How to Turn Your Side Hustle into a Business
So… you started a side hustle and it’s taken over more and more of your life? And you can’t stop now because it’s also starting to generate some income?
Congratulations! You’ve successfully turned your passion into a business.
That was the point right? Do what you love and the money will follow.
But wait. Before you fire your boss to go full-time, let’s get serious. There may just be a few business aspects you’ll want to have in place before you go it alone.
You may find it wise to give yourself a few more months to work through the handy checklist in the contributed post below.
Is it Time You Turned Your Side Hustle into a Full-Time Thing?
As a Mompreneur, when you first decide to start out on your side hustle, you won’t always know what to expect. And that’s okay. Because a lot of the time, you’re just testing the waters.
You hear about blogging or online selling or whatever it is that you’re doing, and you just decide to give it a go. You won’t always have expectations about how things are going to work out for you.
Sometimes, you don’t even think about whether this is going to be a viable business venture or not. All you know is, you’re excited to get started. And that’s what you do.
So when things start to really take off for you, it can come as a shock!
Now, there are definitely worse surprises that you can stumble upon in the world of business. But when it comes to things going well, if you have no idea how to handle that or what your next move should be, it can be quite intimidating.
One thing’s for sure, when you are starting to do well, you are going to want to think about turning it into a full-time thing. If you’re working alongside your side hustle, you’ll find that it could be time to stop and go all in on what you love to do.
At the same time, if you’re balancing this work with life as a full-time mom, you are going to want to work out ways for your business to take off, but still enjoy a balance.
So let’s work through ideas to help you do just that.
Get Your Branding Right
While you are likely to find that not all of your actions and activities change when you take your side hustle to a full-time thing, you will also find that you need to step up your game a little.
If up until now, you haven’t had any branding in place, then you need to change that.
When you’re able to establish a brand identity, you’ll find that you start to see your side hustle as more of a real business venture, and so will your audience.
Spruce Up Your Website
From here, you’re then going to want to take a look at your website. And if you don’t have one, it’s time to create one.
Even if you started out selling or communication via social media, you need a website to pack up what you’re doing.
This is going to help you to look professional and help you to take your business to the level you want it to be at.
Create A Marketing Strategy
To help you to do both points above, you will find that developing a marketing strategy is going to be a good move for you. You don’t have to be a marketing expert to do this.
You just need to be able to take your time with working through your goals, your objectives, and then picking out the tactics you’re going to use to make waves with your business.
Identify Your Target Audience
But first, you need to be able to work out who you’re targeting. When it comes to effectively marketing your business, don’t focus on you and who you are as a brand, focus on the customer. Figure out who your customer is and define your target market.
Then, when you know who your audience is and what they need, you can then start to market to them in the most efficient manner.
Have A Vision For Each Platform
As part of your marketing strategy, you’re going to want to think about the social media platforms that you’ll have a presence on. And don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to be on them all. Because you don’t.
In fact, you will find that your business and activity can be so much more effective when you’re selective. When you do choose the platforms to be on, you have to make sure that you have a vision and an individual strategy for how you’re going to take on each.
Create Content
Next, you need to start creating content. You’ll need a blog, valuable information, educational materials, or entertaining insights that you can share with your audience.
You also need to ensure that everything you put on your social media channels is going to be relevant to them, and get them interested in what you have to say.
To do this, you’ll want to follow the next steps…
Engage With Your Customers
Engagement is critical. Don’t worry about the numbers so much in terms of likes and followers.
Instead, you need to think about how you’re actually connecting with your audience. This means that you’ll want to focus on providing them with value when you’re creating content.
You can look at what your competitors are doing, but you need to do it better.
Utilize Your Data
Data will help you here. When you want to create content that connects with your audience, or you just want to be able to land the sales, your analytics are going to be key.
Take a look at how they come to your site, what content they are reading the most, and see what kind of trends forms. As you look at your own insights, you’ll be able to work out if your marketing to them effectively enough.
Track Your Financials
That’s largely the marketing side of things covered off. And while this is incredibly important to make sure that you’re marketing effectively, you do also need to focus on the rest of the business too – namely the financial side.
When it comes to money, you’ll want to start working on some small business finance tricks, which will include tracking your finances. That way, you can keep your eye on how well the financial side of things is going.
Hire An Accountant
But don’t feel overwhelmed, if you’re not great with finances, you can always hire an account. In fact, this is often a good thing to do anyway. They’ll be able to provide you with invaluable financial advice and ensure that your taxes are filled correctly.
Finalize Your Business Setup
If you haven’t registered as a business yet, this is another thing that you’ll want to do. Being set up as a registered business can not only make you feel more professional, but it’s often the first step to taking your business more seriously. It will also help for your clients or customers to know that you are a registered business too. This may be something that your accountant can also help with.
Hire Someone
If you’re really ready to get moving with the rest of your business, you may find that it’s time to hire your first employee. With some support, you should be able to manage your workload better and focus on growth.
You may even be at the point where you need to hire an entire team, so make your choices here based on how well your side hustle is going.
Find A Workspace
Do you need to branch out? For a lot of people, when the time comes for them to start thinking a lot more seriously about their side hustle, it’s going to be important for them to find suitable business premises.
But choosing an office space, warehouse, or even store can be tough.
You have to make sure that you consider the size, the price, the facilities, and the location and make it fit for your business.
Find Suppliers
Another key move to make here is to find the right suppliers. Maybe you’re ready to launch a product? Or maybe you need equipment or uniforms for your business?
Regardless, you need to seek out the specialists in their field that have the right options, like intricate manufacturing machinery, capabilities to produce a beauty product or make women’s scrubs available for your needs.
Then you can make your orders to get going.
Focus On Growth
And finally, the last step for you to be focusing on here is growth. Because you may already know that your business is doing well, but you won’t be able to just take steps and then see success.
You have to keep working at it. You’ll want to ensure that you are coming up with a five or even ten your plan for where you want to take your business.
It can seem daunting or irrelevant, but if you do want to turn your side hustle into a big business, it’s this step that will continue to make it happen.
So now that you have some ideas to get you started, are you ready to turn your side-hustle into a full-time thing?
It can be daunting at first, especially when you’re not used to running something yourself. But remember, you’re already doing it! Just make sure that you’re working through the motions that you’re used to, and take your time.
These options are all there to help you make a success of things. But you don’t have to do everything at once.
After all, it’s your side thing, so you can take it wherever you want to.
Over to You Moms
How are you doing on this checklist?
Do you need help with any of these? If you need help setting up your blog, then I’m your girl.
If you have any questions or can offer help or advice to Mompreneurs who are at this stage of their business, please leave a comment below.
