The Power of Side Hustles
So one of the best decisions that I personally ever made was to start a side hustle back when I was working a 9-to-5 job. Because starting that side hustle put me in a position where I’ve now been able to travel around the world to various different amazing locations. I’ve been able to give back to my family in a number of different ways, and just generally speaking I’ve been able to live a life of pure freedom.
Smart Steps for Beginners
That’s the reason why I decided to make this article this morning where I’m going to go through the smartest steps that I personally took when it came to me starting my side hustle. So that if you’re also a beginner that’s looking to do something alongside your full-time job so that you can start earning money online, you’re going to know exactly what you can also do when it comes to putting yourself in a position where you’re going to be able to change your financial situation as well.
Exploring Side Hustle Options
But jumping straight into the first smartest step, doubt advice that you take which is to study all of the different side hustle options that are out there. Now to be completely honest this is something that I didn’t do because back when I was working my 9-to-5 job and I want to the starter side hustle there wasn’t that many options out there. There was maybe a handful of different things that you could do so I saw someone that was selling on eBay successfully, they were living the life that I wanted to live, I was also a shopper on eBay so instantly I decided to start eBay as a side hustle and of course this worked out well for me.
Researching Available Options
But the reason why I recommend people to study all of the different options that out there is because we live in a day and age right now where there’s so many different choices and because there’s so many different choices it would be ideal for you to find one that matches your skill set that matches your personality rather than you just jumping head first into the first side hustle that you found. What you should do is research all of the available options and by the way I’m not saying that you should spend a month two months 3 months when it comes to researching all of the different options all I’m saying is that you just want to give yourself a full understanding of the different options out there so that you’re going to be able to pick the best one.
Using AI for Side Hustle Ideas
And there’s so many different ways that you can do the research for example you can even go onto something like chat GPT and ask it something like this, “Can you give me a list of the top 30 sad hustles that I can start whilst working a 9-to-5 job?” and then click on send just like this and instantly it’s going to be able to come back with so many different ideas that you’re now going to be able to do further research into. And when I say further research into what I mean is to research the pros the cons you know all of the benefits the disadvantages when it comes to to any of these different ones that you want to do.
Focusing on One Side Hustle
But this now brings me on to the second smartest step that I would recommend that you take once you’ve got an understanding of all of the different options that are out there is to make sure that you just pick one side hustle. Now this is probably one of the most important things that you can do that’s going to give yourself the best chance of becoming financially free from a side hustle which is to make sure that you just pick one and the reason why I say that is because with every single online business that I’ve been successful with whenever I’ve put laser focus into that one specific side hustle that’s when things have just taken off.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
The biggest mistake that you want to avoid is to do research like this see all of these different options that are out there and say to yourself that you’re going to do 2 three 4 all at the same time. There’s people that come up to me all the time that say, “Hey Sam I want to be successful too.” I ask them what is it that they’re doing they tell me that they’re doing Drop Shipping they’re doing affiliate marketing they’re doing day trading in all at the same time even though they’re not successful with any one of them.
The Secret to Success
But the biggest secret and it’s the most obvious secret when it comes to being successful is to pour all of your energy into one specific side hustle. This is even more so true when you’re a complete beginner and you’re working a 9-5 job because your time is limited you don’t really have that much time when it comes to spreading yourself in amongst so many different things. The only time it makes sense for you to introduce a second stream of income is when you’re successful with the first one but as I said most people out there haven’t even made their first $100 in profit $500 in profit from one particular method but they’re still trying to do four or five at the same time.
Importance of Laser Focus
So if you’re going to remember anything from this video it’s the importance of having laser focus at the start of your journey so that you can increase your chances of being successful because you’re going to be able to focus on just one you’re going to be able to spot the opportunities a lot better when you’re just putting your energy into one particular side Hustle.
Creating an Action Plan
But this now brings me on to the third smartest step that you should take once you’ve made a solid decision on whatever s hustle that you’re going to move forward with is to create a action plan. So this is another mistake that I see so many people making that end up making them fail which is the fact that they decide on whatever sad hustle that they’re going to do but they don’t actually come up with an action plan in terms of the steps that they’re going to take when it comes to turning their dreams into reality.
Using Mind Maps for Goal Setting
And I got to be completely honest with you guys one of the biggest reasons why I was able to grow my side hustle so much when I was working my 9-to-5 job is because I created action plans in the form of me writing down my goals and objectives and the specific way that I did that was by creating mind maps I would say every month or so. Now the main ways that I like to create my mind maps even until now is with a standard paper and Pen sometimes I do it on the laptop and I print it out but this is definitely something that you should try even though you might think it’s not going to work but if you’ve never created a mind map like this before you should definitely try it because you’re going to see things start to fall into place.
Example of a Mind Map
And I want to quickly show you an example of exactly how it works so by the way this is just an example I’m just going to do a rough mind map similar to the ones that I did for me to achieve a certain level of success with all of my different online businesses. So in the middle over here what I would do is write down the the main goal that I’m trying to accomplish so let’s assume that I’m thinking about starting a brand new Shopify Drop Shipping Store the goal might be something like this, “I will earn $1,000 per day with a new Shopify brand” right so this is the goal that I’m trying to go after.
Setting Specific Goals and Objectives
So initially what you want to do is be super specific with the goal that you’re trying to accomplish and what you’re going to do from here is now write down the action steps or the objectives that’s going to allow you to get to this point. So in my case I would say find a winning product so that’s definitely an important action step another one might be something like build my store right so that’s definitely another important thing another action step is to find a supplier and then finally I might also want an objective of opening an ad account with Google.
Importance of Clear Action Plans
So just like that these are going to be the different action steps that I would take for me to accomplish this goal over here and of course depending on what your side hustle is depending on what type of business you’re trying to build your goal might be slightly different and your objectives are also going to be different as well. But the main point that I’m trying to make right now is that having a clear action plan for whatever side hustle you’re thinking about starting is super important when it comes to just giving you that extra likelihood of you succeeding.
Request for Goal Setting Video
And if you wanted me to make a more detailed video on goal setting objective setting because this is definitely important when it comes to making money online then put in the comments down below do the goal setting video and I’ll get onto it ASAP.
Working on Your Side Hustle Daily
But swiftly moving on to one of the next smartest steps that you need to take once you have a solid action plan and you know exactly what you need to do which is that you need to work on your side hustle every single day. So the concept of working on my online business or my side hustles every day was definitely Game Changer the more time that you’re able to put into a specific thing the more results that you’re going to see and that’s the reason why even up until now with everything that I do if I find it important I’m going to work on it every single day.
Overcoming Excuses
Now most people will come up with the excuse of, “Sam I’m working a 9-to-5 job I’m tired I just want to come back home and watch Netflix grab a bag of chips and just sit down I don’t really want to work on my side hustle,” and that’s perfectly okay but if you’re happy with living a normal life or just putting your time into someone else’s business rather than your own then that’s completely up to you. But if you’re able to come up with a solid action plan you know exactly what moves you need to make what decisions you need to make and you’re able to work on that every single day then your chances of being able to grow your side hustle beyond your belief is going to be a lot higher.
Dedication to Your Side Hustle
This is what I did anyway back when I was working my 9-to-5 job even though I was working Monday to Friday 9-to-5 and I had to wake up around 5:00 a.m. every single day and I got back home from work around 7:00 p.m. maybe 8:00 p.m. I would still work on my side hustle before I left for work I would still work on my side hustle during my lunch break I would still work on my side hustle when I got back from work and I would also work on it during the weekends as well.
Focusing on What Matters
This is definitely one of the smartest decisions that you can make because as I said The more time that you put into something the more energy that you put into something the more you’re going to get out of it but as I mentioned earlier it’s not just about doing anything and keeping yourself busy for the sake of it it’s about doing what actually matters it’s about doing what’s going to move the needle and most importantly it’s about doing what is going to bring money into your bank account.
Tracking Finances
And this actually now brings me on to the next smartest steps that you need to take once you’ve got some momentum you know you’ve started your side hustle maybe You’ started getting some sales through the door which is that you want to keep a close eye on your revenues your expenses your profits and your cash flow. This is another mist that I see so many beginners making which is that they don’t put real importance on the money that they’re making maybe because they’re bringing in a minimal amount and it’s not the money that they Envision themselves making in the future when in reality you need to remember the fact that whatever you Monitor and whatever you track can be improved.
Importance of Financial Tracking
Even if you’re only making $100 in profit every single month if you’re able to track that you’re able to look at all of the numbers all of the revenues all of the expenses just everything then you’re going to be able to make adjustments for you to improve things. This is something that I took super serious back when I was working my 9-to-5 job and I started my side hustle I made sure to have all of these different spreadsheets to show exactly how much money I was bringing in and because I was able to clearly see it it allowed me to know exactly what I needed to work on.
Understanding the Numbers
Now maybe I was able to do this a lot better because I was actually working as a financial accountant and I went to University and studied accounting and finance so it was just in me for me to understand the numbers but even if you don’t have an accounting background you don’t have an accounting degree this is something that you still need to do because you have to remember that all of the money that you’re making all of the money that you’re bringing in is the reason why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place.
Growing Your Side Hustle
You’re not starting a side hustle for funing games or just for the sake of it you’re starting a side hustle for you to bring money in for yourself and your family and even though yes it might not be life-changing money at the very start but the more you’re able to put focus into it the more you’re able to improve the numbers over time the more that money is going to grow.
Turning Side Hustle into Full-Time Business
But this actually now brings me on to the final smartest step that you need to take when it comes to starting a side hustle which is to ultimately turn your side hustle into a full-time business. So just to give you a quick background on my journey the way that it worked is that I started my side hustle working a 9-to-5 job I was able to get my Revenue to around $1,000 then eventually I was able to grow it to around $5,000 in a month and even though I was still working my 9-to-5 job ultimately I got it to the point where my Revenue was around $3,000 in a single month and most people ask me why didn’t I quit my job a lot sooner than that and that’s because things kind of took off quicker than I expected but of course once I did get to $30,000 in Revenue in a single month with my eBay business at the time that’s when I handed in my notice and I quit my job.
Treating Your Side Hustle as a Real Business
But the only reason why I was able to get my side Hustle to such an amazing amount is because I treated it like a real business I’m sure that I probably use the word side hustle in this video 100 times and I’ve probably used it in the title as well but you don’t want to have the mindset of starting a side hustle you want to have the mindset of starting a real online business because if you treat it like a real online business from day one that is exactly what you’re going to have.
Believing in Your Side Hustle
Even though people around me at the time my colleagues you know my family members whoever it was they didn’t see my eBay business as a real thing in my head I saw it as a real thing and because I saw it as a real thing within I made decisions I made Moves I took action when it came to treating it like a real business and that’s exactly what happened.