Quitting your day job to pursue the entrepreneurial dream can be exhilarating—or terrifying.
Fortunately, anyone can easily make extra money from a “side hustle” without losing the security of a steady paycheck. These millionaires and members of The Oracles give advice on how to turn a side job into a cash cow.
1. Maintain perspective.
You might feel a lot of pressure while giving birth to your idea and working a full-time job at the same time. Instead of seeing pressure as a problem, use it to your advantage. When the stakes are high, you have to be clear, decisive, and effective with your goals.
Before you jump off the cliff and get your business going, consider a business partner. Find someone with opposite complementary strengths to have the best chance of winning. —-— Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, and Shark on “Shark Tank”
2. Re-look at your current job.
Poor people try to replace income sources; rich people add. Don’t hastily quit your job for “greener pastures” until you’re certain you could make more with your time elsewhere.
Until then, get better at your current job. Flip your mindset to increasing production within the time you have. When I sold cars, I learned how to finance them. The finance manager didn’t have to stay late, the dealer didn’t need to take on another salary, the customer was taken care of, and I earned extra money. Everyone won!
When you do start your side hustle, make it “symbiotic”—closely connected to your main income source — so you can give both proper attention. Most people start a side hustle, get excited, ignore their main income stream, then end up with just one source again. Commit to never ignoring your primary income source. With several income streams, you can build true wealth. —- Grant Cardone is a best-selling author and top sales expert who has built a $500 million real estate empire.
3. Buy an existing, profitable business.
Consider buying an existing, profitable business. I’ve made 13 business acquisitions over the years. It is far easier to build on a proven business model with incremental improvements than it is to create something from scratch.
With acquisitions, leverage the seller’s support, experience, and insight during the transition. Strategically finance your business acquisitions so you don’t pay all the cash up front.
If the financial records are clean, you can qualify for a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan with as little as a 10 percent to 20 percent down payment. With an already successful business, you can focus on financing deals and delegate roles to grow the business further. — Tom Shieh, CEO of Crimcheck;
4. Consider your passion and time.
When starting a side hustle, find something you’re excited about and don’t mind spending time on. The first time I sold online was on eBay. As an avid golfer, I noticed golf clubs were selling like gangbusters and started browsing garage sales to see if I could find one to resell.
I bought a Callaway Big Bertha that was almost brand new for $20 and sold it within an hour for $100. It sold on the very first day. For the next several years, I bought and resold golf equipment on eBay.
If your side hustle is something you enjoy, you may just turn it into a full-time job. —— Rob Kosberg, #1 bestselling author and CEO of Best Seller Publishing, whose strategies have positioned US Ambassadors, professional athletes, and CEOs as thought leaders
5. Harness an actionable audience
A great side hustle pays you for what you’d do anyway. When I was in college studying music, I worked the night shift at a hotel where I could study or sleep until a customer rang the bell for service.
I worked as a baseball umpire and a soccer referee and made anywhere from $50 to $75 an hour. I also bounced and deejayed at a club, so I was paid to party, and I even made great money at weddings.
Take your passion and see if there’s an audience for it. Then create a revenue stream by harnessing people’s interest. Today, I write viral videos and produce music that drives customer engagement. It’s a side hustle and a passion, so it never feels like work. ——–— Craig Handley, co-founder and CEO of ListenTrust
6. Build Rome in a day
One, find your favorite household item — for example, mayonnaise, books, or doggy beds. Two, build a ClickFunnels, Shopify, or Amazon store. Three: Create a Stripe or Braintree account.
Four: form an LLC on LegalZoom and create a business bank account. Five, use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your product. These five steps can be accomplished in under a month with a full-time job. —–— Tai Lopez, an investor and advisor to many multimillion-dollar businesses who has built an eight-figure online empire,
7. Start with 30 minutes a day, then outsource
The time vs. money value is usually the most important factor in becoming wealthy. The difficult part about having a job is that you don’t have free time to build a business. E-commerce (drop shipping specifically) for me started as a side hustle, which quickly became a multimillion-dollar business.
Set aside time — even if it’s just 30 minutes per day — to work on your side hustle. Outsource your work and get help from freelancers on websites such as Upwork and Fiverr. It’s often much easier than you think to find people who can help you. —-— Jared Goetz, serial entrepreneur and e-commerce expert; co-founder of four multimillion-dollar companies in five years
8. Build a self-managing side hustle.
Create a side hustle that leverages your time and manages itself. The three pillars of a self-managing side hustle are: Learning to sell online
Creating “value” products
You can learn to sell anything online just by watching a few free videos with basic sales funnel software like ClickFunnels or LeadPages. By creating “value” products such as courses, checklists, or cheat sheets, your one-time effort can have an exponential impact. Building an email list by trading a valuable product for leads is the fastest way to get the word out.
Ultimately, when you have a self-managing business, you have instant options and cash flow—the two results that every entrepreneur loves! — Sharran Srivatsaa, an angel investor and president of brokerage (western region) at Douglas Elliman, grew Teles Properties 10X in five years.
9. Make it sustainable.
Don’t quit your day job until you have enough revenue to support your current lifestyle with the side hustle. I had a friend who wanted to be in the t-shirt business.
He was very passionate about the process, the product he could provide, and the lifestyle he would create. Without having met a single client or potential customer, he left his day job due to passion. This put a severe financial strain on him and his family.
When you have an idea, work on it during off-hours, evenings, and weekends until it’s fully sustainable. With this method, you’ll be able to minimize risk, generate stable cash, and follow your passion. — Michael Alden, bestselling author and CEO of CloiXonné