How to grow a side hustle while working full-time?

You want to start a side hustle, a small business on the side of your corporate job. You are a corporate employee with an entrepreneurial dream. 

When you ask Google, you get so many answers, but 99% of the sources invite you to quit your 9-5 job. You feel lost in between ideas and confused about where to start. Then read this article to learn what to focus on.

What if you don’t want to quit your day job yet?

Maybe quitting your full-time job doesn’t make sense yet: Your corporate job provides you with status , security and benefits. You have financial responsibilities to fulfill and you need to have a sustainable income.

You are :

• an employee but an entrepreneur at heart!

• Multi-passionate and can’t stop thinking about new business opportunities

• Always listening to entrepreneurial podcasts and follow up with all kinds of startup founder stories. 

• Lost between your strong desire for setting up your own business and the realities of life!

Should you give up your dream? No , you live only once and your desire matters. 

And you don’t need to choose : With the right mindset and strategies you can be great both at your day job and your side hustle. 

Some of my clients even get promoted into higher level leadership roles while working on their side businesses.

Once you claim your power everything is possible!

Side hustle secret 1 : Mindset shift

The employee mindset may not serve you well in the entrepreneurial world.

When you run your own business you don’t have access to the large capital and big budgets available in the corporate world. You also don’t have a boss and a team to support you. 

Entrepreneurship demands creativity and thinking out of the box. 

You also need to get comfortable with making mistakes : fail fast ! Don’t spend months grieving over a past mistake.

Corporate environments often ( unconsciously) promote perfectionism: if you are a consultant or a project manager you probably do your best to come across as professional and reliable in front of clients or project stakeholders. Stakes are high so you’d better be careful!

You need to let go of your perfectionism traits. When you are growing your side hustle you will be making a lot of mistakes: You’d better learn how to fail fast( without getting bankrupt!), learn and move on!

Running your own business demands a growth mindset. In the corporate world we often perceive market shares as a zero sum game: When one gets a bigger share of the market, others get less. It doesn’t exactly work like this when you run a small business. 

The dynamics are different and different rules apply to the context. You need to be able to see opportunities and abundance in a different light.

One of vital mindset shifts an aspiring entrepreneur can make is hiring a coach , mentor or advisor.

Stop doing everything yourself and spending ages on Googling solutions.

You don’t have that kind of time.

Ask for help and be willing to pay for it. Educate yourself, learn from the experiences of those who have done this before you! Valuable support comes at a price.

Check these blogs to learn more about growth mindset 

Side hustle secret 2 : Create time for your side business

If you think by constantly closing your eyes and visualising your ideal business you will manifest a sustainable side hustle magically then please wake up. 

What are the things you can let go of to create more time?

Do you binge watch lots of Netflix?

Spend too much time on social media watching fun fashion , cooking or dog videos? Read celebrity magazines? 

A strong body supports a strong mind

When I started my first side business years ago I wasn’t aware of the value of self care. I was pushing myself to wake up early and sleep late, I was eating a lot of junk food and not doing enough exercise. All my time was going to my side hustle! 

This was one of the biggest mistakes I made in my entrepreneurial journey. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Wellbeing and self care matters even more if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.

Audit your energy: What activities tend to drain your energy?

Maybe you spend so much time in conflict and drama, maybe certain people drain your energy.

Releasing time and energy is a journey: You might need to change some habits.

Let go of what doesn’t serve you to invite new empowering habits into your life. The good thing about it: This skill will make you better at your 9-5 corporate job!

Side hustle secret 3 : Think of your audience first

Most entrepreneurs are excited about their business ideas. They think all they need is a great idea. And if they have a brilliant idea the rest will come together. 

Early on in my consulting journey when I was reviewing a lot of business plans I was often hearing this question:” What do you think about my idea?”

Success is not about the unique business idea:

It’s about how you bring that idea to life! And to bring an idea to life you need an audience.

 You need people who care enough about your idea ( because it answers a need or solves a problem) and like and trust you enough to give you feedback on it. Building an audience and warming them up to buy from you is work. 

That is why those entrepreneurs who already have blogs or social media presence are better prepared for launching their products. 

This is the foundational step that is often forgotten. Most small businesses fail because they don’t have enough of an audience who is ready to buy from them. 

Building and growing an audience matters even more if you plan to create a source of passive income as your side business. 

Selling digital products, merchandise or drop shipping goods are some of those ideas that are often promoted as easy passive side hustles. This is far from the truth in my experience!

You can run them as side businesses , but it doesn’t mean they don’t demand work!

They can only work as passive income when there is enough audience and you have a system to sell. 

When is the best time to quit my 9-5 job?

Only you can answer this question! And if you like your job you never need to quit.

Becoming an entrepreneur will transform your mindset. Your view on life changes and you might reinvent a whole new identity and vision for yourself. 

Sometimes the entrepreneurial transformation can lead to better opportunities in the corporate world. And sometimes it might show you that you are meant for a different journey!

If for whatever reason you decided to quit your job ( like I did!) make sure you have a good plan in place to support yourself financially.

Ideally you want to quit when your side business is generating enough income to cover your basic costs. 

I recommend you always give yourself a deadline for launching your business.

And if you plan to quit your job or decrease your working hours , again I invite you to come up with a date.

Having a deadline in mind will encourage you to look at this whole journey as a project.

This way you can always measure your progress towards your goal.

And if you are ready to take action and finally start that side business you have been dreaming of , then watch this masterclass about finally launching that side hustle!