Collaboration 1.3

So after our collaboration chat and critique my friend has pivoted his project slightly. This isn’t the first time he’s had a few projects o the go and often these never get off the mark, sometimes they have issues and genuinely don’t work, or have issues, they don’t catch on with the customer, or in case of YouTube projects the viewer, but often these are non-starters due to procrastination or lack of enthusiasm

So this is something we may have mentioned before, you side-hustle will succeed better if you have a passion for it, if its an existing hobby or something you’re always dreamed of or love doing, be it walking, photography, video, art, sculpture or some other outlet. Not only do you have a passion for the subject but you also have experience of it, you have ‘insider info’ and already know at least some of the other people in the same sphere, be they sellers, retailers or other enthusiasts, as such you have a better insight. You also can spot niches or gaps in the market better, as a customer or hobbyist yourself you may have thought there is something missing, something that could be made easier, more accessible, cheaper or better

So my friend was at a cross roads, in a bit of a dilemma. His passion project wasn’t really taking off, it was getting some traction but it was slow, partly as he had intermittent uploads into the YouTube channel, this is where consistency counts, the ‘showing up’ as the Americans call it. He also had a few technical issues and with money being tight had to find part-time work to pay the bills. As YouTube now require so many watch-hours per year and a certain number of subscribers he wasn’t quite getting there, the subscriber count was rising but the watch hours, without the upload consistency, were few and far between so he was missing the monetisation level with every month. He decided to keep this as a hobby, see where it would go if he consistently but slowly kept it going, but basically it was moved to a lower shelf

The other project, one I’d suggested he wasn’t passionate about, I knew it would make money, he had the resources, the time and the ability. As he lives I the Dales the idea was to upcycle certain locally available resources and sell to the millions of tourists who pass his doorstep every month during the summer period. However he wasn’t passionate about it so after initial excitement the enthusiasm wore off and the project was shelved. This is something I may try myself as I know it has legs and potentially a decent little earner due to the location and the collectability of the subject. Also unfortunately the name I wanted for this project which was ‘sheepz’, ‘sheepzz’ or even ‘sheepzzz’ are all taken, so I have put this on the back burner but may yet be a project once the current 3/4 are taken care of

Another project was blogging the ‘small homes’ trend, something he is very interested in and plans to do his own DIY build I the future. Unfortunately without this actual involvement the experience and information to make this a full time blog was missing. People don’t want recycled info these days, you can get away with a little of it, but for a professional and monetised blog you need more. With experience you can advise from that actual experience, you can recommend products you’ve actually used, but without you’d soon be found out. Plus people read such blogs, a bit like watching ‘Grand Designs’ they want the highs and the lows, the drama, the little wins and successes as well las the failures that help them identify with you and your journey

So, in summary he’s pivoted, he now has 3 projects, some online, some local and of course all are actually both as you have to use social media for the free advertising and promotion, and also with physical and local based products an online shop will still catch those that missed you in real life, missed that stall or fair you were at, or as an afterthought the wished they’d bought the product you were selling, but at the time passed over due to cash flow or something else. So he now has 3 projects that he’s getting into, at this moment he has 10 images he wishes to linoprint (local images of the Dales, again using the resources and inspiration around you). The 2nd project is an on-line crypto project, something that as current and past IT techies we’re interested in, and the 3rd, although demoted is the YouTube channel which is ticking over