In recent years, the side hustle has grown considerably in popularity. Many Americans have discovered they can make extra money on the side doing something they enjoy, allowing them to pay off their debts and build financial stability in an uncertain economy.
These part-time jobs and gigs are often rooted in things we are passionate about and industries that interest us. Knowing that it is no surprise many of those with successful side hustles entertain the idea of going full-time with their business venture and quitting their day job.
The journey to take your business full-time may be challenging. But it may be the path to a happier, more fulfilling professional life for those willing to invest the time and money necessary to make the shift.
Here are five important considerations to propel your side hustle forward.
Start Viewing Your Business as a Business
The first step many professional business coaches and entrepreneurs recommend is to shift mentally from seeing your business as a side hustle to a full-time gig. This mental shift may not sound like much, but viewing your business as legitimate and professional will help you take the necessary steps to make it a reality.
Start by creating a solid business plan with a clear vision of what you want it to look like as a full-time gig. This business plan should ensure everything is in place to allow you to operate as a legitimate business, including any necessary licensing, registration, or tax-related documentation.
If you plan to do your bookkeeping and accounting, consider how you will track and document your finances. If you aren’t comfortable with this process, research professionals in your area. This research is critical to ensure your business complies with your area's taxing and financial reporting regulations.
Set trackable goals for the year ahead. These could be sales goals identifying how many sales are needed for you to make the income you desire, goals about developing new products or services, or focused on customer numbers regardless of the value of each sale.
Write these down and keep them somewhere visible to reference in the future.
Do Market and Competitor Research
Take some time to consider what your competitors are doing and how you can improve or fine-tune their offerings to fit your skills and experience. Often the most successful businesses identify an opportunity where their product or service can solve a market gap.
These gaps may include several factors, such as the products offered, geographical availability, or your competitors’ price point.
As part of your market research, create a buyer persona to identify your target audience. Here is a list of some of the critical data to include in your buyer persona:
- Basic demographic information (age, gender identity, income, location)
- Education level and career path
- Family makeup (including pets, if relevant)
- Communication preferences, including which social media platforms they frequent
- What challenges does this person face that you can address?
- What prevents this individual from achieving their goals personally or professionally?
- In what ways can your business help this person overcome their challenges?
This data will be valuable in helping you to make decisions about product development or marketing efforts with your long-term business success in mind.
Leverage Tools to Optimize Your Time
One of the biggest challenges faced by those trying to leap into going full-time is the limited time available. This leap is especially difficult if you are still working your full-time day job.
While you can’t increase the daily hours available, some tools help you make the most available time. Consider leveraging productivity tools to improve your marketing, graphic design, development, customer service, and record-keeping.
Don’t overlook the power of automation. Automation is a great way to reduce the time required to stay on top of repetitive tasks. Well-executed business automation can save your business time and money, reduce or eliminate errors, and make scaling easier.
Build Credibility and Brand Recognition
Your brand’s reputation and credibility are critical as a small business owner. Therefore, you must build a solid brand reputation strategy and consider how to position yourself through online and offline marketing.
Before you start making marketing decisions, take time to consider your values and mission as a brand. The values and mission will guide your marketing messaging. What does your brand stand for? Does your presence online or in-person support that?
When building your website, choose a content management system or e-commerce platform that best supports your needs. WordPress is the most popular content management system because you can customize it to support your needs. But, for those focused on building an e-commerce business, a platform like Shopify may be better suited to meet all your requirements.
In addition to your website, your online marketing should include email and social media marketing. Regarding your buyer persona, identify social media platforms where your target audience is more likely to be found.
These platforms will offer the best return on your investment and are the optimal starting point for your social media marketing efforts. Spending time creating content for a platform where you aren’t going to reach those potential customers is time wasted. Pay careful attention to your messaging with each post, ensuring your messaging always supports your brand values and mission.
Email marketing is a valuable tool in the world of online marketing. While social media platforms could shut down anytime (Google+ anyone?), you will always own your email list. So create emails that offer value to your audience.
This value could include referencing content they will benefit from, such as your blog posts or those of other experts. You can also offer value by highlighting the benefits of your products or service and sharing sales, events, and product launches. Finally, make it a habit to clean up your email list regularly, remove invalid emails, and avoid spam practices to boost your email deliverability and improve your chances of success with this marketing channel.
Decide When it’s the Right Time to Leave Your Day Job
Before writing your resignation letter and walking away from your day job, you want to have a solid financial foundation to support your everyday needs. Consider your finances. Do you have financial goals? What income would you need to meet your needs?
If you don’t have a wealth management plan, this is the time to consider how this will look.
Whether tracking and maintaining your finances manually or using a wealth management app, your financial plan will help you identify when to leave your day job and focus on your business.
Final Thoughts
Building your side hustle into a full-time gig will take commitment. First, you must change how you view your business, invest time and money, and learn how to build brand recognition on and offline. This process can sound like a lot or be overwhelming, but it can also be incredibly rewarding. Your efforts today to build your business can open the door to freedom, financial security, and rewarding professional life in the future.
Blogging is a great way to make money, either as a full-time career or a side hustle.
Here are seven proven ways to make money online from blogging with WordPress.The text above is a summary, you can read full article here.
