How to Find a Perfect Side Hustle That Fits Your Personality Type

Are you looking for some ways to make extra money in your spare time? Perhaps, by doing something that pays for your strengths and makes you feel happy. That’s a fair request. Everyone wants to find an ideal side hustle that would enable them to leverage work-life balance.

Now the question is — where should you start? There are tons of opportunities online. How to choose the right one? That’s a tough question.

People spend years searching for the most suitable side hustles. They fail and succeed many times. However, every success has its price. What you have to pay for launching and running a business is your time and energy.

People pursuing solely monetary goals don’t have enough dedication to fight until the end. They want to replicate someone else’s success. They are driven by money, not by intrinsic motivation. These people often fail after a year of back and forth struggling.

Schools don’t teach us many things, including how to choose the occupation that matches our strengths, skills, and personality. Neither career test can reveal what’s best for you with certainty. They are designed to fit all; eventually, they serve no one.

You are unique, with your own set of skills, knowledge, experience, and strengths! Hence, you can’t be treated with a “one size fits all” approach.

Is there a better way to choose a side hustle, save time and instead spend it on doing something you like? Yes, there is! Here are some tips that helped me, a wandering soul, to find enlightenment and purpose to wake up every day.

Discover your inner self first

If you’re not enjoying your work and feel drained, you might suffer from a personality-career mismatch.

Every single job task won’t seem like a piece of cake for you. However, if you choose to pursue something that energizes you, it is much more likely that you will stick with it in the long term.

If you want to find a perfect side hustle, perhaps, it’s better to start with discovering your inner self. You can only be truly honest with yourself. Hence, you are the only one who really knows what’s best for you.

Here is what you can do to find the right side hustle matching your personality type. I’ve used this method when I felt uncomfortable at work and struggled for a change.

First, draw a matrix similar to the one below. It’s a simple method to define if you leverage your potential to a full extent and discover a place for a change.

Here is a list of some questions I came up with to assess myself from different angles and identify strengths.

Ask yourself, “Am I creative?” and thoroughly think of an answer “Yes, I am! I deal with many creative tasks daily, and I enjoy it.” Or “I want to become creative, but I am often stuck.” Mark creativity in zone I of the matrix. If you believe it is your weakness, it will go to zone II.

Respond to all the questions and allocate your answers to the right matrix zones.

The 1st zone reveals your strengths, things you are good at that you can already monetize. Zone II focuses on your weaknesses that might become your strengths if you decide to improve your skills, dedicate time for education and personal growth.

Both I and II zones are meant to discover things that make you happy. You don’t do them because you have to; you do them because you enjoy the process regardless of the result.

You might still consider trying things from III and IV. However, deep inside, you know, your motivation is not natural, and it is self-violence.

At this point, you should already have a gut feeling of your perfect side hustle. However, don’t rush to follow your passion yet. It’s just the first step.

As Leah Labmart, Melbourne-based owner-director of a career coaching firm, put it well:

The advice “do what you’re passionate about” can be unhelpful because only about 20% of people have a clear passion about any one thing.

How you interact with the external world

Your behavior “off comfort zone” and ability to communicate with others are essential factors to consider when choosing the side hustle.

Regardless of the occupation, you will most likely have to deal with people; work in teams or individually. You need to know the business model that suits your personality and won’t exhaust you by the end of the day.

There are four categories of people and 16 unique personality types, according to Myers-Briggs. Knowing the peculiarities of your personality will help you select the most suitable job type.

According to Myers-Briggs, you belong to one of these four categories:

• Extraverted vs. Introverted — Researchers claim extroverts enjoy work more than introverts, reporting the job satisfaction 3.77 out of 5, compared to 3.39 rate for introverts.
• Thinking vs. Feeling — Thinkers are believed to occupy management roles more frequently than feelers.
• Intuitive vs. Observant — Intuition-driven individuals are 52% more likely to be self-employed than observers.
• Judging vs. Prospecting — Judgers are claimed to earn more on average than perceivers.

You might be wondering what your personality type is, and I highly recommend passing the Myers-Briggs personality test. It’s free yet quite insightful. You will be surprised how much you don’t know about yourself.

I’ve also taken the test, which proved I am introverted and revealed many peculiarities of my character traits.

Once you know your strengths and personality type, it is time to match them with the right side hustle.

Match your personality with the right side hustle

Calm, quiet, introverted, and organized people know how to build their daily routine and feel comfortable working from home.

Introverts are usually responsible and reliable. They use analytical and critical thinking and are highly detail-oriented. They know what they want and work hard to achieve the desired outcome.

Disciplined introverts might consider running an own blog. It is relatively easy these days. Other options are to build an affiliate website, create an online shop, or work as a ghostwriter for a set of clients.

Creative people might consider selling stock photos, creating music and lyrics, becoming a designer, or even an online course creator.

Individuals with analytical skills can work as PPC (pay-per-click) managers, data analysis experts, or even developers.

I’ve listed a few ideas with low-stress levels that I’ve also tried before. If you are an introvert searching for a perfect side hustle, make sure to respect your personal boundaries, keep your comfort zone and recharge your mental batteries from time to time.

------------

Emotional extroverts connect well with other people and often rely on their intuition. Extroverts are unlikely to feel stress from social contacts. They are empathetic and caring, helpful and insightful.

If you are an extroverted enthusiast, you might be happy blogging on Instagram or TikTok, sharing insights from life and interacting with others.

You might also want to jump on a mission to educate others and make this world a better place to live in. Online consulting or teaching services might be the right fit for you.

If you enjoy working in groups, team projects might be just for you. Project or product management roles, event management, talent or recruitment management roles might also be the right fit for you.

You can also become a speaker on Clubhouse, run webinars or podcasts, anything that will help your personality shine bright.

------------

Before you become a full-time side hustler

No matter which side hustle you choose, you’ll learn a LOT about yourself, your preferences, and your motivations. There are no right or wrong decisions here.

However, there are some steps you might want to undertake before you quit your job and jump into the side hustle.

I am still playing on the safe side, balancing my job and side hustles. However, I’ve found my perfect side hustles and already got some cool results to be proud of.

What holds you back?

Once you find your beloved job, you won’t have to accept your lifestyle any longer! Instead, you will wake up every morning enjoying the gift of life.