Forget Orange, side hustle is the new black. Everybody has one or wants one and to be honest who wouldn’t?
Seriously, not only does it give you another source of income but it also allows you to be as creative as you might not get a chance to be in your everyday 9-5.
You’re basically your own boss and have complete control of when you work and what you will create.
It’s the epitome of #living but when you still have to work your day job, it can be difficult to balance the two especially when you need to make your side hustle boom.
If any of these resonate with you, then worry no more. I have some secrets to making life a little easier when juggling your 9-5 and your 5-9.
PLAN AHEAD
Have you ever heard of planning before you plan? because it’s what you need to do to make sure you’re successful.
Confusing, eh? Let me explain.
Most people will, at the most, write down the things they need to do, not factoring in their availability. When you’re working your side hustle, you have to be aware of every little minute of free time.
How many hours do you have free?
Write out your schedule starting with the time you usually wake in the morning until your typical bedtime.
If you wake at 7:00 AM to workout, 7:45 AM to mediate, 8:00 AM to shower, and 9:00 AM to leave home, then write it down.
Write everything you do and review the list to see how you can rearrange and adjust to work in your side gig.
Put a star next to the important, non-negotiable activities and work around those.
I have used both Todoist and Wunderlist to schedule my daily activities. These apps work wonders with keeping me organized.
Pair that with Sunrise Calendar or Google Calendars and you have your own personal assistant. Not really but ya know, close enough.
For serious side hustlers, think about talking to your manager about working half days, getting off early, or shorting your work week.
If that’s not possible, look into using some of your time off.
AUTOMATE SERVICES
I can’t tell you how much time this saves especially when you’re preoccupied working at your day job. Not only will it save you time but if used right, it will increase your income.
Email Marketing
One of the main reasons to build your list, is to create connection and maintain contact with your subscribers.
Studies have shown that people need to hear from you at least 7 times before they buy anything from you. Email marketing makes this possible by automating the content you send out to your subscribers.
You can schedule things weeks or months in advance and even decide which group of people will receive certain information or offers.
This is great for a 9-5er because you can dedicate one day to creating content to send out for the entire month which is time saving and help you still in contact even when you’re truly not available.
Your job will be selecting the best email marketing provider based on your needs for subscribers, deliverability, and pricing.
There are many different options for email marketing but some of the popular options are:
Social Media Management
Another lifesaver to help you juggle your 9-5 and side gig. It’s all about taking things off your plate, to make it a lot easier for you.
Just as the email marketing, social media management does the exact same thing but through your particular social media channels.
Just as you would allocate time to creating content for your email marketing, you can also dedicate time to creating social media post.
You can schedule posting times for Pinterest or schedule time and caption for an Instagram post.
GET ORGANIZED
Woah!
This was a tough one for me because I’m use to operating in chaos (I’ve been conditioned..don’t judge me) but I knew that organization was ABSOLUTELY needed. This will work wonders for you especially with the limited time you have available.
Look into having your business in a one-stop shop. Instead of having multiple applications and programs, it can all be housed for you in one spot.
It’s totally worth it when thinking about what’s important when it comes to investing in your business.
Check out:
These all-in-one business management applications can take payments, create forms, bookkeeping, calendars, email signatures, and contracts just to name some features. Find which option is best for you and implement it.
BUILD YOUR TEAM
Lastly, but definitely not leastly.
What?! That doesn’t work?
Building your team. Having someone on your team to help assist you will allow you to focus on other areas of the business and will bring in the money.
If you have a family member or friend who can assist with daily activities, that would also lessen your load. If you don’t have that luxury or prefer not to go that route (I totally understand) then look into hiring a virtual assistant.
Look into:
You can set a budget per week or per hour and inform the assistant what you need help with. One thing that’s big for me is responding to customers such as if they need help with making or editing a payment, then someone should be able to respond very quickly.
At times, I am unable to respond due to meetings or workshops, therefore hiring an assistant to assist with these type of activities, will not only take that task off my current workload but will also ensure that customers know that they are important.
Decide what you are comfortable with delegating and locate someone to assist you with the tasks.
Now that you are equipped with what you need to make your side-hustle run smooth while you’re at you day job, I want to hear from you.