How To Turn Your Side Hustle Into A Six-Figure Business

You have to admit job security isn’t a thing now. And More than the world, America has seen recessions like no other country.

Also, people aren’t really happy with their day-job. There is just too much dissatisfaction and lack of fulfilment from the corporate job an average American do.

There is a feeling of disfranchisement from the work they do. Also, financial security, capitalism, inflation and urbanisation are the factors that work as catalysts in this.

Side-hustle comes as a saviour for all that problems but also brings their own set to the table as well.

Side-hustle plays a game-changer role in transitioning from a day job to entrepreneurship, if not just extra income for financial security.

There are just too many reasons to have a side-hustle but then very few to turn it into a six-figure business.

All you need is the right guidance to go through this lane patiently.

Whether you are on your way to start a side-hustle or thinking to turn it into a potential business, or even both, this guide will help you.

But first, let’s understand one or two things about side-hustle.

Here are some of the important insights you need to understand this landscape :

39% of Americans are predicted to be pursuing multiple income streams in upcoming years, making it a norm.
45% of Americans are currently pursuing side hustles where 63% of them were those who had at least one in their career span.
People who are working over 12 hours a week earn over $1, 222 per month.
27% of side hustlers seem to be more passionate about their hustles as compared to their primary careers or jobs.
Blogging and freelancing are the two most popular side hustles.
76% of side hustlers really love their side hustles but only half of them like their primary job or career.

Source: Side Hustle Nation

What Is A Side Hustle?

You must have wondered about what if you can make some extra money on the side with your existing full-time job.

Well, that very much is called a side-hustle.

It is earning the side-income which you earn alongside your current job. But there is more in the context you came herewith.

A side hustle is a more practical step for wannabe entrepreneurs to pursue their passion and work towards building a sustainable business without taking risks.

In fact, you get to financially support your full-time income but not without enormous time, dedication, and hard work.

Best Side Hustle Ideas For Building Six-Figure Business

top side hustle ideas to build big business

Freelance Consultation

Consultation is one of the easiest transitions to make from a side hustle to a well-established business.

Interestingly, you can even leverage either your existing professional skills or improve by side hustling along the way.

This skill can get you started in the freelance consultation as a side hustle where you use your knowledge or expertise to guide others.

You can consult after your full-day job using probably the same professional skills to build a business eventually.

It will supplement your income for the time being until it fully grown to the sustainable business model.

Since this is a service you’re offering, not a product, you will start earning money much faster.

In fact, you’re just one client away from your first gig. You just have to have patience and approach depending upon your level of expertise, experience, and market.

Ad Specialist

If you are very well aware of social media and internet marketing, you would know that paid advertising is the backbone of online business.

Every business need paid ads to reach their target audience, so there is a huge demand.

So what you can do is start learning and building expertise in one ad platform such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads.

You can start with the online courses for the certification. Either go for an online internship or start approaching low-profile clients.

And, further down the line, you can expand, add more skills and start a digital marketing agency specialized in ads.

Online Tutoring

This is more on the academic and teaching line of business if you see yourself enjoying it over time.

If you have a strong suit in subjects like English, Maths, Physics, or any other academic subjects, you can open an online tutoring business.

This can begin from humble beginnings as teaching a subject at available educational platforms where you can get students easily.

You can most certainly earn a few hundred dollars to add to your full-time job. And then expand to a full-time online business.

There are tutors who are making over $60-$80 an hour on in-person online classes at a certain level.

Blogging

Blogging is amongst the most obvious stretches you find when it comes to internet entrepreneurship.

However, the reluctance and rate of failure to start blogging are quite evident. The reason being a lack of patience, approach, and the learning curve.

You might not see it as a side hustle since you won’t start earning from right at the beginning.

In fact, it can very well take 6 months to 1 year to see any money coming your way.

But, if you are passionate about a subject or have expertise in it, and also have the appetite for writing well, you can build something huge.

Just start with a narrow niche in which you hold some interest or experience and also some knowledge.

Tip: Do not select this option if you want to just earn a side income. Choose only if you want to build a sustainable six-figure business that you can start now.

Image Source: Side Hustle Nation

Advantages Of Having A Side Hustle

Earning Extra Income

The best and most instant advantage of running a side hustle is earning extra income apart from your full-time job.

Earning outside from your salary and having more to cover your monthly expenses or maybe to buy some luxuries for yourself is the attractive part of this.

The extra income can also be saving for your life to have some financial security in challenging times. Also, it is also a smarter financial decision to not put all eggs into one basket.

Developing A New Skill

Surely, side hustles, you do with a skill or industry you have some experience in or have a sound knowledge about.

But developing a new skill can also come from actually doing it in the field. Start slow with your new skill as a side hustle, and improve in it.

It is certainly the most profitable way to learn or develop a skill. Not to forget better to gain some practical experience to improve your learning tenfold.

Follow Your Passion

Most people prefer to start something of their own which they have the ultimate passion for, even if they are their dream desk job.

One always aspires to pursue their passion and start a profitable business out of it where they don’t have to work for someone else.

Having a side hustle is ultimately the only first right step towards making this dream true in a more sustainable and practical manner.

Improving Your Overall Financial Situation

One of the most powerful benefits of having a side hustle is improving the overall financial condition.

A lot of people even save money for their financial independence and security for the future. Over time, you can increase the financial capacity of your livelihood.

In fact, 70% of the side-hustlers, financial freedom is the primary reason or motivation to do so.

Entrepreneurship Independence

With a side hustle, you start to gain some level of experience in entrepreneurship independence.

You will learn to deal with clients and get to know your industry. It will also help you learn self-accountability and management skills that you will require to run a full-time business.

How To Turn Your Side Hustle Into A Six-Figure Business?

steps turn side hustle into big business

Set Your Mindset

You have to think big when it comes to starting your entrepreneurial journey. Mindset determines how you think towards your goal.

It is one of the differentiating qualities of the most successful people around the world. So you need to adjust your mindset as an entrepreneur.

And, what does that mean?

Well, you need to invest in resources, believing in your goals and think of the long-term journey rather than short-term winnings.

It also boils down to how you position yourself in the market. Even before, you need to determine your self-worth.

A business mindset advocates one to brand themselves well and sell their services as per their quality of work.

Adjusting your mindset brings a change in everything you do or create. So that will show up in your profile, your website, and in your work as well.

Going For What You Know And Like

So where you even start from whether you are already doing your side hustle or even thinking over it.

The best approach is to go for what you already know and like. Think about something you are passionate about and already know to some extent.

Image Source: Medium

If you are already passionate about something you are an expert in, that’s the best-case scenario.

Figuring this out can be a bit of work to do. It is very important to choose the right type of side hustle.

Well, there are some questions you can ask yourself to make it more assured

What is something that drives you and excites you in life?
Where do you spend most of your time?
What kind of work has brought you the most success?
What subjects do you feel confident in?
For What topics people prefer to take your advice?

You need to figure out what product or service you would like to offer to people. It is essential to crafting your product and service around problem-solving.

There is a lot of work going on with your services or product, so you have to be passionate enough to give it you’re all.

Pro Tip: It is recommended to offer a service rather than to create a product because it can be more consuming and expensive as well.

Be Specialized

Specialization is what differentiates a successful six-figure earning business person from a side hustler.

You surely have to start somewhere, and side hustles the gigs you get alongside your full-time work.

However, it’s your choice to pick a specialty as soon as possible. So, as early as you do, the better and sooner you will be on your way to building a successful business.

Most of the side hustlers do not get to full-time freelancing business or most of the time to a six-figure business if they do not choose a specialty or they do very late.

So how do you pick your specialty?

You can look at your current business or the product/service you want to go for.

First look at what niche/area really interests you, or you feel compelled for?
Even better if or whether you are already making profits in a certain area
See what kind of products are really working?
Which kind of customers is enjoying your services?

Once you know who is your customer and what particular product or services works the best for them, you can go for it.

For Example

If your side hustle is graphic designing, you must be doing all sorts of works for all kinds of customers.

These can be book cover designs, logo designs, poster designs, social media graphics, and so on. And these services could be for students, media professionals, authors, small businesses, etc.

But you will notice that a certain kind of work and a certain kind of customers are paying you more than others, and are more profitable as well.

Well, that might just have the potential to take it as a specialty, and only or slowly shift your focus on that area.

So maybe, working on logo designs for small business owners give you maximum profit in less time, or maybe easy to acquire.

Putting A Price On Your Time

The primary reason for the struggle of side hustlers is not knowing the value of their time.

Not just that, they don’t know how to position their value system in terms of time.

It is about valuing your own work, not giving out free work, and settling down on your already low-proposed prices.

For example: If there is a client offering you $500 for a project and want immediate submission where on other hand, you are negotiating with a client over $10,000 of a deal.

In this situation, you have to set boundaries with the $400 client and inform your available hours..

On other hand, the $10,000 project is surely worth your time more than the other. You cannot afford to lose this opportunity, so you make it the priority.

That’s a business approach whereas most of the side hustlers make the mistake to give priority to the $400 and overcompensate their time there.

Focus More On What Works

This is more on the lines of choosing a specialty, however, this strategy goes much deeper in your business decisions.

A good entrepreneur is always testing, learning, and adapting. And that’s how you grow, survive, and thrive against your competitors.

The plan fails and things go south all the time in the business world, the real game is to stand tall and adapt accordingly.

So always try to experiment with things, see what’s working, and then focus primarily on that.

The main goal with starting a business is finding the things that work to push the brand towards the next bigger goal or milestone.

When you are starting out as a side hustler, focus on picking up the customer acquisition channel with high conversion.

See what kind of projects are gaining momentum, what kind of clients are paying good, and what strategies are benefiting your business. And then, double down on it.

Similarly, reduce the strategies or the steps working the least or not working at all, if it is quite evident to you.

Implementing Strategies, Management & Automation

The transition of a side hustle to a successful business takes a lot of management, implementations, and automation.

It’s not just about hustling, and all the hard work but the smart work.

It is about creating this well-oiled machinery or system where everything plays its part in order and given time with utmost efficiency and automation.

You will keep doing small changes and alterations to keep the system increase its efficiency.

Outsource or automate all the repetitive, administrative, and clerical tasks. Adopt new strategies to meet your goals.

You have to be aware enough to see what your business demands at a time. At a point, it will demand automation, and then, at some point, it will demand expansion.

Understanding that time is the most valuable asset a business owner has is crucial.

Once you start treating time as a currency, you will know what changes your business demands at a particular time.

Hire Only When Required

A lot of side hustlers or even startup owners start hiring people in the anticipation of the demand which is a grave mistake to make.

Hiring should be the response to the demand, not the first step for the anticipation of demand.

In case you are a service-based business, you will always get time to hire the right people for the project as there is always a process to go through.

There is a period when you are onboarding with the project, and you know the client has landed, then you can go ahead with the hiring.

This period also helps you build a relationship with the client as well as your potential candidates.

Tips For Turning Your Side-Hustle Into Business

Don’t Crush you are Into Full-Time Job

Side-hustles are quite fulfilling and fun to involve with. You must feel very complete in pursuing your side-hustle without hampering your financial freedom.

And since there is no constraint or restriction on your side-hustle, it can really be tempting to go all in.

You might dwell on the thought all the time as well. But it’s not the right way to approach your side-hustle.

This is certainly going to hamper your day job and increase the chances of failure of the escalation of your side-hustle as well.

You cannot afford to lose your day job, or the full-time income when you are trying to scale your side-hustle.

Most people make this mistake of prioritizing their side-hustle over their full-time job.

You have to understand in order to succeed in your side-hustle, you need to be excellent in your full-time job.

Never Go For A Side-Hustle Debt

It is true that every business needs investment before it starts pumping money out. So for you, it only makes sense to put money on your side-hustle to grow into a business.

You might be even thinking that lack of investment in your side-hustle could be one of its reason for not growing into a full-fledged business.

But that’s not essentially true!

A lot of small businesses or startup fails because they never gain profit over a course of time, especially to comfort the investment they were making.

So how to avoid it?

Well, first understand, that you do not need funding or the best you can do is fund your business through saving, if too much necessary.

Focus on providing the services or products which you can create with the resources you already have.

Build your worth and credibility in the market before asking for funding.

Going for the debt on your current side-hustle is not a smart financial move. Also, it can hamper your career as well.

Start Small

“Think Big, Start Small” is most certainly the best advice a side-hustler can get to build a business out of it.

A lot of people do think big but they are impatient about the process. Thinking big doesn’t mean you have to act big, to begin with.

Initially, don’t think of something that consumes you too much or too ambitious to make your first step towards it.

Paul Graham, Silicon Valley Investor said “ Don’t build things that scale”.

You have to be love in with the idea of starting something so small and intimate to you, that you enjoy it in real-time, not in the anticipation of its success.

Remember, the early days are about exploring, learning, and failing as well. Finding out what works for you, and what doesn’t.

Being small gives you the luxury to fail, so you can learn and grow. Small steps lead to bigger goals.

So don’t get overwhelmed with the big ideas. It can make you procrastinate or never start in the first place.

Optimize Your Time

Since you are giving away your time at both ends, it does become quite a hassle, and affect either or both, career and side-hustle part of your life.

So you need to be more careful with the limited time you have. Time is literally money for you or sanity, at least.

Find new ways to optimize your time, so you don’t waste it. Layout your work plan ahead of time, and work systematically.

You need to prioritize what brings you the maximum result and what tasks have the least impact on your growth.

Automation can be a great way to optimize time, and focus on things that bring you the most of the results.

Create discipline and time-boundaries for your project in order to complete them on time without any hassle or confusion.