Working from Home? Why Not Start a Side Business?

Starting a side hustle not only cushions your income but also creates life-changing opportunities you would not have normally stumbled upon while working at your full-time job. Through side hustles, some people have been led to new jobs, while creating valuable relationships that would shape their future careers.

It would be prudent to acknowledge the fact that building a side hustle to profitability is not easy. This is challenged further if you have limited time outside of your day job. However, if you wish to build your side business, you’ll need ruthless prioritization and the willingness to get creative and scrappy every other day.

So how do you go about starting your own side business? What avenues can you explore? What are some of the benefits and risks of starting your side hustle while still employed? This post provides the answers to all these questions.

Why Should You Start a Side Hustle While Still Employed?

Although starting a side business is an entirely subjective affair, there are loads of reasons why you should start one. Some of them include:

● A source of extra income

The main (or probably the only reason) many people start side businesses is because they need that extra income to supplement their existing salary.

● The security factor

Starting a new business after leaving your day job is a risky affair. You might invest your time, money, and other resources only for it to fail. What happens after that? Where will you get your money from?

Starting a business while still employed cushions you from all these, and once it picks up, you can even decide to quit your day job to focus fully on your new venture.

● More resources at your disposal

Starting a side hustle while keeping your current job allows you to take full advantage of company resources. However, this doesn’t mean that you should take tangible office supplies for your own good.

You can get professional advice from your bosses and colleagues, and you might even get some to partner with you. Furthermore, engaging in professional networking is permitted and will go a long way into building contacts for your business.

● You get to monetize your talent (or hobby)

We all have this one thing that we are so good at that people might pay for them. Are you good at cooking? Why not open a restaurant and use your special recipe? Do you enjoy teaching new skills? Why not launch an education platform? All you have to do is to figure out what platform could be best for you and you go right for it.

The Drawbacks

While there are a number of challenges that new business owners face, the most obvious among them is the time factor, in particular for those, who are still employed. You will have to make a lot of sacrifices if you want your business to succeed, cutting out much of the time you spend on friends and leisure.

Working on your startup might negatively affect your day job. Since you’ll be channeling much of your energy and effort towards your side business, you might drain yourself away. Staying up on the weeknights and working over the weekends prohibits you from giving your full attention at your day job.

Eventually, you may lose your safety net altogether if your employers notice that you’re struggling maintaining the day job. Moreover, some institutions have a legal right to prohibit you from undertaking any side jobs ‒ more on this later in the article.

7 Factors to Consider Before Starting Your Side Business

While many people desire to start a side business, with the hopes of becoming an entrepreneur, the flip side of the picture is not as easy. To put this bluntly, most of the side businesses started by those still in employment often fail. 9 out of 10 new businesses are doomed to fail. But who’s to blame for that?

The failure to consider a number of factors before starting your side business might see your efforts and finances go down the drain. To avoid experiencing this, here are a few things to consider while starting a side hustle when in employment:

1. Make the commitment

Once you decide to start a side business, you will be forced to make some hard decisions, which might strain some of your relationships. For you to be on your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur, you will have to submit to consistent work and experimentation.

Are you willing to make some sacrifices to see your side business grow? Will it require you to spend too much time on it? How will it affect your commitment to your day job? Before you hire someone else to assist you manage your side business (which you should if it’s a full-time service job), create a list of all the things that take up the majority of your time every day.

Which ones can you lessen your involvement with? Once you free up some time from your daily schedule, then you’re ready to proceed to the next point.

2. Review your employment contract

Launching your side business without considering your day job’s employment contract could land you in legal trouble. Before doing anything else, carefully review your contract and search for any stipulations that might interfere with your side hustle. Although many contracts are different, the two most common clauses to critically examine include:

● A non-compete clause

Non-compete clauses legally prohibit employees from getting outside employment or offering any form of consulting work elsewhere that might be construed as conflicting with their employer’s interests.

Such clauses often cover the employee’s entire term of service, and some go as far as adding an extra variable period, even after the employment term ends.

For instance, if you work at a restaurant, a non-compete clause will forbid you from working in another restaurant or even opening your own, until the end of the terms as indicated by the contract. Failure to do so will get you some legal battles to fight.

● Exclusivity clause

An exclusivity clause prohibits an employee from engaging in any other outside work, competitive or otherwise. Unless it either waived or modified, you may not get a side hustle, not until your employment period ends. This is a dealbreaker for any person that wishes to progress themselves financially by launching a side business.

If you’re not sure about what these stipulations mean for your side business, you may involve the services of a commercial lawyer. You will even be surprised to hear that the enforceability of such contracts varies by jurisdiction.

Furthermore, employment contracts are negotiable. Ideally, if you were to start a side business someday, you’d know it. Before agreeing to sign a contract at your new day job, it would be prudent to discuss the matter with your employers.

There is no harm in asking them to omit or modify the non-compete clause, in which most of them would be happy to do so, as long as you provide a good explanation.

The one thing to always have in mind is to avoid apparent conflicts of interest. Remember that some non-compete clauses often stay in place long after your employment is terminated. This does not get you in the clear to do your side businesses, as you will still be exposed to legal issues.

If starting your side hustle is that important to you, then there would be no point in signing the contract in the first place as you will only put yourself in a tight spot. If by discussing the matter with the employers doesn’t bear any fruit, you’re much better off looking for another day job, or a different side gig, or both.

3. Inventory your strengths and interests

What business idea do you have in mind as a side hustle? What skills does it require? Do you have any special talents that you can turn into a money-generating activity? For you to launch a profitable side business, you need to re-evaluate yourself, identifying your skills, and what you do best.

There are many reasons why you should start a side business that you have the necessary skill set for. For starters, you won’t have to spend unnecessary hours to learn the trade and the skills that will help you succeed. Moreover, you save lots of time as you already know the nitty-gritty of the business. This way, you get to spend less time outside your day job elevating your side hustle.

4. Validate your business idea before launching

One of the main reasons behind the failure of a business is the lack of a market for its products or services. You wouldn’t want to spend your hard-earned cash as capital, injecting into a business that might not succeed due to the lack of a market. Validating your business idea before doing anything else saves you a lot of resources.

It is human nature to think that we are right and that our ideas are amazing. This accounts for the many people that launch their businesses each year. Unfortunately, most of these ideas aren’t fully thought of, and a poorly researched concept only leads to a failed business.

To avoid all this, you need to validate your business idea by conducting market research and getting honest feedback from potential customers before launching the business. If the feedback isn’t good, you can try to tweak your ideas or better yet, do away with the entire project and come up with something that people can relate with.

5. Adopt a ruthless organizing structure

You ought to organize your side business around the premise that it will be a completely separate entity from your day job, while still prioritizing your main career. You also need to adhere to the policies set by your employer governing those that run extra businesses.

Whatever you’re allowed or not allowed to do, you have to stick to those rules to the latter lest you face legal action or worse, getting fired. For you to run your business successfully while adhering to company policies, some of the things you need to do are:

● Avoid working on your side business while ‘on the clock.’ If the work from your side hustle is too demanding, you’re better off hiring someone else to assist you.

● It is not advisable to use company resources for your side business (computer hardware, software, etc.)

● Do not poach clients or employees from your current employer, even if there isn’t an exclusivity clause on your contract.

● Set up a home office or dedicated workspace to work on your side business. If your company allows you to work from home, you should have a dedicated place to store your work files and another for your side hustle.

● Use separate storage for your digital files from those of your current employer.

Besides these, do all that you can to ensure your day job and side gig do not clash, and you don’t get stressed over them. There must be a fine line between them as you treat them as two separate entities (while giving priority to the day job).

However, resist the temptation to hide your side business from your employers. Once they are aware of it, they can even allow you to get more personal hours to let you handle your side businesses. You might even get exempted from working odd hours or during the weekends, if only you approach the management early enough.

6. Outsource your weaknesses

As you make the list of everything your new business requires, it is crucial to point out some of your weaknesses alongside your strengths. If the strengths outnumber the shortcomings, then it is a good sign that you can easily manage the business, as you outsource a few key elements.

Since learning a new skill takes time, it would be prudent to have someone else take care of part of the work for you as you focus on what you’re good at while not forgetting your main career.

7. Formalize your side hustle’s structures and finances

Did you know that some companies (especially for those that work in the public sector) conduct audits on all their employees? What will happen if they get some unexplained funds in your accounts? Besides this, there are many other reasons why you need to formalize your side business, even if it is not your sole source of income.

Some of the ways to formalize your side business include:

● Having a formal business structure duly registered by the authorities

● Having a separate bank account

● Have a feasible business budget and plan

● Prepare your taxes and understand all your tax obligations.

With such points in mind, you are set to launch a successful side business while still keeping your day job. Furthermore, you’re likely to accord your side hustle the attention it needs if you formalize it.

Top Side Businesses to Explore While Still Employed

Some people always yearn to start a side hustle as a way to earn a little extra income, while others seek avenues to monetize their talents (or hobbies). If you’re not quite sure of what to start as a side business, why not consider these avenues that you can explore?

● Running an E-Commerce business- With a steady growth and popularity in recent years and with the rise of online purchases in the context of the pandemic, E-commerce can be your next profitable side hustle opportunity to take into consideration. While it might seem challenging to start your own business from scratch, the success of your business will mostly be tied to the right e-commerce marketing strategy and the way you promote your business online. Considering the importance of digital marketing for attracting and retaining new customers and its importance for the overall profitability of your side business, using social media management tools might be critical for boosting your business growth as a beginner.

● Freelance writing ‒ freelancing writing is a highly-rewarding side hustle if you’ve got the necessary skills. Besides the knowledge, you don’t need much as only a computer and internet connectivity can get you started.

● Podcasting ‒ podcasting is an increasingly popular tool used by the modern-day marketer. If you’ve got lots of information you think might interest others, you can start a podcast. There are many hosting options available, so you only need to discover what platforms are best for you. Moreover, an episode might only last an hour every day, and you need a total of approximately two hours to edit and publish your content, giving you ample time for your day job.

● Blogging ‒ blogging and podcasting are pretty much alike, only that you only use audios for podcasts. You can build your audience by sharing useful information with them through your blog, which you can also use as an effective way to earn money. You can also blog on other websites with existing audiences to grow your audience quicker. This is known as guest blogging and the best way to get on other websites is by contacting the owner of the websites. Here are some cold email templates that can help with landing guest posts on other websites.

There are many other side business ideas to explore while you’re still employed. However, this doesn’t mean that you can only do virtual jobs. You can still run a physical job and make it successful while still employed. However, you may need someone else to watch over it on your behalf.

Final Word

No matter how positive you are concerning your side business idea, do not quit your day job yet. If you’re ready to start a business of your own, begin by following the steps in this post. Always keep an open mind and for your side hustle to succeed, don’t treat it as a hobby but as a business.