The Different Faces of Side Hustle

The Different Faces of Side Hustle Photo by Jonas Svidras on Unsplash [Article republished from “Mondays with Mike â€" 2/19/18” email newsletter  ==  Subscribe to get weekly newsletter in your inbox plus FREE REPORT]  Being part of several freelance/side hustle/work from home groups on Facebook, I get to see the different types of questions that come up.   I started to notice a few trends or commonalities around each type of group. Work From Home Theyre focused on opportunities like Virtual Assistant or Transcriptionist  or Customer Service jobs.   These are part time gigs that typically pay by the unit, deliverable, or hour.   And the rates are typically really low.   These are often below minimum wage jobs (if you calculated the rate hourly rather than by the unit). Many of the people here are just trying to survive.   Many have limited skills or education.   Or theyve had major life impacts like divorce (stuck raising kids alone and have lost the second income provider from their lives) or health issues. Here it isnt about doing what they want or reaching their full potential.   Theyre just trying to survive.   Many times theyre desperate to make money.   And make it fast.   This is where many of the scam artists and get rich quick and MLM purveyors hang out and prey on their desperatation. You see the pain and frustration of just trying to put food on the table.   But complex solutions and even paying for a website or web hosting is too much money. Theyre often looking for a work from home option because they have kids and cant work in a normal full time job around the pick up and delivery schedules of their kids.   With the internet this has become a more viable option.   There are a lot of work from home opportunities out there.   But you often have to cull through many bad ones to get to something decent. This is a place the Facebook work from home groups can be immensely helpful.   Many have gone through the frustrations themselves and are more than willing to provide good guidance. Side Hustle The main side hustle crowd often has the basics handled.   They have some spare time on their hands that theyre willing to devote to a side hustle.   But the side hustle or freelance work has to generate something substantial enough to be worth the effort and prioritizing over family time. Here is where online marketing, affiliate marketing, coaching, and freelance tech and design work fits in. Youll see web designers, Amazon product marketers, authors, and people who have their eyes on the big dollars. For these people youre finding most have a good day job and just want an extra couple hundred dollars to a few thousand on the side each month. A handful also want to eventually leave their day job and do their side hustle as their full time gig.   But this is a low percentage of the whole.   The rest are just looking for a little extra money and to learn, have fun, and create something meaningful that their day job doesnt provide. Sometimes the work aligns and supports their day job.   Or it is what they do on their day job just applied as a freelance business.   They may be a game coder during the day and do more coding as a freelancer at night.   Or theyre an internet marketer whos day job is in digital marketing but maybe just a small portion of it. Entrepreneur/Startup Then there is the group who is going full bore to create a new business full time.   They may start as a side hustle but their goal is to create a business that can more than replace their full time income. This is a much bigger operation and often involves more contractors and employees that the work from home or side hustle model requires.   This is true business building.   And it takes a certain personality and mindset.   You have to be comfortable with higher levels of risk.   And you need to be someone who can both sell a big vision and also build and manage a team of people as the operation is often much more complex than the side hustle model.   Many times there is more than one founder as each person brings a different skill set to the operation. This is where big valuation dollars are found and money is made or lost rapidly.   This is where the Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Founders hang out.   Theyre looking for the next idea they can leverage to the stratosphere.   Something, that if developed right, can create the next Google.   But typically about 1 out of 10 are hits and the other 9 flounder or go under. Employee Route The final route is typically the easiest to maneuver.   The entire business world is set up to make being an employee easy.   They give you the rules and you follow them just like school.   Youre accountable but typically not to the same level as the founder. The good side of this is predictability.   You know when you go to work.   You know when you leave.   You get a paycheck every two weeks.   You get holidays and paid vacations.   You have most weekends to yourself. The downside of this is you are still at the whim of your manager or the employer.   If they dont manage things well you essentially only have one client (the business you work for).   And you could be out of a job in an instant through no fault of your own. The other problem with this is you arent designing your own future typically within that one company.   You may design your career but the company may or may not be a long term play. Whereas with the Entrepreneurship model you are charting your own course. So what is the right model for you to work? Ultimately it is up to you.   It is your choice.   Only you know your skills, interests, family situation, and risk tolerance. I know for me the side hustle plus employee route has been the best.   It allows me to have a core career that Ive developed and is now coupled with my side hustle that allows me to create and provide value in a different way.   And it is something I can leverage into my retirement years and scale up or down (on the side hustle front) as makes sense. So what about you?   Where are you at?   Have you thought about your situation?   Are you do for a change? If youre considering your options, email me.   You may find it makes sense to work with someone whos been through several of these options and can provide guidance to help you along your journey. Or maybe youve already gotten started on one of these and need help getting to the next level. Either way, have fun and let me know if I can help.