We’re all feeling the pinch on our wallets. Between the wild price of eggs and the increased cost of living year after year, Americans are looking for additional sources of income to improve—or at least maintain—their quality of life. Some of us are turning to side hustles.
A recent Bankrate survey found that 36% of U.S. adults earn extra income outside of their regular jobs, with 28% making over $500 monthly.
Working on the side is no walk in the park, but if you’re wondering how to start a side hustle—and maybe even scale it to a thriving full-time business someday—you’ve come to the right place.
Why Start a Side Hustle?
While many Americans use side hustles to cover their bills, maintaining another income can also help you build skills you’ll use in your day job, making you more valuable in multiple areas. For example, I started my side hustle as a freelance writer and journalist years ago to support my insatiable book habit. At the same time I work full-time as a paralegal, which—like writing— requires precise vocabulary, proper syntax and the ability to express my ideas and research in an objective, almost surgical manner.
Starting my creative side hustle has helped me become more expressive with language. Writing on the side taught me to express complex ideas more clearly and concisely, which has created new opportunities at work. I’m now known as “the writer” among my colleagues, and I field questions from them on wording, grammar and structure. I work on more complex documents that require a stronger understanding of language because of my improved writing abilities. I now have a high level of credibility and authority in my career because of work I completed outside of it.
Looking to break out of the nine-to-five and wanting to learn how to start a side hustle yourself? It can act as a stepping stone to full-time entrepreneurship with little to no risk. And many side hustles don’t require a degree or large amounts of capital.
But how do you know what kind of side hustle to pursue?
How to Find a Side Hustle That’s Right for You
There are myriad successful side gig ideas all over the internet. To find out how to start a side hustle, first find the right one for you. Start with these steps:
Evaluate Your Skill Set
A lucrative place to start building your side hustle is by turning your passion into profit. Find something you enjoy making or doing and then try to sell that product or service.
Writing paired well with my career because I wrote every single day, and my work requires me to research laws and read complex documents. This made freelance writing a side hustle that easily complemented my existing skills—and I enjoy it.
Research Your Market
Market research isn’t a complex project requiring ample time and resources. It’s simply trying to find your ideal customer and identifying where your service or product can step in to help them.
Part of this research is also determining your prices for goods or services.
Here’s an example.
You want to start a business called ABC Lawn Care to mow lawns and maintain landscapes in your neighborhood. Market research can be as simple as looking up businesses to compare your services.
If you want to learn how to start a side hustle, another idea is going door to door. Ask your neighbors how they feel about hiring someone to landscape their yard. Take notes on the types of people who say yes and their reasons why.
Researching your market validates an idea before making a financial investment. If your research indicates little need for your business idea, scrap the project and move on to the next idea.
If you need some ideas, here’s a short list of common ideas for side hustles:
- Monetize a YouTube channel
- Create and monetize a blog
- Mow lawns
- Clean gutters
- Sell digital products
- Become an affiliate marketer
- Sell your photography
- Sell your art
- Become an online tutor
Related: How to Start a Business in a Day
How to Start a Side Hustle Successfully
Now you know what kind of side hustle to start, you need a simple road map of what you want to accomplish with it. That road map starts with a plan.
1. Create a Business Plan
A business plan isn’t necessarily a massive document laying out a company’s detailed inner workings and financials. For someone learning how to start a side hustle, a business plan can be very practical.
Realistically, your business plan only needs to include a handful of ideas to get your side hustle off the ground:
- What your business offers and how much you charge
- Your financial goals
- A timeline for your goals
- How you will attract and retain customers
Keep in mind that a business plan is a living document. It should evolve with your business. When you hire staff for the first time, you should update your plan to include staffing goals and duties and potential wage growth maps.
2. Set Goals
Though setting goals is a core part of your business plan, you’ll also set goals that might not be in a formal document. These need to be clear.
The SMART framework is a goal-setting schema that helps you set goals that are actionable and easy to follow. The acronym stands for:
- Specific: Goals that are precise and answer the five W’s: who, what, when, where and why
- Measurable: Goals that can be clearly understood and tracked
- Achievable: Goals that are challenging yet within reach
- Relevant: Goals that align with your business plan and the overall direction for your side hustle
- Time-Bound: Goals that include deadlines or time frames to create a sense of urgency and keep you on track
Common side hustle business goals might include setting up a website, creating an Etsy page to sell your product, making $1,000 by a certain date, coming up with a new service idea or reaching 10 new customers in your area.
3. Market Your Product or Service
Once you get an idea of what success looks like for your side hustle, thanks to your business plan and goals, you’ll need to market yourself so potential customers can find you.
To get started:
- You could create a website with a blog to drive organic traffic.
- You could post on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook or Bluesky to get more clients.
- You could create a YouTube channel or TikTok account highlighting what your side hustle does and how you’re growing your business (also known as “building in public”).
- If you have a sales background, try cold-calling and cold-emailing potential prospects. You can also market through nondigital avenues. Try attending local business networking events to get the word out about what you do. Go door to door in your neighborhood to see if anyone needs your product or service. Text all your family members and friends to let them know about your venture.
These ideas are focused on marketing tactics. It’s important to look at your marketing strategy as a whole by evaluating what customers think of your business or brand. Creating a brand for your side hustle means small things like creating a logo or having a clear purpose for your service or product.
Think about how you want customers to feel when they think of your business. Are they excited to work with you? Do they view you as reliable? Straightforward? Friendly? Aloof? The brand associated with a small side hustle is closely connected with your personality.
A simple idea is adding a logo to a business card that you can hand out while door-knocking. Or reflecting on how calls with prospective clients went. Ask yourself how you think the client perceived you.
4. Manage Your Time
Making time for your side hustle is crucial for it to succeed, especially if you want to pursue your passion project full-time. You can’t ditch your job just yet.
I work full-time while I write on the side. I volunteer on two different nonprofit boards and raise a young family with my amazing wife. I can handle these tasks because I structure my time.
For instance, I use a Trello board to manage my freelancing clients. This board contains a checklist for each project I’m working on. I know exactly what I’m working on at all times and what needs to be done next.
I also aim to use up any “dead time.” That could be writing on my lunch break or hitting some keyboard reps before the kids are awake. It’s easy to use these quieter times to relax or do something mindless, but using that time to be productive can help you accomplish more.
Transitioning From Side Hustle to Full-Time Business
There’s a lot to be said about when it’s time to launch your business full-time. Here are some of the most important considerations you need to note before making the transition.
Is It Time to Scale?
There may come a time when your business feels too big for you, or you have ideas that are too time-consuming for a simple side hustle.
If your business is constantly hitting profit goals, running at full capacity, having demand spikes that you can’t keep pace with or your customer base is rapidly increasing, it might be time to increase what your business can do.
The fastest way to start scaling your business is by hiring staff to take on some of your responsibilities so you can focus on growing the business.
As famed entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor Daymond John writes on his blog, “I had to take a hard look at my operation and determine which tasks I could delegate to others. I knew that I couldn’t do everything by myself, so I had to decide on the areas where I needed help. For me, this meant hiring skilled employees who shared my vision and could contribute…”
Are You Financially Ready?
Transitioning from a side hustle to a full-time business requires a healthy dose of financial realism. Every business has its ups and downs, and being prepared for them will help you stay on track for success.
Before leaving your current job, it’s generally recommended to have six-to-12 months’ worth of expenses saved. This gives you enough runway to last you through the growing pains of building a business.
This may sound like a lofty goal, but it can be met sooner than you think through proper budgeting. Take stock of how much your business earns each month in profit. Start storing away some of that in a separate bank account.
Once you hit that six- or 12-month savings threshold, you should have a safe cushion to fall back on.
Overcoming the Challenges of Entrepreneurship
Quitting your job is the easy part, but keeping your new business afloat comes with its own set of challenges.
Beating Burnout
Burnout can affect us all, but small business owners can be especially privy to losing themselves in their work. Solo business owners are responsible for everything. That can quickly lead to overwhelm.
In some cases, burnout can signal a need for you to start delegating. Maybe it’s time you hired a virtual assistant to take on setting appointments.
Building a network of trusted employees or fellow business owners can help you find help overcoming the fatigue of being “on” every day.
Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
Sometimes, a new business can take years to succeed and grow. Other times, new businesses can flourish extremely quickly. Unfortunately, quick success often breeds feelings of unworthiness for some business owners. This is formally known as “impostor syndrome.”
Nearly three-quarters of the population will suffer from these feelings of unworthiness at some point. While that statistic might sound depressing at first glance, it actually bodes good news. You have people to lean on that have overcome these idiosyncrasies.
A business mentor can help you work through impostor-like feelings and come up with strategies to regulate them. A mentor can be upfront about the mental hurdles they faced and offer advice on how to overcome similar obstacles.
Facing a Lack of Resources
Not having enough resources can quickly stifle any growth your new business has. Whether it’s access to capital, finding competent employees, coming up with new ideas or needing resources, these challenges can quickly snowball out of control.
A trusted network of business owners can help. If you’re facing a need for resources to create a product, a more veteran business person can come alongside you and offer advice on where you can find more materials. If you’re having trouble finding staff who share your work ethic, a business mentor can help you lay out your expectations clearly and evaluate them.
Turn Your Passion Into Profit
Learning how to start a side hustle, and doing it successfully alongside your career, can be exhausting without the right support in place. But if you find a skill that aligns with your passions and abilities and is easily marketable, you might have the makings of a successful business on your hands.
Before jumping into the throes of business ownership, take the time to chart a business plan, set SMART goals, market your product/services and diligently manage your time. Then make sure you’re both financially and emotionally prepared for the journey that’s ahead.
The road of entrepreneurship is hard and uncertain, but the rewards of creating your own path—in my experience—far outweigh the costs.
Photo courtesy of PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock
