Many people have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic making life unbearable. Others have been forced to take a pay cut, as companies are also suffering. The number of entrepreneurs is rising as more people are looking for ways to survive this pandemic.
Women have been hit hard, but the wave has also come with a few lessons. Stay-at-home moms as well those who are working are looking for side hustles for women as they want to attain financial freedom and work towards attaining their dreams. However, you do not wake up one day and decide to open a business. The following are some of the steps to follow to establish your legit side hustle
Prepare for the long ride
You may have read a lot of success stories about people who started small. Hearing that an online retail giant such as Amazon was started in a garage is a good motivation. However, most people do not tell you the challenges they go through. If you are looking for a get-rich-fast scheme, then do not try this route.
Having a great product is not enough. You need to be passionate and ready to solve the needs of your customers. The side hustle will take away some hours from your precious moments, and you must be ready to sacrifice. It thus calls for discipline and being ready to create a system of positive triggers that will help you focus on your end goals.
Work on your interests and skills
When interest meets the right skills, then there is an assurance of business success. Identify something that you like to do, and you are good at and then create a business out of it. The perfect side hustle is something you are skilled at and also passionate about. For instance, you can be employed but also skilled in web design. Starting a side hustle as a consultant as long as it does conflict with your day job roles is a good idea. Create a brand that people can identify with based on your personality and skills.
You may not have a lot of time on your hands to experiment with different things. Having the necessary skills ensures that you do not struggle with balancing time between your main job and the side hustle. You have to determine the business model you will apply as there are some that you can freely operate while others require licenses.
Create a competitive advantage
There may be hundreds of other people who are doing the same business. However, this does not mean that you will not succeed. You need to make your hustle different and win over your competitors. Research on the things that have been challenging your competitors. Your competitive advantage can be different things such as customer support, pricing, strategic relationships, or even distribution network. For instance, you may start a home baking business and package your products in small bits to target a certain market.
Test your idea
Creating a product is not enough proof that people will like it. Your final goal is to sell your products to as many people as possible, but that should not be the aim at this juncture. Testing your product or idea makes it easy to gauge its demand and how it will be received. You can have giveaways or subsidize the price of your products during testing. You need to have conversations with potential clients and understand their needs, tastes, and preferences. It is from such conversations that you will understand their pain points and create products that fit their description. You can use online surveys, phone calls, create social polls, or even one-on-one conversations to gather such data. You can then modify your products until they satisfy the needs of your target market.
Work on your goals
A side hustle can be draining. You need to lay a plan and come up with tracking tools. The goals you set should be detailed, realistic, and measurable. Saying that you want to penetrate a certain market is not enough. List down the number of units you intend to sell in that market and how you plan to achieve it. Create daily, weekly and monthly goals. Learning how to manage your finances and how to be accountable will also make it easy to balance your side hustle and life. The focus will be on daily wins and to-do lists when you are beginning, while bigger milestones will come later as you get deeper into the business and learn the trade.
Understand your strengths and weaknesses
No one is perfect in this world. You may have an amazing product, but you suck at customer service. You may be the best in coding, but you do not know how to market your business. Outsourcing your customer service or marketing tasks to a skilled person will not hurt your side hustle. If you cannot handle logistics and deliveries, then outsourcing these tasks will make sense. Understanding some of the areas where you need help makes it easy to focus on your strengths. Ensure that you coordinate well with your partners to create efficiency.
Gather feedback from your customers
Failure to consider customer requests is one the easiest ways to kill your side hustle. Your first customers should indicate the things you are doing right or wrong. Your goal should not be attracting customers only but also making them stick. Look for objective external feedback as you will note areas that need improvement. Your friends and family members might not be the best bet for such feedback. You need someone ruthless with the truth as long as it grows your business. Be on the lookout for new trends in your niche.
A side hustle is meant to help you achieve your dreams while at the same time bringing that extra income. Learning how to balance your day job and the new hustle is a big challenge if you do not have a plan. Come up with strategic plans on how to overcome various challenges that characterize a new venture.
