Maybe you want to start a website where you can offer up your unique graphic design skills or maybe you dream of working as a freelance photographer. Many people start a side hustle not only to earn extra money, but with the hope that they can one day turn it into a profitable business.
If you love the work you do for your side hustle, why not turn it into your full-time job and start working for yourself?
Growing your side hustle as you work a full-time job is one of the safest ways to prepare to turn it into a full-time business. However, your work doesn’t stop there.
If you’re looking to turn your side hustle into a profitable business that will be sustainable long-term, here are 5 things you need to do.
1) Choose Something Scalable
Not all side hustles are great as a full-time business. You must choose something you are good at, enjoy doing, but is also scalable so you can grow your business and earnings as needed.
In DC’s book Hustle Away Debt, he divides up the side hustle options he mentions into self-employed vs. business side hustles. Ideally, your business-minded side hustle shouldn’t be the number of hours you can put in. For example, you may need to outsource certain tasks and hire a team to help you.
Running a business takes a lot of work and if you don’t have the time and all the skills necessary to manage every aspect of your business, you should be able to hire help should you need to expand.
2) Consider Diversifying
Diversifying your income provides many benefits but for small business owners, it’s a must. Even as a side hustle, you don’t want to depend solely on a single source of income so while you can have your primary products or service offerings, you can also develop other streams of income too.
For me, my main service is freelance writing, but I also do light virtual assistant work and run a blog and earn income from that. If my freelance writing income suddenly drops, I have other sources of income to rely on so I’m not freaking out and looking for another job.
Diversifying your income can keep your business more stable long-term.
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3) Do What You Love, Outsource What You Don’t
Once you start earning some money from your side hustle, you may have to invest some of your earnings back into it by outsourcing. If there’s a task that you really don’t like to do or just aren’t good at, choose someone who you can hire to take on that burden for you.
That way, you can focus on the bigger picture and help move your side hustle along. Sometimes it’s hard to give up control or part with your money, but when done correctly, outsourcing can help you grow your side hustle and make a smoother transition to a full-time business.
You don’t have to spend a ton of money at first either. I think I spent about $30-75 per month outsourcing tasks after 6 months of side hustling all on my own.
DC here, one quick thing I wanted to interject is that the beauty of side hustles is that it forces you to work with a limited amount of time and, in turn, outsource!
I’ve had contributors on the blog for years now as I learned quickly that the only way to use my time wisely was to bring others on board. I think you’ll find the same is true with your side hustle, especially when you look to scale it.
4) Track Your Earnings
Money is one of the biggest factors that stops people from turning their side hustle into a business. It’s difficult to cope with the idea of leaving a cushy stable job and stepping out into the unknown. If you think your side hustle is not earning you enough income to stand its own, you need to determine how much income you need to be making in order to feel comfortable.
Determine how much money you need to be making consistently, then start tracking your income each month and setting goals. Setting a clear goal of how much you wish to earn can help motivate you to start implementing strategies that will increase your profit.
As you track and increase your earnings, you also want to make sure you’re saving a reasonable amount as well. Your business income may vary quite a bit from month-to-month so you want to save up a large emergency fund and checking account buffer that you can rely on during the slower months.
5) Get a Mentor or Coach
If you feel stuck with your side hustle and want to take it to the next level but don’t know how, working with a coach or mentor might help.
A coach or mentor can help you set realistic goals and hold you accountable to them. It’s best to choose a coach or mentor in your desired niche because they may be able to offer valuable personal insight regarding your struggles and vision for your business.
I hired a coach when I first started side hustling because I knew I wanted to make my side hustle a business in the future and I didn’t want to waste time making rookie mistakes.
I wanted to make progress quickly and learn about all the best strategies to implement and how to structure everything accordingly.
*Bonus Tip: Grow Your Network*
Another step you can take to turn your side hustle into a full-time business is to grow your network. Your business will cease to exist if you don’t have clients/customers paying you. You want to have an ongoing relationship with them along with a solid network of people who can help you get referrals to grow your business or partner together for a project.
There are many different ways you can network and meet others in your industry. You can attend conferences and presentations, subscribe to webinars, go to local meetups, and even connect with people on social media or Facebook groups.
Having a network has really helped me grow my business over time. Plus, it’s great to have people to connect with who understand the type of work I’m doing.
Turning your side hustle into a full-time business won’t happen overnight. You have to jump in head first and believe in your venture wholeheartedly. Then, take the necessary steps to grow and scale your side hustle so it can support your lifestyle.
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Really interesting point of view…good tips, thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks for reading Giulia!
We did a few of these things as we grew our side hustles into our main business. As I look back over the past few years I see how integral diversification was in growing our business. Like you said, you never know what may happen and something you’ve been using to earn money can dry up so having those multiple streams coming in is vital. Your point on growing your network is a big one as well. We’d be nowhere near where we are today without our network – it has helped us grow our business as well as help grow the business of those within our network so it’s a win-win.
Having a network is so crucial and I’m glad you were able to diversify as well.
Some good lessons here, especially the first one because transitioning from a side hustle to a business needs you to let go of responsibilities and that can be hard. I also think it’s necessary to spend money to earn money, the best example being marketing expenses. That’s a lesson that has taken me time to learn.
I had a hard time with spending money when I first got started but I understand that concept now and will spend on my business when it provides value and makes sense.
Great tips, Chonce. Especially about diversification and about outsourcing what you don’t like to do. Both can be real ways to increase your income: diversification by giving you more to do, and outsourcing by freeing up time you’re spending on tasks that could be used to make more money.
Yes, those two can definitely go hand in hand. Thanks for reading!
Great tips! The one about outsourcing is excellent. When you’re first starting it may be hard to consider paying someone else. But if you can earn $30 an hour and find someone to do some of your tasks at $15 an hour it’s win-win.
Outsourcing can be great when done correctly. Like you said, you mainly need to make sure you’re earning enough to pay someone and getting a ton of value out of their work to justify the action.
I do have a few side hustles. Blogging is my hobby (aka side hustle). Somehow, I seemed to find my way into freelance writing and money is trickling in. I enjoy writing, so it’s nice. I have not given much though to scalability but it is definitely something to be considered.
I’m glad to hear you enjoy writing and blogging. Having multiple side hustle can be very time consuming especially if you wish to turn one of those side hustles into a full-time business so I hope these tips help!
I do think that choosing something scalable is important. My mum wanted to start her own business – it was something scalable but she wasn’t thinking of it like that. Being prepared for it going much bigger is a good thing to keep in mind.
Well said, we often don’t think about scalability at the beginning and that should change.
Number 3 is key. I’ve been outsourcing a lot more things than I used to. It’s allowed me to focus on things that are more important and less time-consuming.
Glad to hear that! It used to be hard for me to consider outsourcing but now I love it.
I would definitely slow down on outsourcing and hiring a coach. I run a small business called Quick Cup that sells disposable shaker cups, and I can confidently say that you shouldn’t spend *any* money that you don’t have to. It’s the first rule behind “bootstrapping,” building as lean a startup as possible.
There are plenty of free services offered by universities that will guide you. I’m part of KSU’s LaunchNET and Case Western Reserve University’s IP Venture Clinic. I have guidance from business professionals AND legal representatives 100% free.
I think it really depends on the niche for your business/side hustle. If you are overwhelmed or have a good idea but are having trouble making it profitable or need help learning about the business aspect of things, I think working with a coach/mentor or outsourcing could be great.
However, like you said, there are plenty of free services out there and I would recommend checking those out first. My alma mater has a free mentoring program that I utilized right after I graduated college. I definitely agree that you should keep expenses low when you’re starting out and make sure you’re not overspending on anything unnecessary, but sometimes it does costs money to make money.