Today, I’m going to talk about the side hustle. Now there are a lot of you out there that work a full-time job, you have a lot on your plate. But you somehow want to segue way into entrepreneurship, or some type of side-hustle to make additional revenue.
And so what I want to do today is go over four different reasons and why’s you should start a side-hustle that can transition you into entrepreneurship.
I’m not one of those people that believe in you just drop everything cold turkey, quit your job, and become an entrepreneur. A lot of us have responsibilities, kids, relatives, we have a lot of things on our plate. And so it was hard for us to transition from having a job, a stable income, to puff! Entrepreneurship.
So I want to go through a few steps into making a side-hustle, moving into that side-hustle and then making that become a full-time entrepreneurial job. So let’s go.
So quick backstory, I worked at marketing agencies for most of my career as a marketer, worked at an agency, moved myself up to marketing director and oversaw that department for automotive brands and dealerships across the US. And so the way that I transitioned was, because we dealt primarily with automotive clients, I started to help family and friends build out their platforms.
Now the best way to bundle this is to understand that you don’t have to quit your day job to be successful in making additional revenue streams. There are a lot of people out there that work Monday through Friday, and then on certain days and times, they’re putting efforts toward their goals and dreams of entrepreneurship.
So in my example, at that job I worked from usually about nine to six. I would come home, I would spend a few hours with my family, probably till about 9:30, and then from 9:30 till about midnight or 1:00, I would work on my side hustle. And that would entail taking online courses for the first hour or so, watching YouTube videos and then transitioning to helping friends and family build their brands.
Now the reason in doing so is one, you’re charging it either low cost or you’re doing it for free, and then you’re building up your portfolio of work that you can then leverage into case studies to get more prospects and clients. And so, that trickle effect really helped me kind of grow and develop my brand while still working a full-time job, and there wasn’t a conflict of interest, because we primarily dealt with automotive clients.
And so, I was taking the skills that I was learning there and applying that to my side-hustle and slowly building up enough revenue to keep it moving.
Another great way to segue is to—anytime you’re not working, you need to be contributing to your side hustle or learning and developing your skills.
One thing that helped me a lot was listening to podcasts to and from work. My drive in the morning was about 45 minutes to an hour, so I would listen to podcasts, and then I would also do another tactic. So there’s a mobile app called Pocket. With Pocket, you can save articles for later.
So if you see an article, maybe during work on your lunch break, or at any time and you don’t have time to read it, save it to the pocket app, and then what you can do is you can actually turn that into audio and it’ll play almost like a podcast.
You can listen to articles on your way to and from work, It’s a great way to absorb ideas, understand context of different marketing strategies or whatever niche you’re in, be able to absorb those facts and be able to make it applicable to what you’re working on.
The next thing is to learn, test, and adapt. While you’re working full time, and you’re doing your side-hustle hours, which is usually, like I said 10 to 1AM, you need to be learning, testing, and adapting. So what I would do is I would watch a YouTube video on WordPress CMS for example, that’s a content management system to build out websites.
That was the main thing I was doing as a side-hustle, because it was a quick way to make a bundle of cash, I’d be able to leverage my skills. And so, I would learn something like how to use a drag and drop builder, I would then create a website for a client or a friend. It’s really, really, easy to get clients when you’re not charging much money or if you’re doing it for free.
Main reason you’re doing it is to build your portfolio. And so, by doing so I was learning, testing and then adapting as I went along–and that’s the biggest key–especially when it comes to marketing strategy, you always want to be ahead of the curve. There’s great YouTubers and Instagrammers out there that provide a consistent content across the board that you can then leverage to use, test and adapt in your own situation.
One example is doing your side-hustle, let’s say you’re opening up an e-commerce store. In your hustle hours, you can be researching different manufacturers, looking at print on demand companies, getting shirts in order. The thing is, you don’t have to rush through it. It’s a process.
Learn as much as you can during your side-hustle, because you almost have a crutch, right? You have a full-time job to kind of lean on. So any additional revenue and income you’re making, you need to create a surplus, so that when you do leave your job, you have a nice cushion, just in case things aren’t going your way in the beginning.
But trust me, as you build all of this as a side-hustle, it’s going to help you transition seamlessly. Of course, you have your ups and downs as entrepreneurship, but again, creating that feel will really help you.
Next thing is, don’t over exert yourself. I’ve been there, when I was working this full-time job and hustling on the side, I was staying up till 2 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM every day. There was even an instance where I was driving to work, I fell asleep at the wheel, ended up on the side of the road unscathed. Thank God.
But ultimately, you don’t want to overexert yourself, make sure you’re balancing your time properly. Spend time with family, make sure you get rest and exercise are both key. You don’t want to wear out your body, you only get one.
So make sure that you’re having time and allocating time towards exercise and family time to balance that. Of course, they’re going to be times when you have to grind, but just make sure you offset that grind with some rest days and some periods of relaxation.
The next piece, and this is probably the largest piece I have to say, is network your ass off. Get out there, make friends, talk to people—and I’m going to tell you right now, I’m an introvert. Talking to the camera is a lot easier for me than talking to people, and this actually has helped me transition into that.
And so anytime you’re not working, if you get off at 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock, look on the app. Meet up, go to Facebook groups, find the people in your circle, in your area.
And lastly, you need to calculate your peace-out number. This is the number, which is usually about 6 to 9 months of expenses, to cover your mortgage or rent or your food or whatever you have. You need to calculate that piece out number.
Usually, I like to have between 6 months and 9 months of reserves, just in case things go awry. Because you want to make sure that in this transition, you’re going to be grinding it out. So, you want to have at least money to cover your expenses and the things that you’re going to be doing.
Now, if that’s a rounded budget or filet mignon budget, that’s up to you ultimately. But you need to calculate that number before you do anything, before you transition out of that job.
And again, I’m not one of those people that downplay people that have full-time jobs. There are a lot of people that have full-time jobs that are very successful. So, it’s ultimately up to you to keep your job and continue to have a side-hustle, you can transition to entrepreneurship.
Ultimately, you need to do what’s right for you. I just wanted to give you the facts and things that worked for me. If you have any questions, sound off in the comments, and I will see you on the flip side.
