Mentor Network: Starting your side-hustle while finding employment – Kristine Tudhope

Job hunting can be really tough! Sometimes it’s difficult to find the exact right fit for you. Which means it often can take a looong time to finally sign on the dotted line. You may not have enough financial resources at your disposal. So, bring on the side-hustle!

Defining the side-hustle

“A piece of work or a job that you get paid for doing in addition to doing your main job”

Side-hustles start for different reasons. Most commonly they are born out of the need to generate extra income. Sometimes you may be lucky enough to convert your passion into a side hustle! If you can profit from things that excite you, you will find a lot of joy in your life.

Why I need to hustle

It allows you flexibility in your income – plan well and you could even continue once you are employed.
If nurtured, it could become a successful business. Over time this can allow greater work-life balance. Plus, you might be getting to do the one thing you love!

This is a perfect opportunity for you to grow, both personally and professionally. Running a successful business can give you an extra edge during interviews.

Having many streams of income allows you to build up some security. These emergency savings could prove useful during the next catastrophe!

It’s a great opportunity to network and get to know new people. This could open doors to find your perfect job.

How do I start?

Make the commitment.

Firstly, understand that starting a business can be time-consuming. It is important to schedule time to do some job hunting, as well as working on your side-hustle. Be wary of committing so much time to your business that you end up neglecting your job search.

The easiest way to do this is by designating the first half of your day to finding employment. The latter half can focus on building your business. Having clear routines that will help you switch your mindset from one to the other will stand you in good stead.

Picking a side-hustle

Now, we can start figuring out what type of side-hustle we want to start. Use our FREE worksheet to help you through this process.

A good starting point is to consider your skills, passions and talents.

Here are some questions that you can use to identify what they are:

What are you good at?
What do you love doing?
What are your hobbies?
What are you passionate about?

Next, consider if there are specific problems that you or your friends face. Think of areas in your life where you are often frustrated or hear a lot of people complaining.

It is important to find a specific problem that you can help to solve. If there is no problem, then no one will want to buy what you are selling.

Some questions that you can answer are:

Is there a specific problem that you’re facing?
What keeps you up at night from frustration?
Where do you spend too much money?
Where do you waste too much time?

Lastly, you can match your skills to the problems you’ve identified. It is crucial that they align when coming up with your solution. If you miss this link, your side-hustle may fail before it even starts.

Answer these questions:

What can you do to resolve the problem?
Who will pay you to resolve this problem?
Is there a more expensive problem you can help solve?

Next steps

Once you’ve found an idea you’d like to pursue, you’re ready for the next step.
Do some market research
Who are your competitors?
Who would your clients be? Where will you find them?
How should you advertise your services?
Think about the financial implications
How much will it cost you to deliver your product or service?
What do you think people will be willing to pay?
How many products do you need to sell to make sure you’re viable?
Do you need to invest any money to get the idea going?
Do a little bit of planning
Set SMART goals for your business
Think about what this will look like in the long term. Are you stopping as soon as you are employed?
Do you need to find someone else to partner with you?
Who will be your accountability partner to keep you on track?
Popular ideas for side-hustles:
Tutor students and scholars
Sell your stuff online
Use social media – become an influencer or help a business manage their social media
Take up odd-jobs on virtual platforms such as Upwork.com and Fiverr.com
Babysit, house-sit or pet-sit for friends or family
Deliver food or be a waitron at your local restaurant
Teach English (or other skills) online
Start a cooking or baking service

If you need more creative ideas, check out SideHustleNation.

Starting a side-hustle is totally doable. It just requires some discipline, focus, planning and perseverance. To learn more about running a business, hop over to UPvisor for our latest content and great resources! You can also get in touch with Kristine Tudhope CA (SA) for some one-on-one consultation time.

Good luck with your new side-hustle!

Kristine Tudhope, Founder of UPvisor, qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2015 and moved into entrepreneurship after a short period in industry. She recognises the need for support, encouragement and knowledge that other entrepreneurs have, because she feels it too!

Kristine has a passion for seeing people unlock their full potential and has taken on the privilege of serving other entrepreneurs and business owners with enthusiasm.
UPvisor was born to raise a generation of youth that are employable and enterprising, well-skilled and excellent at what they do, and feel like they have a meaning and purpose in life. Through training, coaching and consulting in finance, technology and entrepreneurship, we unlock potential one interaction at a time.