🐧 From Side Hustle to Full-Time: How Peter Park Picked a Winning Niche

‍Today, in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• 🌏️ How Peter Park transformed from a corporate finance head to a thriving entrepreneur in Asia
• 🚀 The unconventional niche selection method that helped him kickstart a winning side hustle
• 🏎️ Lessons from the challenges and victories in turning a side hustle into a full-time business

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🗺️ From Side Hustle to Full-Time: How Peter Park Picked a Winning Niche

Peter Park is an ex-VC/Corporate turned entrepreneur passionate about connecting Australian F&B brands with Asian consumers.

He has a decade of FMCG expansion experience across 20+ countries in 4 continents (ANZ, UK, Europe, US, China). He takes pride in educating Aussie F&B brands on export opportunities in Asia, currently with a focus on Korea and Taiwan.

He enjoys writing and frequently posts on LinkedIn about his export experience and intercultural business practices. He currently runs an interview newsletter about young pioneers in Asia.

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Tell us about your career journey.

I studied Law and Finance in Brisbane, Australia but I didn't want to become a lawyer. In 2015, my first job was working for one of the 'Sharks' on Shark Tank Australia. It changed my risk perception of a small business as an asset class.

For the next few years, I did financial advisory for growth small businesses in Australia, learning the art of financial storytelling. I was lucky that the job was remote which allowed me to pursue my personal passion projects in Korea and Taiwan.

In 2020, I came back to Melbourne, Australia to work for a plant-based meat scaleup. We 10x'ed the revenue and 6x'ed the team size. I took the business to the US, the UK, the EU and China.

Learning my generalist skillsets and a real passion for Asia, in 2022, I subsequently worked for a US multinational to establish their Asia division.

I almost moved to Singapore with them but decided to quit and start my own business in 2023.

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You’ve gone from working full-time as a Head of Finance & Supply Chain to launching your own export service for Western brands breaking into Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. What inspired you to make this transition?

I believe that you need three elements to be successful: Capital, Network, and Knowledge.

I don't come from a wealthy background so I didn't have much capital. I see building your own business as the best investment asset class. I want to build long-term wealth that churns enough cash flow to afford my desired lifestyle.

Having worked remotely and lived in Asia, my goal was to build a remote business that could take me to different parts of Asia.

I knew how food brands worked in expanding internationally and I had personal connections to Korea and Taiwan.

It ticked knowledge and network so I went onto build capital.

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How did you apply Dexter’s niche selection method to your business?

I knew straight away that I had to start with a niche that I'm passionate about but also good enough to make a living with.

I love reading 'Ikigai' but the four-element framework was not specific enough to drill down my niche.

Dexter's newsletter in April 2023 prompted me key questions to ask.

I first identified my unique skills and strengths:

• Food Brand Finance
• International Markets
• Languages (Korean, Chinese)

I then identified my curiosities:

• Sales Negotiation
• Intercultural Communication
• Lifestyle Business

I then came up with a few solid niches - export being one of them.

Learning about customer needs was the most difficult part as it took me 8 months after this exercise to figure out the needs. Essentially, I needed to talk to overseas buyers before going out to export brands to make deals:

• I needed to get off LinkedIn as no buyers are there.
• I visited forums, posted on Facebook groups and visited supermarket aisles to check importer names on the back of the label.
• My key selling point was that I can communicate in the buyer’s language and offering them Australian / New Zealand brands which they didn’t know much about.

Initial price, offer design and sales are still work in progress but posting on LinkedIn has helped articulate my offer better.

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What are 1 or 2 other things that helped you go from side hustler to full-time entrepreneur successfully?

I almost gave up 9 months in because I could not find legitimate overseas buyers.

Two unplanned changes gave me just enough confidence to go full-time:

• Through a referral, I found a Korean buyer who was desperately looking for brands in my niche.
• I also moved to Melbourne, a city that offered a better lifestyle and more business leads than my previous locations.

In Month 9, I made my first revenue.

Today, I’m working full-time on the business.

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What has been your business progress been so far? What have been the challenges?

I have done two export deals to Korea and am about to close one to Taiwan. One of these deals turned into a retainer. I also did a referral project that took me to Korea in the last 3 months. These generated a low five-figure income.

Writing about my experience on LinkedIn also 3x'ed my followers and 9x'ed my views. This also led to many potential opportunities, one of which involves importing bulk chocolate from Indonesia to Australia.

My biggest challenge was finding ways to stay afloat while deals came to life. Export deals are typically done on commission meaning that agents do not get paid until the first order is placed which typically takes 4-6 months minimum.

It meant that I had to juggle different opportunities to improve cash flow. It was a constant battle running with less than 6 months of savings.

To solve for cash flow, I did Korean translation for a US multinational, looked at import opportunities (it’s a different focus to export), and cut significantly back on living cost.

What is one non-obvious piece of advice you give to people looking to turn their side hustle into a full-time pursuit?

It's okay to give up.

I made a public announcement on LinkedIn 9 months into my journey that I was giving up and going back to full-time employment. I knew my ultimate goal was to own a business but it didn't have to happen immediately.

As the famous Dengxiao Ping of China said when opening the Chinese economy in the 80s, "Hide your strength, Bide your time."

Fortunately, I kept the fire on anyway.

It ended up working out, so I didn’t end up going back to a job.

Where can we go to learn more about you?

I am most active on LinkedIn. Follow or DM me.

Visit www.floridgexports.com to learn about my business.

For business proposals, please email me at peterpark@floridgexports.com.

🌐 Beyond your borders

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🤔 The Dramatic Turnaround in Millennials’ Finances (link) - paywall

🎢 What is Coast FIRE? (link)

🏅 Burn all the ships (and go for gold) (link)

🌏️ I’m a millennial in a ‘digital nomad family.’ (link)

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