How To Juggle A Side-Hustle While Working Full Time

The side-hustle. It seems like everyone’s got one. And why not? Never before have there been so many opportunities to build your dream career even when you’re still stuck in your boring 9-5 job. Social media has opened the doors to new career paths by offering platforms for people to grow an audience that can convert into sales.

Who hasn’t thought of taking a crack at making their dreams a reality? Working from home offers wonderful flexibility and being your own boss can be incredibly rewarding. Maybe you’ve thought about starting your own side-hustle. Or maybe you’ve already got one (or two!) on the go.

Juggling two jobs while still making time for your family, staying fit, eating healthy, and having some sort of social life is demanding on your time and energy. It’s overwhelming and it’s scary to wonder if it’s worth all that effort.

There are no quick shortcuts to building your side-hustle, but there are some key things that can help you work smart and less hard. Read below to find out how you can better juggle your side-hustle while working full time for someone else.

Set Priorities For Your Side-Hustle

The key with any project is clearly knowing your why. Your why is the driving force that pushes you through the hardest phases of starting your business.

Making lots of money is not going to be enough motivation to push you through those hard times. If all you want is to make money, you can do that by getting a better paying job or by investing.

Better motivators are goals with a higher purpose. Examples might be:

Solving a problem in people’s lives with your product
Having a flexible schedule to spend more time with your family
Offering a service that has a positive impact on the environment
Working remotely so you can travel

With your goals clearly in focus, the decisions you face when building your side-hustle become easier to make. Relate every aspect of your business to whether it brings you closer to your goal, and if it doesn’t, eliminate it. In this way, you stop wasting your precious time and energy chasing offshoots of your business that are actually distractions from your goals.

Take Tangible Steps Everyday

Building a successful side-hustle into a full time business doesn’t happen overnight. Anything of true value always takes time to build. The amount of tasks that need to be accomplished can be daunting and many people let this overwhelm end their side-hustle before it starts.

Create a To-Do list of all the things you need to get down. Break down those tasks into small, actionable steps. Then commit to doing at least one of those steps every single day. Small steps forward will add up quickly over time.

The key is make each step tangible so you can actually see a result from finishing each step. Words and ideas don’t mean much if you don’t put action behind them.

Outsource Tasks You Don’t Do Well (Or Like To Do)

Remember how we covered that money is not your main goal? You already work a full time job so chances are, you don’t really need the money from your side-hustle just yet.

Reinvest your revenue back into your side-hustle to make it grow faster. The best way to do that is to outsource tasks that you don’t need to do yourself. Plus, you’ll get better results from hiring an expert.

Jobs to outsource could be:

Shooting your photography
Managing your social media
Building your website
Balancing your books

You can even outsource tasks in your personal life such as hiring a house cleaner or using a service to deliver your groceries.

It’s scary to spend your hard earned money so early in your side-hustle, but your time is more valuable. You can always make more money, but you can never get back your time. It’s worth investing money to reserve your time for what matters most in your business and in your life.

Let Go Of Perfection

There’s a popular saying in start-up world: If it’s not broken, you’re not moving fast enough. So many businesses fail because they’re waiting until every tiny aspect of their business is perfect before launching. The market won’t wait for your perfection and if you wait too long, your chance in the market may pass you by.

Let go of perfection because you’ll never get there anyway. Dive in even before you think you’re ready. You must be IN your business to learn it and only then can you improve.

No business ever succeeded without making mistakes, so embrace the ones you need to make in order to learn and grow.

Rest Or Burn Out

This is probably the hardest lesson to learn. When you have the drive and ambition to chase your dreams, taking a break seems like going backwards. But you can’t pour from an empty cup.

The biggest asset in your side-hustle is you. You need to take care of yourself or your business will suffer. It’s as simple as that.

Always make time to rest, both mentally and physically. Take a break from your work to spend time with your family and friends. Stop checking your emails right before bed and put a limit on how much time you spend on social media. When you’re able to switch off and recharge, it’s much easier to bring your A game when it’s time for you to switch back on.

Work smart, not hard when it comes to your side-hustle. Your goal is to build a sustainable, successful business in order to create the life you’ve always wanted. So set the terms of your dream business right from the beginning and start living the life you’ve always wanted today.