As promised at the end of the last post, in the next chapters I will be giving an overview of all the different ways you can find “your thing”, the one that resonates best with your life and current situation. In today’s world, we are lucky that work is no longer one standard that everyone is boxed into. There are different opportunities out there that are available and you just need to choose which one is the best for you.

“The principle: you don’t have to quit your job to start something on the side, and it doesn’t have to take over your life unless you want it to”.

The beauty of the side hustle it’s that it gives you more security than any other option: you keep your safe job with structured hours and a steady pay check at the end of the month, and you can spend the rest of your time working on something that ignites your passion and that you care about. For sure, you will have to invest additional hours aside your regular job, but as they say, when you do something you love, you don’t work a day in your life.

Side hustle can give you two types of benefits: financial, as in another source of income, and realization, as you will bring to life something you love, all on your own. The positive rush that you will gain by doing this, will cross over any areas of your life, making you feel more energetic and focused. You might be more tired, yes, but you will also be much happier.

There are 4 types of side hustle to chose from, depending on what you want to pursue:

• sell something
• provide a consulting service – if you learned to master a particular skill or knowledge, you can make money by offering to teach that expertise to others
• become a middle man – you can sell something on behalf of someone else
• join the sharing economy as a provider – by renting out things that you owe and are not used

Once you have selected the type of side hustle that it’s best for you, the next step is to set some rules for yourself:

• set your minimum wage – though this side hustle is not your main source of income, it’s important that you ask the right amount of money for your service. Something that it is fair for both you and your prospective customer, without under selling yourself
• price based on value – don’t price your product of service on how much time it takes you to provide it, but more on the value it offers
• reputation is your most valuable asset – word of mouth is the cheapest and most effective source of new business opportunities and marketing, so ensure that every single client you get, is satisfied with you and what you provide, so that they will tell others about it.

Another good thing to remember, which we briefly mentioned before in another post, is that you don’t need a BIG idea to make big profits and be successful. What you need is a helpful idea. If you think about it, it is useless to think to have the best idea ever…that no one will buy because no one needs it. Being helpful is the highest value. Always strive to meet needs and solve problems. Below are some ideas:

• an untapped market
• a new technology or advancement that a lot of people don’t know how to use
• confusion or uncertainty over how to participate in something new
• something people want but cannot get
• something that is perceived as scarce or makes people fear that they are missing out on something

Make sure to “strike quickly” before someone else does. Begin even if you are not sure if it is going to work. Just do it. You can improve it later once you start getting feedback, or if it doesn’t work, at least you won’t have spent a lot of time, effort and money on it, and you can be ready to change your course towards the next idea. And anytime you feel stuck between different ideas, always start with the one that has more income potential. This will give you the highest chances of success and will also feed your ego well enough with that first success that you will be needing to keep going and keep trying.

Make sure you have a plan. In the book there is a great tool for 19 days on how to get started and launch. I suggest that you go through it as it really makes you understand that if you are committed, you can see your side hustle live in only 19 days! That is a great, encouraging timeline…so little can take you so far!

“Remember the point: side hustles generate disproportionate amounts of satisfaction for relatively little investment of time and effort. They allow you to keep doing what you do best at your day job, while exploring other passions and ambitions during off-hours. They also add some variety to your work life. Sometimes they provide the spark of motivation or inspiration for that career change you always wanted to make or that business you wanted to build. They can provide the financial safety net that enables you to take other risks or pursue a grand plan. It’s a low-risk, low-commitment way to test the waters for something bigger, and earn some money at the same time.”

Basically, a win-win scenario.

Next up, is about leaving it all and spread your wings by building your own thing, just the way you want it.