The 7 Very Difficult Side Hustles to AVOID (choose wisely)

0:00As soon as I left school, I started my first side hustle and became a millionaire overnight. This couldn't be further from the truth. Most side hustles that the gurus talk about won't make you rich, and a lot of them should be avoided at all costs. Believe me, I've tried so many different side hustles before finally escaping my 9-5 job and becoming a millionaire in my 20s. I now own multiple million dollar businesses, so this video comes from experience. So not only am I going to expose the top 7 side hustles to avoid, I'm also going to reveal how you can actually be successful with some clever tweaks. So number 7 is e-commerce. I'm sure you've all seen those TikTok videos where people claim to have got rich from selling Christmas names on Amazon. It might seem like a walk in the park, but behind all the flashy success stories you see online, it can be an extremely tough game. Honestly, I think the number one issue here is customer data. This is the ability to know your customers purchase in habits. This specific type of data is a game changer. Knowing this

1:02information allows you to build a much stronger returning customer base, as you can market to them again and again at almost no cost. If a huge corporation like Amazon owns all of your customer data, then who's to say they can't use this to push you out and start selling a product like yours? Speaking of being powerless, there was a time when I got banned from one of these internet giants myself. A few years back I listed some craft knives on my RC model business, and they got taken down. I was told that I've broken their terms and conditions for a little craft knife. I know how ridiculous. And as a punishment, they banned me from listing any new items for an entire month. So should we completely forget about Amazon and eBay? Well, it might surprise you that I actually do sell on eBay. This is my warehouse, but why sell on eBay after I've just said third party platforms are not a good idea. Well, I only do it to draw attention to my brand. I see it more as a marketing tool and use it to funnel as many people to my website as possible. A little trick

2:08I use to achieve this is by having my staff include business brochures with every order we sell on a third party platform. These brochures contain a discount code that customers can use on my website. By doing this, you can redirect these customers to your website where you play, buy your own rules and you regain that control. But number six is an even bigger trap, real estate. The ultimate path to passive income, earning an extra yearly salary effortlessly, and riding that relaxing wave to financial freedom. Absolute nonsense. Well, coming from someone who owns multiple properties, I can promise you it's not that easy. First off, to even purchase a property, you need a significant amount of money. It's highly illiquid. You'll have a large chunk of your money tied up which you're unable to use and you must be prepared for that. Even if you can afford to buy a property, it will typically require ongoing expenses like tax and insurance, not to mention the maintenance. I'm sure many of you have lived or currently living student

3:12housing. Just consider the damage that is caused over a year. And how many times the handyman is called into fix yet another cold shower. This house behind me is one of my single family rental properties. Stunning. Even though I do say so myself, but it hasn't always been that way. Honestly, it took me about four years to make this house worthwhile. Check out the tiling on the roof up there. It looks decent right. Well, that's because I had to refit them. One of the rich titles fell off, which caused the wind to blow down many more. And at the time, I decided to do the job myself thinking, how hard can it be? But then I realised how high a roof on a two-story building is. I'm not even afraid of heights, but it's extremely difficult to lay tiles when you're 26 foot up a ladder and shaking with fear. It feels like being on one of those Mr Beast videos. The frustrating part is that if I'd have found out when that first pilot fall enough, I could have saved a lot of money and fixed that problem immediately. I've been very lucky that my tenants have always paid on time, but this isn't the case for everyone.

4:14So ask yourself, is it worth it? Look, despite all the chaos that comes with real estate, I'm still very passionate about it. I usually aim to keep a good 15% of my annual rental money aside, which protects me against some of the issues we've discussed along the way. Ultimately, it's a great way to build long-term wealth. So when you have enough money to tie up into an investment property, then it can be a good idea, but it's definitely not a side hustle. Saying this, I can't actually believe how many people fall for number five day trading. Right, imagine waking up at 5am armed with a protein shake and ready to take on the financial market. The day begins with one simple premise. All you have to do is sit with your laptop, following charts and booms you've made a profit. This is the illusion that fake gurus put out on social media, and I can confirm that this is one daring adventure where profits can be lost in the blink of an eye. Believe it or not, I've tried trading myself, and you want to know how long I lasted? Eight months, not even a year. One of my shares bombed because I wasn't online enough to

5:22monitor its progress, resulting in a loss of money. I'm grateful that I didn't have a significant amount invested as a large sum could have sunk me at the time. The biggest issue I have with online trading is the fake gurus selling signals to unsuspecting people that don't know any better. The pictures you just do what they tell you, and you'll be rich, but you have to ask yourself, if they actually know how to beat the market, then why would they be making most of their money from selling these signals instead of from trading themselves? Ultimately, to start trading, you need to have a decent amount of money and be in a financial position where potential losses will not significantly affect you. I know this is usually the point where I tell you how to make this side hustle or success, but to be honest with you, unless you're going to dedicate your life to it, then I don't see how day trading is going to work out for you. AI will be far better at spotting patterns than any human brain, so I think that days of even the best human traders are pretty limited. Number four, low-skilled service-based businesses are probably the most common side hustle

6:26shared in those top 10 side hustle videos on YouTube. You've probably heard them talking about getting paid to complete online surveys and for writing video captions. The harsh truth is, when it comes to a low-skilled service-based business, it doesn't matter who you are or where you've come from. You're valued purely on the quality of the service you provide. Those typical barriers like age and experience become a thing of the past, so as long as there's an internet connection, anyone anywhere in the world can compete with you, it's important to remember that this includes kids and people in less economically developed countries, so this is going to drive down the amount that you can charge. I mean, look around, AI is slowly integrating itself into many areas within society, who's to say it won't take over some service-based businesses. AI is advancing by the day, and it's already replaced the role of a caption creator. I have a feeling that the days of copyrighting and certain services might be numbered. If you're considering starting a service-based

7:29business, remember that even if you're earning a decent amount of money, you're still tied down by time. It's not all doom and gloom. You just need to make sure that you start a service-based business that is not only successful, but also scalable. Video editing is a great example of this, as it allows you to establish an agency-style business. This way you can avoid being limited to manual work. Remember, life is short, so make sure you're the one in control of the stopwatch. When people learn about number three, drop ship in, they often say things like, wait a minute, I don't have to handle inventory or make my own products. I can just have a supplier in China, ship a product to my customers, and all I need to do is run a few Facebook ads, meaning I can make money from anywhere in the world. Sign me up. If only this was true, as drop ship-in often involved shipping from abroad, it means items take ages to arrive. A few years ago, this was the norm, and for me, I didn't mind waiting a week and a half for my orders, but now, well, I expect

8:30them the next day. We're all used to that next day quick delivery option, so I'm not sure how many people still have the patience to wait. This will lead to a lot of chargebacks as people get very frustrated. On top of this, one of the biggest headaches with drop shipping is the quality of the products. They can be all over the place. As sellers, you have restricted access to quality control, which can leave you with very unhappy customers. It's not impossible to be a successful drop ship, though. You can use a local warehouse to fix shipping issues, and you can do something called white label, meaning you can start putting your own brand on the products you sell. This will help you stand out in a very competitive market. I see white label drop shipping as a worthwhile side hustle, and a low risk method to generate income. It's also excellent for testing ideas before fully committing to big orders. But this doesn't fix your quality issues, as you don't have any control over the manufacturer and fulfillment process. Once, I visited a factory where I was told the products

9:32were of great value and high quality. While the qualities of the products were indeed very good, the state of the workplace was not. From exposed hanging wires to overheat and extension leaves, the factory was extremely unsafe. It felt like a ticking time bomb. Unexpectedly, as I was walking around the factory, a red hot shard of metal flew out from the machine and struck me right above the eye just there. Fortunately, I was okay with just a band aid. However, I couldn't help but wonder what might happen to one of the workers who were there every day. From this experience, my number one role is never buy from a factory that I haven't inspected. If you're growing as a business, you should gradually aim to take control of all aspects of that business. Number two, being a YouTuber is what all the kids want to do nowadays. Earn in thousands for simply sitting in front of a camera, discussing your passions and accumulating millions of fans. This sounds like an ideal side hustle,

10:32but it's not as easy as it seems. I started my channel not to make money, but as a passion project with my son, we didn't get monetised or accept any sponsors until we've been filming videos for years. A significant portion of our personal funds went into building studio sets and travelling to improve our videos. If we just started this as a side hustle, it wouldn't have made any sense and probably lost us a lot of money. The reality is success on YouTube is not guaranteed and competition continues to grow daily, achieving what seniors overnight success, usually takes five to seven years of hard work and determination. Does this mean I don't believe in you and you shouldn't start a YouTube channel? No. I'm simply suggesting that if you're seeking a quick and easy way to earn money, YouTube may not be the best choice. If you're truly passionate about it and you would do it even without pay, then I wish you all the best. However, it doesn't qualify as a side hustle. Number one is of course multi-level marketing. We've all encountered a friend

11:33claiming to have started their own business, but actually all they're doing is acting as a sales agent for a big MLM company. These companies aim to motivate you with bonus schemes and reward tears based on your sales and the number of people you recruit. They claim this opportunity can generate significant income, but in reality, you're fueling someone else's profit. My advice is simple with this side hustle. Stay away. If you want to know how to start a side hustle from nothing, then I'm going to leave the next video right up there, but don't click on it just yet. Make sure to subscribe if you want to grow your wealth. Okay, I'll see you over there.