The income from your full-time job can be enough to cover your expenses. But what if you want to build a life of comfort for yourself and your family? Then you may look into business ideas to start a side hustle that can improve your financial situation.
I know it’s not easy to manage a side hustle with a full-time job. But we are here to help you better manage it by making the most of your free time.
When planning to invest in a side hustle, you need to choose a good business idea. You can convert your marketable hobbies into a business. Or you can utilize your skills to create additional sources of income. For starting capital, you can invest your savings or look for interested investors.
How to Balance a Side Hustle with a Full-Time Job
An average person spends one-third of their life at work. Aside from your full-time job and side hustle, you need personal time as well as time for your personal relationships. In this scenario, you need to effectively manage your time to ensure nothing suffers – neither your professional life nor your personal life.
Accept the Challenge
Managing a side hustle with a full-time job isn’t always easy even if you love your job. You also have your personal life and relationships that need your time and attention.
So, what you can do is to acknowledge that it would be a challenge. Then you should make up your mind that you will tackle it no matter how tough it gets. That’s the key to long-term success.
When you are mentally prepared, you won’t have trouble when things get hard.
Create Your Work Schedule
First, you’d need a schedule. You should plan the tasks you need to perform throughout the day and week. Then reserve a specific time for each task to make things convenient.
For instance, you should define your job hours and how much time you spend in commute. You should also plan how many hours of sleep you’d need per day. And don’t forget the time you should spend with your family or friends.
Then you need a schedule for your side hustle. Some people prefer clear timing such as from 7:00 PM to 9 AM, whereas others prefer a flexible schedule. Choose what works best for you. But if you have planned to give 2 hours to your side hustle per day, then make sure you stick to this schedule.
On weekends, you can focus more on your side hustle and finish important tasks.
Develop Discipline
During the initial days of launching a hustle, you may be fully motivated. With time this motivation tends to fade away. But don’t let it stop you from working towards your dreams. So, develop discipline that will help you keep hustling when you don’t want to.
Discipline means you’re aware of when you need to work for your full-time job and when it’s time to focus on your side hustle. Then you will follow the schedule even if you don’t feel like working and want to relax instead.
This discipline is especially important if you have a long-term goal to convert your side hustle into a full-time business.
Set Your Income Goals
When it comes to a side hustle, you need clear goals. Similarly, you should create personal goals especially income goals to stay motivated.
You may create simple goals such as earning $100 per week within 3 months. Or when setting bigger goals, you may aim to earn $500 per month with a single client.
With this income goal in mind, you can plan how much time you need to give to your side business.
Manage Procrastination
Balancing a side hustle can be quite a task if you’re a serial procrastinator. You may postpone tasks for later. Consequently, your side gig would suffer.
So, you need to manage procrastination to make it big.
Complex and huge tasks tend to make you procrastinate. The best strategy is to divide these tasks into small chunks. For example, when you have a presentation to prepare for investors, divide it. You can compile information on day 1. Then prepare the format and complete slides 1-5 the next day and so on.
Also, replace passive procrastination with active procrastination. This means deliberately delaying bigger tasks for later and finishing small, annoying tasks first. With these boring tasks out of the way, you’ll find it easier to focus on important work you need to finish before the deadline.
Learn to Delegate
We can’t emphasize enough the importance of delegating and outsourcing for hustlers.
An example is hiring a virtual assistant to take care of administrative tasks on your behalf. This gives you ample time to focus on your side hustle after a full-time job.
Of course, you may not always have a budget to outsource tasks. When on a tight budget, you should consider using apps and AI tools to speed up your work.
For instance, you can use Canva and Fliki to easily create multimedia content for promoting your side business on social media. Then try out CoSchedule or Planable to schedule posts for sharing on social channels at the desired time.
Set Boundaries
When you want to balance a side hustle with a full-time job, the most crucial step is to set clear boundaries.
Your side hustle is important, but so is your main job. You need to focus on both without mixing one with the other.
Remember that your job pays you to work on job-related responsibilities during specified hours. So, don’t work on your side hustle while you’re on the company’s payroll.
Similarly, some people may advise you to use your lunch breaks working on your side hustle. But your health comes first. This break is for having a meal and taking a much-needed break to relax. Working during this break will make you exhausted. And you may not have the energy to work on your business when you return home from your full-time job.
So, set boundaries for productivity and peace of mind.
Don’t Ignore Your Health
When you have to manage a side hustle with a full-time job, you may ignore your health for your work-related goals. While you need to work hard to make your dreams come true, ignoring your well-being is never a good idea. Without energy, you will soon lose motivation and get burned out.
Only a healthy body with a healthy mind can help you work for your goals in the long run.
At times, you may need to work longer hours and give up on sleep to complete tasks. It’s fine as long as you don’t make it a habit.
You need quality sleep at night to focus on your business the next day. Also, take healthy and nutritious meals. Make sure to add fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet. And the most important thing to do is to exercise regularly.
Remember it’s a marathon, not a 200-m race. Which means it’s a going concern. So try to retain energy and motivation.
Don’t Jeopardize Your Side Business
Lastly, be transparent with business clients about your availability.
You may intend to work on your side hustle after job hours. But what if your target customers aren’t aware? They would try to reach out to you while you’re busy with your main job. You can neither take their calls nor miss out on all these calls from potential customers. So, the best strategy is to clarify your availability whether you’re talking to clients or advertising your business.
You can inform them beforehand you will be available to take calls only after job hours. This will promote trust and let you focus on your job as well as your business.
So, do you have a business idea to start a side hustle? With the above tips, you can manage your side business without worrying about your full-time job.