How To Turn Your Side Hustle into Your Main Hustle

Here’s the truth. Life and the current cost of living are expensive. The rising costs left many looking for second and third-income streams to supplement their main income and keep up with increasing prices. Many people didn’t anticipate how much it could take over their time and energy to start new businesses and jobs.

And in many other cases, the side hustle becomes a more lucrative and fulfilling income stream than the main hustle. So then, what do you need to do to make the transition of your side hustle become your main hustle? We’ll show you how below.

The truth about side hustles

A side job, or side hustle, is a slang term for taking on another employment opportunity outside your primary job to bring in extra money. They are often considered labours of love, such as someone writing part-time, selling their art, starting a business selling clothes, baking, or photography, and other jobs where they make money from their creative side.

For others, side jobs are as simple as tutoring online, delivering food and groceries, and being a Lyft or Uber driver. The choices are plenty. It boils down to the gig’s flexibility and how much money you can make.

A 2020 Harvard Business Review article said that nearly 44 million Americans run side hustles of different kinds. For some of these and others worldwide, this unexpectedly became a gold mine or shows signs of being one. When this happens, you may think it’s time to consider how to make it the main thing.

Things to consider

1. Is it sustainable? The extra money is great to cover those pesky and unforeseen bills or fund that dream holiday. But are you making enough from the side hustle to cover all your costs? And then meet these expenses? If so, then you can begin drawing up a business plan.
2. Are you up for a full-time business? Running a small business on the side is one thing. You give to it as much as you can. But when you take it as your primary source of income, you need to think about the time, administration, and resolve to go through it daily to keep it going.
3. Check your finances. Before leaping, get a good grasp of your financial situation. The lure of the side hustle money can easily make you think you can go far with it. This is because your main income pays much of your monthly bills. The first few months, or even years, of starting a business can be unstable and requires lots of funding and resources to keep it afloat. Budget. Pay off big debts. Decide and plan how your finances for the next few months.

Making the move

Firstly, remove ‘hustle’ from your vocabulary. To hustle means to “push” roughly” an” “out” in illicitly.” N” w of course, many side hustles are legal ventures, but the motivation between a side hustle and making it your main thing is different for the former; it’s bridging the financial gap. For the latter, it becomes the primary focus and source. It may seem small and inconsequential, but how you frame a thing will impact your view.

Here’s what you need to do to make a success out of your part-time venture.

Create a business plan.

Now it may seem like you don’t need to create a business plan because you’re already running something small on the side, right? Wrong. It’s never said enough that you plan to fail if you fail to plan. Maintaining and turning a side hustle into a main hustle requires more of you.

You must draw up a plan for the next few months and consider everything needed to make it profitable. Your lifestyle and budget will change. You are responsible for everything and don’t have a boss looking over your shoulder. Have a plan that answers these critical questions and a contingency plan in case something doesn’t work as envisioned.

Assess your strengths and weaknesses.

Regardless of how great you are at some things, you will have weaknesses in other areas. You can only do so much. And it would be best if you were honest about your strengths and weaknesses. Use your strong points to your advantage and get the best results.

Even though a lot falls on you as a business owner, you may need to outsource your weak areas if things like tax, admin, and accounting aren’t your strong suits. These can be time-consuming, so invest some funds in getting resources to handle these tasks while you focus on the big items.

Market your business

Building a brand and business from the ground up needs marketing. But it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Get online. Build on social media pages. Have a website. Make the most of your current customer base and ask them for reviews. Be intentional about creating fresh and exciting content, contribute to industry group discussions, and network.

Make the most of your time.

You are scrolling social media and bingeing on your favourite shows. Spending hours on mindless activities. These are all good, but when you decide to level up your side hustle, you must be mindful of where your time is going – it could be spent growing your business.

Take note of what you spent most of your time on, which areas need more or less, and resolve to spend more time on your business. Remember, it’s all on you to make your side hustle successful.

Take Turtle Steps

The concept of Turtle Steps comes from well-respected life coach Martha Beck. She advises that you should become consumed with reaching an enormous goal (yet). Instead, focusing on taking the next incremental step you can manage would be best.

You’ll get overwhelmed and drive yourself into a panic state which is not ideal because you could make costly mistakes. Rather, ask yourself what the next right action step is and work towards achieving that. Successful businesses are built by taking one turtle step at a time.

Taking any business to the next level is not as easy as we imagine. If you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses to determine which areas you need to work on or enhance, our Workplace Personality Assessment is just what you need. Find your purpose, boost your confidence, and move closer to achieving your goals.

You’ll need help, a network of support, a good plan, time to execute it well, and a winning strategy. Remember, if things don’t work out as you thought, there’s no shame in stepping back, reassessing, and getting a new side hustle while this one gets going. Be good to yourself. Be honest about the realities and challenges you will undoubtedly face. And pat yourself on the back for taking a leap of faith. If your parachute doesn’t open, you’ll either learn to fly or have a soft landing.