How to Make More Money With Your Side Hustle

Last Updated: 

September 12, 2024

What I've found with business owners who are operating a side hustle whilst also busy working in a full-time job.

There are five reasons why they've not quite been able to make enough money to walk away from their job and jump into their side hustle.

Here's what we talk about in this week's video:

0:00 - Why You Are Not Making Enough Money With Your Side Hustle
0:29 - Not marketing enough
2:00 - Not spending enough time on your side-hustle
3:05 - Side hustle branding isn't good enough
3:43 - How to be consistent with a Side Hustle
4:40 - Creating more time for your Side Hustle

Online Business Startup

The Full Transcription:

In this video, I'm talking about why you are not making enough money with your side hustle.

What I've found with business owners who are trying to get a side hustle set up, who are may be working in a full-time job, and haven't quite been fearless enough in order to walk away from that job or even go part time and jump into their side hustle, is normally down to about five different reasons.

You're Not Marketing Your Side Hustle Enough

The first reason is that you are not marketing enough.

One of the things about running small businesses that, in this day and age, marketing is incredibly complex, that takes up a lot of time.

When you're working in a full-time job or even a part time job, you should be spending up to 80% of the time marketing your side hustle. It means that you don't have the time to be able to put into being present on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and LinkedIn and all the different social media platforms. Not only that but there are more platforms constantly coming onto the marketplace and it's incredibly confusing.

What tends to happen; procrastination kicks in all of a sudden and your marketing doesn't create the immediate results that you want to get.

You're doing the posts, blogging, social media and things like that, but we're not getting the leads, inquiries and sales. All the things the gurus and experts promised us yet your marketing just starts to slow down.

Marketing is a bit like paying a bit of money into a savings account that has compounding interest. You make most of your money in the last 10% of the time that your money is invested in wherever it's invested.

You just crawl along like that for weeks, months, or even years and then all of a sudden you get an uptick at the end. This is the trajectory of success.

A lot of people who are doing side hustles simply don't put enough time into marketing.

I don't mean you're not putting enough effort in; you're probably putting a tonne of effort in, you're just not spending enough time planning and putting a marketing campaign together and executing it consistently.

Alongside these strategies, it's important to consider the specific channels and platforms that align with your side hustle. For instance, if your side hustle involves content creation or personal branding, understanding the best ways to promote OnlyFans can be incredibly beneficial. This platform has emerged as a popular choice for creators looking to monetise their content, and mastering its promotion can significantly boost your visibility and earning potential. By leveraging the right promotional strategies, you can attract a larger audience and turn your side hustle into a lucrative venture.

Not Running Experiments on Your Side Hustle

The second thing; when you're doing it as a side hustle, there's not enough time to experiment. Maybe you've got a product, for example, a lot of people talk about market niches, product niches and things like that, but it might be that you're targeting the wrong niche. If you're not targeting the right audience, it means that when you are cranking the handle on your marketing, your content's not being seen by the right people

But because it's a side hustle you also don't have the time to be able to experiment and do different marketing campaigns targeting different audiences.

The answer: find quick and easy ways to test out your marketing campaigns on different audiences.

Take Facebook ads, for example, you can target a million and one different audiences on Facebook. Set up your campaigns in such a way that at least you're testing different audiences, different segments and analysing it and measure where your leads and inquiries are coming from.

If you're not generating leads directly from the Facebook ad campaign, it will still give you valuable data back about who is interested in the products or services that you're selling.

Branding for Your Side Hustle

A lot of side hustles, I've noticed, have got either DIY branding or no branding at all. DIY branding is where you've made the logo yourself or got your sister, mother, brother, or whoever to design the logo. The branding doesn't reflect the great products or services that you're selling as a side hustle, or you just don't have branding in place in the first place.

If you aren't branding, is it any wonder that you're not getting traction with your side hustle?

How to be consistent with a Side Hustle

The other thing as well as around being consistent, but in the same way that you don't have time to do the marketing, but generally day-to-day being able to do your side hustle and treat it like a business by sitting down each and every day, cranking out the same message consistently. This takes a lot of time and effort, but if you gave yourself half an hour to an hour each day:

  • you get home from work
  • have your tea
  • put the kids to bed
  • then spend an hour making some videos
  • which you put out onto YouTube
  • etc etc

My advice would be to pick one platform, pick one form of media and do it consistently

What starts to happen is; imagine you've got a Facebook group with a thousand people in it, and you start doing a video at 8:00 PM every evening, the night you miss doing a video at 8:00 PM, people will send you messages going, "Hey, Rob is everything okay?"

Consistency is key to side hustle success because it starts to train people, a bit like Pavlov's dog, to show up at particular times and engage with you and your brand and your business.

Creating More Time for your Side Hustle

Finally, the other thing is generally not putting in enough time into your side hustle at all.

You see a lot of like these FBA drop shipping businesses, Bitcoin businesses etc blowing up all over the place, and there's loads of buzz about it but less than 1% are ever successful. They make it sound like it's easy to set up a Facebook ad campaign, never see a product that you've imported from China and boom, you've got a million pound business.

It's just not like that AT ALL.

Any business is going to take time, money and investment in order to get the success that you want to get out of it.

If you're spending like 30 minutes a week on your side hustle, you are just not going to get any success. And quite frankly, you might as well just give up. So either make the commitment to put some time into it or find other ways to make it work.

If you can, start outsourcing work.

You might have to invest some money in your side hustle in order to give it the momentum which it needs in order to grow. But if you're just putting half an hour a week, like the four hour work week, yeah, four hours is like eight times as much as doing half an hour a week - you MIGHT start to grow some kind of a side hustle or business on a four hour workweek.

The whole Tim Ferriss, four hour work week thing is a little bit of a myth. Most of his methodologies are based around, put in a shit tonne of effort to start off with and then once you've systemised it and made it teachable, learnable, and repeatable, then you can start to outsource some of that work and give it to other people. But you've got to create the systems processes in the first place before you can start to build and bring in other resources to help you out.

Side Hustle: Frequently Asked Questions:

If you are looking for a way to generate income from home, there are many options available. It can be hard to choose which option is right for you and your family. We have compiled our favorite side hustle ideas that we have found online.

What is a side hustle?

A side hustle is any way to make extra money, on the side. A side hustle can be done in your spare time, from home, part-time or full-time—and there are plenty of ways to do it!

For example: If you’re a writer who wants to make more money than what you’re making now, you could try selling your writing as an ebook on Amazon. If you want to earn extra cash by selling things on eBay, but don’t have enough time for that kind of commitment yet because you have a full time job and need time for yourself after work too… well then maybe this isn't quite the right option for you at this moment. But if so? Don't worry! There's still hope!

How do I develop a side hustle?

  • Start with a side hustle idea that you are passionate about.
  • Use your skills to help you find a side hustle.
  • Find a side hustle with low start-up costs.
  • Start small, and build up your side hustle from there!

What skills do I need to be successful in a side hustle?

The side hustle is a great way to supplement your income and develop skills that can be used in other areas of your life. You may not be sure what skills are necessary for a successful side hustle, but here are some general ideas:

  • Computer and internet literacy (including basic coding). The internet is an essential part of most side hustles, as many platforms require you to have access to an online presence. You also need to understand how the internet works so that you can market yourself effectively on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, manage your website efficiently or even create one from scratch if necessary!
  • Marketing savvy. In addition to being able to design websites or social media profiles yourself (if they're needed), being able to market yourself successfully is another important skill set for success in any business venture including a side hustle. Be prepared with good branding strategy before starting out if possible!

How many hours per week should I dedicate to my side hustle?

To make money, you have to spend time working on your side hustle. The more time you spend on it, the more money you will make. However, if your life is busy with other things and you don't have much free time to work on a side hustle, then maybe that's not the best option for you. You can always start small by doing something part-time or by using weekends only for your side hustle.

It's important to have a side hustle that you enjoy because if it's something that makes sense for who you are and what kind of lifestyle do want to lead, then chances are high that it will be easier for you to stick with it even when things get tough or boring (which they most likely will). And when all else fails—and sometimes this happens—you can always find ways how this could fit into your life in someway else than just as a side job (e.g., take another day off from work so that way there is no conflict between family obligations and business interests).

It is possible to turn your dream into money!

Let's be clear: it is possible to turn your dream into money. You just need to make a plan and follow through with it.

Also, you'll need to work hard and be persistent. And if possible, be creative and find a way to monetise your skills.

What is the most profitable side hustle?

People often ask me about the most profitable side hustle. But the most profitable side hustle is the one that you enjoy and can make money from. Some of my friends make good money from their hobbies, like collecting comic books and selling them at conventions, or creating custom woodwork as a hobby for others to purchase. Others have turned their skills into side hustles, like teaching yoga or coding websites for clients on Fiverr.com

So how do you find a profitable side hustle? Look at your interests and talents, then figure out how to turn those things into an income stream!

What is the easiest side hustle to make money?

  • Get a job.
  • Get a part-time job.
  • Create a service business. There are many options for this: you could offer to do other people's laundry, clean their house or apartment, walk their dog, etc.
  • Sell items on eBay, Amazon and Etsy (three websites where you can sell used/vintage stuff).
  • Sell items on Craigslist or Kijiji (free classifieds sites).

How can I Make 2k a Month?

The answer to how much you can make as a side hustler is: the amount of money you want to make. The more time and effort that you put into your business, the more money it will generate for you.

So, if there isn't an immediate demand for what I'm selling, then why do I need to sell it?

It's true that no one needs what we're offering at this moment in time; however, our services are unique and help people achieve their goals faster than if they didn't have them available...

What Side Hustles Can I do From Home?

You can work from home in any number of freelance jobs, including:

  • Freelance writing. You’re probably familiar with this one. It involves writing for publications or advertising clients, and often includes blogging as well.
  • Copywriting. A copywriter creates advertising copy for print and digital media (ads, brochures, websites). Copywriters must have excellent grammar skills and an eye for detail; they may need to conduct extensive research before crafting their messages.
  • Data entry. If you have experience entering information into a database from paper forms or other documentation, then data entry might be the perfect side hustle for you! Data entry workers generally work from home using their own computers to enter information into databases on behalf of businesses that do not have staff available to perform this task themselves during regular business hours.

What are the Side Hustles that Pay Well?

  • If you're considering a side hustle, make sure you have a plan in place and be prepared to invest the time and effort. You won't get rich overnight—unless your idea is “get rich” (in which case, good luck).
  • Don't be afraid to ask for help. There are many resources out there that can help guide you through starting your own business or finding one-off gigs as well as more traditional employment opportunities. The internet is an amazing tool; use it!
  • Don't be afraid to try something new! We live in an era where we have access to all kinds of tools and resources that didn't exist just 10 years ago; take advantage of them! The more skillsets and experiences under your belt, the better prepared you'll be for whatever comes next on your journey through life.
  • Don't be afraid to fail! If something doesn't work out exactly how you planned (and sometimes even if it does), try again until it does work out—or if not then perhaps try something else entirely! With each failure comes experience so don't let yourself become discouraged by setbacks along the way...

In Summary

Hopefully that's given you a bit of a background in terms of why side hustles don't tend to work.

If you do the opposite of those things, i.e. if you market enough to the right audience, if you do niche and get your branding sorted out, if you are consistent and if you do show up regularly and often with that same consistent message how you put the time in, you will have monumental success with your side hustle.

You can make this work but be realistic about the goals that you're setting yourself.

Don't think that year one you're going to go out and build a million dollar a year side hustle. It works for 0.1% of the people who have side hustles and those are all of the good luck stories we hear about.

You would likely agree that a good success might be to start generating £200 a month or £500 a month, or even a thousand pounds a month through your side hustle.

That gives you the confidence to start stepping away from your job or whatever it is that you're committed to at the moment.

Hey, listen, if you found that helpful, please do give me a little bit of a thumbs up, a like on the video. It helps other people to find this video and shows them that you enjoyed it. And if you want to see more videos like this, then please do hit the subscribe button on YouTube. We try and put out regular content to help small business owners just like yourself to grow your businesses.

I hope this article has helped you to see the potential of side hustles and how they can help you become financially independent. It’s time to get out there, make some money and live your dreams!

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