Lots of people are running a side hustle in addition to their regular job in 2023. Whether it’s a way to cope with the increased cost of living, extra help to hit a savings goal or simply a way to make a hobby pay you back a bit, they’re as much a popular lifestyle choice as a career option. But for some, they really take off, and the side hustle comes to eclipse the regular job. If you’re beginning to wonder if you should take your hobby job full time, today we’ve got some advice.
Making Plans
If you want to grow your side hustle, you need to make the same plans as someone running or launching a full time business. Even if things look good, quitting your job and taking your side hustle full time can be risky, or, if the demand turns out not to be there, a disaster!
You might think of growth strategy consultants as a resource for big corporate businesses, but consultants operate at every level, and even small businesses and sole traders can find experts to help at their level of development. This can be really valuable if you have the resources for it – they can identify opportunities you may not be aware of, pitfalls you want to avoid falling in, and the safest ways to fund your expansion. They can also help you plan for the future. If you have a plan for the next year, five or ten that you’re working towards it helps you make sure you’re building a business that you’ll continue to enjoy working in, not find yourself getting pulled in directions you later regret.
Changing Relationships
You might find that as you grow, your relationship with customers will change – both existing customers who stay loyal to you, and the new customers you pick up on the way. When you’re operating the micro-level of side hustle, you’re seen as a peer by your community – especially in creative fields like art. When you try and transition that into a full time job, those peers could see it as a change in your relationship – they might celebrate your success, but also see you as less one of them, and they may not follow you forward.
Part of your planning needs to be about how you present yourself to your community, maintain those relationships and build new ones. This is, in effect, an aspect of marketing, something you’ll need to think about more in this new phase!
Self-Care
If you transition your side hustle into a full time job, you may find your mental health is something you need to pay more attention to. You’ve turned what is, in effect, a hobby into your primary means of support. You might find it less rewarding when you’re obliged to give it so much focus each day, and harder to draw a line under each day’s work than you do with a regular job.
Think about what’s taking the place of that hobby, and when you’re planning your time, impose an end of work for the day on yourself to make sure you have time to rest and recharge, and bring your best to the next day.