Exactly How To Find Your Next Side Hustle
By: Shaunta Grimes
Tags: Life Lessons, Entrepreneurship, Self, Work, Business

First, let me just say that I actually really hate the word hustle. It sounds scammy and there’s nothing scammy about what I’m about to teach you.

But it’s part of the lexicon. And when I say ‘side hustle’ you know what I mean. A job outside of your regular gig. Or, if you don’t have a regular gig, something that’s not a 9-to-5.

Second, I know this would be sexier if I was promising you a strategy for working four hours a year and spending the rest of your time at Disneyland or something like that.

There might be a way to do that. If there is, I don’t know what it is. And to be honest, I don’t want to know. I love my work. I sometimes just look around at my life and marvel at the fact that I’ve figured out how to get myself to this place.

When I was in my early twenties, I was a single mother earninng $12,000 a year.

Today, I’m a writer and a teacher (on my own terms) earning $100,000 a year.

My experience is that working for yourself is hard, but good. If you’re looking for some magic bean that will make it easy, or non-exsistent, this is not the article for you. I don’t have that.

But I do know how to hustle, as much as I dislike the word. Because I think I may have been born hustling. It’s in my blood, inherited from my dad who has always been allergic to traditional jobs.

I’ve never liked working for someone else. It makes me feel claustraphobic.

I believe that you can put your skills, assets, interests, and the needs of your community together into something that will meet your needs. And that eventually, you can hustle your way into work that’s a perfect fit for you.

After twenty-five years of finding my own work, my own way, I’ve learned some things about how to do it.

Side hustle refers to freelancing, the gig economy (driving for Uber or Lyft, renting space via Airbnb, working for a food delivery service, etc.), selling online, small community-based businesses (like babysitting and dogwalking) and pretty much any kind of home-based self-employment.

Here’s what hustling means to me: My time is my own — for better or for worse. It means that even when I work for someone else, that work is in service to my creative work.

In other words, when I’ve had to go find a job that gives me a paycheck that’s a side hustle to my real work.

It means that I get to be a writer all the time and not just in the spaces in between. It’s a mind game, I guess. But it works for me.

Here’s what hustling does not mean to pretty much anyone who has actually done it: Easy days. It’s hard work. And you have to learn how to balance your life, because it’s really difficult to turn work off when you don’t have a boss and you’re responsible for the whole shebang.

For me, it started when I was a single mom with a little boy whose autism meant he couldn’t go to day care. I had to figure out how to earn a living without a regular job. Eventually, it just became my thing.

I did not decide one day to start a fantastic business that I’m in love with and it was all rainbows and roses from there. I started out doing work I didn’t love quite as much. I started out writing for a lot less money and a lot less of the time.

You might start out driving for Uber while you wait for your homemade cupcake business to catch on, is what I’m saying. Or babysitting while you learn to write novels. Or dogwalking while you build up your dog grooming gig.

Here’s my formula for finding out you next side hustle, developed after twenty-five years of living it.

Figure Out Your What and Why

You might think you know this already. I mean — duh, you want a side hustle because you want to make some money. What other reason?

But it will help if you can really figure out exactly what you need your side hustle to do for you and why.

So instead of something vague like I need to figure out a way to make some money try to come up with a real concrete goal.

Something like:

I need to earn $250 a month to cover my car payment.

I need to earn $500 a month to replace my reduced hours at my day job.

I need to earn $1500 a month to replace my parttime job.

I need to earn $3000 this year to take a trip to visit my family.

Knowing exactly what you need will make it easier for you to have reasonable expectations for your efforts and it will give you something real to work toward.

I want to make some money is so vague and open ended that it practically guarantees failure.

Make a List of Your Skills and Assets

Get out a notebook and start listing every skill you possess that might possibly lend itself to a side hustle.

Beware, though, that this task might give you white page syndrome. You might freeze up and decide that you don’t have any marketable skills at all. Just take a breath. I promise that you do.

Not only that, but I bet you have more skills than you think you do.

Think about every job you’ve ever had. Every scrap of experience you’ve gained over the course of your life. Even if you’ve never had a job before, you’ve probably had life experiences that translate into marketable skills.

Here are some thinking points to get you started.

What were you good at in high school?

What did you study in college (even if it was just one community college class)?

What jobs have you had?

Do you speak a language other than English?

Are you strong and healthy? (This is a skill! Write it down.)

What do you know how to do well?

What do you have a knack for?

What do your friends ask for your help with?

What are you always asked for your advice about?

Take a look at your bookshelf. What have you studied on your own?

Do you have a family business?

Think about your past experiences.

Don’t spend any time right now thinking about how any of it will translate to a hustle, just list it all.

One thing to remember: you only need to be a tiny bit ahead of someone to teach them something. My older daughter earned a little money teaching piano lessons all through college. She’d never even played the piano, but she played the clarinet in high school and she could read music. That’s all that was required to teach five year olds.

Also list any assets you have. If you have a car, a cell phone, any kind of license or degree, put them on your list. Think about anyone you know who might help you get started with a side hustle. For instance, if you are close to someone who might be willing to help you with some aspect of your hustle or teach you how to do something you need to know how to do, list them.

Think About Your Schedule and Your Needs

How much time do you have to invest in your side hustle?

If you’ve got a day job that eats sixty hours a week, there’s no way you’re going to be able to put another sixty into building a complicated side business from scratch. You’re going to need something that’s less time consuming. Maybe you’ll want to take on a freelance client, doing the same work as your day job, which might eventually lead to shifting away from working so many hours for someone else.

If you’ve got more time and some resources, but you need money quickly, that’s a whole different set of considerations. You’ll want something that will let you put hours in, but with a quick return. Maybe something in the gig economy like driving for Uber or Lyft or renting out part of your house on Airbnb.

I’ve you’ve got another source of income and you’re not desperate for the money right away, you might have the time and resources to develop a slower-burn side hustle. You’d be in a good position for starting a business selling handcrafted items on Etsy, for instance.

Pay Attention to What Other People Need and Want

This part is important.

It’s not enough to only think about what you want to do. You need to look around you and notice the empty spaces that you can fill.

It’s not just about dire, obvious needs. I mean, those are good. If your community really needs someone to fill a direct need that you have the ability to fill, by all means, do it.

But one day 20 years ago I noticed that the thrift stores in Las Vegas were full of vintage clothes. No one was buying them. But tons of people were buying vintage clothes off eBay. Those eBay shoppers really wanted the vintage clothes that were moldering away in the Las Vegas thrift stores.

They needed me to bridge the gap for them.

And then I realized something else. There were models in Las Vegas and there were photographers. And all of them really needed each other. They were willing to work for free, if someone would put them together and provide them with a reason for a photo shoot (and some interesting clothes to put on the model) to build up their portfolios.

So I did that and suddenly my eBay ads were amazing. And I had a business that filled a need for all kinds of people — vintage clothing enthusiasts, models, and photographers.

Put it All Together

Once you know what you need from your side hustle, spend some time looking at your list of skills and assets.

Try to think outside of the box.

Here are some side hustles I’ve worked in the past.

Document Preparation. Skills: Writing, patience with people in crisis, waiting in line. Assets: My dad could teach me how to do the preparation, I owned a car that would allow me to go to the court house to file documents, I was young and energetic enough to deal with all that standing in line. Time: I prepared divorces and bankruptcies for people to file without lawyers. Each one took me about two hours and I usually had four clients a week, each earning me $200. I started earning money nearly immediately after posting an ad in a local weekly newspaper.

Skills: Writing, patience with people in crisis, waiting in line. Assets: My dad could teach me how to do the preparation, I owned a car that would allow me to go to the court house to file documents, I was young and energetic enough to deal with all that standing in line. Time: I prepared divorces and bankruptcies for people to file without lawyers. Each one took me about two hours and I usually had four clients a week, each earning me $200. I started earning money nearly immediately after posting an ad in a local weekly newspaper. Online Vintage Clothing Seller. Skills: A good eye for vintage clothes at thrift stores, basic sewing skills, photography, computer skills, copywriting, marketing. Assets: a computer, a camera, a car, a sewing machine, a washing machine. Time: This job could take as little or as much time as I had to give it. At a bare minimum, I needed to shop, clean and repair the items, photograph and list the items, and then prepare and ship them when they sold. I started earning money quickly after making my first eBay listings, but didn’t turn a profit for a couple of months.

Skills: A good eye for vintage clothes at thrift stores, basic sewing skills, photography, computer skills, copywriting, marketing. Assets: a computer, a camera, a car, a sewing machine, a washing machine. Time: This job could take as little or as much time as I had to give it. At a bare minimum, I needed to shop, clean and repair the items, photograph and list the items, and then prepare and ship them when they sold. I started earning money quickly after making my first eBay listings, but didn’t turn a profit for a couple of months. Etsy Shop Owner. Skills: crafting ability, photography, computer skills, copywriting, marketing. Assets: a computer, a camera, a car, basic tools, a sewing machine, an email list. Time: Like the online vintage clothing store, this shop took as much time as I gave it. But at a minimum, I had to craft the items to sell, the photograph and list them, and ship them when they sold. I still run this hustle! It started earning a profit within about three months.

Skills: crafting ability, photography, computer skills, copywriting, marketing. Assets: a computer, a camera, a car, basic tools, a sewing machine, an email list. Time: Like the online vintage clothing store, this shop took as much time as I gave it. But at a minimum, I had to craft the items to sell, the photograph and list them, and ship them when they sold. I still run this hustle! It started earning a profit within about three months. Freelance Writing/Blogging. Skills: writing, marketing. Assets: a computer, an email list, a college education (eventually, but not when I started). Time: Varies widely. If you blog, you can just write and post without worrying about an editor, usually. If you want to freelance for publications, you’ll need to pitch story ideas and that can take months. It can take months or even years to start making a significant amount of money, or it can happen very quickly.

Skills: writing, marketing. Assets: a computer, an email list, a college education (eventually, but not when I started). Time: Varies widely. If you blog, you can just write and post without worrying about an editor, usually. If you want to freelance for publications, you’ll need to pitch story ideas and that can take months. It can take months or even years to start making a significant amount of money, or it can happen very quickly. Dog Walking. Skills: good with animals, athletic. Assets: a computer, a printer. Time: About a half hour per day, per client. This one wasn’t actually me. It was my daughter. She printed out flyers offering her services to our neighbors and was hired to walk a lovely Australian shepherd named Charlie for $20 a day. Not a bad little side hustle for a 13-year-old.

You see how it works. Put your skills and assets together, see what need you can fulfill, and how it fits into your time restraints. Figure out what kind of service or niche you might carve out for yourself in the world.

That’s your side hustle.

My experience has been that when you pair your skills with the needs you see around you, the hustle works.

Some businesses take longer than others to gain traction, of course. There’re learning curves, established markets, and your entry point to take into consideration. Which is why you need to pay attention to your needs and schedule.

If you need money now, you’ll do better with driving for Uber or Lyft right now than you will with starting a blog, for instance.

With the gig economy, the market can handle more people entering it, the learning curve is very low, and you enter at the point where you can expect to earn an income as soon as you start to work.

With blogging the learning curve varies depending on your experience, but if you’re a new writer it can be very high, the market is flooded with other writers and it can be difficult to stand out, and you enter at a place where it’s not unusual to do a lot of work before you’re paid.