Grow your part time side hustle into a full time business!
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If you’ve been thinking lately about how to earn more money on the side of your full time job in order to ease your current financial situation, you aren’t alone.
The economy and job market is really tough for a lot of people, especially this year with our entire world turned upside down.
For a lot of people, a side gig or side hustle isn’t just a way to earn some extra spending cash, but rather a way to be able to provide for their family and keep their heads above water.
Whether you’re looking for a bit of spending wiggle room, or you’re looking to have more money to feed your family – these tips to help you start and grow a side hustle will be able to help you get your footing and make more money on the side – and eventually turn it into your full time job!
I’m definitely no stranger to the side hustle. My motivation to start my own side hustles years ago was driven by my hatred for working for other people and the unhappiness I felt while working at a job that made my bosses wealthy while I was paid not nearly enough for my time as I would like to make.
I dabbled in many side gig ideas (some successful, some not) and in that time I learned a ton about what works and what doesn’t work.
After a few years, I was able to grow my biggest side hustle into my full time job which allowed me to quit my office job that I was incredibly ready to leave!
Related: How I quit my office job and started selling online full time
The road to freedom came with a ton of bumps along the way, but I’m happy to say that I’m now earning a full time income while working from home entirely thanks to pursuing my side hustles and putting in the work.
I want to help you start and grow your own side gigs and hustles while finding success quicker than I did, so I put together this list of tips to help you grow your own side hustles and turn them in to your full time income.
Tips to turn your side hustle into a full time job
1. Have multiple side hustles
Having multiple side hustles increases your chance of finding success with one or a couple of different avenues of income.
I’ve always been a big believer of not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Nothing is guaranteed, and one of your income streams could be hurt or completely shut down through no fault of your own.
By diversifying your side gigs, you’re ensuring that your income will be more secure if something were to happen.
With this in mind, don’t invest too much time or money to get started with a side hustle if you aren’t completely confident that you’ll stick with it.
Some side hustles will require a start up cost, or might take a bit of time before you see a reward.
It’s a great idea to dabble in side gigs that are outside of your comfort zone, you may end up loving it or finding a talent that you didn’t know you had! Just don’t invest all of your resources into it upfront if you have some reservations about it.
2. Choose a side hustle that can be scaled in the future
If you want to make real money from your side hustle, make sure that it has the ability to allow room for you to grow!
There are tons of side gigs out there available to us. Some are only meant to be short term earners, and some will allow for scaling until it provides you with a full time income.
The short term earners are a great addition to your income and are definitely beneficial to help you make more money and provide whatever it is that you currently want and need – food, vacations, etc.
Try not to fill your time with these short term side gigs though. They’ll help you in the present, but they won’t always help your financial situation grow to a better place.
Scaling your side hustle is essential to being able to earn a full time income from it, so keep this in mind when deciding where to allocate your time.
3. Find a schedule that allows you to work efficiently
If you’re working on your side hustle outside of your real job, chances are that you’re probably strapped for time and don’t have hours upon hours to devote to earning extra money on the side.
Take a good look at your current schedule and see where you can best add in time to efficiently work on your side hustle and work towards growing it.
Everyone’s schedule will be different depending on your job, family, and personal needs. Carving out solid chunks of time – whether they’re large chunks or small – will help you focus on your hustle and zero in on what needs to be done.
For some, waking up earlier than normal is the only time that they can shave off of their current schedule. Some may be able to fit in time on their lunch breaks at work, or late at night after everyone else is asleep.
Regardless of when you’re able to work on your side gig, the key is to be consistent with it. Success doesn’t come from doing something once, but from doing it over and over again.
4. Brainstorm ways to expand your side hustle
Up-selling products is the bread and butter of a lot of businesses income. Growing your main side hustle is very important, but finding ways to expand that side hustle along the way will help you find growth faster and also reach your goal much faster.
Finding different ways to expand will vary from side hustle to side hustle, but this is where the brainstorming comes in.
Sit down and think about exactly what it is that you’re doing to make money. Is there a way that you could provide an even greater service or product to your customers?
Is there any additional work that you can do that they would be interested in and you can charge an additional fee for?
If your side hustle is mowing lawns, you could look into providing pool maintenance as an additional service.
If your side hustle is babysitting, you could offer tutoring if you’re educated on a certain subject.
Get creative and branch out from your current side hustle and you’ll grow your business even faster.
5. Outsource the easy tasks
As your business venture grows, think about ways that you can outsource the simple tasks to other people so that you can focus on the meat of your business.
Outsourcing could be made possible by hiring a virtual assistant to take care of all tasks that don’t require your personal attention.
You can find virtual assistants on Fiverr for amazing prices, and they can take care of some of the behind the scenes work while you focus on the growth of your business.
Click here to search for virtual assistants on Fiverr.
Another way to outsource is to look for programs that can help streamline your day-to-day business so that you spend less of your time taking care of the mundane tasks.
Programs that might help you could range from accounting software, to social media automation.
Try FreshBooks completely free so you can get your accounting and financial details in order!
Investing in your business at this point will help you take your business to the next level.
6. Decide ahead of time when you’ll work full time on your side hustle
I had a specific number in mind before I allowed myself to quit my full time office job. I knew that there is some instability with relying on side gig money, so I wanted to ensure that I was able to meet a certain income level for a few months consistently before I pulled the trigger and quit my day job.
I’m happy that I took this route because it showed me that with consistent hard work came a consistent side hustle income, and it put my mind at ease knowing that all of my bills would be paid every month after quitting my day job.
Being able to quit your current job after turning your side hustle into a full time business is a reality that can definitely be possible with the right strategy.
Work hard and your dream of self employed financial freedom will become your reality!
Mani says
These are some great tips— side hustles can be so hard to start and grow! Thanks for sharing!
Krista says
Thank you so much! Gaining the momentum for side hustles is so important, and then there’s nowhere to go but up!