Contributed post
Millions of people are turning their hobbies into something more. Being able to earn from the things you love is an immense joy in life and is something that you shouldn’t take for granted. But how do you decide whether this should just be your side hustle or should it be your full-time occupation? When does it make the leap from one to the other?
When you first start with your side hustle, you should have a primary source of income and the hustle is where you earn on the side – hence the term side hustle. If you don’t have a primary job… well, it’s not really a side hustle.
While you have a regular and stable income, spend your spare hours getting your new business in good shape. Don’t worry about chasing clients and sales – focus on the foundations.
- Branding – logo / colours / ethos
- Social Presences
- Website
- Main tools to help you run the business smoothly (Hootsuite / Buffer / Sprout)
- Where you will be selling your products and services (Etsy / Upwork / Freelancer)
Once you have everything in place and you are ready, send it out into the world. Unless you have spent some money on some marketing or PR you are likely going to see tumbleweed for a little while – don’t worry. Make sure you have got your social set up and continually updating, and if you are sure to update your blog, you will find Google much more welcoming. Google considers you relevant if you have fresh content – so don’t slack on this too much.
If you’ve landed a few clients for a couple of short-term gigs, then pay close attention to the work you do, be as professional as you can. Once the job is finished and it’s time for the invoice, be sure to keep the lines of communications open and friendly. As for a recommendation, or feedback and use that to promote yourself further. Book in a couple of networking events, take your lovely business cards and go and rub shoulders with potential clients, for client meetings book office space in Mayfair and the rest of the time, work at home.
The time you should start considering moving from your side hustle to a full-time freelancer is when you are earning either 50 – 75% of your current regular income or enough to cover all of your essential bills with a bit left over. Once you can cover your necessary bills, you can begin to build on that and grow your mini-empire.
Some people do feel like they’d rather make the leap and make an all or nothing type of commitment to their freelance career, and while that is admirable, if you have rent/mortgage/children or ever car payments and no savings to cushion you then that can be really risky.
So the answer is, start your side hustle while you have a primary job. Make your business foundations strong and your branding solid. Give yourself time to land clients, then when you have them, and you are making a regular income of 50-75% of your monthly income leave and take the world by storm.