How to Start a Side Hustle Today

Zoi Kotsou -

The best time to start a side hustle is right now. Working from home has never been easier, and there are so many new works from home opportunities that it’s impossible not to find something that will work for you. But remember that you can’t earn anything unless you get started!

So, what’s stopping you?

Follow these simple steps to learn how to start a side hustle today.

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Decide on your hustle

Before you can start a side hustle, you have to know what you’re going to do. It can be a quite overwhelming process to decide what you want to do to make money online, as there are countless possibilities. Even if you already have a solid idea of what you want to start, it’s a good idea to go through this process anyway.

Take these steps to help you narrow down your side hustle ideas:

  1. Know your skills

There’s a good chance you already have skills and abilities that you could use for a side hustle, whether you know it or not.

Take some time to write down your skills, even if you think they’re insignificant. You can monetize so many skills today that you should never discount anything you’re able to do!

At this point in the process, don’t focus on viability. Just list down the skills you know you have and what you could possibly do. You’ll look into viability in the next step.

Include everything from driving or drawing to running or organizing.

Open up your possibilities wide. If you can’t think of much on your own, look up lists of side hustle ideas to get some inspiration.

2. Make a short list

Now that you’ve listed a lot of possibilities, it’s time to narrow the list of options.

You can’t do everything at once. To start your side hustle, you need to choose one good idea and run with it.

What should make it to the shortlist?

Try to limit your shortlist to ideas that are feasible for you to start right now. Ask yourself some questions, such as:

  • Can this idea be monetized? (Do your research before you answer this! No assumptions.)
  • Can I do this idea alongside my normal daily responsibilities?
  • Can I start right now, or do I need to learn a new skill first?
  • Does this idea solve a problem for other people?

Answer honestly. If the answer is “no” to 1 or more of these questions, the idea should not make it to your shortlist. Ideally, the answer should be “yes” to all of them. Keep track of all of your ideas in a spreadsheet to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Add a drop-down list to the mix to categorize your ideas based on the steps mapped out above.

After this exercise, you should have a smaller list of ideas that are all possible for you to start right away without any huge time commitment or monetary investment.

3. Validate your ideas

At this point, you’ve got a few pre-vetted ideas in your short list that you now need to actually validate. Validating your idea means going a little deeper to see if it’s really worth doing or not.

Follow up your first questions by asking a few more targeted questions, such as:

  • Are there people already doing this business? If so, how do they make money?
  • Do I have the right tools or equipment to start today?
  • What exactly would you be doing, and how would you do it?

Make sure you can answer these questions fully for each idea on your short list. Go through your responses and choose the idea that makes the most sense from your validated short list.

Once you have an idea, it’s time to turn it into a reality.

Make a Basic Business Plan

What do you need to know and prepare in order to start today?

A simple business plan is a good idea before you start, as a way to guide your momentum and set you on the right track from the beginning. Business plans don’t have to be long, in depth, and intimidating.

All you need is a simple roadmap to your side hustle. It can be as short as one page long.

A basic business plan should include:

  • Partnerships – who are you working with, if anyone?
  • Key business activities – what makes your business stand out from your competitors?
  • Your resources – what do you have available that you plan to use for your business?
  • Unique Selling Point (USP) – a short sentence stating the unique value you will offer your customers.
  • Customer interactions – how will you be interacting with your customers? Is your business in person, online, or automated? What communication channels will you use?
  • Customer profile – create simple profiles for your ideal, specific customers
  • Revenue sources – how do you plan to make money?
  • Expected costs – list your main expenses you’ll face to run your business

We’re using the term “business” here, but in this case it can be anything that you’re doing, big or small. It doesn’t have to be an official, registered business, depending on what your plan is.

Even if you’re going to drive for a ride-share company or sell on Etsy, you can benefit from a basic business plan.

Wake Up and Do It

The hardest part about starting a side hustle is actually getting started.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way around this. Do what you can to set yourself up for success, but make sure you push yourself to follow through and get started.

Here are a few tips to help you get off the ground successfully:

Tip #1: Block out a specific time to start

If you keep saying you’ll get to it when you have the time, you’ll never get to it.

Schedule a day and time that you’re going to put the pieces in place for your side hustle, or do it for the very first time.

Give yourself enough time to do everything required to start without having to stress and rush through it. If you’ve got other responsibilities, plan around those.

Tip #2: Preparation starts the night before

What can you do the day or night before you start that will make your life easier?

Think of it as doing a favor for your future self.

This could be as simple as getting the coffee set up for yourself the night before, preparing a nice set of clothes for the morning, or organizing your workspace so you can get straight to work with a clear mind.

Tip #3: Invite someone to help

If you have a close friend who can act as your accountability partner or your “hype man”, invite them to join you on your launch day.

Sometimes telling a close friend or family member about your plan helps you follow through with it.

Tip #4: Simplify your task list

Whatever you need to do to get started with your side hustle, break it down to simple tasks to make it less intimidating.

Do any time-consuming tasks ahead of time to avoid discouraging yourself the day of.

Tip #5: Celebrate the first step

What makes a hard task a little easier?

Looking forward to celebrating it being done!

Get something to reward yourself with after you start your side hustle successfully. A nice reward can help you push through and finish what you started.

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Unique side hustles

Well, as always there are some very unique side hustles that stand out from the common side hustles. And by unique side hustles we mean side activities that are very unique and smart, most of the times require minimal effort and time and they are very different from a standard full time job.

Below we are sharing a list of unique side hustles that you could start today and make money on the side!

  1. Creating covers for videos
  2. Creating intros for podcasts
  3. Helping podcasters create a newsletter
  4. Help companies translate their blogs easily
  5. Help influencers create a website
  6. Help influencers select which products to promote

The list above share some unique side hustles that you could do to earn extra money on the side

Conclusion

If you want to start a side hustle, the best way to do it is to find an idea, validate it, and make up your mind to just begin.

It’s not easy to start a side hustle, but with a little bit of preparation and a dose of determination, you can get some momentum going and take your first step today!

About the Contributor

Veselin Mladenov is the Content Manager of ThriveMyWay. He has more than 10 years of experience in the field of corporate marketing and sales, and decided to pursue his passion - digital marketing and content creation.

LinkedIn: Veselin Mladenov

Twitter: @VeselinMladeno6