Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 219. 12 Side Hustle Ideas For Software Developers

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219. 12 Side Hustle Ideas For Software Developers · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Last week, we talked about the benefits of side hustles.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: But knowing that you want to have a side hustle isn't really enough.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: You need to know what type of side hustle to undertake and how to get started.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we're going to cover 12 side hustle ideas for software developers, as well as some tips for how to get started.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Software development is more than just writing code.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the rest of it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically, let's talk about some ideas for side hustles as well as tips for how to get started.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Number one idea is freelance development.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we're talking about making a one-page website for yourself that just lists what you offer and then say, hey, this is what I do.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I write C sharp code or I build websites or I help teams build out their software, whatever the case may be, you just say, hey, I'm a freelance developer.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: The number of people that I have come across that find out, oh, you're a developer, I would love to have something done, is pretty high.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: So just saying, hey, here's what I do, having a quick and easy place to point people to that says, this is what I do, and then just getting your name out there can be enough to get started sometimes.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then from there, you build relationships, network with people, and try to, you know, continue to spread out the word that this is what you do, and that can build up some side projects.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: The benefit of being a freelance developer is that you get to experience maybe different project types that you want to do at work, but just don't have the ability to, or maybe different languages or different database types, or different environments.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: You get to experiment and try things out, learn and grow as a developer as you also help others.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, number two is you could build tools or plugins, make life easy for a group of people.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And usually that starts with making life easy for yourself.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is something that if you are a developer who's thinking through what you do and you're thinking through how I can make things better, you'll often spot two or three or four different things.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, hey, it'd be really nice if I could do this.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, build that thing, build that tool or that plugin.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: This does not have to be a full application.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: We'll try that later.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: But this could be just a Chrome plugin, or it could be a plug-in to VS Code or to Visual Studio where you build something that helps somebody.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: It does not have to make money.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you think, well, wait, a side hustle needs to make money, right?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: A side hustle can be free.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can do things, you know, that don't necessarily have a direct monetization plan.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I highly encourage you to think long term about how to make money off these things.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you spend all of your time just doing free content, well, then at some point you burn out and you have nothing to fall back on and that free content goes away.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's honestly why I do so much paid work, you know, paid courses and the DevPass, which is all of our courses for one subscription and other things like that, because yes, I want to give out tons of free content, but the way to do that is to have a solid funding base.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, I just don't have time and I'll burn out on doing free stuff.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so then you lose out and you don't help as many people.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, think about monetization.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're talking about plugins or tools, maybe the first step isn't a paid product.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's just get your name out there so that people go, oh, wait, you built that?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: That was awesome.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it starts to be something you can put in your resume.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: It starts to be put something you put in your portfolio.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: It starts to make you known in a community.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: That might be enough for you just to become more known and thus more elevated in the circles where maybe there's new job opportunities or new consulting opportunities, there are other opportunities that come about because people know you because of a plugin or tool.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now, maybe you say, you know what, I'm gonna create a free version and a paid version.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great idea as well.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: But helping people solve a problem is great because if it helps solve your problem, probably there's thousands of people out there just like you who need that problem solved too.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: So solving problems is going to be a great way to really make sure that you're successful or have the best odds of success, at least, in your um in your efforts.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, write blog posts.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you might say, well, Tim, there's not much modernization there.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I know about you know putting ads on things.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't work real well and it makes things look horrible.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: You're right.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what, if you're looking for ad income to be the thing that you know gives you all this money, it's just not gonna happen in almost every case.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Ads just don't bring in that much money.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So why would you write blog posts then?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it could be to get your name out there, but it could be more than that.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, the reason I'm in front of you today is because of a blog post that I wrote for the website called Code Project.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And Code Project is a place where you can put a technical post.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: People review it, they rate it, they you know, they share it with other friends.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a central place instead of you try to start your own blog and then not having a lot of traction.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I would encourage you, own your words, have a place that you can call your own.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in this case, I worked on a tool called Log4Net.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: It really wasn't clear how the how it worked.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: The documentation was comprehensive, but not clear.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so I spent um a whole Christmas break, one break, um, just working on how this works and figuring it out.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And when I was done, I said, I want this for myself for long term, but I also want to share with the world.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so I created a code project article that has millions of views now.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's what started the idea of me going, oh, I could help others because others have the same problem I do.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was just for me in a place that maybe a few others might benefit from.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: But it turns out millions of people benefited from that article.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that launched, I didn't get paid for that, but that launched in my mind the ability for me to say, hey, you know what?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, other people have the same problems I do.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe if I solve my problems and then share that, that could be good enough to help others as well.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: So writing blog posts can be a very beneficial way to become known, to be able to try things out.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe people write back and say, hey, that doesn't work.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: That can sharpen your skills because you're not gonna be perfect in everything you do.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: It can allow you to see a broader world and what people need and don't need.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it can allow you to start that process of monetization.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it is just ads, or maybe it's something where you start sharing more personalized things, like, hey, wrote a blog post, but it's about my paid application or paid plugin.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now you're advertising for yourself.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's a much more valuable thing.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number three.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, participate in competitions.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: There are competitions out there, there's ebbs and flows of this.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, where there might be a um a hackathon or there might be a um a sponsored competition through something like Code Project or others, where they say, hey, we're gonna do this, and you participate.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, that's that seems like it's not that big, but I tell you what, it can be huge.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: For example, I started to become more and more uh prolific on Code Project.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so Code Project would have these competitions, usually sponsored by Intel or others, where they say, hey, we want you to build out this or build out that.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we'll we'll rank and review the different um the participants' uh submissions.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so through that, I was able to get a free tablet, a free all-in-one computer, and a trip to Spain to present at Mobile World Congress, among other things.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I also got sort of$7,000,$8,000 in prize money from different competitions just from participating.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't win everything I did.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: But by just participating, trying things out, well, I was able to make a name for myself.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: I was able to get some neat opportunities, and I was able to make some money through it just by trying things out.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: But it also allowed me to kind of dream outside the box what I was doing at work.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I tried things out, went, hey, you know what?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing this at work, but I could, you know, submit this entry for a competition and see how it went.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I did that a number of times and was able to have some really good success in doing so.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So participate in competitions, hackathons or others.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Number five, contribute to open source.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So this doesn't seem like a side hustle.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Again, when you think about side hustles, often you you associate money with side hustle, but it doesn't have to be.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, it can be.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So when you talk about open source, open source typically you don't think about money, but that's something that is changing in the industry somewhat.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also, again, the bigger picture.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Think beyond just the immediate dollar.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Think about the um the long-term benefits.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So when you contribute to open source, well, first of all, you build up your skills outside of what you're doing at work.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then you start to make a name for yourself in the community as people know you and begin to rely on you or look to you for your work and for your efforts.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can start even creating your own open source repository.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you start off with just helping others, but then you again solve a problem people have, and it becomes your own open source repository.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a lot of downsides with doing your own repository because people don't be pointing at you and say, hey, I want this fixed, I want that fixed.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to be able to understand the difference between doing what you want to do to help the community and being required to.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to be able to say, I'm not gonna do that right now, or I don't have time to do that right now, and be okay with that.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: But by building out those applications, you can start to become, again, known in the community.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: What can that do for you?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, when you're applying the jobs, you can point to something that you built or something that you have major contribution to to say, hey, here's what I have done.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: You can see my work.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that can be really beneficial.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Contributing to the open source community or blogging or a few of the other things will also allow you to get recognition in other areas.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: For example, you might become an MVP of some type for, you know, for Docker, for Microsoft, for Google, for Amazon.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: They all have similar programs that are have different names, Ambassador or whatever else, but that can again elevate you in the community, help you become more well known, and help you get more opportunities.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So even if it's not directly tied to dollars today, it can change your future by just contributing.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number five.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Number six is volunteering for a nonprofit.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of nonprofits in the United States, and I'm assuming the rest of the world, I'm not as familiar with the rest of the world, how that works, but there's lots of people out there that need help.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's in the US at least kind of doubly good to help somebody who their mission isn't just getting more money.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Their mission is to help people or you know, help animals or help something.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so you can volunteer and say, hey, you know what?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe you need some tech work done.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's just fix their computers, maybe it's help advise them on what computer to buy or you know how to replace their mouse or how to update their drivers.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: But then it could turn into, hey, you know, I could build you a better website.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or, hey, you know what?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: I see you do all this data entry and swap them between Excel and these other applications.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: What if I create an interface for you that was a little cleaner that would help you do your job better?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden you have built an application that maybe, again, you don't make money off of, but that you could have a positive impact in your community, whether it's your library, your animal shelter, or whatever else you're volunteering at.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: But also now you have something for your resume and your portfolio, and you have a custom review or a recommendation to share as well from the person that you helped.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, with that, you could then take that application and maybe even turn it into a paid product, maybe have it be a cheap paid product since it's for nonprofits, potentially.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but where you could say, hey, you know what?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: I can't beat every animal shelter helping out, but I built this thing for this animal shelter.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it'll help your animal shelter too.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll sell to you for$50.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden you have something that you could distribute and make an income off of as well.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number six, volunteering at nonprofit organizations.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Number seven is build a full software solution.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So this is where if you decide, you know what, I'm not gonna build just a plug-in or a tool, I'm gonna build a full application to help somebody out.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: So this is an app that fills a need.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: My encouragement here would be to target a niche industry.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just target everybody everywhere, because probably there's a lot of different apps that solve those problems.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: But when you dial it very specifically into something that hopefully you know more about, but that's a smaller audience, well, there's less people competing in that smaller uh arena.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have a better chance of coming out on top or being able to provide something new and unique to the industry.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: So start small, but build something that that industry specifically could use.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this is where you can bring in your outside experience because we're not just software developers.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, some people maybe they go to go to college, they come right out and become a software developer, and that's all they've ever known.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: But usually you know something else as well.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you worked as in a restaurant for your college years trying to make ends meet, or maybe your family has a farm, or maybe you used to be a realtor, but now you switch careers, or maybe you were originally trained to be an accountant, but you turned, you came and became a software developer instead.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Using those previous skills, those skills outside of software development can be very helpful in identifying what niche industry to work for and how to build something that is useful for that industry.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So building something that's specific to them is much easier if you have some insider knowledge, some experience, and aren't just looking from the outside in.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: The problem with a lot of software that is built is oftentimes people come in with an outsider's perspective on an industry.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where you'll see the actual insiders that try to use it get so frustrated with the software because the person who built it didn't really understand how things work.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where you can make your software a lot better and stand out more, is if you're writing software that meets the actual needs of the people in the industry and it does it in a way that that works well with their process.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Number eight, build mobile apps.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a double-edged sword because some of you just said, just start to me out and say, yep, that's what I'm gonna do.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um wait, please.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um let's talk through this.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because yes, you can absolutely make a name for yourself.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you can absolutely make money with mobile apps.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: However, the other side of that is you can absolutely waste your time, you can absolutely get no traction, you can absolutely get lost in the shuffle.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a balance to be met here because oftentimes you try again for that appeals to everybody application, which there's thousands of those.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so now you're in this sea of you know, applications are almost the same.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you stand out and how do you really make an impact in the industry?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the way I do that really is by having great graphics and having a catchy application, you know, catchy uh marketing and having it shared out to the world and spending tons of money on it, way too much stuff for you to do.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you succeed?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, keep your applications small.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Part of a side hustle is about learning and growing as a developer.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: So if you try and build one massive application that takes you months and months and months and months, you're not gonna learn as much as if you built 10 applications that were tiny.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: So keep them small and then also make sure you monetize in some way.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to learn what the industry is working with for monetization.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: For example, um paying for apps isn't really a huge thing anymore.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it never really was, but people really hesitate to spend even a dollar on an application.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: However, in-app purchases are pretty high.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: So people might spend$100, even$100 a month on an application if it's an in-app purchase, but they'd hesitate to spend even$5 on the application itself.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So think that through.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Think through how do I monetize successfully and intelligently so that I'm not just, you know, doing a pay-for-play thing if you're doing a game or even if you're doing a non-game.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: But um, how do I make this usable as a free app, but also attractive to then upgrade?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: For example, and I gotta go back to game for a minute.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I play a few games where they have annoying ads in them, but I paid a flat rate.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, get rid of all the ads for that flat rate.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: I am perfectly happy to do that because if I like the game and I want to spend time on it, I don't want to watch ads.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so if I can turn all the ads off and spend$18 in the app, I'm going to consider it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to spend$18,$20 on an application that I might not have spent a dollar to purchase up front.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know if I'm going to love it up front.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: But once I start to play it, I go, yeah, I like this app.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: I want to keep playing it.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: And to turn off ads for life, well, that's worth it.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now turning off ads on a monthly basis, not as worth it.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: So think those things through.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Keep it small, monetize it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I um met a guy uh back, oh goodness, 10, 15 years ago.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now his name is Atley Hunter, and he had at the time over 300 apps in the Microsoft App Store.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: So this is for the Windows phone that maybe you don't even know existed.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: But there was at one point a third option.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was Android, iOS, and then there's Windows for your phone.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the Windows phones were kind of cool, but always so far behind that it wasn't even worth it.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And yet he made a very good living with a small market.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: So why would you ever target Windows Phone instead of iPhone?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because iPhone, that's where you know all people are in the United States, and Android, that's where everybody is in the rest of the world.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: So why wouldn't you target those big markets?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, he targeted a niche.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: He targeted a very small market where even the big players were like, you know what, we're not going there.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're barely going to go there.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so he had the opportunity to step into a market where there wasn't a lot of competition.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now he built, like I said, over 300 applications.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how would you ever do that?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he got to the point where he could turn around an app in a day or two where he had an idea.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: He'd implement it within a day or two.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: How does he do that?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he built out reusable libraries.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so he would have a spreadsheet that has all the different things an app might need.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: For example, access to the GPS, access to the storage, access to authentication, and so on down a list.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then when he had an idea, he would put it in that spreadsheet and check off what are the things that I would need for this application?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: What are the features?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then as he would build out apps, he'd say, okay, well, I only have navigation and storage right now.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's all I've built the code for.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: So what applications only need those two things?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then he would build those applications using the reusable libraries where he's just calling the code that he's written over and over and over again.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then he would say, okay, I'm going to build out authentication now.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he builds that out once.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says, okay, now what apps might have authentication and app storage potentially?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or and he looks at his spreadsheet and he starts building those apps out.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: And by reusing that code, he got faster and faster and faster at building out applications.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: What did this allow him to do?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it allowed him to test the market.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Were all of his apps winners?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, most of his apps weren't winners.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: However, what he found was some apps that he thought would be winners weren't.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the apps that he spent the most time on and put the most effort into didn't end up succeeding as well as he thought they would.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And yet the apps that he spent very little time on had wild success to the point where they were his top income earners.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: So what that shows for us is a couple of things.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: One is that code reuse is huge.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you think about it, you can use this time of side hustle to build out a code library for yourself, if you are disciplined about it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can build this library for yourself that can be really helpful for making yourself faster and faster and faster.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you're doing freelance work or if you're doing building apps for people or whatever the case may be, if you use that, reuse those libraries, well, you're faster and faster and faster, but you still bill the customer the same, which means you essentially make more and more and more money for the customer gets the same output every time and the customer is happy, but yet you're doing less and less work and still getting that same money.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that can be huge.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: But also the idea that instead of building these huge apps that take tons of time, you focus on very, very small applications that do one thing well and then figure out the market and figure out if it works and figure out how the deployment process works and how all the rest is works so that you figure out how to get that more and more efficient every single time.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: That makes you better and better and allows you to create bigger and bigger apps while not putting too much time into any of them.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: And by doing that, you can try things out because you may think you have the killer idea for an application, but the market might not agree.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you can argue all you want with the market, but the reality is if people aren't paying for it, then you're not getting any income, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't matter if you thought it was a great idea, um, it's not gonna work.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so being able to test the market and try things out and you know spread out more and more things instead of having just one thing, well, then you have a better chance of seeing that one hit.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it's not the hit you thought it would be.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number eight, build mobile apps.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: But number nine is maybe build small games.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And this is kind of related to number eight.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe you say, you know what, I don't want to build mobile apps, but I want to build games.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, maybe that's games on mobile, maybe it's games on desktop or games on the web, whatever it is, that might be a way to go.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this is one of those areas where people often get starry-eyed and they think, oh, I'm gonna build the best game ever, and everyone's gonna buy, I'll be a bajillionaire because you know everyone's gonna love this concept.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe, probably not, but maybe.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, instead of trying to build one big game, build small games.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Try them out, see what works, what doesn't work.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: The number of people who have succeeded by building small games is pretty impressive.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I watched a talk at uh GDC one year by a guy who uh I think the title was something like um succeeding the industry for 20 years without ever having a hit.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the way he did that was by building small games that he could, again, reuse content from over and over again and being able to find out which ones hit and then create a second one and a third one for that audience, and then do things that are similar but not the same and kind of tap into a specific set of people and then just kind of ride that niche.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I saw another talk by a guy who he built basically those Connect 3 or Kinect 4 kind of like um Bejeweled or uh Candy Crush type of games.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um he built those and just had different skins and different rules, and he would build them for things like Halloween and Easter and Christmas and you know, whatever else, you know, whatever holiday, he'd create a themed one for that.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he would see a spike during that time, and then you know, it'd come around next year and he'd see a spike again.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Building small games can be a way to try out the market, find out what works, build up your skills, and maybe at some point you figure out which ones hit and then can keep going deeper in that area.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: So build small games, but that could be a side hustle.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Number 10, create useful NuGet packages.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: So similar to plugins or tools or other things, uh, finding out how to reuse code and what code might be useful to others, and then sharing that through NuGet packages, um, whether they are just free NuGet packages or maybe even a paid service you can do as well.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, figuring out how to take the code that you use that you find useful, package it up in a way that others might be useful might find it useful as well, and sharing that.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Number 11 is create a template website setup.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is something that a lot of companies need some type of website.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just pick uh restaurants, okay?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you might think, well, every restaurant has a website.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, do they?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because forget about big chains, forget about McDonald's and Burger King.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna get their web application, you know, you're not gonna work for them to build web applications.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: However, look in your neighborhood.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Find the little mom and pop shops, not chain restaurants.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Find the little places that maybe have a horrible website.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Create a template website for a restaurant where you can change out the name of the restaurant, the images, but really what a what's a restaurant need?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it needs to show off what the restaurant is, what the hours are, what the menu is, and maybe a place for linking to you know to buy online or you know, um ordering delivery.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's really the same for every restaurant.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you create a template that you work on and make some nice features for and make sure that it's can be changed enough to not look just the same as every other website.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: But by building that reusable system, you can spend the time to build once and reuse for multiple customers.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: They might say, hey, no, I want something totally different.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that takes a lot more work.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if I'm gonna do that, well, it's five times the cost.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, all of a sudden they're like, wait, no, no, I don't want that.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: We've got this for you that we've taken the optimization and passed the savings on to you.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that'd be great.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: You just plug in these things and you're good to go.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: The other benefit here is you could get a website up and running in a day.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's huge compared to a fully customized website.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: So by doing something like this, you can spend the time once.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is what developers need to think about all the time.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: How do I optimize my time?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Which we've seen with tools, we've seen with NuGet packages, we've seen with mobile apps and games and all these other things where we're reusing, which helps us speed up, oh, speed up and speed up and speed up.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: So in this case, you're reusing a template, not just something you copied from the web, something you customized, but you reuse that and help out clients who wouldn't otherwise have a great website.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, you should make it great, but at the same time, it's okay not to be perfect.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to spend thousands of dollars for a restaurant that's making a 1% profit margin.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: They're just not gonna be able to afford it.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: But if you can come in and say, hey, I can make it better for you, and then you do that at one restaurant, you do it for the next restaurant and the next restaurant, in your area, you might have five, 10, 15 restaurants that might take your website and use it.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, all of a sudden, you have 10, 15 clients where updates or whether it's support or helping them where you knew their domain names, all that kind of stuff can be under your umbrella and you can make a little bit of extra money doing so.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: The cool thing is that if you do it right, you could probably even host it on something like Azure static web apps where they're basically free.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to pay for hosting, and yet you could have some level of fee that you charge them, not too much, but something that you could charge them for hosting because it's your hosting provider and you know, you have to think about the maintenance of it and that kind of thing.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that can be another option.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Number 12 is consultation.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I left this for last because this is something you should only do once you're at a level where you are confident in your skills and that you have a senior level, a technical, uh, a high technical level of experience in order to pass that on to other companies.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is not something you do in your first five years as a developer.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because consultation is where you are trying to pass on best practices and helping companies be more efficient and helping them build out their processes to be better.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've only ever seen one or two ways of doing things, you're not gonna be a great consultant.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got to do a lot more work and do the other 11 things.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do a lot of those and make sure you have broad experience before you just start going in and telling others what to do.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, what happens is they'll follow your advice and potentially fail.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And if they fail, that kind of falls back on you because they followed your advice.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so you gotta be very careful when you give advice to make sure you give great advice and not shaky advice.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you give shaky advice and they make major decisions based upon it, you could negatively impact major companies.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: You could potentially send a smaller company out of business because of how you what you say in consulting.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: So get some experience first.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: But when you do have that experience, being a consultant can be a great way to have a side hustle.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: It can be a way that you can help guide companies to have better outcomes, to be more efficient, to have their employees like them better because somebody outside comes in and helps guide them towards what the employees wanted to do in the first place.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things I would do as a consultant is I would talk to the team that's working on the product.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: And usually they had great ideas for what the company should do, but the company didn't want to listen to them because they weren't as trusted.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: They've only been working there two years.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're not, you know, they don't really know what the company needs.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so if it's a great idea, I would pass it along.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say, hey, you know what?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think we should do this.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: And usually the company, when they listen to a consultant, will be more willing to do what the consultant says because they're paying for that advice.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why would you just ignore it?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I could help the team get what they need and do things in a more efficient way by just being the outside voice that says the same thing they've been saying.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: The other way that you can be a consultant and really help the team is by being the bad guy.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd often do this for teams where I'd say, hey, you know what?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can make me the bad guy.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can make me be the one that gives the bad news.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: I can be the one that says, this is not going to work.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I can be the one that says, we need more budget.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can be the one that kind of passes on the bad news to the higher ups because at the end of the day, what's the worst that can happen to me?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: They can say, we don't want your services anymore.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: The team has to live there.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: They have to work day in, day out with management.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm the bad guy, will I shield the team and allow them to work better and more efficiently?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you can do a lot of things as a consultant to help companies grow and flourish, sometimes despite bad management.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a really great way to have a side hustle that can then launch you into maybe full-time consulting, or maybe it's it launches you into working for a certain company full-time.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of great ways that becoming a consultant can help you further your career, but at the same time, just be careful you don't leap right to this early on your career.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Give it time.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so there's 12 different ways you could have a side hustle.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Not every way necessarily brings in income right away, but at the same time, most of them have a way to bring in income or that's have a potential for income.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: But all of them will help grow your skills, will help expand your skills outside of what you currently have, and will help you make a name for yourself in the community that will allow you to grow in which job you currently hold down, or if you even decide to have a job anymore.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: So side hustles are a really good thing.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: They can be, just be careful not to take them too far.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because the other side of a side hustle, we've talked about before, but is if you just work all the time, well, that's when you get burned out, that's when you hurt your family, that's when you decide that you know all there is to life is just working, and that can be a really bad thing.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: So be careful to hit the balance between not doing anything outside of work and just hoping that things will change without really any reason for them changing, and on the other end, doing so much work that you forget everything else.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: So hit the balance in the middle.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, don't swing the pendulum too far one way or the other.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: But side hustles can really help launch you in the industry.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: They've helped me, they've helped others that I've seen do this as well.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: When you think about people that you know in the software development industry, think about why do you know them?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: And almost always it will be because of their side hustle.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Very rarely do you just know a person because they work at Amazon.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably because they built the NuGet package you use all the time, or they built the software that you use, or because they worked at your company as a consultant, or the list goes on.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they spoke at conferences.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: That can be a side hustle as well.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even mention that.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: But speaking can be a side hustle.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can go to conferences and be a speaker.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: So there's lots of different ways that you can become known.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Almost none of them have to do with your job, your 40-hour week job.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's be honest here, 50-hour week job.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: But um, instead, they often come from side hustles.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to get ahead, if you want to launch yourself forward, a side hustle is the way to go.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: The thing is, it's not the way to go when it's too late.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning, if you just got laid off, it's not a great time for a side hustle.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: You have to spend a lot of your time focused on getting a job or getting the next job or figuring out what to do to get income.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's not a great time to spend your extra time, you don't have any extra time, but spend your extra time to just help out in a way that's a long-term thing.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you want stuff right now.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: So the best way to benefit your career long term is to start these side hustles when things are going great.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you wait until things are on the edge, it might be too late for a lot of these to help you.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: So just think that through.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Think of your long-term career goals in this industry, not just what you want today.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: All right, thanks for listening.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCorey.com and enroll in a course.