You’ve finally decided you want to start a side business, but you just don’t know how to start it. You don’t mind working at your day job, but you know you don’t want to be working there forever. For those of you who don’t know what a side hustle is, it’s when you do extra work on the side of your full-time work to earn a bit of income. And if you do it right, this can eventually be your main hustle.

If you want to start a side hustle today and have no clue where to start, here are six steps you need to follow for a successful launch!

Monetize Your Passion

For most of us, you may have no idea what you could side hustle. Ideally, you want to find something you LOVE doing, you’re good at and people are going to pay you for it.

Some popular side hustles include:

Freelance Writing
Virtual Assisting
Blogging
Start an Etsy Shop
Make Space

If you want to grow your side hustle and really turn it into your business, you need a dedicated space in your home. I actually got rid of my dining room table and bought myself a desk and turning my dining area into a home office. For you, it may just be a nook in the kitchen or in your spare room. No matter where it is, just having that space makes your side hustle feel legit.

It turns your passion and hobby into a business and gives you that extra confidence that what you’re doing can become successful and profitable.

Create a Schedule

Having a side hustle takes a lot of dedication and commitment. And it takes time. If you work full-time, then when do you side hustle? It’s not like you can only do it on the weekend, especially if you are trying to build an online business. For most people they wake up earlier and work on their hustle when they come home from their day job. They also work on the weekends.

Get a PayPal Account

You want to get paid right? Since your side hustle is online, you need an easy way to get paid. PayPal is a universal online payment system and most businesses and solopreneurs use it.

There is a small transaction fee of 2.9% so just chalk it up to doing business. Since you’ll be using your PayPal account for your side hustle, opt for a business account if you want, but it’s probably not necessary at first if you’re just freelancing it up. You’ll be able to send invoices to your clients and receive payments from your customers.

Track Your Hustle

You’re actually running a business, so it’s a pretty good idea to keep track of what’s going on.

The easiest way to start is with a P&L sheet. This tracks your profits and losses.

You can easily draft this in Google Sheets or on Microsoft Excel. Do a month-to-month P&L and see how much your side hustle is making you. If you notice it’s on the up and up, you can start to really think of the idea of turning it into your main hustle.

Other things you want to keep track of are:

Receipts
Invoices sent
Payments (if outsourcing)
Projects
Pitches sent

Develop a Hustle Strategy

This is it! Up until now, you haven’t officially started hustling. But now you’re ready.

You need to come up with a plan to generate income with your side hustle. The hustle strategy is a plan to get your name out there. Right now, no one knows you have anything to offer. Maybe you’ve been blogging on the side for the last year and now you want to start doing Pinterest images for other bloggers.

Whatever you choose as your side hustle you’ll want to focus on blogging about it and pitching.

Develop a Blog Content Schedule

If you already have a blog or you need a blog for your side hustle, you want to come up with a schedule that highlights and promotes your services.

Pitch Your Little Heart Out

What is pitching? Basically it’s a “speech” on why your services are perfect for a prospect’s business. If you are a freelance writer you might mention how your writing has generated hundreds of shares (even if it was only that one blog post you wrote a year ago). If you want to do Pinterest marketing you can talk about how you were able to double or triple your following and how it’s your #1 referral for traffic.

Who do you pitch to? There’s two methods I use to find clients. They are: cold pitching and pitching to job ads.

Cold pitching means you scout out companies, bloggers or start-ups and pitch them your services. They aren’t actively seeking anyone so your pitch has to really convey the benefits to having a writer or social media marketer or a designer for customized social media banners.

Pitching to job ads isn’t as hard-core, since you know these prospects are seeking someone out. Here you want to explain what you do and how you can help them out.

Start a Blog

If side hustling is really what you want to do, then the best avenue to take is to start a blog. A blog helps define your expertise in your niche. For example, if you want to set up an Etsy shop and sell your printables, you can still start a blog and provide useful tips on using your printables, why yours are superior and creative ways to use your printables. Or, if you are a coach for mamas, your blog can focus on tips to help moms run a successful home life or business or both!

With Love | Nikki xo