How a Hobby into a Side Hustle can Change your Career!

Side Hustles- can they take over the 9-5 jobs?

Most probably in future? Freelancing and side hustles have become the new trends that here to stay. Are you also pursuing your side hustle? Share with us how has your real hustle been?

In India, the freelance industry is estimated to grow to $20 to 30 billion by 2025. Even the global economy of freelancing continues to bloom busting many myths ( Check this Report)

Taking your content and moulding it into a digital product is a sure way to go. To be honest as per my experience, you need to have a Lion’s heart to be patient all through it.

Passive income through your side hustle is most welcome income everyone wants. But the hurdle is how do we get a steady flow of income?

Given the fact how we approach a business working unit, working with changing job conditions, one thing that has seen a dramatic change is the rise of creative entrepreneurs.

Changing mindset

Artificial Intelligence is a new cuisine of the Tech world that been dominating our news feeds daily with innovations in apps, automations that make things easier, faster and scale businesses. For imaginative thinking to survive and sizzle, your skillset is only what sets you apart to spearhead towards your dreams.

Aspiring to become an entrepreneur? Today, we have platforms like Behance, Instagram to share your creative persona to your clients and audiences.

How to turn your hobby into a side hustle?

Find a perfect fit of your skill and passion

A crucial part of your side hustle is finding the perfect fit of your skill and passion. Passion is what you love to do and skill is the ability to do it. Skills can be acquired and would suggest you upskill regularly to grow your side business. One of my best tip I can give to choose your side hustle based on your hobby to create content is “Ask yourself whether you will happy doing it repetitively “.

I do handmade crafts for my friends and family but I do DIY’s only on certain occasions. So, that can’t be my side hustle.

Take a skill into practice

Home decorating, Diy crafts were treated as hobbies. But, today you find so many content creators taking this hobby they love but practise diligently. Simple niches such as consultancy is no more native concept. Consultations and coaching are mushrooming like little flower buds. Choose your niche which you think you will be able to share confidently with the world.

Choosing the niche

Do you find yourself in a maze while choosing your niche. I feel it too. Guess what, I thought it was simple. So, when I narrowed it down my niche-Life for my 1st blog, I was so happy.

Trouble started soon after I started writing more content. I was in a dilemma- because I wrote poetry for more than 10 years on the blog. Writing articles was a fun adventure for me.

Ultimately I cracked it to name my niche as “ Creative Life “ to include poetry, creativity and snippets of life.

Imp Tip- Take lots…Yes I mean lots of time to choose your niche.

Keep the business model adaptable

 As an aspiring entrepreneur you surely dream to sell their products and services to others .It is wiser to keep your entire business model flexible.

Like the saying” Keep room for improvement” so that you can quickly buckle up your shoes and run on the next jogging track without losing much.

Brands like Lego and Zolo (Do read their stories ) are the best examples who changed their strategy well to create a dominance today.

Do your research carefully. If your chosen niche needs surveys, feedback from the audience. Do it before to gauge your idea being successful in future.

Monetize your best skill 

Most of us get stuck at this step. How do we monetize our hobby? Firstly, recheck your chosen side hustle. Know what you really good at . You need to identify a target audience who is willing to buy from you. Create a side hustle that fulfills others need.

If you love yoga, gardening and think you can teach others, make it your side business.

For instance, I love watching everything to do with comedy and also crack decent jokes. But having said that, I can’t imagine myself do it daily. So, for me, it’s a recreational hobby.

One possible way is to monetize is to write comic stuff or about the comedy genre as a writer but not as a creator.

Adapt to your audience’s needs

We hardly have seen a significant number of Coaching being offered in India in the past . But, today, we have almost every category – Wellness coach, Life coach, Content Coach, Social media Coach and list is endless.

You name it, we have it:)

It was demanded by the audience and so there were opportunities created to help them with their needs. You should follow this demand based strategy or be innovative and create one for people to search for it.

Digital products and downloads, courses

As a digital creator, you obviously expect me to talk Go Digital Guys. Yeah!

If art is your side hustle, create a digital product like a flyer of your paintings or graphics and mention the services you offer. If your hobby is a childhood favourite, you must have surely gained a lot of experience pursuing it. Make a good course or an ebook and sell it to your customers.

Stealing the limelight

Guys, it is very important no matter whether you are new hustler or successful creative entrepreneur, choose the right medium to get a business going.

Please move your attention from getting Likes, Shares which are temporary admirations.

Think about the long term and focus to build your email lists and value-based subscribers and communities.

Repurposing your skill

If you think side hustle is choosing one option and focusing on it alone is okay, then let me clarify. Suppose you choose to be a Travel vlogger and youtuber, Video editing on Youtube is a skill you will be develop eventually. In future, you can repurpose your editing skill to create your “Short Film on Travel”, mentor travel enthusiasts to learn video editing and can also provide your services as a freelancer for non travel niches too.

Do you have Travel Vlog/ Blog , comment below , what do you do to keep this passion to travel in you ?

An Example to Start Thinking about an Business Idea

Sandeep Maheshwari is one of India’s best entrepreneur and motivational speaker who shares nuggets of wisdom through his live seminars and videos. He has changed our notion about “ Motivation” and inspires us by conveying real life examples and teachings. His content is simple, personal and mindful but encourages younger generation to have a fun and free flowing conversation with him.

Who should do it, pursue side hustles as a career ? 

1. If you are serious about content creation.
2. Won’t get easily bored with the side hustle – as it may get Repetitive and the initial journey is lonely.
3. You are your own boss and need to be responsible for every decision, mistake and trials faced to pursue your passion.
4. Initially, your side hustle could be alongside your full time job. You should know how to prioritize your time and efforts for both.
5. You are a side hustler with a business mindset. You have to take your hobby seriously to attract clients not just words of appreciations. After juggling so much, you want to get paid right?
6. As a content creator, you need to be honest and upfront about your deliverables. Work on shyness and keep your communication very strong and transparent.

Ultimate Goal is to Share What You Know

To make a profitable side business, you need to push your idea beyond passion. It is important for you to take your side hustle as a business. Women who love fashion and makeup have been able to create their own persona. These fashion creators earn 6-7 figure income and have made successful  businesses.

Personally, I did poetry, authored 3 books as a passion for writing . But now I took it to next level to make it my goal of content creator through blogging, freelancing and soon intend to launch my own digital products.

You goal should be get paid obviously (Note- I mentioned it as should not may be )

Knowing what it takes is crucial including managing expenses, facing low income months, less social outings etc.

Explore passive incomes through blogging, youtube, online courses etc. Who doesn’t love passive incomes!

The new normal about being a solopreneur helps you build your personal brand around your side hustle.

Conclusion:

As a co- creator , I assure you that ” Your strengths are your superpowers”. You are a go-to person for your friends and family for things they need or opinions they seek. Take that seriously and leverage it to content creation. Make your side hustle a reality with profitable business plan.

What’s your present side hustle business or one you like to have in future!- Comment below

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Copyright©2020-4th Nov by Elvira Lobo Pinto (All rights reserved; unauthorized use prohibited) Disclaimer: The image(s) in the post are taken from Unsplash. I don’t claim any of its rights.