’ll be amazed at how much time you have VS how much you think you have after you do this.

2. Leverage Technology: Be your own manager and use apps like Trello or Pomodone to manage your tasks so you can prioritize and organize what you need to do every day.

3. Delegate and Automate: Since you’re still working a 9-5, you need to work as efficiently as possible with your limited time. Delegate time consuming tasks to freelancers if you have the money, and use automation and AI like chatGPT to get work done faster.

3 Highly Lucrative Side Hustles To Try

These are 3 side hustles I would recommend for making the most money with the least amount of effort.

YouTube Content Creator

Got something you’re good at? Make a YouTube channel and fill it with content.

You can monetize your videos with ad revenue, sponsorships, memberships, and merchandise sales.

I dedicate a lot of time to my YouTube channel which currently has over 1.1 million subscribers.

It’s a long term growth strategy that makes more money over time. All I have to do is consistently post valuable content.

Most of the Mr. Beast type influencers make all of their money from YouTube, mostly from the ad revenue but also from followers donating each month through apps like Patreon.

The sooner you start the better, as this side hustle is a long game. But stick to it and you can make over $100k a year just from people watching your videos.

A good example of an easy channel you could make is a nature sounds channel.

It’s just videos of rain sounds or meditation music with a nature background. They’re really great for when I’m reading and I always listen to them start to finish.

You could easily make these videos with stock footage and some rain sfx. Then millions of people use your video to work, sleep, or study.

So even if you don’t want to be on camera, you can still easily make valuable content that can be monetized.

Amazon Associates Program

Amazon associates is really more of a power up once you got your YouTube up to over 10,000 subs.

It allows you to promote products on your channel and earn a commission from the sales.

So you can imagine how much money you could make if you your channel is really bumping.

But if you don’t want to go the YouTube route, this is still a highly lucrative side hustle possibility.

Basically any kind of audience you can put a link in front of will make this work.

Facebook groups, your Instagram channel, a gaming livestream, or emails would work.

However I’d recommend using organic SEO to drive sales.

Let’s say you want to sell a skateboard.

You would make a blog about skateboarding, write articles about skateboarding every day, and over time you’d build up organic visitors to your blog.

Once you have maybe 10,000 people reading your articles each month, you place an ad for a skateboard on your site and get clicks.

If the skateboard earns you $75 in commission and 2% of the site visitors purchase each month, that’s 200 sales or $15,000 a month.

Day Trading

You can make HUGE money with day trading.

In fact, I make over $20k a month with day trading literally just using my laptop.

Day trading mostly involves learning patterns and formulas, as well as learning how to consistently profit even when the market is down.

Because day trading can actually be pretty risky too.

When the market is down or a stock value tanks, you might end up losing a lot of money.

That’s why I learned a special method from my mentor Romulus (a Wall Street veteran who’s traded $1,000,000s) to never risk more than I can afford.

And ever since I’ve made consistent profits.

It’s a long game, with lots of peaks and valleys. But you can start day trading without much experience, and you actually don’t need 10s of thousands to start either.

I can show you how in my Beginner’s Guide To Day Trading Masterclass, it’s free each month.

The BMM Takeaway

A side hustle is usually not just a side hustle. It’s a business that requires someone to make the parts move.

And this is where a lot of baller mentality comes into play.

Because when you treat it as just a side hustle, you’ll put in a small amount of work on the side.

But if you think of it as a business, you treat it more seriously.

So if you really want to make a lot of money, it means grinding when you get home from work.

You get out exactly what you put in. If you dedicate enough time to the side hustle, it’ll work. And once it’s working, it can evolve into a real business.