Side hustles are works you do to earn extra income besides your job. It could be something you work for and deliver value to other people and get paid. Side hustles can be walking dogs, babysitting, delivering homemade meals, and so on.

Side hustles can also be a side business you are building and selling online. For example digital products, online courses, or building websites for others.

There are 3 main reasons why you should create side hustles

1. Creating more income streams other than your job. Being employed and get paid only from your job is a dangerous situation because you are depending on a job to live your life. As we know how many people have lost jobs during the pandemic, having your livelihood on one single income is not diversified. Side hustles can help you create more income streams and create a sense of financial security.

2. Grow your hobby or your side business overtime to take over your full-time job. If there is something you really enjoy doing, but it does not bring you substantial income, you can build this side business. Over time, it can grow bigger and when the financial award is big enough, you can quit your job and dedicate full time to your own business.

3. Create additional income. If you need more income for whatever purpose, to subsidy the family, to go on nice vacations, to pay mortgages, to invest, etc. You can find ways to earn extra income in your spare time. There are plenty of platforms and ideas you can use.

How to create a side hustle

Step 1: brainstorm

Creating side hustles is not like finding a job, you are not limited to the traditional job possibilities. Write down ALL possible ways that you can create an income. Some ideas for your inspirations:

Hobby based

• Sell your homemade cakes or food

• Sell your paintings

• Sell your photographs

• Coaching

Skills-based

• Wedding photographer

• Website developer

• Part-time social media person

• Filing taxes for people

• Translation work

• Teaching people languages online

• Voiceover work

• designs

General

• Do paid surveys from online survey platforms

• Flip items on Facebook marketplace

• Walk your neighbor’s dog if you are going to walk your dog anyway

• Babysitting

• Car decals for companies to charge an advertising fee

• Real estate investment and rental income

• Rent out your cars

• Rent out your extra parking spaces

• Rent out your extra storage room

• Airbnb

Step 2: Pick the best ideas

You can use a matrix to evaluate them, based on how fast you can start earning, how much effort it requires, how big is the potential. What are the obstacles, what are the solutions? Once you lay them all on the paper, you can rank the ideas. Maybe you want to start a part-time photography service or paint portraits for people. Then your challenge is to find customers, you already have the skills, that is an easy start.

If your side hustle is to build an online business, then you have to do research and find out what items to sell, how to source them, how to build an eCommerce website, and then promote it. It will take longer than a wedding photography side hustle.

You need to write down the ideas and evaluate which ones you want to pursue. You can even do it in 2 steps. Some side hustles take less time to build a side hustle and it comes with immediate reward. Some side hustles take longer to build but the reward is bigger and it comes later. Once you have selected a few ideas, you need to test them out quickly.

Step 3 Test and choose

Now, once you select the idea. Do a fast test in the market to find out which idea works. Ask people around you if they are interested in the service or product you will offer them. You need to bear in mind who is your target customer, the answers from your potential customer are more valuable. You can also reach out to people who have done it. For example, if you want to start a blog or youtube, find a few bloggers or YouTubers who are doing this part-time, ask them for advice and experiences. Maybe you will find out it takes more effort than what you can put in. Or maybe you can learn from them using the best practices straight away.

This stage is to TEST, ASK and SELECT.

Step 4 Take action

If you want to start a side business, you need to treat it as a business. Make a quick business plan, and build an ok website. Find creative ways to reach out to your potential customers. Some people put their offers on Facebook Marketplace even. You can build a quick website using existing tools. There are platforms like WIX, Squarespace, and so on, which provide you an easy way to build a website. You need to create an offer. What are you selling? What services or products you are offering, to whom? Use design tools such as Canva to design a professional flyer or product offer. They don’t have to be perfect, as long it works, it is a good starting point.

Step 5 Running the business

• Create invoice templates and service agreement templates. Those are widely available online, once you have one, you can resume them and adapt it slightly each time.

• Create a separate account for your side hustle incomes, so you have a clear view of what is coming in.

• Create a basic accounting system with excel. Track your business expenses and incomes. So you know if you are profitable.

• Remember to pay yourself first. Don’t spend everything you earned, transfer some money to your savings account.

• Legal status? In most countries, you can do side hustle as a sole proprietor. Just double-check what is the requirement in your country. In Switzerland, generally speaking, anyone can start a sole proprietorship and there are tax benefits. For example, in the 3rd retirement account, a sole proprietor can contribute up to 35k per year to their 3rd pillar account while a full-time employee can only contribute CHF6800.

Building wealth by Investing with your side hustle income

Time can do magic with your investment thanks to the power of compounding. The more you earn when you are younger, and invest, the more you will have when you are older. Even if you stop investing or reduce the amount later, the sum you contributed in your early years will still work for you!

For example, if you create side hustle income and invest $2000 per year with a 10% annual return, after 10 years, it becomes $31,874.

If you don’t do anything and leave the money there and stop contributing, it will grow into $214,432 in 20 years.

Your total invested sum is only $20,000 in the first 10 years altogether. It has grown almost 10 times your initial deposit. If you are 20 now, doing some side hustle 10 years, and investing that income, you will have more choices when you are 50 because of your investments from side hustle incomes.

Side hustles can not only provide you with additional income but also diversify your risks of relying on 1 or 2 income streams. What side hustles can you create?

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