From Side-Hustle to Main-Hustle

Can your side hustle become a fully-fledged business? I recently asked a group I was talking to, probably about 60 people, how many of them have side hustles. A side hustle usually refers to a business people run while concurrently doing something else. The something else in many cases is a full-time job where you operate your side hustle after working hours and on weekends. Yeah, that’s what all employers would like to believe. Most probably you sneak in a few logistical phone calls, emails, meetings etc. on your employer’s dime and time. The something else could be that you are in university or a stay-at-home parent. Over half of the people in the group that I was speaking to had a side hustle. For some of them, the intention was for the side hustle to remain as is; something that gives you a little bit of income (on the side). However some of them helped me coin the title of this article. They wanted the side hustle to become their main hustle (Click to Tweet this thought). That is, to move from just generating some extra income to actually becoming their main source of bread and butter and main use of their time. Many people have done this. One of them is Rosemary.

Rosemary is now operating her own travel agency and working in it full time. Until six months ago, she was a relationship manager in a bank. Rosemary was actually very good at her job specifically because of her natural relationship-building abilities. She is one of those people who simply like being around others. Her side hustle started by planning the annual holiday for her family. Every year, the extended family would travel to different locations around the December period. I think you can agree that someone who can put five nuclear families together, get them to agree on location, book flights or transport for all of them, get them to pay and finally get them to the destination, all without going crazy, must have a gift. She consequently started doing this for friends and colleagues until the time came when she decided to make this her main hustle. So how did Rosemary know that it was time to make this transition? How do you get to do the same thing with yours? Here are some insights Rosemary gave me.

     1. Many people are waiting for their side business to be able to earn them the same amount of money as their current job. This doesn’t happen, and you will really wait. Think about it, at the moment you spend a lot more time at your job. Your business needs just as much time to be able to have any chance of making you the same money. But just like Rosemary did, you don’t have to do this blindly. What you need to try and do is to get to that point where you can tell that it is your time that the business now needs, in order to take it to the next level.

     2. Rosemary did not quit her job because she did a fantastic job for her relatives. She left when she started getting people paying her to do the planning for them. This gave her reason to believe that it could actually work. As the demand for her service through these networks increased she realized that she could not do a good job for her potential clients if she did not dedicate herself to it. And if she did try to, it would compromise her performance at work. It became clear that it was one or the other. She did not however, wait to get enough clients to pay her the same amount of money she was earning. She also started noticing that her mind was now usually caught up thinking about her side hustle. It now became the thing that was giving her sleepless nights. It is what she now noticed information about. In essence she definitely became more passionate about this and she yearned to be able to express that fully. It simply started disturbing her that she was not able to spend more time on this.

     3. If you are serious about this becoming your main economic activity, make a commitment to it. Not just a mental commitment, but an actual step that makes you believe that this is not just going to remain a side hustle and is something emphasizing that you are going to take this seriously (Click to Tweet this). For Rosemary, even before she left her full time job, she hired someone. In other words she had her own employee. Steps like this change how you think about your side hustle. First, it made sense. While she was at work, someone could start responding to emails and phone calls, collect cheques from clients, work on the registration of the business, open bank accounts etc. But it also made her start really thinking about this as a business. It had to pay someone a basic salary and running-around expenses. It’s like the transitioning between wanting a child and actually having a child in the house. You think differently, arrange your time and priorities differently etc. Rosemary no longer had the luxury of her side hustle generating income as and when. She now had to be purposeful about it. Others have gone through this motion by setting up an office – even a small one.

     4. Lastly, don’t wait to not feel scared (Click to Tweet this thought). Even if all boxes are checked, you will feel scared. There are no guarantees. But there are also no guarantees that it will not work. Rosemary told me that she just asked herself; despite the fear, what would she regret more? Not doing it and staying comfortable but never knowing what could have been. Or taking the leap, being quite uncomfortable, possibly going to stumble along the way but getting to actually discover what she can do with this gift and passion of hers. It was definitely the latter. Maybe it’s your time for the main hustle to make its appearance.

To learn more about Entrepreneurship i.e. business opportunities, marketing your business, raising capital, accounting in business, creating structures in business, taxation and much more, click here to learn more about the Centonomy Entrepreneur Training program.

Waceke Nduati-Omanga runs programs on Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance Management, and Career Success. 

Find her at waceken@centonomy.com| twitter @CekeNduati| Facebook /CekeNduati