The Novice's Guide To Side-Hustles

I don’t know about you but in my view, work culture seems to have taken a 360- degree turn since the time I got into the workforce in 2012. For years before that, I saw people stay in the same job for years.

They often left their comfort zones and hometowns to immigrate to new cities and countries in search of that one perfect opportunity — in which they then stayed all the way till retirement. Say for my father and many other relatives who stayed in the same job for more than 20 years.

Nothing wrong with that however the times have changed since then. In recent times people have started changing jobs more frequently owing to COVID more and more people, as well as, companies are looking for gig workers and contractors.

A lot more people are open to calculated risks and we have fewer people judging us about the same.

While additional income is a good reason, side hustles also work as an experiment of sorts before one takes the plunge of leaving a full-time career behind.

According to entrepreneurs Meagan Francis and Dave Krock’s LifeWork podcast, the reason side hustles work is that “When you try to enter a new business venture and you’re sweaty about it — ‘I gotta make this work! I gotta make this work!’ — there’s something lost there.

Before taking the plunge into side hustles here are some pointers which helped me through the course of it.

We all need a mentor in our lives to excel and do better. A good advice in terms of side hustles can also go a long way. Find someone who has aced it many times if not personally you can find people online on Youtube, Twitter who have been able to make money of side hustles and are pretty good at it.

Each one of us has skills and we are good in something or the other. Why don’t you start utilizing them and contributing towards it. For example I have been a coder all my life and can build websites for people you can take up small freelance projects from your friend circle and start charging them, say if you are good in writing you can pick up small writing gigs. Start with something you know you can execute well.

Choose work wisely, don’t jump on the bandwagon to take on more and more work that is not worth your time and effort. For instance I had taken up sales job for selling courses but i really did not learn much from it over the time i did it and didn’t enjoy the work much, so it's important you enjoy it and able to earn some money of it.

With a full-time job, house-work, and much more, pick your side hustles carefully so that you can manage them with your time. Limit your assignments and draw boundaries.

You need to know YOUR why? for it to be worthwhile.

You will need to sacrifice your time and energy for taking up side hustles in addition to your full-time job.

It’s important to understand why you are doing it so that if the reward or the income goes away you need to understand why you took it in the first place.

Consider choosing things you would enjoy and have a good return on investment. Investment in terms of time and money.