How to Build a Side Hustle

Approximately 1 in 20 working people have a second job or side hustle. Some have these out of necessity, and some have them in order to secure extra spending money. This section is aimed at the folks who are interested in increasing their income to increase earnings after getting all of the value out of their existing job. Building a side hustle has some different requirements than securing a primary job. Let’s discuss some of my personal requirements for a side hustle:

• It must be flexible. This rule is simple enough—you cannot let your second stream of income get in the way of your first, and you must only work when you want or are able to do so.
• It must be different enough from your primary job to avoid burnout. While the jobs don’t have to be polar opposites, they cannot require the same type of energy from you. For example, if your day job requires a lot of talking one-on-one with people, you may not want a side hustle that requires interpersonal interaction, regardless of the topic of discussion. Only you can decide what is “different enough” for you personally!
• It has to pay enough hourly to make it worth doing – this is obvious, but I have seen many people take up odd jobs that end up being <$10/hr. Keep in mind that you only have a limited amount of free time per week and for every hour you use, your next hour is taking up a larger percentage of your remaining free time. In other words, for every hour you spend doing a low value side job, every hour you have left becomes more valuable and therefore not worth spending on a side hustle.
• It must bring some sort of personal satisfaction. Your second job doesn’t need to be the most fulfilling job in the world, but there has to be a reason for doing it other than money. Otherwise, you’re more likely to jostle between side hustles and never truly develop one that works more for you than you work on it.
• It should have long term scalability. It does not have to start off big—and it shouldn’t. You should try to do something that has long-term potential. It might not replace your full-time job (and you may not want it to), but you should be able to scale it yourself with a little business know-how and entrepreneurship.

Now that we’ve discussed the requirements of a side hustle, let’s discuss how to get involved in one. Getting involved in a side hustle might be as simple as transcribing audio recordings into text, signing up to pet sit while working from home, or Ubering people on a Friday night. You may even consider picking up a few shifts at your local cafe if that’s your drift. As long as your idea meets your personal requirements for a side hustle, it’s a go!  You may have noticed that some of these side hustles don’t meet all the above standards. That’s ok, they’re simply things to consider. If you need extra cash, you need extra cash! However, remember to keep a nice balance and don’t overwork yourself, especially in the beginning. Like building your physical health, building your financial health is a slow-moving process.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

On the other hand, building a side hustle on your own is a much more involved process that affords delayed gratification. Many people have the misconception that having your own side hustle is better than “working for the man.” I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but developing a side hustle has its own risks and may require more work for fewer rewards, especially in the early stages. Spoiler: your “early stages” will be way longer than you think. Your employer makes more money than you because they are assuming the risk of bankruptcy and losing money on the business. In general, you will make your paycheck regardless of the company’s next quarter’s earnings (barring a layoff) and your paycheck doesn’t necessarily fluctuate with every customer that comes and goes. In a side hustle, you have the potential to make a lot more money, but you also have the potential of losing money or wasting time working on something that might not be lucrative.

Nonetheless, there is something satisfying and meaningful about working for yourself. Let’s discuss some key steps to building your own side hustle!

1. Decide what you want to pursue using the above criteria
   1. This could be an existing hobby or a completely new endeavor. It doesn’t really matter what you choose as long as you are comfortable with it and willing to put in the work to learn a new skill if it isn’t something you’re already proficient in. The only consideration when turning a hobby into a side hustle is that while the learning curve is much lower, it may take some of the joy out of the hobby since it is now technically work.
   2. A side hustle shouldn’t require a huge investment or be overly complicated since it’s usually a one-person show. As your side hustle grows, and maybe even turns into a business, you may consider roping in more people in order to delegate tasks and free up your precious time.
   3. It may be worth testing your business idea with some folks to gauge interest, but I don’t recommend taking everyone’s advice to heart. Many people are going to doubt you when you start your own gig—jealousy is a powerful and disgusting emotion.
2. Develop your business model
   1. First and foremost: do not overcomplicate your business model. This is a one-person side hustle, not a corporation. Start out simple, and if the demand for your product or service requires you to add complexity or personnel, then add them. Do not unnecessarily add complication in hopes that it will lead to greater success—it won’t.
   2. Determine pricing and position in the market. Do some research locally to understand how people are pricing products comparable with yours. You may find a wide range of prices; if that is the case, then you should investigate the demographics of your ideal customer. Are they repeat or one-time customers? Are these customers seasonal or year-round? Do these customers generally have higher or lower disposable incomes? Price your hustle strategically. In the beginning, you might start out low, but don’t forget to raise your rates over time to compensate for inflation and your increase in expertise and efficiency. The two rules that I use to determine pricing are:
      1. Am I happy with my work-life balance? If I am consistently working too much on my side hustle, prices go up (or vice versa). Price increases reduce demand but keep revenue about the same for less time spent working. Keep in mind that your side hustle is in addition to your regular job, so it’s up to you to keep your work-life balance in check.
      2. Do people occasionally complain that it’s too expensive? If so, then you are priced correctly. If everyone is telling you that your price is a bargain and nobody tries to negotiate with you on pricing, then you are selling yourself short. Not everybody will be able to afford your product or service, and that’s ok as long as you understand your target demographic.
   3. Understand how to scale your company: What will you do when the time commitment becomes more than what is required for a basic side-hustle? As mentioned above, you can either raise rates and keep it a one-person-band, or you can outsource tasks to free up time for yourself.
   4. Understand the value of your time. People often underestimate the value of their time. Your time is worth something, so if you are selling a service (such as tutoring, babysitting, etc.), be sure to factor the cost of your time at your preferred hourly rate for everything you need to do including commuting, administrative items, and more.
   5. How will you ensure that you reach your target audience? Marketing to the right people is crucial to achieving a customer base. Occasionally, you may get clients who are not your target audience and that is totally fine! It is a great way to expand your horizons and potentially break into a new market. Beware though—clients who are not your target audience can sometimes be a waste of time, effort, and stress.
3. Test your model
   1. Run some trials on a small scale to help you understand your customers and your personal management style
   2. Don’t let the haters talk you out of your idea. Oftentimes, haters will be people close to you such as family or friends. They may be jealous that they didn’t think of your idea or don’t really want to see you succeed. It sounds horrible, but it is a sad reality for many people.
   3. Brainstorm how you will scale your company. One of the best ways to scale your side hustle is to buy back your time for low value things like accounting and book-keeping to free up your time on high value activities such as business development or anything that involves your specific skillset.
4. Just do it!
   1. The number of amazing side hustle ideas that I hear about vastly exceeds the number of side hustles started. You can plan for months or years for the perfect side hustle. You can read every book about your niche or how to run a small business. You can plan out every detail of your hypothetical hustle in a beautiful spreadsheet. However, you will not learn nearly as much from a book or online as you will from sitting down and opening your doors for customers. Analysis paralysis is a very real thing and can definitely keep you from your goals. Learn the bare minimum you need to mitigate your biggest risks and timewasters and go for it!
5. Refine your business practices
   1. It’s absolutely ok to swing and miss in your side hustle. It’s really a place where you can take risks and fail because it’s not your primary source of income. Amazon had a ton of business ideas before AWS and Prime. Apple had many business ideas before the iPod and iPhone. We don’t hear about these because they failed, but it only took a couple of products to bring the companies to stardom. WD-40 was the 40^th iteration of whatever product they were trying to make! With your personal hustle, you need to find a place where you can utilize your expertise and passion to make the largest impact on your wallet and society.
   2. From a strategy standpoint, it’s always best to standardize and proceduralize everything you can: prices, how to handle customers, how to deliver the product, etc. That way, you spend less time thinking and more time doing. It also makes it easier to scale if you need to have someone else help you with those things in the future. Keep track of how you do things and continuously tweak them over time.

It can be so satisfying to work for yourself and build something that is your very own; just be careful not to burn yourself out between your regular job and your side hustle. Slow, intentional, and systematic actions will get you where you want to go and not overwork you in the process!