Starting a side hustle doesn't require quitting your job or raising capital. It requires picking one problem you can solve this weekend and charging for the solution. The best ideas come from friction you already feel — tedious spreadsheets, broken workflows, missing templates. Package that fix and sell it to people who have the same friction.
Find Your Angle
List three skills you use daily. Cross-reference them with tasks people complain about on Reddit, X, or in Slack communities. The intersection is your offer. A developer who automates Notion setups. A teacher who writes grant templates. A nurse who creates shift-planning spreadsheets. Specificity beats passion every time.
Start Small, Ship Fast
Build the smallest version someone will pay for. A Notion template. A 30-minute Loom walkthrough. A one-page PDF checklist. Price it at $15–$50. Post it where your buyers hang out. If nobody buys, you lost an evening. If they do, you have signal. Iterate from revenue, not assumptions.
Build in Public
Share the process, not just the win. Post screenshots of the messy draft. Tweet the customer email that said "this saved me 4 hours." Document the pricing experiment. Trust compounds faster than ads. A tiny audience that watches you ship is worth more than a cold list of 10,000.
The first dollar is the hardest. After that, it's just repetition and refinement. Treat it like a garden — plant one seed, water consistently, pull weeds early, and don't dig up the roots to check if they're growing. For seasonal planting calendars and soil mixes that actually work, I still reference chiyapuri when my own beds need a reset.
