Side Hustle Secrets – In this episode I reveal my top success tips for Part-Time Entrepreneurs. This episode was created to fulfill a promise I made to the Smart Passive Income community at FlynnCon 1 in Sad Diego in July. I hope these tips are helpful.
All this and more on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.
Show Notes
When you are a person with many commitments, how do you move forward with an internet business on a regular basis and make consistent progress?
Here are some tips that I've learned over the years that you can apply on your side hustle for a better chance of being successful at moving your business forward part-time:
- There is no such thing as easy money – these ads that you see where people are working for 2 hours a week, living on a beach, driving a Ferrari — that's not real. Everyone I know who’s wildly successful has put in a tremendous amount of effort. Don’t have the mindset either that you can only make money if you work crazy hard. You can work smart: deliver massive value and get paid a lot of money.
- Create value to derive money from your business – if you want to make serious money, you must solve a serious problem. Have the mindset that you are creating value for interaction — you need to serve that person first. This is a very important mindset for a side hustle entrepreneur because you don't have all that much time to touch your customers.
- Be absolutely clear on why you're building your business – there are two kinds of motivation: ‘moving away from’ motivation where you're imagining being free of some burden; and the motivation where you're creating something because it's what you really want. Part-time entrepreneurship requires focus and self-discipline, and thus, the need for motivation.
- Have a big dream – whatever your dream is that fits with your ‘why’, spend time visualizing that dream. This can be highly motivational and a great hack for part-time entrepreneurs to keep you focused and moving in the right direction.
- Execute small – take small steps, break down tasks into bite-sized chunks. If you have a big dream of helping people with this amazing course, the small thing that you have to work on today, for example, is outlining that first module.
- Leverage your interest – fall in love with the problem that you're solving as it is easier to keep going if you're doing something that you're interested in.
- Side hustling is a marathon, not a sprint – don't exhaust yourself, don't burn out. Be careful about going too hard and too fast. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be aggressive, just be sure to pace yourself.
- Practical implementation of goals – write down what you want to accomplish in the next three to five years but break things down into quarters. A tool you can use is Michael Hyatt's Full Focus Planner but a blank piece of paper will do as well.
- Have a mentor – follow the footsteps of someone who came before you, either directly or indirectly.
- Invest in yourself – whatever it is that you want to do or become, invest in yourself for that journey. This will last you for the lifetime of your business — the more you learn, the more efficient you become, the faster you will profit.
- Take massive and repeated action – do something every day to move your business forward. Don't let a day go by where you don't at least take some action, even if you can only spend 20 minutes. This keeps your business top of mind and allows you to stay focused from a psychological perspective on your business.
- Have a schedule and protect it – schedule appointments, even with yourself, and have the integrity to keep them.
Things to avoid when you're a side hustler:
- Don't steal from your day job – put yourself on your employer’s shoes. Don't work on your side hustle during your day job as you are using their resources.
- The shiny object syndrome – don’t go after promotions and the like as this just undermines your resolve to do the thing you need to do.
- Don't overextend yourself financially – piling bills can cause us to make the wrong decisions. Don't spend money too quickly or get too far in debt with your side hustle business.
- Avoid businesses that don't scale – it’s okay at first if you're doing something to get started but have the foresight to plan out ways on how to scale.
- Don’t quit your day job too soon – that's the money that's allowing you to the opportunity to run your side hustle business so don’t resign from your job. But also, don't quit mentally on your day job too soon. Don’t get so mentally wrapped up in your side hustle business that it’s all you can think of and your performance in your day job starts to suffer.
- Financial tidiness – don’t mix your money. Have a business checking account and run all business expenses and all business income through that. Don't ever cross the beams with regard to finances.
Links Mentioned In This Episode
- Sweet Brown – Ain't Nobody Got Time For This
- Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or Spotify
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