How to Turn Your Side Hustle into a Full-Blown Business
What my story taught me on entrepreneurship, taking risks, personal development, and not letting struggles take their toll
Yes, it’s possible and if you manage to achieve this, you’ll probably turn into a really happy and fulfilled individual.
I’ve always believed that a lifetime is simply not enough to do everything you’ve ever wanted. We are often repressed by time, struggles of any sort, obstacles. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn't try to do everything that we find meaningful, developing, self-upgrading, giving purpose to our essential core and who we are.
Throughout my teenage years, I began side-hustling way before enrolling in college to study journalism. In my spare time, I loved to wrap my mind around the idea of how things worked, how they functioned. So I began coding; I saw the art of creating websites truly mesmerizing and able to fulfill my passion of creating outside of just writing words and sharing points of view.
So here I was, coding and upgrading my web development skills on a daily basis. I did this as a side thing for the next several years until one day I decided to pursue a career in web dev and to try to establish a place for myself in the professional field.
In this article, I’d love to share with you what I’ve learned in the process of jumping from a teenage boy with a love for code, to a freelance web developer, to a CEO of a web development WordPress agency. I would personally find it beneficial and useful to read other person’s point of view and experience, so I figured, maybe I could provide a story of this sort as well?
What does having a side hustle say about you, anyway?
I view side hustling as engaging in an activity that you love/you are good at (or both in the ideal version of things) in your spare time.
You can either do it for fun or you could earn money from it. It doesn’t matter if it's coding, writing, drawing, taking pictures, walking neighbors’ dogs, cooking, design, architecture, sewing socks, knitting sweaters, tutoring, etc. You get the idea. Any activity that requires action, creation, and ends in an end result of some sort count as a side hustle. Essentially, your side hustle tells much about you as a person — it shows what keeps you interested, what your strengths and skills are, how much time you are willing to spend on your behalf just to be there and do what you fancy.
So I thought:
Isn’t this the right formula for establishing a successful business endeavor? In today’s world, we are often lectured by successful entrepreneurs and businessmen who share their views on personal and professional development. Among tones of advice, we often stumble upon the following: find what makes you happy, find what makes your engine start; “if you do what you love, then you won’t have to work for a day in your life”.
Having a side hustle simply means you’ve managed to find your passion. Love for the tasks themselves is the quintessential part of establishing a successful gig.
Yet, no matter how excited and inspired I was, I struggled with many obstacles and hard times
By choosing to start with the “love of it”, I, by no means, want to persuade you it will be easy. Sure, dedication, passion, excitement, and inspiration are ingredients of crucial importance.
But surely tough times and difficulties will follow. But there’s the silver lining — if you begin facing struggles, then surely you are on the right track to establishing a business.
I’m speaking of lack of money, tiredness, exhaustion, overwhelm, crushing competition, confusion on where to start from, confusion on how to continue, shortage of time, a balance between two or three jobs, a balance between work and family, loneliness, etc. I don’t want to scare you! On the contrary — I want you to have the worst-case scenario in your head. If even then you decide to continue, surely something huge will come out of all this.
Since I love structure and listicles, here are some points for you to consider on turning your side hustle into a full-blown business
- think of your side hustle/hobby as the essential fundament of your future business;
- check with your financial status and decide between keeping a stable job for now or plunging into the unknown;
- meet entrepreneurs and businessmen in your business niche;
- monitor your competitors;
- know your target audience well;
- make sure you can provide a product or a service that your target audience needs;
- think of a business name and buy a domain;
- prepare yourself to do all the work at first;
- build a reputation for yourself in the field;
For sure this is, by no means, a full list of all the things you need to do before transitioning to a business owner, but I think the points listed above can give you a good perspective at least from the very beginning.
Let’s discuss matters more thoroughly.
Think of your side hustle/hobby as the essential fundament of your future business
Sometimes all starts with a … belief and certainty.
When side hustling, try to persuade your conscious that you are actually building the fundaments of your successful business endeavor. This attitude and approach are highly beneficial because all you do is with the thought of the future. This will help you to grow your knowledge, skills, and expertise. The saying “Fake it till you make it” could be of use here — view your endeavor from a perspective from the very beginning. This will help you to start training your mind as if you are already an entrepreneur (so you don’t miss to catch the wave when it’s there).
Check with your financial status and decide between keeping a stable job for now or plunging into the unknown
We are all well aware of the fact that taking requires giving. At the beginning of your future business plan, check with your current financial status. If you don’t have investors (like most of the cases, mine included), try researching what amount of money will you need in order to start. Talk to people, ask fellow colleagues in the field.
Decide whether you would be able to struggle financially for some time and dedicate your strengths to establishing a business or you’d prefer stability. If the latter, then I suggest you consider keeping a job for some time and continue side hustling until you have enough financial resources.
Meet entrepreneurs and businessmen in your business niche
In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to know the field from within. A good way to achieve this is by widening your social circle — include in your phonebook the contacts of people who managed to establish a business in your niche.
Talk to them, follow them on social media, monitor their social activities, go to events they go to, interact with like-minded individuals. This way you’ll surely begin to have a greater idea of what would it mean for you to be part of this business niche.
Monitor your competitors
Unless your side hustle has to do with something really innovative and unheard of, you would most probably have competitors in the business niche you belong to. A crucial step for establishing a successful business not only at the beginning but for the time being too is to monitor your competitors.
I’m into sports — I often participate in races, pentathlon being my absolute long-time favorite. Once I was interviewed by The Recursive — one of the questions had to do with the underestimation of the other participants. Let me just quote myself so you can get a better idea of my point:
Sports gives you another perspective on people that you can get only by starting at an equal start with someone and running alongside each other. They might not be better than you, but you can learn how they do it.
All this knowledge will be beneficial for your future endeavor to be adequate and truthful to its natural surroundings.
Know your target audience
Getting to know your target audience is definitely something that every marketer will persuade you to do. It’s really important for your future business. In the beginning, you will likely not have the financial capacity to hire a professional marketer. You have two options — either do it yourself or pay a professional for a one-time task.
Target audience research gives you details on your ideal client’s gender, age, occupation, marital status, hobbies, finances, interests, preferred ways of communication.
Make sure you can provide a product or a service that your target audience needs
Here’s a golden rule: make sure you offer a product or a service that your clients need, instead of trying to persuade your clients why would they need what you have for them.
I think this speaks enough for itself.
Think of a business name and buy a domain
If you think it’s way too early to engage in stuff like that, then you are wrong. Imagine having a great idea of what the name and the identity of your future business would be! And then, months later, when you want to register and buy the domain, you discover someone else has bought the one you desire last week.
No need for this extra drama.
Prepare yourself to do all the work at first
I think this one is one of the no-brainers on this list. Unless you have an investor or are in a possession of a huge personal investment, prepare yourself to work hard for many hours for God knows how long.
At some point, things will take off and you will be able to hire employers and professionals. But for now, embrace the idea of sleepless nights and grinding.
Build a reputation for yourself in the field
More often than not, the name speaks for itself. If you want to build the basics of your future successful business, make sure you build a reputation for yourself in the first place. It would be far easier to get discovered later and to persuade clients to trust you instead of thousands more entrepreneurs in the field.
Use social media, build a blog, attend events, help others in the field, provide useful information. Aim at recognisability and a word of mouth recommendations.
I sincerely hope the provided information will boost your dedication and help you to initialize a starting plan. Remember that where there is desire and dedication, success follows!
Hi, guys, I’m Ivan and I’m here to share with all of you my passion for words, great content, entrepreneurship, personal development, management, hobbies, and everything in between.
I serve as a CEO for my WordPress Development Agency @ Vipe Studio where I have the pleasure to lead a diverse, wonderful and energetic team of experts. Feel free to contact me anytime — I would love to exchange new ideas and inspire each other!
