you join an MLM, you make money from selling products to other people. But you also make money by bringing other people into the company and typically by receiving a small portion of the sales made by each person in your network. Basically, the larger your network, the more money you can make from products that other people sell.
FIGURE 2-2: A typical MLM hierarchical structure.
You need to do your homework and determine
How to figure out if a given MLM’s compensation model is good for you
Whether you can make any money if you’re way, way down the sales ladder
How sales territories are allocated
If you’re required to purchase a monthly allocation of products, or if you can purchase products as you sell them
From a side-hustle perspective, MLMs have some interesting advantages and possible disadvantages. On the plus side, you can find an MLM for almost anything that you want to sell for your side hustle: clothing, health and wellness products, cleaning supplies, cooking-related products, makeup, and even (ahem) “adult” products. If you can imagine something, you almost certainly can find an MLM to join!
Deciding Whether to Pursue a Side Hustle Related to Your Full-Time Job
When I first jumped into the side-hustle game, I stuck with something very close to my day job as an Air Force computer systems officer by starting a small computer consulting and software development firm. I also began teaching and again stayed with tech topics for the classes that I taught. Then, when I wrote my first book, I once again stayed close to home, synergy-wise, and authored a book called How to be a Successful Computer Consultant (McGraw-Hill).
Your side-hustle adventures may also have a high degree of synergy with your day job.
Jack, the Scottsdale software developer who is doing part-time community college teaching, aimed for synergy with his side hustle, as did Mark, the Boston accountant who is creating a series of small business accounting videos that he’ll try to monetize.
But what about Mark’s coworker Miguel, who will also be creating and uploading videos that he hopes to monetize, but whose videos are about bartending and related topics? Accounting … bartending … nope, not even close!
Your side hustle can be closely related to what you do for your day job, or it can be totally different. Miguel opted for the totally-different fork in the road, as did Cindy, the Seattle mechanical engineer (though in Cindy’s case, she’ll actually be doing bartending).
In my case, I eventually got burned out writing business and tech books, but I enjoyed the process of writing. Because I read a ton of fiction when I was a traveling consultant, I shifted my writing efforts away from the technology books to novels. For about 15 years, my side hustle writing business and tech books not only earned a little bit of extra money, but also helped establish credibility in my day job. I reached a point, however, where I had maxed out the career benefit from business and tech writing, so it was time to switch to what I enjoyed more, which was writing novels.
Show Me the Side Hustle Money!
Earlier in this chapter, I introduce you to Lori, who began doing gig-economy side-hustle work at Instacart when her hours at her full-time job were cut back. One of the main reasons Lori headed for the gig-economy side of the side-hustle world was the predictability of what she would make in exchange for her efforts. She was fairly confident that she could do 20 hours a week, maybe even a little more; and she knew what Instacart paid and what she could expect from customers’ tips in addition to her contract pay.
Likewise, Jack, the Scottsdale software developer, is absolutely certain how much money he’ll make from his community college teaching side hustle — the payment amount for each class is right there in his teaching contract.
Some side hustles come with highly predictable incomes. In Jack’s case, he knows exactly what he’ll make; in Lori’s case, she’s highly confident of the range in which her income will fall each week, and she knows that if she decides to work extra hours one week and fewer hours another week, she’ll make more or less money, respectively.
But what about Cindy, the part-time weekend bartender? Cindy’s side-hustle income is less predictable than Lori’s or Jack’s. She won’t necessarily have a bartending gig every weekend, so in any given month, she could make more or less than she makes in another month, depending on how busy she is (or isn’t).
What about Miguel and his bartending videos? Or Mark and his accounting videos? Or Max and his hiking-and-biking-comedian-around-Boston videos? All three of these guys work together during the day, yet any one of them could be wildly successful with his side hustle while the other two could flop miserably and make little or no money. Or two of them could be successful; or perhaps none of them will be successful!
Some side hustles come with highly predictable incomes, or at least a high confidence for the range of money you can make, while other side hustles could wind up bringing you anywhere from no money at all to literally millions of dollars! So, how do you align your side-hustle selection with your financial needs?
