Here in the greatest city in the world, we are all working our tail-ends off to earn enough to pay the rent on our overpriced apartments and have a little extra to go out to a nice dinner and see our friends more than once every six months.
If you ask your coworkers around the office, at least your millennial co-workers, you’ll find that many of them have a side hustle.
The side hustle was created long ago in the form of working a day job plus waitressing or dog walking on the side. This practice has now been perfected by millennials in the digital age.
In this way, we are able to work a job 9-to-5 that we don’t necessarily love that pays the bills while growing an online business or presence where we can generate income with the hope that one day we can quit our day jobs with health benefits to run our side hustle full-time.
If you don’t yet have a side hustle, think about what’s most important to you: a hobby, a skill, a group. Then think of ways you can market yourself or your abilities in that field in a way that would encourage other people to turn to you for advice or products associated with it.
However, if you already have a side hustle, you know how hard it is to keep up appearances at your day job while running the show with your side hustle at the same time.
Let’s make it easier for ourselves!
Organize, Organize, Organize!
You have a cell phone. It’s not a question, it’s a fact.
On your cell phone, you have a probably gently used calendar app, maybe even a task app.
Take an hour one night before hitting the pillow to peruse the features that these apps offer you.
To successfully run your day job and your side hustle at once, you absolutely must be organized. You need to have everything ready for your day-to-day, know what proposal is due when and what social media post has to go live at 3 pm.
Dedicate Time
As tempting as it may be to use your day job work hours to plan your side hustle, you really shouldn’t.
First, check in with your IT department and make sure that any personal emails you open on your work computer are not now “owned“ by your company, because that would be a huge damper on your whole plan.
Secondly, it’s just not cool to be working on something else on the job.
Instead, take two hours for yourself each day to dedicate to your side hustle. If you’re an early riser, get those hours in before work, and if you’re a night owl, throw them in at night after dinner.
You’ll actually find that you get more work done each night on your side hustle because you’re condensing the timeframe to get it all done.
Persistence is Key
Look at the company that pays your bills each day. Even if they’re a startup themselves, they probably didn’t get where they are today overnight.
Even if they started out as someone’s side hustle, developing a business plan, executing it effectively, building networking relationships, and actually seeing a profit on your investments into the new company takes a ton of time.
Be patient. Don’t dump the whole project after your first or second setback. Keep networking, keep learning and stay at the forefront of your new industry. Allow time to follow its course in aiding you into a new era of side hustle.
Love What You’re Doing
Make sure you love your side hustle. Use it as an outlet for your creative juices when your day job becomes rudimentary and boring.
If you don’t love your side hustle, and it ends up developing into a true company with people who are majorly interested in investing in your product or your expertise, will you really want to keep working at it?
It really is true – if you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Image credit: [pixabay]
