Steps To Turn Your Side Hustle To a Full-Time Gig

Many of us are stuck in corporate life, those long hours of mundane work over and over again each day. But have you thought how profitable it would be if you are able to expand the hard work you apply in the side hustle into some real business deal?

How To Turn Your Side Hustle To a Full-Time Gig

It is possible that you might have an idea in mind, but don’t know how to bring it to reality. While it may seem difficult, it is not at all impossible. And with the help of some steps and proper planning, you can get more to life than just being a corporate slave, day-in, and day-out. So what are the steps to turn your side hustle to a full-time gig?

1. Start with a prototype

If you want your idea to be validated, building a prototype, and test it with a few bunch of people. This will help you gain clarity that your idea will bring you business or not.

• If you are opting for services like digital marketing, consulting, or cloud-based services as a full-time business. Try to start small and gain reviews and feedback about whatever initial work you do. Then fine-tune your prototype by spotting errors and loopholes.
• If you are trying to opt for manufacturing and providing products, start first by selling to fewer people before you actually enter the market. Gather the responses and make amendments accordingly.

2. Do your research

Do you know that the main reasons for the failure of startups is lack of product-market fit? You need to make sure that there is enough demand for the product/service you are going to provide, in the market.

• This includes doing detailed market research, which all segments of customers need your product the most. And how will it make their lives better?
• If yours is an online business, then consider how much costs you will have to incur in time, design services, and how you can bring more traffic to your website.

3. Have your finances covered

Apart from the product-market fit factor, another issue which startups fail is Finance problems. To be safe, it is best to do some pre-planning and have a certain amount of emergency money in case things go downhill.

Save money from your primary job. Aim for enough savings to cover two to four-month of expenses, including savings for expansion of your side hustle. Know where to spend money and where not to. This way, fluctuation in your income will not affect the profit of the business when you turn it into a full-time gig.

4. Have people to help you

All this looks like a solitary job in the beginning, but in reality, it is too much for a single person’s work. It is vital to have like-minded people, with whom you can discuss your dreams, aspirations, and plans and create valuable relationships.

• Take on from the experiences and learn from the mistakes of others. Take advantage of the people who want to see you succeed.
• Be in talk with subject matter experts, like people who are experts in IT field, financial advisors, and renowned marketers. You will be surprised by the amount of strength you can derive from unity.

5. Develop a business plan

If you are serious about taking the jump and live an entrepreneurial life, it is important to take time to sit down, strategize and plan about what your business will look like, how will you start and what milestones will you cover.

The milestones include how much market or client base you will cover in the first few months, how much expenses will you put in which department, and what all resources will you need. It is important to develop a business plan so that you know the realities of the process.

6. Know the risks

A business has to address many factors you can’t control. For example, newly announced moves like the GDPR (Global Data Protection Regulation) act, or Demonetization would have vast impact on your business. So it is important to consider each and every risk and comply with each and every guideline that might be applicable to your business. Your business should have ways to adapt to unforeseen changes that might happen in the future.

Also, keep your ideas patented or copyrighted. An idea is worth a million pounds, so keep it safe so that only you can derive the fruits of your hard work.

6. Be committed and consistent

Turning your side hustle into a full time gig will not happen overnight, there will be days you will uncover the weaknesses and strengths of your plan.

• It is important to improve the systems you once had put in place. This includes addressing tech problems, legal problems, and operations problems and try to solve them by adding or subtracting resources from your business plan.
• Put a considerable amount of your time into the development of your business. At first, for realizing your dream, you will have to be ready to play many roles like HR, salesperson, finance officer. It can be overwhelming, but it is good to break your work into small chunks and complete them one by one.

Patience is Virtue…

As said earlier, converting your side hobby to a potential business will take in a lot of effort. But with little planning as well as practical knowledge, it is possible. It is important to remember that good thing take time. Who knows you might be the next entrepreneur of the year. For this, it is definitely worth it to give a chance to your passion.

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