If you know me well, you know that when it comes to side hustles, I have more than I can count on one hand. My favorite part about side hustles is that you can do them at your speed & work them around your everyday schedule. I ran a poll on Instagram a couple of weeks back & so many of you wanted to see a blog post on side hustles, & how to best find ones that work for you. You guys always ask for a list, so here’s what I do in addition to my 9-5:

• Freelance Biography Writing
• Freelance Magazine Writing
• Product Sponsorships on Instagram
• Wedding Planning
• Digital Art Commissions
• Published Author on Amazon

First and foremost, side hustles should be specific to you & your talents. Just because someone else makes a ton of money off of their side hustle, doesn’t mean you will. You have to find your niche & expand on that.

Second, you have to know the different kinds of side hustles & how they work. For example, when I work weddings I may get paid a flat fee for that day, but when I do freelance magazine writing, I could get paid by the word. The idea is to figure out which one is more lucrative for you in that moment & put your energy there. Something like publishing a book on Amazon takes a ton of time & money up front on your end, but then you’ll be making residual income in perpetuity for doing virtually nothing.

There are certain side hustles that I love, but sometimes when I know they won’t make me as much money as another, I have to put them on pause. This is probably the hardest part of having so many streams of income, because it’s really on you to divide & manage your time. If time management isn’t a strong suit of yours, I would definitely recommend starting with one side hustle & seeing how it goes.

Deciding on the side hustle you want to pursue is probably the best part! Sometimes journaling or reflecting can help. For instance, if you find yourself watching House Hunters in your free time, you may want to look at getting your real estate license so you can sell houses on the weekend; one of the most popular side hustles out there! Or, if you love kids, maybe you start posting in local Facebook Groups with hourly zoom tutoring prices. The possibilities are endless when you decide what it is you want to pursue!

When you start a side hustle, you can’t shy away from self-marketing. Like all businesses, you will only be exposed as much as you put into it. If you share one Facebook status & never look back; only the 12 people who reacted to it, will forever know you’ve got a new gig rolling. This can be a hard part of a lot of people, but you have to look at it as marketing 101. Don’t be afraid to go to groups where a niche for your service exist. Don’t be afraid to run ads on Facebook, or Instagram. Truly, sometimes you have to spend money to make money & it took me a while to realize that’s okay.

PLEASE, whatever you do, know the difference between an MLM (multi-level-marketing) and a side hustle. Selling essential oils, or beauty products, under a blanketed company with thousands doing the same thing is the opposite of a side hustle. At that point, you are diving into a fully saturated market with no real need for you specifically. As mentioned earlier, you want to find something that you can do best & pursue that without anyone else making the rules. Your side hustle should have no pressure of “sales goals” or “competing with others”. When I mentioned spending money to make money, I meant buying an iPad so you can start doing digital art commissions; not buying $5K dollars of a special formula beauty balm that you may never make your money back on, let alone make extra income!

My biggest piece of advice when it comes to having a side hustle, or multiple, is keeping tracking of things! It can get so overwhelming, especially if you have clients, or orders to fulfill. Even if you’re not an organized person, keeping a notebook, or Google spreadsheet with what you have to fulfill, when it’s due, etc. will help so much in the long run!

At the end of the day, my motto is, if you have time to watch television, or scroll socials in a week, you have time for a side hustle. A side hustle is most successful when you prioritize it. Once you know what it is you want to pursue, & who your target audience is, the sky is truly the limit. You may fail a couple of times & that’s more than okay because you’re doing it on your own; that makes the wins even sweeter! I love answering questions about side hustles, so if you ever need help, don’t be afraid to message me on Instagram @shannwoodworth.