Nowadays, it can seem like pretty much everyone has a side hustle on the go. For many, their side hustle was borne out of the pandemic. Having so much spare time on their hands, coupled with the uncertain financial climate prompted many would-be entrepreneurs to take the plunge. If your side hustle has continued long after we stopped wearing face coverings, you’re doing a great job. But bow you may be ready to take your side hustle to the next level of success.
Moving your micro business forward can feel like a pretty scary prospect. You’re probably considering all kinds of scenarios. Is the business strong enough to expand? Is it too much of a risk to pursue? There’s certainly lots to consider. In this blog, we’ll run through the steps you can take to elevate your side hustle to bigger and better things.
Consider the Practicalities
Quitting your day job and launching yourself straight into your side hustle full-time may be your dream. Unfortunately, the responsibilities of adult life can often get in the way. If you have kids to raise, bills to pay, and a home to maintain, it’s probably wise to be a little risk-averse. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to work on your side hustle full-time. It just means it’s wise to take a measured approach and build up to it. This could mean cutting down on the hours you work on your regular job. For example, working one less day in your main job and devoting that time as a full working day each week to build your side hustle. This way you get more spare time to build your side hustle without worrying about throwing yourself into financial uncertainty.
Create a Plan
The nature of a side hustle is obviously that you fit in working on it in your spare time. This often means that you need to take a scattered approach to running your business. When you want to take your side hustle to the next level, you need to take a more focused approach. The first step toward taking this more focused approach is to brainstorm the ideas, hopes, and dreams that your have for your side hustle and what you want to achieve from it.
Once you’ve got your ideas down on paper, it’s time to break down how you will achieve these. Creating a robust plan that details how you will progress your side hustle can form the start of a business plan for the next stages of your business.
Once you’re happy with what you want to achieve, it’s time to start researching. Gathering detailed information on competitors, your target audience, and opportunities for your business will equip you to write your business plan.
Foster a Professional Image
Once you have your business plan in place, it’s time to start putting it into action. Moving from a side hustle to create a more established, credible business can feel like quite a leap. To bridge this gap, it’s helpful to begin fostering a more professional image.
There are several easy ways to make your side hustle appear more official:
- Ensure you respond to customer queries in a prompt and professional manner.
- Increase the quality control of your products.
- Develop a strong brand for your business and begin using it consistently throughout your operation.
- Take a more organized approach to business activities, such as shipping products faster and staying on top of orders to prevent backlogs causing lengthy wait times for customers.
Boost Your Side Hustle’s Presence
Boosting your side hustle’s presence by doubling down on your marketing efforts is a must. To achieve more sales, you need to improve brand awareness and get your products seen by a wider audience. Your company website will provide the foundation of this. So, you need to be sure that it looks professional and offers an excellent user experience. In addition, your website needs to be on-brand and align with your company’s values.
Maximizing your social media efforts is an excellent way to begin growing your business’s online presence. While you may already use social media platforms to promote your side hustle, now is the time to take a more polished approach. Creating templates to use for your social media posts that feature your logo is a great place to start. Posting at regular times is also helpful. You also need to be sure you’re engaging with your social media followers and paying attention to how they interact with your content.
All of the above activities are vital to help you build an online community. But to really get your products seen, it’s helpful to collaborate with influencers. Having your products endorsed by an influencer can send them skyrocketing in popularity. Many small businesses have sold out of all stock after even a small mention on socials from an influencer, so this is definitely an option to consider.
Figure Out Your Financials
Now that you’ve done most of the groundwork to firmly establish your side hustle as a business, it’s time to consider the next steps. If you’re going to start evolving your side hustle to your main hustle, you need to be clear on the financial side of things.
Calculating your side hustle’s current financial performance and measuring that in terms of the income you need to make from the business is helpful. Can you make a viable wage from the revenue your business currently generates? If not, there are a couple of options to consider. The first is to scale up your offering. Pitch your products to new clients and secure additional orders. The other option is to refresh your offering. You could diversify into offering a related (but more profitable) product line. Or, you hone in on the most profitable part of your business and make it your niche. This allows you to charge more for your products or services as they’re in increased demand. This responsive approach helps you stay in control as your side hustle evolves.
