What is a Side Hustle?
If you’re a millennial and you listen to Gary Vaynerchuk, you know all about the side hustle. If you’re in your 30s, 40s or beyond, you might not know this lingo. Let me explain.
- If you’re looking for a way to earn more money with total flexibility…
- If you’re looking to get out of a job…
- If you’re looking for a plan B,
The side hustle is for you.
What’s a side hustle?
A side hustle is some work or business you do outside of your normal 9-5 job or your everyday life of taking care of the kids. It’s a side gig that you work in 1-2 hours a day, designed to bring in some extra income that has potential to replace your 9-5 job or help pay the bills, like make your car payment.
A side hustle is a Plan B – it’s a back up plan in case something happens to your husband and he can’t work anymore. It’s a way to start replacing your own income, if you want to stay home with your babies. It’s your security net for layoffs or market crashes.
The Power of a Side Hustle
I love the word hustle. It’s bursting with energy. I feel like getting up and making things happen when I hear the word hustle. It means you’re going above and beyond – working smarter, thinking up new ideas, finding new ways to make things happen and get what you want. It sounds scrappy and gritty and quick. Hustle.
A side hustle is the promise of options – of not being stuck. A side hustle, with its power to replace an income or make a mortgage payment, gives you options. Having options in your life and your work releases you from feeling stuck and trapped with any particular job, career, or situation. It’s a way out of your current situation. Having options can make a bad or boring circumstance bearable.
A side hustle is a hedge against feeling stuck.
Most bankruptcies could have been avoided with an extra $500 per month. No matter how busy you are, we all have 1-2 hours a day to create a plan B that will leave us feeling relieved, confident, optimistic, able to pay the bills, fulfilled, and excited about life.
7 Side Hustle Ideas
When you start thinking about doing a business on the side, you’ll see ideas everywhere. They’re all around you. Start paying attention. Here are some side projects that could bring in $500-1000/mo.
Network marketing
Network marketing, also known as multi level marketing, is a common way for stay-at-home moms or people who are really busy to earn some extra income on the side. Some network marketing companies include DoTerra, Rodan and Fields, and Beach Body.
There’s a low cost to get started and it’s a full, turn-key business. There are a couple ways to earn money in network marketing – you can bring on partners to work with you, called recruiting, or you can sell products, or both. Selling products is a quick way to start your business. You can make your initial investment back and have some repeat business right away. Bringing in new business partners will help you grow a long-term, sustainable business with the potential to replace a full-time, corporate income.
Similar to network marketing is direct sales, like Avon or Tupperware. They focus more on product sales and less on recruiting.
Consulting/Freelancing
If you have a skill or talent to offer, find people who want what you do. This will oftentimes be the thing you do for a living, but you’re taking your skills and getting your own customers on the side. This could be teaching, tutoring, or coaching something you’re passionate about, like playing piano and offering lessons to local kids.
Upwork
Upwork is a freelance work site where you can post services you offer and get paid. Think writing, graphic design, computer programming, and other internet based work. If you have services like that to offer, you can do those jobs in your extra time and make money. This is still trading time for dollars, but if you’re good at it and build up a customer base, you could increase your hourly wage or what you charge per job.
Writing
Writing is a common way to make extra money on sites like Upwork, or as a ghost writer. On the internet, content is king and there are always people and companies who need articles, reports, product descriptions, and books written. You could do this for solopreneurs, like me, or for big companies. Every business needs massive amounts of content produced for the internet today. Again, once you start looking, you’ll see the need everywhere.
Art
If you’re creative, make and sell your art on sites like Etsy and Amazon. This is so not me, but I have a friend who does this and markets her products on Instagram. I don’t know how much extra money she makes, but she is doing what she loves.
Ebay
If you want to make some extra money fast, sell your stuff on ebay. If you want to do this more, figure out what people are buying and get it from garage sales and thrift stores. This is one of those side hustles that can start small and really grow into something you love.
I’ve seen people have massive success selling on ebay. Personally, I got sick of packing and shipping every day.
Vending machines
This is an odd one, but it’s always intrigued me. You can set up vending machines in local businesses, keep them stocked and collect the money. While this doesn’t give you location freedom, (I love being able to work from anywhere), it does have the flexibility component. You can stock the machines and collect the money any time you want.
Possible side hustle ideas are endless. One person in Atlanta makes a full time income assembling IKEA furniture! This sounds like torture to me, but it goes to show that if you’re looking for an opportunity to make money, you’ll find something!
How A Side Hustle Works
Flexible
A side hustle has to be flexible. You have to be able to work it in during extra bits of time you have during the day. Right now network marketing is my side hustle. I have a family of 6 to take care of. I have an ecommerce business. I do contract work as a meeting planner and travel director. Network marketing is the only thing I can squeeze into my crazy schedule.
High Return on Investment
A side hustle should give you good money for the hours worked. It should be better than a $10/hr, $30/hr, or $50/hr job. Ideally, you can scale it and not be tied to an hourly wage. In the vending machine example, I could add more vending machines and make more money without it taking up more time.
Network marketing is my side hustle because it has way more growth potential than my ecommerce business or my contracting job. My goal is to get out of those businesses and only do NM. I like working with positive, empowering women and men on my team more than planning corporate meetings. I can work it in during little bits of time I have during the day – before the kids are awake, while they’re at school, while I’m in the carpool line. I can work it in 1-2 hours a day with way more income than an hourly rate.
Potential
A side hustle has the power to become something you love.
If your side hustle is selling your old stuff on ebay, you might not be passionate about that, but you will be passionate about what it can become. It could grow into selling things you love, like jewelry or children’s clothing. At first, you’ll love your side hustle because it will bring in extra income that can relieve your stress, but don’t stop there. How can you grow your side hustle into something you want to do every day?
I started my ecommerce business by selling things I knew would sell, so I could make my money back. It grew into selling things I liked and was passionate about as I learned how to do it.
Side Hustle Must Haves
After doing 7 different side hustles, here are my current requirements:
- Location Independent – Can be done from anywhere
- No Special Equipment – can be done using only my laptop and phone
- Time freedom – can be done on my schedule, not someone else’s
- Scalable – I can add tools to do work for me so I can cut back on my hours
- No inventory – no receiving, packaging, labeling, or shipping to customers
- I pick who I work with – I want to work with fun, upbeat, positive, motivated people
So far, I’ve only found one thing that meets these requirements that I love. It’s my current network marketing company (repeat customers, no inventory, on my schedule).
Are you thinking about starting something on the side to give you more freedom? Comment below and let me know if you have a side hustle or want to start one. If you want to look into what I do, apply here and we’ll see if my side hustle is a fit for you.
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