How To Make Money On The Side
Your 101 Guide To Making A Side Hustle Work For You
The numbers tell all: doing the side hustle is hot and it’s certainly here to stay.
At least 62 percent of Millennials have considered launching their own business, according to a BNP Paribas global entrepreneurs report. And a new Bankrate survey indicates nearly four in 10 Americans currently have a side hustle. As for the most popular gigs? Home repair/landscaping, online sales, crafts, and childcare.
According to Bankrate analyst Amanda Dixon, if you can handle a side hustle in addition to your full-time job, it can be a win-win.
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“It's a great way to boost your income, gain new skills, and do work you're actually passionate about,” she says. The key to a successful side hustle is that it won’t conflict with your full-time job; balancing can be tough though, especially if the side gig is as demanding as your full-time job.
Learn How To Juggle
Most important is that you prioritize and manage your time wisely, says Dixon. “Juggling two jobs isn't for everyone. Make sure you set a schedule that allows you to complete all of your tasks in a timely manner,” she says. For example, you can work full-time during the week and only do side-hustle work for a few hours on weekends or in the evenings after work.
That’s the ideal situation New Yorker Jon Fischer has achieved. Fischer works full-time on the student success team at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and as a men’s health and lifestyle coach on the side.
While burnout can be a concern for people wearing more than one hat, Fischer says he feels fortunate to have the perfect day job. “It's a 9-to-5 job where I can leave my work at the office. That allows me to shift my focus on to my own gig outside of my office hours,” he says. Plus, his day job also serves to keep him tapped into the health and wellness community.
Create Boundaries and Stick to Them
For Fischer, this aspect is still a work in progress. “When you have a side hustle, your time is precious. It's fine to be accommodating to customers and clients, but make sure you are reserving time for your own physical and mental health, and to grow your business,” he says.
He’s also learned to rely on the power of no. “Most of us feel obligated to go to parties or attend events, but practice saying no. If that feels uncomfortable, try using ‘maybe’ when asked to attend something you're not pumped about,” he suggests.
Dixon adds that you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep and to try to be realistic with your bandwidth. “Don't overdo it,” she says. “If you want to have a side hustle and a full-time job, that may prevent you from participating in certain activities and taking on other responsibilities, like volunteering or mentoring. Learn to make sacrifices and don't try to do everything.”
Keep Both Gigs Completely Separate
When Brian Gonzalez in Ventura, California, worked at Dollar Shave Club as an engineering director and simultaneously launched Curri (think of it as an Uber meets FedEx delivery platform), he worked on separate laptops, only worked on Curri during off-hours, and didn’t use company resources.
“I’d wake up around 6 A.M., do a little Curri work until 8 A.M., shower, begin work at Dollar Shave and end around 5 P.M. Work out. Eat dinner. Hang with wife. Do another couple hours of Curri work. Rinse. Repeat,” he says.
During eight months when he maintained this double-shift schedule before leaving Dollar Shave Club, he relied on passion to sustain that intense schedule. “I was learning. I was growing. I was making experiences and decisions that my job would never allow me to make. So, even though I was exhausted, I was having a blast.”
And as employee number 25 at Dollar Shave Club, an entrepreneurial mindset was ingrained early on. “I saw the grit, scrappiness, and agility needed to launch something new,” says Gonzalez “Luckily, DSC hired entrepreneurial types from early on, so there was always a sense that employees might leave to go start their own thing someday. It was sort of in our DNA.”
Find a Healthy Outlet
Marc Cordon of Tampa, Florida, author of Beyond Resilient: The Coach’s Guide to Ecstatic Growth transitioned from higher education to become a full-time life and strategic coach. As a former social justice educator who taught happiness courses, he realized after his son was born that there was something more in store for him. “I soon became the most unhappy happiness teacher around,” says Cordon.
He started taking on clients during weekends and mornings and international clients during late evenings, while trying to be present for his son.
In addition, Cordon made a conscious effort to have more fun. “I joined a roller derby team and took it as seriously as you could take a middle-aged man on wheels floundering around calling himself Manila Ice,” he says.
This gave the positive psychology coach a sense of community, social connection, purpose and exhilaration to bring back into both higher ed and coaching -- and then he was fired.
“It was the best thing that could ever happen. I compared it to being pushed from the nest and being forced to fly. After about 12 hours of grieving, I opened up my contact list and got back to my true calling,” he says.
Be Realistic
Cordon says that although the ups and downs of entrepreneurship have been painful at times, he recently finished a week of sales that almost matched his salary in higher education.
However, Fischer warns that this level of achievement can take a while. “In this age of insta-everything, we want results right away,but if you have limited time to devote to your side hustle, that’s fine,” he says. “Just focus your energy on one thing (one project, one goal, one social media outlet). It’s fine to build something sustainable and grow it over a long period of time.”
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