- It's hard to know how to start building a side hustle, which is a freelance gig or a business idea that you pursue on the side while working a full-time job.
- Though there's no right or wrong way to start your side hustle, making smart decisions early on can make you more successful.
- Five experts shared with Business Insider hard lessons they learned that helped grow their side gigs.
- Justine Clay, a longtime business coach, recommended creating an excel sheet and setting quarterly goals for your side hustle.
- Click here for more BI Prime stories.
For some people, a side hustle is a way to earn more money while working a full-time job. But for others, a side hustle is a career choice — an out-of-pocket investment of money and time to pursue original business ideas.
When done right, side hustles can be rewarding. You get to call your own shots and be your own boss. Better yet, what you work on in your spare time may just earn you six figures or more. What separates the high-earning side hustlers apart is planning.
"There's a lot of advice out there that tells people to just do it, like jump on the parachute and hope for the best," Justine Clay, a longtime business coach that specializes in helping entrepreneurs and freelancers, said. "But you've got to build it with intention rather than it coming from a place of desperation or panic. You need a plan."
Starting a side hustle can feel like you're jumping into the unknown because there's a lot of planning to do.
Given the time constraints that come with working a side job in addition to your main career, side hustlers have to quickly master the key entrepreneurial skills of efficiency and productivity. They should also seek out tools for continuing education and tweak spending habits. They also have to set business goals and work out the logistics to hit the ground running with their new careers.
Five experts shared with Business Insider the decisions they made that grew their side hustles.
Figure out logistics
You don't want to start a side hustle without a plan.
In those first few months, you should focus on positioning and bolting the business structure that supports the kind of business you want to have, Clay added.
Anyone can be a side hustler. Everyone from a college student pursuing a passion project to a full-time worker with a well-established job can have side-hustling potential. Regardless of your career starting point, dealing with the logistics of your business sooner rather than later will pay off, Clay said.
Eva Recinos, a full-time social-media manager who works as a freelance writer, wrote in a Business Insider article that at least 50% of the time spent on her part-time job was dealing with logistics such as invoices, tracking expenses, and splitting up time commitments.
"It's not just about making time to pursue my passion," she wrote. "The behind-the-scenes work is equally important to allow me to keep my side gig afloat."
Tracking your expenses will keep you from writing unnecessary checks
Tracking your money is one way to ensure you're not spending more than you need to.
Clay recommended that side hustlers create an excel sheet to break down their monthly spending. Make sure you include fixed expenses, debt, and taxes, she added. Once you got it organized, you can start setting goals.
"Everyone's needs are going to be different," she said. "But once you know what you want or need to make every year, you can break that down into monthly or quarterly revenue goals."
Better yet, you might want to consider setting up a bank account for your side hustle. Eric Rosenberg, an online-content writer who turned his side gig into a full-time job, wrote in a Business Insider article that keeping your personal and business money separate could be helpful at tax time and give you a clearer trajectory.
Learn your market value and build customer relationships
You are your own boss, so you should be advocating for yourself and building a clientele.
Nicole Rollender, an entrepreneur who started a writing-services business, wrote in a Business Insider article that one hard lesson she learned early on was to never stop marketing herself to prospective partners. She didn't carve out time to find new clients until she lost two contracts and was clientless for two months. She relied too heavily on her two clients who backed out, and she learned to always have a backup plan. It also never hurts to grow your client list.
The entrepreneur recommends spending several hours a week on marketing your business by expanding your network. Rollender hired business coaches to help get her in a "boss mindset." As a freelance writer, she wrote that she often underestimated the money she could make with her skillset and needed help to know her market value.
The side hustler recommended that you add prospects on the list while focusing on building relationships with your network. Some business relationships can take months to convert to paying clients, so don't be discouraged if you don't get a deal right away, she wrote.
"Some months you won't get any clients, and some you'll get a ton," Clay added. "That's the nature of it — it's up and down. But the whole point we do marketing and building on that work is to keep the pipeline full so that it's at least flowing."
Adopt a growth mindset
Successful side hustlers have a growth mindset.
If you approach challenges with a growth mindset, you see them as opportunities to learn and develop. If you approach challenges with a fixed mindset, you might assume you'll fail, Business Insider previously reported. Stanford professor Carol Dweck's findings suggest that the people who pivot to changes tend to outperform those who don't.
You're going to make some mistakes during the first couple months of starting a side hustle — that's expected. Part of what's great about earning on your own terms is getting to brainstorm what works and doesn't work. The trial-and-error nature of any side gig can be grueling, and that's why having an adaptable mindset will help you power through those hurdles.
Though growth mindset is commonly known as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's motto, the term based on Dweck's psychological research extends beyond the corporate workplace.
David Neagle, a success coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, wrote in a Business Insider article that all leaders at some point have felt self-doubt in their careers. However, what sets successful ones apart is their willingness to make mental shifts and turn struggles into opportunities.
"You don't have to be convinced that you always will find success with each choice you make, but you can't carry the belief about how you can't, or won't, do it," he wrote. "Every attempt that doesn't work leads you closer to the one that will. Remember, we failed many times trying to put a man on the moon before figuring it out. Edison failed 10,000 times before creating the light bulb. Now these things are easy. You have to keep trying and never stop."
Visit dearJulius.com to get free premium content for all of your lifestyle needs.
COMMENTS