I love answering questions from side hustlers who are serious about growing their side hustles to make it their full-time business, and today I’m answering a question from Helen who asks:
What are your top one or two tips for a side hustler, i.e. what is the 1 thing that you would say we need to always do to make this our full-time business?
So my advice is going to come from the perspective of creating an online business because that’s what I’ve done. When I tell people I know that I don’t have any local clients they find it so weird, but that’s my business model!
So I’m not gonna lie, there are a lot of things you need to do to make your side hustle a full-time gig, but if I could pick just one thing that I think is going to make the most difference for you, it’s consistency.
You have to be consistent every single day by putting time into your side hustle. And that consistent time should have a plan and a purpose behind it.
I was listening to Denise Duffield Thomas’s audiobook re-release of her book Lucky B, and in it, she said something about how in her business, no matter what she’s doing, all roads lead to boot camp – which I think she’s referring to her money boot camp.
So to be consistent every single day, you have to know where you’re going right? So what is the one thing that you do that all roads should lead to? That’s the first thing to know and be solid on.
That doesn’t have to be a product right now if you’re just getting started – maybe that means all roads lead to your email list so that you can figure out what to offer for sale. That’s totally fine.
And if you don’t know that, put some consistent time into figuring that out whether it means putting together a package or hiring a coach or taking a course to help you figure it out.
Then, you build your roads that lead to the one thing – and you put consistent time into doing that.
So if the destination is an email list, you put some consistent time into building the road – which is typically blog post > freebie – and you start at the end by creating the freebie and then working backward.
After that’s built, it’s all about creating consistent content – and then every so often offering your services for sale, or getting people into a funnel or however sophisticated your system is.
So if you know where you are going, you know what roads are leading there, then you know where to spend your time, and you decide how much time you have every day to build the roads and then you show up every day, consistently, and you build the road.
What I see happen most often with people is they get off track. They don’t have a plan so when life comes and hits them in the face, it keeps them away for months. And then it’s like they are starting over every single time. You have to just keep going with intention.
There’s no magic bullet, I keep looking for it myself and not finding it so if I do find the secret formula for success I’ll let you know – so until then, show up with intention every single day and one day you’ll look at the road behind you and be amazed that you’ve come so far!
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