Welcome to Big Guy on Stuff – An Experiment in Multiple Income Streams

Make it Rain

Multiple income streams, passive income, money trees, side gigs, side hustles — whatever you call it. The idea of making extra money that hopefully trickles (or floods!) in is not a new concept. A Google search for “multiple income streams” produces many results on the topic. Personally, I am looking into this because I am a sole provider for my family, and the thought of having only one stream of income is scary

, especially the older I get. It would also be nice if someday the side streams of income surpass my main source of income. I do have other streams of income in retirement accounts, but I’m talking more about something that eventually leads to my family having financial freedom before I’m too old to enjoy it.

The Idea

The purpose of this site is twofold. This is my first foray into the art that is the side hustle, and it is also an experiment. I plan on being totally transparent about any of the earnings that come from this site as I want others who are going down this path to know what the reality of “blogging for cash” really looks like for someone who is just starting and maybe has no idea how it all works (like me). I will find a way to post statistics for the site and keep them updated.

The History

I used to have an entrepreneurial drive. Way back in 7th grade, I started selling candy to my classmates. I would buy a bag of Blow Pops and sell them for 50 cents a piece. In middle school, it was nothing for me to come away with a 10 or 15 dollar profit every day that I sold. Eventually others started selling, and I ended up having to compete in price, but I still made money. I even talked one of the other guys selling into giving me a cut of his profits since I was first. That was OK by my 7th grade logic, but thinking back, may have been a bully-ish move. Eventually someone told on me for selling, and the principal came looking for me. Luckily, that day I had already sold all of my product and wasn’t holding, so I denied. After that, I never sold again. They killed my american dream! I have had other side gigs over the years. I mowed yards as a teenager. I have done some side contracting work as an adult. I’m a networking geek and somewhat of a programmer, so the side gigs have been mostly related to those fields, but these type of gigs still take a lot of my time and usually end when the engagement is over. At the beginning of the year, I started listening to the podcast “Side Hustle School” by  Chris Guillebeau. The podcast is almost always less than 10 minutes, and in each episode he shares with us an example of someone who has pulled the trigger on a side hustle idea. These aren’t entrepreneurs but folks with jobs trying to make a little extra cash on the side without quitting their day jobs. After listening to this and starting to read his book, “Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days,” I’ve started to get my side hustle itch back! Granted, I haven’t finished the book yet, but one of his main concepts is to go ahead and start something even if you’re not 100% ready. I think blogging is something that I can learn to do as I go, and I really have nothing to lose.

Going Forward

As the name implies, I am a bigger guy, and I started out thinking I would write reviews on things from a big guy’s perspective. This would include topics such as how things like furniture hold up when you don’t fit into the “normal” size category, new diet trends and recipes, just about anything that would benefit someone else out there looking for how things work as a bigger person. All posts won’t be like this though as I don’t really want to limit myself to that. The topic categories on this site will be quite varied as I try to figure out what I like writing about and what people want to read. I also want to look into having some others help with the content.

Monetize

This is the part where I put the shameless plugs in. That is the point of all of this aside from sharing knowledge with the internet community. If you are interested in the Chris Guillebeau’s book that I mentioned above, please use my link to check it out below. Full transparency — using the link below to buy the book does help add to the money flow generated by this site.

As a throwback, if you want to buy a big box of Blow Pops, you can do that below :). By the current amazon price, $16.92 for a box of 100, I could have made 33 cents per sale or $33 on the whole box back in the day!

If you would like to checkout the “Side Hustle School” podcast, you can find it in your favorite podcast app or at http://sidehustleschool.com.

Thank you. Come again.

If you’re still with me, thanks for being interested. I welcome any and all feedback as I want this to be a useful project, so please send it in. My goal is to work my way up to posting content at least twice a week, so keep checking back.