Side Hustle Profit Plan

You do not need a job to make money

They don’t teach it at school, but there are other ways to make money besides going to work every day. Today, we have so many possibilities. We can even make a living without ever leaving our home.

The easiest way to find out what you like doing and what works for you is to start an online side hustle.

Start an Online Side Hustle

Even though the expression "side hustle" implies that you do something else, you don’t have to.

One side hustle may not be enough to make you a full-time income. But since, by design, they don’t take up your whole day, you can have more than one side hustle.

Just start with one

You need to get familiar with your new business before you broaden out into a second one. Trust me on this. Far too many new online business owners have failed because they didn’t focus on one thing.

Once your first online side hustle makes a decent income, you can start another.

Before you go looking for "how to make money online" and get overwhelmed with the number of replies, let me share something with you.

It’s important that you like what you do.

You can make more money with something that earns you $20 per hour than something that earns $100 if you hate doing the $100 thing and therefore never get around to it.

Overall, there are two kinds of online side hustles:

* Services - you do something for somebody else and get paid once.

* Passive income - you work once and get paid again and again for a long time after.

Services will often be best if you need money fast.

It takes time to build a passive income, but it’s worth it. In other articles, I’ll share some services you can do as well as the best of the numerous passive income sources you can build.

Whichever route you choose, it’s important to set boundaries from the start.

Set Your Boundaries

If you’re already out of a job, you know this situation.

One of your friends or family members calls to ask for a favor. "Please look after my dog for two hours while I go to the hairdresser."

You were just about to start today's work on your side hustle, but - sigh - yes, that can surely wait.

Of course, once your friend/family member is back from the hairdresser, to thank you for dog sitting, they offer you a cup of coffee or to stay for dinner...

And you get nothing done that day.

Sure, that’s the worst case scenario, but it happens frequently.

Even more often, you’ll find your family peeking in on you to ask you a question or to share the latest dance hit on TikTok.

For every quick interruption, you lose 20 minutes of concentration. Now that cute cat video that made you smile has cost you more than one-third of the time you had set aside for the task you were working on.

You need to set boundaries from the start.

If you do it later, right after you have exploded and hurt your friends and family, they will not understand. "But you used to have time to dog sit Bob, and he’s such a good boy."

Tell your friends and family about your plans

Wait until they’ve finished laughing at your idea of making money online. Don’t argue with them. Just tell them that you’re serious about this and that you will need two hours per day where you can focus only on your new business.

They won’t understand.

But stick to what you told them, and over time, they’ll accept your crazy decision.

Especially when you make up for it later with quality time outside of your best work hours.

Speaking of work...

You Are the Boss Now

You need to be disciplined enough to work when it’s time to work.

But you also need to set limits for your workday. It’s way too easy to keep working when the "job" is fun. But that can lead to a burnout.

Stop at a fixed time every day and then relax.

Focus on work when it’s time to work, and on relaxing when it’s time to relax.

A boss does more than work, though.

They also delegate work. They tell their employees what to do (at least at first). And you have nobody but yourself to do that now.

This is a complete mindset change.

I suggest you pick a maximum of three things you need to get done each day. If you can do more, fine. But pick the three most important things…

Preferably ones that make you money.

Depending on what online side hustle you pick, there will be lots of tasks to do. You can write an article for Medium (produces money). You can get your picture taken and write your "About" page on a blog (does not produce money directly).

Even though you need to do all the tasks, prioritize the money-producing ones first and finish the others as quickly as you can.

You can always come back later and polish your bio.

Be Patient and Stick to the Plan

This is the hardest part of becoming your own boss.

When we start a new job, we don’t expect to get paid at once. We know we’ll have to wait for a week or two, maybe even 30 days before we get our first paycheck.

When we start an online side hustle to make money without a job...

Then we want instant results.

That is not what happens. Making money takes time. If you can be patient now and give it one, three or even six months, you’ll be greatly rewarded later.

If you need money now, urgently, then find something you can do for other people.

It can be things like setting up a blog or writing articles. Just make sure to schedule time for your real side hustle and work on it daily.

The easiest way to do that is to start with a plan.

Start with the end in mind. What will your side hustle look like once it’s up and running?

Then backstep and make a to-do list for every task you need to finish before you can get to the next one.

Now you have a plan.

In Conclusion

It is absolutely possible to make money without a job.

You need patience and persistence. Pick a side hustle you like to do and every day will be a joy. Even the days when you make no money.

The money will come over time and it’s important to spend your life doing something you like rather than letting a boss be in charge of your life.