Working While Working – The Ongoing Rise of the Side Hustle

A side hustle or side job is a product sold or service offered that becomes another income stream on top of your full time job. It can offer increased flexibility and the chance to pursue what you’re interested in, a chance to delve into fashion, travel, or whatever it is you care about the most, without quitting your day job.

Some side gigs have become major success stories, with hustlers growing gigs into fully-fledged businesses that have become their major source of income. In some cases, they’ve built high profile companies with global reach, large workforces and impressive profits.

An estimated one in four working Australians have a side hustle and the jobs are as inventive as the hustlers. Some examples include a lawyer re-selling luxury handbags, a corporate communications manager writing wedding speeches and a PR account manager selling homemade bath salts.

IT professionals are some of the best placed employees to reap the benefits of the burgeoning side hustle economy with increased ease of internet access and demand for online services and products.

IT side hustles are some of the most popular and lucrative. If you have a passion or interest, something IT based or something personal, you could do a number of things to earn extra money – develop web sites or apps from home, install software, remove malware or offer general troubleshooting services. Many of these gigs can all be done remotely and in your own time.

If you’re articulate, patient and able to impart your IT specialist knowledge you could try tutoring or teaching online. Digital Marketing subjects such as SEO, SEM, email Marketing, Web Analytics and Mobile Advertising have high demand for tutors and good tutors can make $50 an hour.

Or instead of tutoring, you can also try your hand earning residual income by teaching a course online. Udemy is a great way to teach a class on anything you are an expert in. They have strict criteria for their classes, but they have helpful and free resources to teach you how to develop an exceptional on- line course.  Teachers on Udemy can make $1,000 or more per month.

At General Assembly  you can teach in person in a one off class or workshop or lead multi-week course in the evenings or weekends.

Content creation is also very high in demand. Whether it be writing, graphics or video, social video marketing or influencer marketing the demand for quality online content has never been greater. Browse tasks Airtasker and Fiverr and get inspired and creative as what you can offer.

Other side jobs are as diverse as designing surfboards, being a wedding celebrant and online English teaching.  The success of the side hustle is in utilising additional skills that are unused at the fulltime job and getting creative within your niche.

So how do you get started?

Side Hustling, unlike its older, shadowy friend moonlighting, works along side your main job and can in fact improve performance at your current full time job, spur creative thinking and encourage a business/entrepreneurial ethos at work. Conversely, moonlighting is typically a secret job in addition to your 9-5 and is in direct competition with it.

Herein lies the success of the side hustle. Side hustles prosper when your main source of income is respected and the side hustle serves as a supplement to your main job for a bit of extra cash, a creative outlet or for the joy of it.

Super successful side hustler Tory Johnson founder of Spark and Hustle suggests using life motivations such as helping a family member or saving up for something really special to drive passion for the side hustle rather than just dollars in the bank.

“Understanding motivation makes it easier to keep going during tough times,” she says.

Often side jobs start off organically. A passion or skill noticed by others can end up being a commodity and the joy of tapping into a dormant passion or skill is matched by the freedom and flexibility offered by the hustle. “It has be something that comes naturally that you love otherwise it’s just another job with finite opportunity and prospects,” she adds.

So be creative. Some of the most successful side hustles were unheard of only a few years ago, such as Millennial Generation Expert, UX Designer, Social Media Listening Expert, Global Mobility Consultant (relocations expert). If you see a gap in the market now’s the time to fill it and own it.

Know your goals, skills set and time scale.

Compile of list of your current skills and business ideas and carefully deduct ideas that you know are unrealistic with your current workload. Remember, your 9-5 role should never be compromised.

Marketplace sites that engage services and goods providers with a strong, active market include Airtasker, Freelancer, Fiverr and Upwork. These platforms are growing in number every day.

Make sure the gig brings in income rather than draining your finances and your time. Pick one and not many.

Let your manager know. You should be proud of your side hustle, as it should help you perform better at work. Let them know what skills you are honing, recent successes, learnings, setbacks along the way and identifying opportunities.

NEXT ARTICLE

Jobs in Demand for 2017

With technology changing everything we do, it’s no wonder the job market is not wh...

Read More