Infographic – TDWS Business Hosting
8 January 2020How to Start an eCommerce Business
10 February 2020It’s easy to look at the world’s wealthiest people and marvel at their accomplishments. Except for the cases where the wealth is inherited, the vast majority of millionaires and billionaires are self-made – they hustle and build empires. These wealthy empires don’t just appear out of thin air; they are worked for and pushed for over the course of a lifetime.
We have been working with a lot of entrepreneurs & Mompreneur or part-time hustlers who want to achieve their financial freedom and build empires. A lot of them start a side hustle and over time it actually becomes their main source of income.
How the heck can I build a side hustle so that it can replace my full-time income and I can have some sort of work life balance with my family?
- How many times did you feel financially depleted?
- Are you tired of living pay-check to pay-check?
- Your full-time job is not giving you the satisfaction you need but can’t leave it?
- Want to travel around the world with a passive income to ensure that your financial commitments are met?
- ……etc….
The best time to start a side hustle is TODAY! There no time better than this. You don’t have to wait until you are back up to the wall and there is no other place to go. We live in a time where starting your own online business couldn’t have been easier. Today, there are no excuses that are there for you NOT starting a side hustle.
I am presenting you with a few ideas that can generate a stable revenue for you.
Before you start with your Side Hustle there are key balancing points you need to understand and adhere to. If the disciple is not followed chances of success will diminish.
- Be ruthless with your schedule
- Learn to say “no” for things that are not productive
- Set realistic goals & don’t over-promise yourself
- Do not allow the urgent to distract you from the important
- Don’t respond to every invitation
- Given the choice between disappointing others and disappointing yourself; disappoint others
- Stayed Frugal
Idea #1: Blogging
This is the most obvious candidate for anyone who wants to start an online business. Blogging is the easiest side hustle that you can start and is a good source of income. Today there are bloggers who claim to make over 100K USD per month.
One of the best things about starting a blog is that it’s relatively cheap to set up. You can use our Business Hosting package which starts at 10$ per month (less than the cost of your coffee). Install WordPress and that’s it you are good to go.
How to Monetise my blog?
- Affiliate Income
- Banner Ads
- Sponsored/Guest Post
- Google AdSense
Other day, I was doing a followup chat with a client of ours. When I first interacted with her, she had passion for bakery and cooking. She want to get more “local” clients. She wanted to leave her current job and follow her passion. Passion for world culinary.
What I suggested is that she should try to setup a blog & YouTube channel with affiliate links from Amazon & also ads or sponsorship from various brands for her video. Heck, I helped her setting up her blog in WordPress, gave her ideas for social media marketing, SEO etc.
Soon than expected; her affiliate commission started to come in. Sponsorship from brands (Mixers, Ovens, Fermentation Stations, Juicer etc.) also started to pour in for her videos.
When we chatted, she is now travelling, writing reviews for cafe’s & restaurants, giving out new recipes etc.
Income Sources:
- Amazon Affiliate Links
- Food & Culinary Reviews
- Instagram Endorsements
- Banner Ads (on sidebar)
- YouTube Video with link to her website (mostly Sponsorship and not YouTube monetisation).
She has been financially independent for over a year now and it took her only about 8 months to get there.
If you can produce content and can engage your audience than this is the best side hustle for you!
Idea #2: Sell Digital Products
When you trade your time for money it is a regular 9 to 5 per hour job. Your time is limited so very soon your income will also be limited. This is why I never give the advice to sell your time by being a virtual assistant or gig etc.
The selling of digital products is one of the best ways to earn passive income. Gone are the days where you needed to set up a whole distribution network to sell your CD’s or Books etc. Today products that are digital make it extremely easy to sell.
Digital Products #1: Courses
There was a time in recent history where courses (non-personal) needed a lot of work to be sold. You needed a CD publisher, distribution network, etc. so that your courses will reach your target audience.
With various Learning Management System (LMS) selling of courses could never have been easier. It all depends on your expertise as to what type of courses you want to sell. Almost all niches and courses can be made available online. Some of the examples are:
- Software or Apps Development
- Business & Entrepreneurship
- Finance & Accounting
- Office Productivity
- Design
- Marketing
- Lifestyle
- ….etc…
If there is anything that can be taught you can create a course and sell it. The sky is the limit. All you need is good hosting and installs your LMS and you are ready.
Digital Products #2: eBooks
Publishing has never been easier. If you have a conviction in an idea or have a book, you don’t need to wait in a line to get publishers to appoint and get your book selected by him for a small royalty or if you are independent then you don’t need to print and distribute.
With the advent of self-publishing, you can write a book and quickly convert it into a PDF format. In case if you are not good with designing just hire a freelancer who will be willing to do it for you. Doing eBooks doesn’t require serious technology.
If you are not a good writer you can still create eBooks more like workbooks, dairy, planners, meal planners, etc. all you need to do is be creative and see what you can do and do it!
Once your eBook is ready all you need is a WordPress + WooCommerce site which can help you to sell your eBooks.
Digital Products #2: Templates
“Productize“ refers to the process of developing or altering a process, idea, skill or service to make it marketable for sale to the public.
When I started this article, I mentioned that selling your time is still doing a 9 to 5 job. With time being a limited resource it is essential that services are converted to products. Let’s say you are a graphics designer you can create templates in Abode Illustrator, Photoshop or even PowerPoint. There really is no limit to the types of templates you can create, from social media branding to logo creation. In this hustle all your effort vs time is exponential. This means if your designs are download “x” times you earn your money. No need to create new templates for each job.
The reason that templates as a market exists, is because a lot of businesses can’t afford to pay an expert to completely to create their branding. It makes it cost-effective for them and makes you more money vs if you were making money per hour basis.
Digital Products #3: Stock Photography
This is an extremely important & a growing niche. The demand for such photographs has been increasing. Photographs are used by websites, banners, social media, etc. When we look into the niche it’s not just selling of stock photos but can be expanded into selling filters (Abobe Lightroom) etc.
Having stock photography is a win-win for photographers as well as small business owners who need an affordable solution.
The list for digital products can just go on! It all depends on what is your passion, what get’s you going. Once you figure it out you can always create your own digital products.
Idea #3: E-Commerce or Dropshipping
More and more consumers are moving away from brick & mortar and are shopping online. They want the convenience to shop and want the product to be available where they live.
E-Commerce & Dropshipping is an arbitrage business and one of the easiest ways to get into this business. The fastest way to start this business is to purchase a turnkey website that has products that can be dropshipped. A turnkey website is a website that is ready to do business from the word go, the only modification will be payment gateway setting and contact details. The barriers of entry is as little as 250$ or if the website is already doing business they will charge a premium.
There are other aspects of E-Commerce business, such as creating and selling Tees online. There are a lot of on-demand printing companies who can print and fulfill the orders for you.
Final Thoughts
The secret to any side hustle formula requires a beautiful idea that works well + hard work + consistency.
Only a beautiful idea is not going to take you to success, it’s just a start. You will also need to make sure that there is enough amount of time and hard work provided to your ideas in order to make it work and profitable.
Finally, think about the services and you can offer confidently and get moving towards achieving your goals. There are thousands of people who have started a side hustle and replaced their day job to a full-time business. So, what are you waiting for? If you have an idea about side hustle that suits you better, give it a start now.