Side hustle, freelancer, weekend gig, volunteer—it doesn’t matter what you call it—but more and more people these days have something going on the side. How do you take your side hustle to the next level though? Let’s start by defining what a “side hustle” actually is. A side hustle is something you do outside your regular full-time “job”. We put that in quotes because “job” could also indicate your primary small business, a full-time volunteering role, or your role as a house-spouse. Here are some quick examples of side hustles: Making jewelry you sell on weekends at craft fairs/shows. Starting a 2nd small business with a friend, colleague, client, or even family. Owning and managing investment properties. Volunteering as Treasurer of your strata council or children’s sports team. There are many different ways people are making money these days, and having a side hustle (or multiple side hustles) is often part of the equation. But for those who want to achive side hustle success, there are a few key things you need to do. #1. Delegate When you’re starting up, it’s understandable that you want to do everything yourself. It’s hard to let go of things because it’s your side hustle and you have a certain way of doing things. But if you don’t free up time for what’s important, or delegating tasks to those who perform said tasks well (read: better or faster than you), then you’re not maximizing potential and you’ll start wasting time—time that could be spent growing your business. This rings true in many areas of a small business. Do you do your own books? Own numerous investment properties and manage them all? Still trying to build your own ecommerce store with WordPress? While you may have skills and knowledge of how to do certain tasks, it doesn’t always make sense to do them all, especially if someone else can do it quicker, for less money, or better than you. Free up your time to concentrate on the important tasks that will help grow your business. #2. Hustle A side hustle often what you do in your spare time, rather, whatever spare time you can muster. It’s called a side “hustle” for a reason—you do need to put in some extra time and hustle. For those with children, this time is precious and you need to take advantage of every moment in order to achieve side hustle success. Here are some situations that you might relate to: Waiting for a friend who is notoriously late? Why not run some Income Statement reports for your Strata Council. Do you have time between plays at your child’s sport practice? Sounds like an opportunity to input some expenses for your side hustle. Take public transit to get to work? Call a client or supplier to arrange a delivery, site visit, or to simply make a customer service call. By using these pockets of downtime you’re making the most of your spare time and using said time efficiently, or put another way: you’re hustling! #3. Plan As mentioned above, taking advantage of pockets of downtime is an important factor in achieving side hustle success. But you have to take that one step further. Knowing you have 20 minutes a day is great, but if you don’t know what to do during that 20 minutes, well, you may just end up sidetracked watching the latest viral video. Planning certain tasks doesn’t come first try, and you have to be diligent about it. But if you plan to do certain aspects at regular intervals, it becomes habit, and strong habits are essential to side hustle success. #4. Make it Official If you haven’t already, register for a tax number with your government. Next, invest in some accounting software like Kashoo to track your income, expenses, and sales taxes. Making a small and simple investment like this makes it much more of a real business than some “side hustle”. Here’s how Kashoo’s accounting software can help with the three previous points above: Delegate with Kashoo Kashoo is a multi-user accounting software program. When you start your side hustle you’ll likely want to do your own books. Kashoo is easy to setup, easy to learn, and easy to use. But as your side hustle grows you’ll want to start delegating tasks, so hiring someone to enter invoices, expenses, or perform monthly reconciliations is something that can easily be delegated. This can free up some of your time to run the important reports in Kashoo, like the Income Statement Report, so you can see the health of your business and make informed decisions. Hustle with Kashoo Once again, here’s an example of how by using accounting software like Kashoo you can take advantage of these pockets of time. With our iOS apps you can get caught up on entering your expenses (and attaching receipts) from a weekend workshop you just ran, all while standing in line for a coffee, waiting to board a plane, or on a ferry to Vancouver Island. You can send invoices to clients, or run reports to see a quick snapshot of the health of your side hustle. Accounting software helps keep your side hustles finances organized, and the sooner your start inputting those invoice and expenses, the sooner you’ll be able to see the true health of that side hustle. Plan with Kashoo Using Kashoo, you can plan your entire week using those 20 minutes of free time while riding transit, on your lunch break, during soccer practice, swimming lessons, or some other pocket of time. Let’s take that spare time on your lunch break. Here’s a quick rundown of how a little planning can gain you some free time elsewhere. Monday: Input expenses from a weekend workshop, attach any scanned receipts. Tuesday: Run report of outstanding bills and invoices (aged payable and receivable), resend invoices to clients so you can get paid sooner. Wednesday: Reconcile transactions to your bank statement. Thursday: Run Income Statement Report to see what is selling/not selling and take appropriate future desired actions. Friday: Arrange a sales promo, remove a product listing, or contact clients based on Income Statement report findings on Thursday. Many of Kashoo’s clients started out this way, working for someone else, then having that moment of; “hey, I can do this”. It may start as a side hustle and morph into something bigger, or it can remain a side hustle, it’s up to you. Having a side hustle can be a fun venture, but don’t let it become a burden. Doing the four things above can help your side hustle succeed and grow into something much bigger—hey, that’s why you’re doing it in the first place, right! Own multiple businesses? Kashoo has an Additional Business subscription plan where you can save 75% on a regular annual subscription for each additional business. Contact us and mention this blog and we’ll get you set up.
