How To Turn Your Side Hustle Into A Full-Time Gig
It’s normal to experience dips in motivation, to want to procrastinate instead of deal with the mountain of work that lies ahead. But at the end of the day, true entrepreneurs know that you must push past those feelings and force yourself to do what’s difficult at times. (Even if you really don’t want to.) If you’re going to make your side hustle a reality instead of just a bucket list dream, you need to commit to identifying when you’re procrastinating, wasting time, and avoiding the difficult tasks you should be doing. You must push aside your feelings of doubt, self-pity, and go after what you want with a single-minded focus. That’s real hustle.
The dream is free. The hustle is sold separately.
The idea of turning your side hustle into your official full-time gig, can be freaking terrifying! But it can also be one of the wildest adventures you’ll ever experience. So, knowing when to take the leap of faith (reassured that you won’t fall entirely flat) is the difficult part — how do you know and what’s the first step?
We have a few perspectives and tips to share with you on this, so buckle up!
First off, and probably the most important is that you will never truly know when the right time is. There’s always a chance something will not go right or that mirror you broke 15 years ago is coming back for its vengeance. So, accepting that there is always risk in leaving that comfy 9 to 5 behind is a must — but it also makes the next few steps that much more exciting!
We’ve seen the corporate exit strategy done in a few ways …
One way is to build up your side hustle over time until it’s at a point where you are confident in it — and you IN it — to make that switch. This is certainly the more responsible and less-risky way of doing it, and probably your best option if you don’t have backup income or support.
The other option is by making the jump quickly and dive all-in. There is certainly much more risk here, but it will really make you work your butt off quickly to figure it out. With this option, we do highly recommend doing all your research and back-end set up first before leaving your day job to ensure that you’re not about to go hungry or homeless!
Challenges are the gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity.
Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.
It can take a while to get momentum going in your business at first, but that is a part of your journey. We recommend balancing this with setting up #AllTheSystems (and processes) for your own business during this time. Allocating a few hours per week to developing your business will save you SO much time down the road — trust us on this. We learned this one the hard way!
There’s also something to be said about the scary “where’s my next paycheck coming from?!” aspect of it all that makes you work harder and more thoughtful as you’re starting out.
We know one #mompreneur who did the research and planning part over a month and really thought about it, and then quit her job and went for it. While we definitely don’t recommend this path for everyone, if you’re able to do it and ready to do it — go for it.
Lastly, we strongly suggest thinking and planning out what you want your business to look like, and not wavering from those ideologies during the startup process. This includes the audience facing portions like brand voice, logo, color theme and so on, but also internally like mission, values, and vision (how are you going to solve people’s pain points).
It’s so hard to undo certain agreements or boundaries you sacrificed upfront just to make a sale or gain a client, that it’s almost not worth it once you’re a handful of years into it. Instead, come up with a compromise (if you need to!) that you’ll be comfortable with a few years down the road that doesn’t totally go against everything you want for your business. Some of us are sadly still working to undo those compromises and we can tell you … it isn’t easy!
Our last piece of mom-to-mom advice …
It takes a lot of courage, determination, and willpower to shift your mindset to the “I’m Ready!” mode, especially with little humans running around at home, so we are here to fully lend our moral support and encouragement to you as you prepare to embark on this whirlwind journey.
If you have recently made your side hustle into your full-time job, we’d love to hear from you and hear your story!
If you found today’s mom inspired blog post to be exactly the type of inspiration and know-how you were looking for, we would be very grateful if you would help this post spread by sharing the ❤️ with it socially, emailing it to a friend or dropping us a comment with your thoughts. You never know whose life you might change.
We get it, you’re a mom first! But your dream of becoming an entrepreneur is not going away … It wasn’t until recently when people began coming to you with questions or asking you for help that you started to seriously think about starting your own business. You want to start a business, but you worry if you have enough time to balance being an entrepreneur with being a mom. You have a burning desire to build your own empire, but you also have responsibilities.
Well … we completely understand and been there done that. It’s time to take the leap of faith and bet on yourself, beyond life as a mom. Because we don’t want you to do, is one day look back … and wished you’d done things differently. #Balance!
Our site will be a resource-filled space for all moms who have ever wanted to start their own small business working from home OR for any mom who already HAS a business but is struggling to grow. So, begin pursuing your passion(s) and become your own boss today by popping on over to https://thesmallbusinessmom.com/ to get started!
