Ali Abdaal – Part Time CreatorPreneur
The Secret To £100k a Year
I started making YouTube videos in my final year of medical school at Cambridge University. It was Summer 2017 and I started off with 0 views, 0 subscribers and $0 in revenue.
18 months later, my YouTube channel was at 100,000 subscribers and was making as much money as my full-time job working as a doctor in the UK. And now, as of May 2022, my channel has over 3 million subscribers and I make over £100,000 ($130k) each month from it (and over $350,000 per month from the business as a whole), with 5-10 hours of effort each week. I know — it’s bloody ridiculous.
The crazy thing is, I could’ve done all of this twice as fast.
In fact, I’ve made a bunch of mistakes and I almost quit after a few short months into my creative journey. I was tired from working full-time as a junior doctor, my YouTube revenue was trickling in, and I thought outsourcing the boring, time-consuming, stuff was totally unachievable.
But, this all changed when I discovered something really important about being a creator:
It’s not all that different from running a business.
And the strategies, tools, and principles that work in business can also be used to help us find success with our own creative side hustle. That’s it. That’s the secret.
The Challenges of Being a Creator
Here’s something to remember about being a creator: it’s never easy. And even when you start to make some money from your creative side hustle, things don’t magically get easier. Very often, your problems just compound:
And despite your best efforts to face up to all these challenges (and a lot more), you live in fear that it could all come crumbling down at any moment.
Like, what if your audience loses interest in your content? Or, what if the algorithm changes and you lose all your traffic?
It’s hard being a creator.
But, it’s also a lot of fun. When you’re working on the stuff you’re passionate about, grow consistently, and make a decent amount of money along the way, being a creator is genuinely life-changing.
Part-Time Creatorpreneur
Businesses have been solving many of the same problems creators face for decades. All we need to do is explore the different ways businesses have learnt to optimise, strategise, and systematise their operations and apply what works to our own creative side hustle.
This may sound too simple. But, just take a minute to think about the similarities between businesses and creators. Like creators, businesses need to…
Improve Workflow
Constantly improve their workflow and efficiency to deliver a high quality output.
Force Multiply
Identify the force multipliers that reduce costs, boost productivity, and allow them to maintain a competitive advantage.
Build Systems
Build systems to reduce friction, increase throughput, and optimise the quality + quantity of what they produce.
Increase Cashflow
Increase their cashflow by seamlessly pricing, marketing, and selling products/services to their target audience.
Leverage
Leverage people to maximise growth and make their output sustainable in the long-term.
Build a Team
Hire a motivated and passionate team that believes in their goals, values, and mission.
Basically, your creative side hustle is a BUSINESS. And the sooner you recognise it, the easier it becomes to achieve sustainable growth, make money, and properly enjoy the process.
I admit it took me way too long to spot the connection. But there’s no reason you need to make the
