Priorities, Persistence, & Perseverance

When starting a side hustle, the balance between your daily life and this new venture can feel like a challenge. How will you even make time for it when you have so much going on already? How will you manage your time and still prioritize your family, your career, or your daily gym session? The uncertainties and questions can go on and on. Maybe a controversial opinion, but sometimes I think these things are excuses.

A side hustle is just that. It's on the side. It's something you can carve out small amounts of time for. I know that can be hard to do, but frankly, you have to want it bad enough- just like anything else in life that you have to work for. Having a strategy will help you manage this and keep yourself motivated. 

Here’s some ideas on side hustle strategy:

Pick the Right One

The first thing, and possibly the most important to set yourself up for success in this, is to identify a side hustle that you feel you are capable of doing with your available time and current skillset. You can check out my side hustle master list here for some brief overviews and reviews of side hustles I've tried to help with that decision. The other thing to remember is that if you try one that’s not working, you can try a different one, and you can always learn something new. If you find you're able to manage your time well with the first one and you want to try another, you can do that too! One of the greatest things about the side hustle is that you aren't committed to it like you are a regular job. If you need to break up with your side hustle, you don't have to put in a two weeks’ notice.  But hopefully you pick something you actually like and have time for!

Prioritize 

Okay this is the one for the busy women who don't think they have time for a side hustle. Remember why you're here. You want to diversify your income sources, right? You want to earn more than your job says you're qualified to earn. You want to pay off debt or pay for something expensive without incurring debt. So do it. Do all of those things. I know you have this full time iob, kids maybe, a demanding social schedule and commitments you've already made. But where can you pull out fifteen minutes a day? Maybe ten minutes a couple of times a day. Maybe it's an hour at the end of each week. These are all valid options! You don't have to sit down for hours after a long workday. I mean, you can if you want, and more power to you if you're able to grind like that, but don't do that if it's going to burn you out. You know what they say about burning both ends of the candle. Can you wake up thirty minutes early and spend that time taking some pictures of stuff you want to sell? You don't even have to list the items at that time. Maybe you have a job where you can have your phone out and now that you have the pics in your phone, you can sit at your desk and edit them, write your descriptions, and get them listed. I'll never tell you to put anything ahead of your family, do anything that could make you lose your fulltime income, or exhaust you to your very limits, but if you're spending time scrolling at any point in the day, just consider repurposing that time. A really great way to help manage your time is by using a planner. I’ve designed this digital planner specifically for you to use to maximize your side hustle potential. The great thing about it is that you can literally use it forever and never have to buy a new one! So, identify those little gaps in your day and do your side hustle in little bites. There is no rush to force it to happen quickly- there's no reason for that. Learning good time management skills will take you a long way!

Be Persistent 

Keeping your time management in mind here, make some commitments with your side hustle and stick to them (the planner has space just for this!). If it's fifteen minutes a day, do that, day after day. You will see progress. Again, you have to want it bad enough. You'll get more efficient in those fifteen minutes over time and you'll be able to do more and more. Don't give up. That's the biggest thing to remember here. If you mostly enjoy the side hustle, have invested time and money into it, and believe it's the right one for you, then stick with it. Financial payoff from these things can be really slow, especially when you've just started out. But I urge you to not be a quitter. You've committed to a small amount of time each day or week, now commit to a time limit- give it six months, a year, two years, whatever you want. Do your fifteen minutes a day every day for six months. See what happens! There's no guaranteed results. I can't sit here and say you're going to love every second and make a ton of money by the end, but both of those things could be true. The time is going to pass anyways. Will you really be mad at yourself for taking fifteen minutes a day to learn and try something new,  regardless of the outcome? You may be giving yourself an opportunity to learn new skills, even if one of those skills is time management. That’s great! You may learn what you don’t like doing, also very useful as you move forward.

Persevere

As we have just discussed, side hustling can be slow money. It just is what it is. I've had things listed on Poshmark for literal years. Do I need to make a Goodwill run with those things? Probably. But every now and then, something I've had listed for a lifetime will just sell, out of nowhere. That's some slow money right there, but it's money I didn’t have, nonetheless. This is especially good for items that you bought and used for yourself and decided you no longer need. There's little investment at stake then because you bought it and used it for your purpose and otherwise it would just be sitting in your closet. It's also wise to remember that we live in the age of the algorithm. Depending on the platform you've chosen to sell on, it can take weeks or months for an item to gain traction with views. I have things on Depop that have been listed for weeks and then out of nowhere they're getting tons of likes every day, and eventually these things sell. It's kind of a odd phenomenon to watch unfold because you're like, "okay NOW everyone likes this thing???" But, again, is what it is. I'll take the likes and traffic to my items, and potential increase in traffic to my store. Just remember you can't force anyone to buy anything. Do your very best to present and describe what you're selling in a way that would make you want to buy it, and then just let it sell when it sells. Be satisfied in knowing you've given this your best. 

I really hope these strategies help you on your path to success in the world of side hustles. There is a whole book of excuses you could write on why you shouldn't do it, or why you just don't have time for it, and if you want to take the time to write that book, then you also have to accept that you just didn't want to try something new that could make you some extra money badly enough. And that's okay if that's the path you choose, but I'd really like to see you succeed. I'd really love to hear about how you made enough on the side to afford that vacation, or pay off a credit card, or buy yourself something nice. You're here at the end of this article because you want to go for it, but you've had reservations. I'm telling you to go for it.

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