How to start a side hustle

With your own side hustle, you’re in charge. This means you get to decide when and how you do it, as well as what you charge for your products. It’s up to you how you integrate it into your schedule.

Besides materials and potential tax payments, anything you earn through your side hustle is yours to keep, meaning you can put more to one side to save money or use it as additional funds to cover bills and subscriptions.

The flexibility of a side hustle also makes it a great opportunity to train in a new skill or hobby that interests you. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll have gained additional experience for future projects and jobs.

As a side hustle is still technically a business, setting one up is actually the perfect way to go about learning what’s required to run a company on a smaller scale thanks to its minimal risk and pressure. It’s certainly a good place to start if you’re thinking about starting your own business in the future.

You might not think it, but a side hustle can also be a great way to meet other like-minded small business owners who you can work and collaborate with to potentially pursue your side hustle full-time.

First things first, you want to be sure that you pick a side hustle that actually interests you. So, it’s a good idea to make a list of options that you like the idea of and then pick the one that excites you the most.

Once you have your hustle in mind, the next step is to work out how much time you can commit to your new project. Too little and you likely won’t make enough money to justify the time commitment, but too much and you’ll risk burning out.

You can use a business plan to outline what your hustle will do, your potential target market, how you plan to market yourself, your potential competition, and any expenses you might incur, making it far easier to see how feasible your side hustle might be.

With your plan sorted, you next want to set a target or monetary goal for your hustle. After all, you don’t want to set limited expectations on your earning potential. Do some research to see how profitable your chosen hustle could be and use this to guide your earnings goal.

While many side hustles may only provide a supplementary income, it’s still a good idea to look at the legalities of setting up a small business for tax purposes. For example, if you earn over a certain amount, you will need to register with HMRC to avoid breaking the law. So, be sure to do your research in this area before you start operating.

Finally, with all of the admin out of the way, you can actually start working on your side hustle. This means putting yourself out there on social media and spreading the word through word of mouth to find your first customers and then building a reputable brand from there For example, if you want to run a side hustle that involves sending items to customers, then it’s a great idea to set up a profile on sites like Etsy. This gives you an accessible platform to sell through (and lets you take advantage of great delivery deals by using Evri!)