Posted by A full-time job takes up well, a huge chunk of your adult life. It’s what keeps the roof over your head, lets you think you have some semblance of control over your finances (with prices for essentials like petrol fluctuating), spend on your family, enjoy an assortment of meals, and on occasion, treat yourself. Seems like a pretty sweet deal, no? So, where does your side hustle come in?
It is as good of a time as any to indulge your creative side. This is a time of unlimited potential. As far as side hustles go (aka passion projects), whoever said one stream of income is enough to live the life you truly want to? Take those who’ve already made it up the ladder – there’s almost always multiple streams of income in their story.
Alas, to some employees dismay (those with non-compete clauses in their contracts at least), the full-time gig isn’t enough to bring all your life goals to reality. In fact, plenty of full-time workers find it difficult to stay afloat with just one income stream. But then again, when you’re bogged down with just one job – what will two or even three jobs mean for your work-life balance?
Here’s how you can maintain your full-time job and side hustle simultaneously.
Decisions, decisions
Set a clear timeline and success markers for what you want to achieve with your side hustle. Also, take a look at your objectives for both jobs in the long run. This will help you decide if and for how long you want to juggle both gigs and stay on the right track. You even have the option of pursuing your passion project full time if that’s what your gut (and your finances) tell you to do.
There are different ways for you to turn your hobbies, regular weekend activities and time into passion projects that pay. This can help add to your cash flow, bringing you a step closer towards your financial goals.
It’s a cold world out there
Make sure your current employer is okay with you working a side job. Take a look through your employment contract to see where you stand. If you have a non-compete clause – you’d be better off working on something completely unrelated on the side.
In any case, it is good etiquette to speak to your boss privately just to make sure everyone is in the loop and to get approval / adhere to the stipulations of your employment contract. You certainly don’t want to start your side hustle by breaking rules or unintentionally burning bridges.
Keep your eye on the ball
Next, you need to stay on your A-game at your full-time job because working on your passion project does not mean that you get to slack off at work. Remember – this is your main source of income. In fact, you should be making yourself indispensable at work. Having your full-time job under control allows you to dedicate time for your side hustle.
Draw the line
How do you work towards trust? by setting expectations and boundaries as well as staying on top of your work. Allocate time for tasks and work hard to accomplish everything you set out to do for the day during business hours.
Do not use those working hours or your work equipment for your side hustle. When you’re delivering on your day job, you won’t have to spend time fixing mistakes later. Use all the resources at your disposal (even Google) and follow through.
Follow your timetable
So remember the timeline you worked on for both jobs? Now you’ve got to create a schedule for when and what you want to accomplish with your side gig. This could even be freelance work by the way. You can either do it on weekends, after work or wake up a couple of hours earlier to get things started. The choice is yours.
What’s your side hustle?
With all the different job/entrepreneurial opportunities available today, how do you decide which to work on? It’s when you find things you enjoy doing (making art, sewing, working with crafts), would be doing either way (training at the gym, swimming (to try out instructing), work you have time to do (becoming an Uber driver) or engaging in work that provides you with passive income (renting out a spare bedroom).