⚓️🏊‍♂️ Sink or Swim

Yes. This is the CityChad, your financial Jedi, wielding the force of financial wisdom. Let’s awaken your financial power!

In this week’s edition:

• Markets: Steady as it Goes

• Article: ⚓️🏊‍♂️ Sink or Swim

• News: Pixar bombing again

• Chad of the Week: Noah Kagan

MARKET REVIEW

What, you were expecting big gains every week?

No, man, stocks took a breather in the past week, steadying after the recent rally.

In fact, analysts are now starting to focus again on downside risk.

Morgan Stanley actually stated that bulls may be in for a “rude awakening”.

Bears have been wrong so far this year, but things can change quickly, especially when everyone turns bullish so quickly, as we have seen in recent months.

There has been a lot of doom and gloom in crypto over the past few weeks, plenty of it coming from regulatory pressure, as we discussed before.

However, as we know the crypto rollercoaster never stops, and the market has staged an impressive comeback this week.

In the last 24 hours alone, Bitcoin has surged more than 10%, demonstrating a renewed sense of vitality.

What’s driving this?

BlackRock’s recent application for a Bitcoin ETF seems to have been the catalyst needed to change the tone… at least for these few days.

⚓️🏊‍♂️ Sink or Swim

TLDR: You validated your idea and got the first signs that things could work out. Good stuff. Now get ready to scale up by turning up sales and growing your team. If the side hustle didn’t work out, be prepared to pivot or move on. Side hustles are not just about money, they are also about personal growth and empowerment, so no shame in taking an L. Get up and try again!

• Scaling Up (the Chad way)

• Moving On (to start fresh)

• The Side Hustle Mindset

PART 3: SCALING UP OR MOVING ON

High five, dude!

You've validated your side hustle idea, and now it's time to take it to the next level.

But what if things don't go as planned?

Don't worry, Chad’s got you covered.

Here's how to navigate the scaling process or gracefully move on:

1. SCALING UP

If your side hustle shows promise and resonates with your target market, it's time to scale up.

The 2 key things are to grow sales and streamline your operations by leveraging the talent of other people.

Sales are the bloodlife of every business and you need to keep laser focused on this.

To grow sales, you will need to invest in marketing and branding to expand your reach.

But before you blow your hard earned cash on marketing campaigns, have you reached out to your existing customers for referrals?

Have you looked for a blueprint of what has worked in digital marketing in your target market?

The spray and pray approach rarely works, so be very strategic about how you spend that cash.

Selling to strangers can be a different proposition altogether, so go slow to go steady.

Remember the Lean Startup process never stops, even when you have tasted success.

You want to test and iterate until you find your magical sales formula.

At the same time, you want to streamline your operations to match the needs of your business.

In fact, this is a Side Hustle so we can safely assume that you have other work responsibilities to take care of so leveraging the help of others will be critical.

How do you do that?

Start with freelancers and be very specific about the tasks you need them to do.

If you cannot articulate it to them, they will not be able to deliver.

Simple as that.

Don’t hire full time staff until it is absolutely essential and the business demands it.

The name of the game is to delegate tasks and leverage automation to manage growth effectively at the pace that the business demands.

Remember not to get ahead of yourself, and overinvest.

A great place to look for talent is Fiverr and UpWork.

Once you are ready to hire full time you can try onlinejobs.ph.

Install the Screencastify extension to record short videos of the tasks you need them to complete.

This will make a massive difference over having a call or writing boring SOPs.

We’ve said it already, and we’ll say it again: the Lean Startup mentality should continue to permeate as you scale up.

If you are trying to make up for demand by investing more in the product or service, then probably something is going wrong.

Your goal is to stay agile, adapt to market demands, and continue to deliver exceptional value to your customers.

Everything else will follow from there.

2. PIVOTING OR MOVING ON

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a side hustle may not gain traction or may no longer align with your goals.

In fact, that is what is most likely to happen, so be prepared for it and if you did things correctly, you shouldn’t have wasted much time or money.

In such cases, it's important to recognise it's time to pivot or gracefully move on.

But don’t let that lesson go to waste.

Analyse feedback, assess market conditions, and evaluate your passion and long-term prospects.

Maybe you weren’t that into it in the first place?

Or there is actually a better opportunity to suit your personal circumstances.

It's okay to let go and redirect your energy toward a new venture that holds greater potential for success.

The best advice I can give is to treat it as a game.

You only get better at it by playing it again and again.

Don’t attach your identity to a specific project.

Your identity is made up of your mentality and your approach to the game, which you know you can play again and again if you’re smart about it.

Remember, making money through a side hustle is not just about financial gain; it's about personal growth, empowerment, and creating a life of abundance.

Strengthen your inner game, validate your idea swiftly, and confidently navigate the path ahead.

That’s it Chads and Chadettes.

Stay tuned for more strategies from CityChad as we guide you toward financial independence.

PIXAR BOMBING AGAIN: GO WOKE, GO BROKE

Disney is losing ground recently.

They were once the giant that threatened to buy it all.

Like Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones from their “Avengers” franchise, they were collecting Ws like there was no tomorrow, with (seemingly?) great acquisitions.

But recently, things have changed.

Disney has not just been struggling with their streaming platform, but also in the animation niche, in which Universal has been outperforming them over the past three years.

To position themselves back as the de facto animation company they needed Pixar to produce a hit.

Things didn't turn out like that.

"Elemental", Pixar's new movie, has bombed so far.

It cost $200M to produce and only made around $30M at opening, making it the worst opening week in history for a Pixar movie.

As usual, Disney couldn't help but insert current controversial political topics in a movie for kids.

Prioritising political opinions instead of selling tickets and appealing to families.

Not sure how happy shareholders are about that.

This is nothing new, Pixar’s “Lightyear” also failed for similar reasons but the lesson was not learnt.

But they are not alone in this crusade.

We saw similar brands suffer the same fate such as Gillette, Bud Light, and HBO, to name a few.

Go woke, go broke (with shareholders money).

CHAD OF THE WEEK: NOAH KAGAN

Our Chad of the Week is Noah Kagan, the American serial entrepreneur best known as the founder of the software deals website AppSumo.

His business success and resilience is undisputable.

But what crowns him as a Chad is the top quality content produced in his YouTube channel.

It started as a marketing platform for AppSumo, and in some way it still is, but the content goes beyond that.

It serves as a go-to resource for users seeking valuable insights and income-generation opportunities.

Through his videos he gives actual practical advice, strategic insights, and motivational stories that aim to help individuals embark on their own entrepreneurial paths.

We also love Noah because he is a no BS entrepreneur.

Not only does he share amazing knowledge bombs his YouTube channel, Podcast and Newsletter.

But he’s a real down to earth guy, not afraid to talk about the less pretty sides of being an entrepreneur and a human.

His ability to identify market trends, leadership and innovative mindset put him above many.

Noah's success on YouTube not only showcases his expertise in leveraging digital platforms for business growth but also serves as a testament to his unwavering commitment to staying ahead of the curve.

We salute you Noah, thanks for the amazing content you put out every week.

OUR TWITTER

If you're not following us on Twitter yet, you're missing out on some fire content.

We've got news and insights on investing, finance, and technology. Also, we would love to interact with our followers and answer any questions you might have. So come on and give us a follow!

DISCLAIMER

The material on this email and our website is for informational and entertainment purposes only and we make no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of its content – it is subject to change. Please conduct your own due diligence and research.

None of this information is financial advice, and you should consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Your capital is at risk and you may lose more than you initially invested. We do not provide any offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment products, nor does this constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services.

The Chad index (“the index”) is a combination of historical returns for the following:

Equities: Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Acc
Fixed Income: iShares Core Gl Aggregate Bd UCITS ETF USD Hgd Acc
Real Estate: iShares Developed Markets Property Yield UCITS ETF USD (Acc)
Gold: Gold Bullion Securities Limited
Ethereum
Bitcoin

The index is rebalanced quarterly to the target weights shown in the table. The target weights are subject to change. The index does not represent the performance of a real portfolio and does not imply a recommendation to invest in any financial products. Past performance is not an indication of future performance.