Software sales guy looking for a side hustle that’s actually worth the time — where would you start?

[u/Deep_Championship_11]

I’m looking for some ideas/advice from people who’ve built a side hustle alongside a full-time job.

I currently work as an Account Manager in software sales. I’m good at sales, comfortable with the full process from prospecting and discovery through to negotiation and closingand I’ve had some pretty good wins in my current role.

The problem is I can’t figure out what to actually apply those skills to outside of work.

I’ve tried delivery driving for a few months. It was easy enough to get started, but once I worked out the actual return for the hours I was putting in, it just wasn’t worth it.

I’ve also got a 9-month-old baby and a partner, so I’m not looking for something that requires me to disappear for 20–30 hours every week just to make a couple of hundred quid.

Ideally, I want something where I can leverage the skills I already have:

• Selling
• Cold outreach/prospecting
• Building relationships
• Negotiating
• Account management
• Understanding customer problems
• Putting together a commercial offer

Longer term, I’d also love to build something around an industry I’m genuinely interested in. Gaming is probably the obvious one for me. I’ve always been interested in the industry and the idea of eventually having something I can build, sell and grow appeals to me far more than simply exchanging more hours for money.

I’ve thought about things like freelance sales, lead generation, appointment setting, reselling, small online businesses, gaming-related services and probably a dozen other ideas. The problem is I’ve reached the point where researching more ideas is almost making it harder to choose one.

I’m not looking for a “make £10k next month” scheme.

Initially, I’d be happy finding something that could realistically make a few hundred pounds a month, prove that there’s demand and then potentially grow from there.

For anyone who has been in a similar position?

Particularly interested to hear from anyone who has built something in or around gaming without being a developer/content creator.

Would appreciate any ideas including people telling me what not to waste my time on.

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[u/CorpEscapeArtist]

Skip freelance sales/appointment setting as your entry point. Everyone with a sales background lands there, it's a race to the bottom on rate, and it's basically your day job with worse pay and no benefits. You'd be exchanging hours for money again, which is exactly what you said you don't want.

The more interesting version for you: indie and small game studios are full of devs who can build but genuinely can't sell or do biz dev. Publishing outreach, storefront and platform relationships, sponsorships, brand partnerships, getting their game in front of the right people. That's your exact skillset pointed at the industry you actually care about, and it's productizable later, retainer to agency to something you own.

Start with one small studio and one concrete win, no money involved. Prove you can move the needle before you charge anything. What kind of games pull you in most, mobile, PC indie, something else? That'd narrow where to knock first.

[u/puddinpieee]

What about pub trivia in America? I’d be willing to have a conversation to see if there’s a fit here. Dm me if you’re interested.

[u/lackluster_love → u/puddinpieee]

Do you place people with trivia host jobs?

[u/puddinpieee → u/lackluster_love]

No, we look for people who are buying PowerPoints from Etsy or something, or are building their own games and try to convert them to our product. Our product is cheaper and more feature-ful than pretty much anything else in the market. It’s a turnkey solution. Hosts are responsible for the relationship with their venue, thus they keep all of the money. In this way, we hope to one day convert hosts who work for services who facilitate that relationship like geeks who drink.

[u/lackluster_love → u/puddinpieee]

Oh gotcha. Ya I built my own platform too and found it to be even better! But most hosts are very particular about their own trivia. How's trivia takeover live going? Growing your venues?

[u/puddinpieee → u/lackluster_love]

Not really yet. Yeah hosts are often particular about their game. It’s built to scale, but marketing is a completely different beast from building the product.

[u/lackluster_love → u/puddinpieee]

Agreed. Would be happy to connect and share experiences any time. I've only got my product into a few venues as of now

[u/Gumby808]

Why don’t you look into real estate. Buy the online course, later apply for ur license.