Do you need a Side Hustle?
Do you need additional income? Many businesses have periods of time when they are less busy – it might be the summer break, or over winter, or they may just have peak times of the year when they are super busy.
You also may just not be making enough money from your business, and thinking that taking on a “side hustle” might be the solution, and having lived (and survived) through the pandemic, you may be keen to ensure you are not so exposed in the event of future lockdowns.
One of the attractions is “making money whilst you sleep” – or passive income that doesn’t require effort at that time to generate the income. There is nothing quite like waking up to a few notifications from the bank that money has been deposited!
So let’s look at some options.. including thoughts on generating more revenue from your main business.
I’ll deal with one option first – the Side Hustle. And by that I mean something that is not related to your business in any way.
A side hustle is commonly a hobby which you extend to make money – Photography? Floristry? Making Jewellery? Art? Something you enjoy doing – which isn’t your “day job” but you can make some money from it. Usually this is good as it doesn’t feel like “work” and you can make some money – but probably not £thousands. Bear in mind Denise Duffield-Thomas (Get Rich Lucky Bitch) and make sure you are using your time wisely and you don’t get carried away. Use your weekly plan.
The other way is – usually – Network Marketing – so becoming a partner for an organisation such as Utility Warehouse, or Forever Living or… (there are loads). It’s certainly a way of generating income – but it can be quite time consuming to build up the business – and with most you will get recurring income that comes with little or no effort.
You can make money while you sleep with both of these options – but also consider how you might do this with your main business – and that’s really what I want to talk about today!
Essentially – what can you spend time creating now that you then sell online – thus making money several times by selling to many customers, and without being present at the time. This could also allow you to make more money and work less – maybe take time to travel, or Fridays off or whatever you want to do!
Simple things to try are short video courses or ebooks. You have expertise which others don’t have. You can deliver that expertise to them to enable them to do (some of what) you do – at a price affordable to them – but you can also withhold some of the “secret sauce” to encourage them to come to you for the complicated stuff.
Create your own Video
Videos can be easily created and you don’t even always have to appear on screen if you don’t want to – you could just record a voice over – and show how to do things on the video. And there are even free tools to help you do that! Screencast-o-matic will do it, or Loom or Zoom.
You can edit yourself to add closed captions, and start / end stills – and even music stings if you wish – or pay someone else to do that for you to make it more professional.
The price point for these can be quite low if you prefer – and you can even use them as lead magnets – to get people to come to you.
What wisdom can you impart? Yes – YOU HAVE WISDOM!
Each and every one of you knows things I don’t know. And that 99% of the population don’t know. And some of that 99% need to know. And some of THEM will be prepared to sit down and learn!
(It is also worth mentioning here you could also do this related to your hobby)
And it doesn’t need to stop there – that content can be repurposed as an ebook! Which you can self-publish.
I am not a huge fan of “bigger” books being self-published – but short guides for e.g. £4.99 can be done using word and canva and popped onto Amazon.
There are other options such as subscription services (we talked about them a while back). Almost anything can be sold as a subscription now – the only limit is your imagination. What would people pay monthly for in your business?
So – have a think about 1) whether you want the security of additional income and 2) if you want to create that within your business or via another route.
If you would like to discuss further then please do Get in touch.