Let’s Get That Money, Honey!

Side Hustle [sahyd-huhs-uhl] noun “a job or occupation that brings in extra money beyond one’s regular job and main source of income.” It’s a way to help you feel financially free and be your own boss! It allows you to take your passion and turn it into something tangible, something where others can share in the same joy.

Face it, we all could use a little extra cash outside of our 9 to 5’s. With bills, travel and other expenses, every penny counts! That’s why we’re here to help you take your passion and turn it into a profit with your very own side hustle.

Steps To Begin A Side Hustle

So, you want to start a side hustle, but where to begin? Follow a few of our suggested steps to help you on your way.

1. Pick Something You Are Passionate About

The first step to starting a side hustle is to figure out and follow your passion. 

Why is Passion Important?

Passion is important because it is the fuel that will propel you not just at the beginning of your side hustle, but when the going gets tough! Passion gives you the motivation to learn a new skill, step out of your comfort zone, and to keep driving towards your side-hustle goals. Passion is the key to any new side hustle as it:

• Fuels Your Motivation
• Boosts Your Focus
• Increases Creativity
• Makes You Happier

What Passion is NOT.

It may be easy to assume you know what you are passionate about. Perhaps you love to garden or paint or cook or scroll on TikTok.

In order to start your side hustle, it is important to select a passion that translates to professional passion. For the sake of starting a side hustle, passion is not:

• Hobbies: What drives you to wake up every day and get to work? What activity would you do for free, or continue to do when the going gets tough?

• Skills or talents: Being good at something does not always mean you are passionate about it.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

When considering your passions and possible side hustle concept, ask yourself these questions:

• What work excites me?
• What am I committed to doing?
• Do I think I can make my passion profitable?

2. Validate your side hustle – test those waters!

After spending time identifying your passion and thinking about how to make it profitable, you may feel your side hustle idea is incredible and disruptive; however, it is important to know if your potential customers will see it the same way. We live in a world where the majority of “great ideas” either do not see daylight or are simply ignored given the number of daily distractions and marketing we are exposed to.

It is crucial to validate your side hustle idea with a paying customer before getting too invested into the business to make sure you are not developing a solution to a problem that does not really exist. One of the main causes of startup failures is the lack of market need. There could be a good chance that you are investing time and money into an idea that not enough people will find value in.

To avoid this does from happening, make sure to test those waters! By that, we mean to validate whether your idea will gain interest in the real world. Objective feedback from potential customers is your best ally here. Surveys are great tools for this purpose. Other strategies include asking your potential customers to join a waiting list, pre-purchase your solution or hire you as a service provider. If you are not really getting positive responses, it may be a good practice to quickly abandon those ideas and consider other alternatives and opportunities.

3. Build Your Platform

Whether you’re offering a product or a service, you need to make sure you’re reaching the right consumer at the right time. That’s why it’s crucial to build out a platform that reaches your audience while educating them about you and your brand. You’ve worked so hard to build your side hustle, and now it’s time to share your dream with the world! Here are a few tools we recommend to help you build your platform.

Share your message on Squarespace

One tool we love for starting a side hustle is Squarespace. This easy-to-use website builder allows you to customize and build your site using templates and other software to make your product shine. It gives you the ability to connect with your audience and share your vision. Whether you’re starting a charity, building your brand, or offering a service, Squarespace has the tools you need to grow and optimize your side hustle. Get started here!

Connect with your audience through Mailchimp

Want to find new ways to connect with your customer? Mailchimp is a great email marketing platform that allows you to share all the excitement surrounding your side hustle with your audience. Just like Squarespace you can build your own template, schedule your email blasts, and understand what content your audience likes best. It allows your customers to feel like they are the first to know about exclusive offers, behind the scenes looks, or special events you have planned. This tool is a great way to expand your side hustle and grow your community. Check out this helpful link on how to get started.

4. Utilize social media to leverage your business

Social media is an important aspect of promoting your brand. It can help launch and bring life into your side hustle. Not only does it connect with your current audience, but it can help you reach your future customers. Creating social media content is a fantastic way to have another landing page for prospective customers to find. 

When it comes to social media, it can be daunting to know the best tips and tricks to get started. If you don’t have previous experience with social media, there are many online certifications to help you get started. For example, you can take HubSpot’s Content Marketing online certification course for free. Are you wanting to further invest and learn more about digital marketing as a whole? Montclair State University offers a one-year Digital Marketing Certificate Program.

Until then, you can now get started on social media to bring your side hustle to new heights. A good place to start is learning what content works best on various platforms. It is important to consider the pros and cons of each platform for reach, customer base, and other key aspects to best reach your ideal customers. 

For example, TikTok does well with short videos that follow trending topics and sounds on the app. How much you are aware of what is successful on the platform at any given time can make or break your TikTok success. Due to TikTok’s algorithm, your content can spread quickly to millions of people. It can be worth putting extra effort into staying informed about what is popular on the app to implement into your videos. 

Facebook on the other hand is much slower to react to trends. Due to its stable page nature, it’s a great platform to bring people to you as opposed to continual outreach. With a Facebook business page, you can easily add your contact information, business location, hours of operation, and more of your side hustle. There is even a reviews section where customers can share their experiences with your business. A Facebook business page is a great place to start a landing space before you have a website. 

Instagram is starting to make a major push for video, however, their beginnings of a photo app are still in effect. Instagram works well with sharing what you’re offering. If your side hustle is selling handmade soaps, scarfs you knitted, your catering business, or something less tangible you can still capture your offerings for the platform. Another key aspect of Instagram is its shop tab. Your items can be put on the store on Instagram where people can purchase from the app. By leveraging this part of Instagram, your side hustle can reach people who are looking to purchase. 

Overall, social media is a key way of maintaining and expanding your business. When starting a side hustle, creating visibility can be a daunting task. If you leverage social media, your side hustle can grow exponentially to find your ideal customer base.

Side Hustle Established! Now what?

You’ve got a solid base, congratulations! Give that side hustle some legs, and watch it grow.

Grow your reach

There are many ways you can expand your business online – take advantage of what’s available!

Amazon

Amazon offers a massive platform for you to expand your business. Right on their seller website it says that “more than half the units sold in our stores are from independent sellers” AND that there are more than 300 million customers worldwide. That is quite a platform. While it could be a bit pricey, it might be a fantastic option to skyrocket that side hustle! Learn more here.

Etsy

Etsy has become a platform loved by sellers and buyers a like. With only a $0.20 Listing fee and a platform that is incredibly easy to use, Etsy is a great perfect place to continue your side hustle growth. Etsy also has an advertising platform you can take advantage of to grow your following, boost your visibility, and attract new customers.

Manage your content – optimize!

From capturing customer feedback to tracking how people are interacting with your website and social media, make sure that your business is agile in responding with customer behavior and sentiment.

A/B Testing

A/B Testing gives insight to what is the most optimal content for your side hustle. You can see what content visitors to your website engage with more. Or see how your email click-through rates change depending on what subject lines you use. HubSpot has a great article for you to learn more Here.

Customer Surveys

Gathering customer surveys is a quick and easy way to learn if your customers are happy with your side hustle or not. While they tend to only answer if they are really happy or really unhappy, it does provide a useful snapshot. HubSpot shares some great starting questions:

• How long have you been using the product?
• Which alternatives did you consider before purchasing the product?
• How often do you use the product or service?
• Does the product help you achieve your goals?
• What is your favorite tool or portion of the product or service?

Customer Sentiment

If you want to go a step further than Customer Surveys, Customer sentiment helps indicate how customers feel toward your brand, and more importantly, WHY! Having an insight into the voices of your customers, across all touchpoints including social media, helps you to connect with them, creating a better customer experience. There are many companies that can help you capture sentiment – give it a go!

Side Hustle End Goal – be able to quit your day job!

The end goal of your side hustle is clearly to be able to quit your day job, but make sure you are smart in how you go about it. Take small steps towards and be sure your side hustle is sustainable. We recommend following the below for your exit strategy:

Avoid getting fired from your day job before you are ready.

You should not violate any employment agreements nor sacrifice your quality of work and reputation in the office for the pursue of your side hustle. You obviously should not work on your side hustle during company hours or use company resources. These actions could lead to disciplinary consequences or even legal retaliation.

A good rule of thumb is to never leave your day job until your side hustle provides at least 75 percent of what your day job pays you. You want to make sure your side hustle is generating sustainable cash flow before making any decisions.

Keep Emergency Savings

Have emergency savings that cover at least six months’ worth of personal and business expenses. This is in case your business does grow as quickly as expected, especially in the early stages of your side hustle.

Get Hustling!

Pick your passion, validate, build, leverage, grow, optimize and meet your goals. By following these steps and advice in this post, we are confident that you will be better equipped to pursing more meaningful self-employed work in your side hustle. Who knows? Maybe your side hustle will end up being your full-time gig in the future! Be sure to keep us posted – we can’t wait to see what you come up with!