How to Start A Side Hustle in 2021

Who wouldn’t like to earn some extra money? Starting a Side Hustle can be one of the most rewarding things that you do in 2021. Focusing on what you are passionate about can be what you need and can help you get away from your strenuous 9-5 . Follow this guide to reach your goals of starting a Side Hustle.

What is a Side Hustle?

A Side Hustle is extra income that is earned outside of your day to day job. There are many perks that come with starting a Side Hustle.

• You are Earning Extra Money– Earning extra income is almost necessary in the current state of our economy. The rising cost of living is going to continue to grow while wages will not see the same increase. Good paying jobs are harder to come by and something that is extremely hard to find out of college. The answer to earning extra money? Side Hustles.
• You can Focus on Something Your Passionate About– Many of us work jobs just so that we can provide for our family. We may not love our jobs which makes us live for the weekends. How sad is that? A majority of our time is made up of our work weeks and we are wishing it away because we do not like the jobs that we are in. Side Hustles can be an avenue to truly focus on what your passionate about and find a way to make money off of your passion.
• It can be something that can morph into your full time job– So many of us dream about being our own boss and getting out from working under someone. The Problem? Turning our thoughts and ideas into actions. We become complacent in our jobs where we are making a steady living, but never actually try to capitalize on making money on our business ideas. The fact of the matter is that many Side Hustles grow to become something that is a full-time income earner.

Where do you Start?

Step #1- Put Together A Solid Business Plan– The first thing you are going to want to do is figure out what Side Hustle you would like to start. Take some time to get away from everyone and any distractions to make a list of your interests and passions. Once you have completed a thorough list, pick your top 3 ideas that interest you the most and have the best chance of succeeding. This Brainstorming session will determine what you will be committing to and spending time on so do not take this part lightly. Do some research into your 3 ideas that you have. Think about whether you have the ability to make them a possibility. Still struggling to think of ideas that suit you? Here is a short list to get you started:

• Resell on Ebay, Amazon, Poshmark
• Uber Or Lyft
• Manage Social Media for Small Businesses
• Fiver, Upwork
• Start A Blog
• Dropshipping
• Write A Book
• Mystery Shopping
• Clean Houses
• Mowing Grass
• Personal Training
• Music Lessons
• Flipping Furniture

Use our Side Hustle Plan Tool shown below and build a summary of your 3 ideas to help you compare each of them. We will walk you through on the steps below on how to put it together for yourself.

Once you have downloaded the tool, go to the “Side Hustle Calculator” tab to start filling out all relevant information about your Side Hustle.

Here is a Brief Breakdown how you should fill out each field:

1. What type of Side Hustle are you starting? A brief description of what type of side business you are starting
2. Who is your Audience that you are targeting? In order to be successful in any Side Hustle, knowing who you are targeting is key. For instance, if you are a company that sells organic dog food, you would want to target dog owners that are conscious about trying to keep them healthy.
3. How long do you project it taking before you start making a profit? This doesn’t have to be an exact number, but give your best guess of how long it will take you before you start making money.
4. What is the Scalability of your business? Rate your idea on how big you think your idea could grow. Mowing grass or Uber would probably have lower scalability while starting a blog has more potential to grow.
5. What is your Marketing Strategy for your Side Hustle? Marketing is important to consider as well. It could be through social media, Google Ads, Newspaper Ads, Etc. Some strategies make more sense to certain businesses than others.
6. How Many Hours Are you Willing to Put Towards Your Side Hustle per Week? Input desired time to spend on your side gig each week
7. How Much Revenue do you think your Side Hustle Will Bring In per Week? Make an estimate of what you think you could get in Revenue from your Side Hustle
8. What Type Of Starting Costs do you see the Side Hustle having? Add up anything that it may take to get your Side Hustle started up. Even small costs can add up so do not forget to add anything
9. How Much Money will it cost per week to keep up with day to day expenses? Add any type of operating costs for your business per week.
10. How Much Money do you have saved up for your business? Put in your amount in savings. It is important to make sure that you have the money saved up to run your Side Hustle
11. What Hours do you work at your day job per week? Fill in how many hours you work per week
12. How many hours do you sleep per day on average? On average, fill out how many hours you work
13. Who are the competitors in your market segment? Find who your top 3 competitors are and input them into the blank
14. What would be the name of your Business/ Side Hustle? Fill in what you would name the business
15. What is your Mission for your Business? Your mission for the business should state what the purpose of your Side Hustle is. Think of how you are going to help people and serve their needs.

Once you have completed filling in all the blanks, go to the “My Business Plan” tab to see your filled out Summary. Thoroughly compare each of the summary pages once you have filled out all 3 and find the plan that makes the most sense to you. Look at the next step to see if you have enough time to make your idea happen

Step#2- Make sure there is enough time– Some of you know that there may not be enough time for you to be working another job. Between your day job, family, and other outside affiliations you may realize there is hardly any time to do anything. Picking something that is unrealistic for you and your lifestyle is a bad move because this will ultimately end in failure. Find something that is flexible with your lifestyle and can easily be fit into your schedule. Take a look at the “Weekly Hours spent chart” on your business plan to see how much free time you would have available. The chart below shows that 31% of your time would be leisure time, but other things to account for are other ancillary tasks that take up time such as driving, cooking, cleaning, taking care of family, etc.

Step#3- Make your Side Hustle idea a reality- Once you have done your due diligence on vetting your ideas, put your idea into action and start making your Side Hustle a reality. Let us know what type of Side Hustles you have started!

Step#4- Track your Expenses, income & key numbers- Any person who knows anything about business will tell you that you HAVE TO KNOW your numbers. Keeping track of income & expenses will help key you in on strategic decisions and give you insight on how to successfully run your business. You can use our budgeting tool to keep track of all your monetary numbers. Other key numbers depend on what type of business you run. If you start mowing the grass on the side, you would want to track your efficiencies such as drive time between jobs, average job time to completion, how much you would make per hour of each job, etc. Find your key numbers and track them faithfully to help you make more money.