In a day and age where we have an abundance of opportunities to start something new. The internet has made starting your own online business more possible than ever. If you have an idea, some technology, and a connection to the internet, you can get something started. However, for most people, we still have full-time jobs. This is why the idea of launching a side hustle alongside your career is often a good idea. It gives you the opportunity to explore the world of entrepreneurship and see if it’s for you, alongside validating your idea. If you are keen on getting started, we’re going to show you exactly how to do that in this blog post.
1. Do Some Research
To kick things off, you really need to make sure that you know exactly what it is that you want to do. Yet, it can be hard to do that unless you have carried out some research. Make sure you take a look at some side hustle ideas for inspiration. After all, there are so many different things that you can look to do, from dropshipping to the gig economy to launching your own content site. It’s important for you to consider what options are available so that you can make the right choice.
2. Work Out What’s Right for You
At this point, you can then start to think about what could be the right option for you here. If you naturally enjoy writing and creating, then doing something online with content could be a great idea for you. It may be that you want something you can drop in and out of and dedicate hours to when you have the time. You may even want to offer what you do in your career as a freelance service on the side. But it’s important for you to figure out what the right option for you is.
3. Choose a Name
You then need to make sure that you can think up a suitable name for your business. This can work in a few ways. If you want to set up a company from the get-go, you need to have a legally registered business name, but you also need an operating name for your brand. It’s also useful to make sure that you are choosing something with a domain name available. After all, you are looking to create an online business, so it’s important that you can secure your website and even your social handles.
4. Get Set Up
The next thing for you to think of is making sure that you are setting up the business. Depending on what it is that you want to do, you may find that this can be a little bit more involved or relatively quite simple. For example, you may want to start a blog or a social media channel, or it may be the case that you need an ecommerce website and the option of working with an EU fulfilment centre too. Ensuring that you put everything in place to get started is really important here.
5. Build Your Brand
The next thing for you to do here is to think about building your brand. When you have an online store or even a content site, you need to put something else into the world that showcases who you are and what you’re about. Choosing your brand colours is a great place to get started here, along with things like your fonts and even creating a logo. That way, you have something public fashioning that you can put on your website and social channels.
6. Start Marketing
Whether you are creating content, offering a service, or promoting a product. You also need to make sure that you are marketing as early as possible. It’s never too early to start raising awareness of what your business is doing. It can be really fun to drive up excitement for what you’re doing before you’ve even launched. That way, you’re getting eyes on the business, and people know who you are before your first product or service has dropped or your website is live.
7. Get Organized
However, it’s not just about the operational side of things. You also need to make sure that you are approaching this with the right intentions, too. You need to approach your side hustle the same way that you would a small business. In fact, if you are registering the company from the get-go, you also need to make sure that you are super organised in doing so. Having a set way of running things so that you are streamlined and everything feels efficient will make it easier when you start to grow.
8. Try New Things
However, you may find that it’s really important for you to jump right in and experiment. This means trying new things that you may not have done before. That can help you to raise awareness of your side hustle and gain customers. One of the great things about starting a side hustle is that you are doing it alongside your career, meaning you can take risks, try new things, and explore while learning along the way.
9. Manage the Finances
Another way that you need to approach your side hustle as if you were running a small business is to make sure that you are aware of what’s going on financially. If you have long-term intentions for what you’re doing here, you need to make sure that you’re creating something financially viable. This also means having the ability to manage your finances and keep things running smoothly.
10. Plan to Take Things Full-Time
If you find that things are taking off for you, that you’re enjoying what you’re doing, you’re getting traction, and you’re actually making money from this, you may want to start thinking about how you’re going to take it full-time. This isn’t something that will happen overnight, but you still need to be intentional about how this will work and when you’re going to do it. When you have a plan of action, it gives you something to focus on so that you can turn your side hustle into a fully-fledged business whenever you’re ready.
