How To Choose a Side Hustle

Study shows that 1 in 3 Americans have a side hustle to diversify their income after a 9–5 pm job.

What is a side hustle?

Money! There is a possibility that everyone has another version of side hustle (Amazon affiliate link).

For me, side hustle means anything which will add something extra to my primary source of income: pay a bill, lunch, change my car oil, etc.

As I said, everyone has a different approach to side hustles based on their skill set. When I was at school, the side hustle was to work at Domino’s Pizza, Zara clothing store, even packing flyers on weekends.

Being a student, I had no idea that there was the possibility to reduce my work hours while even getting paid more. But as you can see, I was exchanging more hours to get more money. The scalability factor was missing.

Now I work in a corporate environment with a good annual package and great people to interact with but still have some kind of side hustles.

Now I have enough knowledge to choose a side hustle.

Here are my 4 steps approach to select a side that might help you to quit your 9–5 job one day if you want it.

Step-1: Time

After acquiring some knowledge and working at fast-food chain restaurants, I decided to pick a side hustle independent of time. I did not want to work 9–5 pm in the office then 8–10 pm at a restaurant or clothing store.

I felt like its a life of a robot. I wanted to work something where I could choose my time. For example: for one month I can work 6–8 am and the following month (if I want) to work from 7–9 pm. That was only possible if I owned something like a blog, online business, a sellable skills set, etc.

If I want to hustle after work hours, I primarily choose the time independence factor. Let’s move on to step-2.

Step-2: Location

It’s kind of working amid a pandemic that almost everyone working from home except essential workers. We are fortunate to have those brave people working at the hospitals, food supply chain, home cares, etc.

I am working 9–5 pm 100% from even before the pandemic because of the nature of my work. I have always had a side hustle since 2016. As I said, I did not want to go to a location to sit all day then come home and work on my side hustle. That kind of mindset to pivot my career be able to work remotely.

Never depend on a single income. Make investment to create a second source. — Warren Buffett

Now I am running 3 side hustles after my 9–5 job. Primarily I work after 7 pm or some days in the morning before 9 am, and I do not like to work on anything on weekends except hiking or spending time in nature. Sometimes I work on Saturdays but not often. After choosing a hustle independent of time and location, it’s time to move on step-3.

Step-3: Growth potential

Suppose you are at school or university and thinking of starting a side hustle. Try to understand if the side hustle has a scalability factor. I had no idea what is scalability when I was doing part-time jobs while studying at school.

Is it possible to quit your job and scale the side hustle to make a living? Scalability will help you grow your side hustle, and there is a possibility of doing a full-fledged business.

Scalability — The ability to profitably grow your business beyond the limits of your personal time, energy and skills. — Adam Urbanski

Step-4: Passive income factor

If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die. — Warren Buffett

The above quote by the legendary investor says it all. If I am choosing a side hustle, I will make sure there is some kind of passive income component in the long run.

For example, If I am unable to work for 2–3 days or even weeks or choose to take a break, there should be some kind of system that still brings some revenue. To become, a writer on Medium is a great example.

Conclusion

After 5+ years of struggle to start a side hustle or add another source of income, that’s my approach. You do not need to start my steps, but these steps are working out for me. Let’s recall the steps.

• Start a scaleable side hustle
• The side should be independent of time and location
• A side hustle should have a passive income component

Thank you for reading.

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