Managing Your Time and Resources
Whether your side hustle has experienced some small successes, some large successes, or even a few failures along the road by this point, you might have realized something. Time is the biggest resource you have, and there often isn’t enough of it during the day. Most side hustles are just that, side hustles that are complimenting a main job that a person has.
If you are working during the day for your main job and then coming home at night for your side hustle, it can get quite taxing on the body and the mind, and you might find that you are running out of time to get things done for one or both obligations.
Additionally, if you have a family, other hobbies or obligations, or emergencies seem to pop up around every single corner, then soon it might seem that you have no time whatsoever to make anything other than incremental progress on your side hustle. Even if you don’t expect your side hustle to be anything more than something fun to do, and not a replacement for your main business, it can still be discouraging to never have the time.
Effective Time Management Techniques
If you want to add a side hustle into your life, then you need to follow some time management tips in order to make sure you give your side hustle the respect it deserves. For example, guard your side hustle time. If you are serious about wanting to advance your side hustle, then you need to treat it like your main job. Just like your main job has hours that you need to be working there, you need to give your side hustle hours too.
So maybe for two hours during the evening you sit and work on your side hustle without any interruptions, and you make it clear to family and friends that you need to focus and won’t be available for them. Or maybe you get up early and work on your side hustle over breakfast.
Regardless, try to set a block of time and attempt to stick with it every single day. Another tip is to write down all the progress you made as well with each day you worked. This can give you some serious motivation whenever you need it and it can also make sure that you are keeping yourself on track and aren’t wasting a ton of time.
Additionally, try to take a look at your schedule and see if there are any areas where you have spare time. Now, it can be very easy to look at the lack of time you already are dealing with and focus on that, while bemoaning that you don’t have any spare time, but you might have some.
Maximizing Productivity in Your Spare Time
Be honest with yourself. Do you really need to watch two hours of the same TV shows every night? Do you have to take an hour long lunch every day? Do you need to spend those extra 30 minutes in bed looking at your phone every morning and night? It will take some sacrifices and a bit of getting used to, but you will soon find that you might be able to squeeze a bit more spare time out of your day than you thought. Don’t be afraid to use that time to be very productive and work on your side hustle. Even if you only get one or two things checked off your list every day, that is still progress, and slow progress is much better than no progress at all!
Finally, you shouldn’t just focus on managing your time, but also your resources. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to run a side hustle on a shoestring budget, if you have a few more resources, or if you already have some resources to call upon and things to put in place. All that really matters isn’t the number of resources you have, but how you choose to manage them.
So make sure to manage your resources wisely and ensure that you are always asking yourself what your business needs. While it might be easy to buy a brand new website with more bits and bobs than you know what to do with, or to get the premium email list plan so you can send more emails per day, don’t get so caught up in what your business might need that you forget all about what your business does need.
Managing Finances and Resources Wisely
As we will see in the next chapter, it is much easier to scale your business when you need to scale it, rather than trying to manage a scaled business that you don’t have enough customers to sustain. So make sure to always ask yourself what the business needs, and don’t be afraid to be a little frugal even if you have some more resources to play with.
Additionally, and this isn’t mentioned nearly enough in the circles of people who do side hustles, don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you need a logo designed and have someone in your corner who is a kickass artist, ask them to help. Same if you know a coder, a writer, or a marketing expert. While it can be a little scary to share a side hustle idea with people in your circle, especially if that idea isn’t 100% perfect or finished yet, by asking for help you will save time, money, and the frustration of having to figure things out by yourself.
Plus, by the time your business scales you will be outsourcing jobs and delegating tasks anyway, so you might as well get good at it now! Don’t be afraid to really focus on making both your time and your resources work for you and your needs, because that is going to help you succeed with your side hustle!