We’ve discussed endlessly on this site about the surge in the price of living and the ever widening gap between the haves and have nots.
One way to combat an increase in living expenses is to increase your household income. A simple way to do this is to approach your boss with a request for a pay rise. Alternatively you can also look for a job that pays more. If both of these options aren’t possible, then it’s time to take this into your own hands by creating your own side hustle. So what is a good side hustle I hear you ask?
What is a side hustle?
This can mean several things but essentially a side hustle is a secondary income stream that is in addition to your main form of employment. This could range from selling cupcakes at school that your mother made for you to drop shipping a product like kids toys on Amazon.
Depending on your area or expertise or training is usually the starting point for most side hustles and depending on the level of success from these will determine your next path on the side hustle journey. Alternatively your initial side hustle beginnings might be from reading a blog post of someone making money online and you decide to dive right into this without knowing much about making money online, having only a burning desire to make it work.
Not all side hustles are the same
Ideally you want a side hustle that you can turn into a passive income stream or at least one that you can reduce the amount of hours you put into it as it becomes more and more successful. A good example of this is selling a product online or building your own affiliate website.
It’s usually easier to earn money with a side hustle using your unskilled labour such as a food delivery driver or cleaning someone’s house however these are difficult to scale unless you build sufficient demand to enable you to hire people.
If possible your aim should be to use the education, skills or training that you have picked up to build a passive income business around or if you have come across a problem that can be solved with a service or product, one that others would pay money for.
Tips to set up your side hustle
As we’ve discussed previously regarding passive income streams, your end goal should be to set up your side hustle that can be scaled and ideally turned into a passive income stream that needs very little ongoing involvement. Initially for most people creating a side hustle, it’s a way to make additional money to fund rising lifestyle expenses, pay back debt or to add to your holiday fund.
Depending on your financial goals and current lifestyle or monetary constraints this could also dictate what you can put into and the type of income you could receive from your side hustle. Some tips to set up your side hustle are:
1. Figure out what you are looking to get out of the side hustle
Are you looking for something to get an extra couple of hundred bucks a month or are you looking to build something with the end goal to replace your current employment income? After you’ve got an idea of your reason, this will determine the type of side hustle you will look for and also one that can be fit around your current lifestyle. If you are only looking to earn a couple of hundred dollars per month then the time an effort you put in will be a lot
different than if you were trying to build a business with the aim to replace your current income.
2. Where possible find a side hustle where you can take advantage of your unique skills or your education where you invest minimal time to get maximum income
What we are getting at is if you have a highly skilled job and can teach some this skill or tutor someone in this area, you are more likely to earn more money in a shorter amount of time. Compare this to taking on a gig where you are a driver or you deliver food where the hourly rate wouldn’t be as high.
Ideally the side hustle you choose will also have a short time between when you start and when you start earning an income from it.
3. If you are looking at a long term side hustle, look for one that has plenty of people willing to pay
Focus on an area where there will be plenty of potential customers either prepared to pay for your service or to buy a product from you in the future. Yes these will likely have a bit of competition however if you set out your position and your skills are unique or the product or service you offer is high quality you will have plenty of potential customers to pay.
On the other hand if you were looking to build your business around snails native Equatorial Guinea you may have a difficult time find a fee paying audience.
4. If you are looking at a long term side hustle, look for one that can be scaled
An example here is if you were building a website and writing the content yourself however to scale you would look to find competent writers on that topic or niche to enable the level of scale you would need to reach your goals. If your website was for example based on 5th century literature you might have an issue scaling as there would be very limited people in this field you could hire (at a suitable rate) to scale your website.
Websites built around selling a product or selling something like a course are can be great types to scale.
Ideas to set up your own side hustle
So what can you set your side hustle around? Again if you are only looking for a few hundred dollars a month to hit a savings goal or to repay debt then it’s likely you will focus on something easy to perform such as tutoring or teaching a musical instrument. If you didn’t have a skill like this then it’s probably a driving gig or something like cleaning or basic gardening or landscaping.
If you are looking to build a side hustle to become a passive income asset then look at skills you have or education you have that you can build a business around. If we look at the tutoring or music teaching example above once you build a enough demand you could build courses around your teachings. So look at your life and ask yourself what skills or training do I have that I can teach others?
Look at any pain points in your life and in your friend’s lives as well. What is something that you are always complaining about that a solution could be found, one that would make you money?
Or have a look at what friends and family are doing to earn some extra money. Can a cousin who is a property or share trading guru show you the ropes? Could your best mate from high school who is earning mid 6 figures from her online business show you the way to earn online?
As we’ve mentioned so many times on this website, start building a passive income stream today! As part of your passive income journey you should be looking to create one (or several) side hustles sooner rather than later.
The sooner you start, the sooner you will be earning money and potentially growing an income producing asset!
With any potential side hustles, make sure it fits the criteria above and ideally is one that can be scaled to a more passive form of income or at least one that can be scaled.