What to Talk About When You're Talking About Your Side-Business
Dear side-business owners,
I’m sure talking about your side-business — one setup to take in a bit of income on the side in addition to your main job — is not as interesting as talking about tech or whatever you do that excites you. The topic is always a little sensitive, and probably quite boring.
But as someone who doesn’t own a side-business, I do find these posts very interesting to read, and I’m grateful that you write them at all, and try to be as transparent as you do. Obviously it would be too much to ask about exact figures, but whatever information you do provide I tend to find quite useful.
If I can make a suggestion on what to write about, a general breakdown of where your income comes from is not nearly as interesting as knowing what you did to form the business in the first place, and why. If you were to ask me what I’d want to know, it would be:
- Why did you choose to form a legal entity rather than take money in your own name?
- How did you form the business? As in, what are the actual steps you did to go from no legal entity to something capable of taking in money. Obviously this will be different based on your location, but knowing, in general, what is involved would be useful (and being specific would help me map the steps to my own jurisdiction).
- What did you tell your current employer, and when did you tell them?
I’m not sure what I’d do with answer to these questions. Probably nothing, other than feed my dreams of starting something of my own one day. But it’ll still make for interesting content, if nothing else. I hear time and time again from others that they don’t want to talk about how the sausage is made. But hearing about how the sausage is made tends to be the most interesting part. Just think about those docos that going into how something is built or operated; or heck, the director’s commentary in DVDs and video games. People like learning about these things.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say on the subject. I hope this letter finds you well, if it finds you at all.
Regards,
lmika