Work-At-Home Experts Share Their Tips On How to Find or Start A “Side Hustle”
For many would-be home based workers, the goal is to make extra income on the side. For others, they want to work-at-home full-time, but understand that it can take time to build to that which means building their home career along side a traditional job. This is where the “side hustle” or secondary source of income, comes into play. Side hustles are usually flexible and can be done part-time, but also, many can build into a full-time home-based career. Like other work-at-home options, the best side hustle for you depends on your skills, experience, and interests. Still, we asked our experts what ways they suggested to find your perfect side hustle! Here’s what they had to say!
John Liston
Website: All Set
“Find a Niche: The key to getting a successful side business going is to carve out a niche. Once you build up a small base of loyal customers you can leverage them for reviews on online platforms, referrals, references and more. If you have a small book of business to maintain you will also be more willing to spend on additional touches like marketing materials that will help grow your side hustle even more.”
Gertrude Nonterah
Website: Nonterah Digital Media
Go to local entrepreneurial events. If you provide a service like web design, social media management, freelance writing copywriting as a side hustle etc you should be attending at least one entrepreneurial event in your town/city per month. A lot of the time when people talk about “side hustling” they are talking about finding these opportunities online. However, there are people out there who are not necessarily online who might need your services and will handsomely reward you for it. Attending these local events allows you to build relationships, get your name out there and increase the likelihood that if someone is looking for a service you provide that you will get the referral.
Jesse Harrison
Website: Zeus Legal Funding
- Follow your passion. I like fixing electronics so I turned that into my side hustle. I buy broken electronics on ebay and fix them and resell them on ebay, or on craigslist.
- Network with others in the field. Networking can be really powerful. This is something that I had not realized until recently. I was always shy about networking because I didn’t want to appear needy. But when I started getting out there and telling people about myself, opportunities starting opening up left and right.
Rob Swystun
- Use a freelancing service –If you’re a creative type, one of the easiest ways to find side hustles is to use one of the many sites that cater to freelancers. Upwork, Freelancer and sites like that are full of potential clients looking to hire writers, designers, illustrators, etc. If you have talent in one of these areas, you should be able to find work.
- Use LinkedIn- Sometimes people use LinkedIn to find some quick help. You can post on your profile that you are willing to accept these types of gigs and keep your eyes on your feed for anyone looking for freelancers to do some quick work.
Kevin Lindon Ryan
Website: KLR | PR.
- Use UpWork, a website and app to get freelance jobs.
- Update your LinkedIn.Include your freelance business, even if you already show a present, full-time position. Make sure your side hustle does not conflict with your current employment.
- Start a blog.Promote on social media to build your reputation and credibility, offer tips, and attract and convert website visitors to clients.
Derek Miller
Website: CopyPress
Personal website: mronlinemarketing.com
- Find a talent for which others will pay you. You’re not going to get any side hustle if you don’t have a skill that someone would pay you to execute. Fortunately, there are thousands of jobs that you could potentially do well. Maybe you own a blog and want to use that to generate revenue. Maybe you can write or edit and want to find gigs where you can create articles. Whatever the case, the first step in finding a side hustle, is discovering a skill worth leveraging.
- Create a website portfolio. When I decided that I wanted to make digital marketing my side hustle, I created a very basic blog as a platform for syndicating content that I write on other websites. That being said, I’ve had a handful of opportunities from people completing my contact form. It’s also an easy resource to point potential clients to so they can see my capabilities and also validates myself in the space.
- Do outreach and pitch projects. Another great strategy for finding side hustles is to pitch your skill to companies that look like they need help. If you are a web designer, pitch local companies that have a poorly designed website. Take a few minutes to provide a genuine and thought-out pitch that connects your offering with their needs. This will help you drum up business from companies that are not actively looking, which means less competition.
Note from Leslie:
I agree with many of the suggestions here. When it comes to side hustles, you can get started quicker and make money faster if you focus on skills you already have as opposed to learning something new. Next, go to where the work is. If you want to freelance write, find places that list freelance writing jobs. If you want to do virtual tasking, visiting microwork and freelance sites. If you have products you’ve made, list them on sites that let you sell your stuff, like Ebay or Etsy. Finally, put your best foot forward as you apply or pitch for work. Even as a side-gig, these jobs have lots of competition.
Consider checking out Gig Economy for more tips, info and resources on side-hustling. Plus this book will help you turn your part-time at-home work into a full-time career.
