Tips To Successfully Launch Your Side Hustle While Working Full-Time

Passion can be extremely difficult to translate into success. Thus many people find themselves feeling trapped in their usual nine to five jobs with no outlet for their passionate ideas.

However, there are many success stories that started as side hustles. Here are some tips to successfully launch your passion project while still working a full-time job.

1. Make The Commitment

Step one is to commit to your idea. This can be difficult and will force you to make many difficult decisions and sacrifices.

Compile a list of all the activities and commitments that will be necessary to complete for your side project and schedule them into your calendar around your full-time work. This might seem difficult but be willing to give up things like TV time in the evening or scrolling on your phone in favor of completing a task for your side hustle.

2. Stick To Schedule

Having a schedule is imperative in ensuring you have time in your day. When launching a new project, time is your best friend. However, getting distracted or off schedule will make time your biggest enemy.

Be committed to limiting distractions and do not let your side hustle infringe on the time you need for your full-time work. This ensures that you complete your work on time and will give you more time to dedicate to your side hustle in the long run.

3. Validate Your Idea

“Fortune” found that many founders of failed startups believed the top reason that their companies failed was because of a lack of market need for their product. This highlights the importance of pre-planning and market research.

Before launching your business make sure you validate your business idea by thoroughly researching the market you are attempting to break into. It is imperative to get honest feedback from actual paying customers.

“The only answers that matter are dollars spent. People answer when they pay for something. That’s the only answer that really matters.”

says, Basecamp founder Jason Fried.

4. Differentiate Yourself From Competitors

Unless you’re preparing to launch a revolutionary product or service that does not compare to anything on the market already, you will have competitors who are already established in the market. Thus it is important to set yourself apart.

Use anything that sets you apart to create a competitive edge for yourself. Whether this is your pricing structure, sales technique, or unmatched customer service, find what makes customers choose you over other businesses and use it to your advantage.

5. Define Clear Goals

Big dreams are commendable but trying to rush success can leave you feeling jaded and lead to you giving up on your dream. Instead, it is more important to clearly define smaller and achievable goals that will slowly get you closer to your ultimate goal. Start by setting practical goals that are attainable on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. A good framework to use when creating your goals is the SMART Goals Criteria that was developed by management icon Peter Drucker. SMART is the acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.