moonlight – Side Hustle Mania

PART 2 VALIDATING THE SIDE HUSTLE BUSINESS IDEA AGAINST THE HUSTLER’S WORK CIRCUMSTANCES

In the previous article we touched on validating the business idea against personal circumstances. We now should review work factors to be considered in the validation of our hustle ideas.

And as is customary we shall use flag them.

Flag #1: How committed are you at work?

How committed are you at work?

Do your work responsibilities run into the time earmarked for a side business?

Between April 2009 and August 2013, I was so committed at work in that most of the time I knocked off as late as 8 PM. In September 2010, I reluctantly closed my grocery store as it was now near impossible to run.

I had allowed my work commitments to overflow into the hustle space.

Starting your business to fail is not good and failing at both your work and the side hustle is a disaster that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

Make an informed and honest assessment of work commitment to help you succeed at work and on your selected side hustle.

Flag #2: Do your employment contract allow you to pursue business in the area you are interested area?

As we may know, some employers don’t like their employees to engage in side businesses similar to theirs. Some employers would add a clause in the employment contract prohibiting their employee from pursuing businesses similar to theirs. At times they do it by obligating their employees to sign a separate non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that prohibiting them from uttering (or even copying) details of the company’s intellectual property.

This is what the would-be side hustler needs to seriously consider.

Personally I would recommend you don’t pick a business similar to that of your employer because it is a potential conflict of interest you would rather avoid.

Flag #3: Are you deployable to other stations?

Employers have significant control over the lives of their employees. It doesn’t matter if one lives in the country well known for protecting employee rights – employers are always be on top. Therefore it is not unthinkable that an employee may be transferred or re-deployed to another work station many hundreds of miles away.

I am merely raising this aspect because it happened to me but it shouldn’t stop you from the beginning but do think about it.

This is how it happened to me.

I started my grocer side-hustle in March 2004. Then the thought of being deployed to another station never hit my mind until it happened to me real time until in June 2008, I got deployed from the school where I taught to HQ. I spent 3 months at HQ on a high priority project. After the end of the project, I was told by the boss;

“You are no longer going to the unit where you were initially deployed. I have taken the decision to re-direct your redeployment to Ghanzi. We thank you for good work you did on the priority project”.

Ghanzi is a town in western Botswana closer to the Namibian border. It is 700km from HQ. My grocer side-hustle was still running. I was faced with two scenarios; close shop or let employees run it. I let employees run it and left town. Fortunately, my re-deployment to the border outpost was reversed six months later. But the hustle suffered a lot due to bad management and pilfering. At least I am grateful employees didn’t run it down completely. I found the hustle still limping and took it from there.

Are you transferrable or permanently employed in your current station? Consider the prospect of transfer or at the least think about it as you validate your side hustle.

Flag #4: Will the side hustle get in the way of your employment or vice versa?

Your employment shall come before your side hustle as long it is within the agreed employment terms.

If you do 9-5 job, it then follows that any time from 9 am to 5 pm, you are at the disposal of your employer, and therefore, you can’t be at your side hustle. You then need to ask yourself if the intended business idea will fit in the remaining time- and at least if it can be automated to run independent of the hustler’s time.

As we know, going against the agreed employment terms may lead to potential conflicts with your employer.

Wednesday Side Hustle Idea: Start a Spice Dealership

You can import spices in bulk and repackage and supply to those in need of the service.

Another spin to this hustle idea may be to mix spices for barbecue and grill joints in your area. Branding is what will set you apart from the rest.

A great side hustle idea.

Try it if you can.

Friday Side Hustle Idea

Hustle Idea: Establish an Auction Agency

Selling by auction is one of the most profitable ways to earn money on the side. You don’t necessary have to have own assets to sell by auction. You can establish an auction agency to sell other people and entities’ assets via auction. In return you get paid a decent commission. The business is not capital intensive as you may opt to sell items at owner’s yards meaning you don’t have to build warehouse and yards. You can sell artworks, animals, inventories etc.

You can go online, traditional or both it is your choice.

Check with your local council (municipality) on how best you can go about it.

I hope you found this post helpful.

We are still a baby blog learning the ropes of walking so any feedback on how we can improve will be welcome.

POST #2 TWO WAYS TO CREATE A PRODUCT TO SELL AS A SIDE HUSTLE

In the previous post, I stated there are basically two ways one can go about creating a product to sell as a side hustle. One, you create your own product and sell it. And two, sell others’ products.

In today’s post, we look at selling product created by others.

Selling products created by others

In the second way to create a side hustle product, we don’t necessarily “create” one. We sell those created by others and we will discuss only two ways of going about it below.

#1 Selling products created by others as they are

We can sell product created by others as they are – without any alteration. I believe this is the path followed by most of us. Most of the products sold in supermarkets aren’t created by supermarkets. They buy from wholesalers, manufacturers or distributors and sell them as they are.

And there is no shame in that.

Examples are;

I can buy books from book distributors and sell them at my book store as they are.
I can sell an affiliate product as it is.
I can buy stock from say Alibaba and re-sell as it is.
I can buy a stud bull and sell it as it is via auction.

#2 Modify products created by others and sell them as ours

Sometimes we can modify products created by others and sell as ours.

Examples are;

I can buy books in a PLR product, re-do it and sell them as mine.
I can buy an ewe, slaughter it and sell as raw meat
I can buy a car, re-style it and sell

Thank you for reading.

We are a baby blog still learning to walk therefore we would be more than happy to receive a like, follow or feedback.

TWO WAYS TO CREATE A PRODUCT TO SELL AS A SIDE HUSTLE

You now feel the need to start a hustle on the side. But then you ask yourself, how do acquire a product to sell?

Well, there are basically two ways you can go about it. One, you create your own product and sell it. And two, sell others’ products.

*I am using the word “product” to refer to a product and service.

*In this post, we shall briefly cover the way no#1 – creating your own product.

* Way no#2 shall be covered in the next post.

Way No#1: Creating your own product

There are also two ways of creating your own product;

You can create a product on your own OR outsource the creative process to another party.

#1: Creating a product with your own “mind and hands”

There are thousands upon thousands of products you can create with “your own mind and hands”.

American-Romanian Physicist, Nicola Tesla, placed huge emphasis on employing the “mind” ahead of “hands” to creating a product.

This is what he said;

“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get a new idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination, and make improvements and operate the device in my mind. When I have gone so far as to embody everything in my invention, every possible improvement I can think of, and when I see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form the final product of my brain”

And I like it.

Bulleted below are examples of hustles you can directly create with your hands and mind.

Produce cabbage through organic gardening
Write an ebook
Rear and supply pigs at your farm holding to slaughter houses
Invent a device
Create a computer game
Prepare and sell food for children’s parties on weekends
Freeze and mold ice cubes and blocks
Run a carpet cleaning service after hours
Outsource translation service for your translation firm from Fiverr.com
And there are many more…

#2: Outsourcing the creative process of your side hustle product

It may be that you are held up at work or you have not technical skills to pull off the product you desire as your side hustle, leaving you with the option to outsource the service.

If you know exactly want and can design specifications for what you want, others can create products for you.

Below are examples of hustles whose creative process you can outsource.

Use ghost writers to write your book. I have read somewhere on Wikipedia that some of Donald Trump’s books were actually written by ghost writers
Hire a web developer to create SaaS product for you.
Engage a factory in China or elsewhere to manufacture t-shirts for you
Hire a chick incubation company to supply your side hustle with baby chickens

Thank you for reading.

We are a baby blog still learning to walk therefore we would be more than happy to receive a like, follow or feedback.

Wednesday Side Hustle Idea

Hustle Idea: Build and Operate a Blog

A blog is a mini-website that is easy to set up. Platforms such as WordPress and Squarespace can help you set up yours in minutes. You can blog and share information on any area; travel, entertainment, hospitality, recipes, consumer protection, environment, governance, money, entrepreneurship, parenting, farming or just about any topic.

You can monetize your blog by:

Charging for adverts placed on the blog
Enrolling your blog on Google Adsense or WordPress Adwords
Promote affiliate links
Sell your products or services on the blog

There are many resources you can visit upon on blogging. To make life easier for you, I have identified four sites with resources to help your blogging career.

1.www.jeffbullas.com

2. BlogWorks

3. www.goinswriter.com

4. www.patflynn.com

Blogging takes a lot of time to gain traction and involves lots of work. If you go in be prepared to work.

Caution: Blogging on sensitive issues such as politics and religion may land you in jail in some countries.

I hope you found this post helpful.

Post Weekend business idea

Hustle Idea: Start a Toilet Drain Business on the side

A good part of the world doesn’t have connected sewage system. So sewage from each household or office must be pumped and portably transferred to sewage treatment plants. And this is where you come in with your side hustle;

You pump
You transport sewage to the sewage treatment plant
And get paid.

And entry rates are low in this sector because no one wants to work with or around sewage – which is good for the side hustler.

If you can find a used truck, add the tank and the pump, you are good to go.

Thank you for reading.

Monday Side Hustle Idea

Hustle Idea: Write for others and get paid

If you feel your job isn’t paying you enough and need to augment the income. Writing for others and getting paid doing it may be the way to go.

I read on Wikipedia that some of Donald Trump’s books were written by ghostwriters. Ghostwriters are people who write books and content for others without taking ownership of intellectual property.

You can be one.

But you don’t need to be a ghostwriter to write for others. There are many newspapers, blogs and websites which invite people or other entities to write for them.

Listverse.com is one such website. There are many of them just google for newspapers, blogs and websites that pay writers.

Even your local newspaper may hire your agency to write for them.

This website writersincharge.com provides resourceful information about entities that pay writers for.

I would recommend you set up and agency for the purpose even if you may be the one the job. If you get more work, you may clone yourself by hiring others to write on your behalf.

I hope you found this post helpful

7 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Side Hustler

Let’s face it is evident there are no good jobs for many of us these days. Most of the jobs we work are actually the leading cause of stress for employees and contribute to domestic strife leading to high cases of divorce. Reports point out that sexual abuse is at an all-time high at work places. It is hard being an employee these days. As I write this post someone somewhere is being laid off.

Being a student is not easy when burdened with ever-diminishing stipends and credit card debt.

Housewives too have to contend with tight family budgets.

So what should we do?

Three options…..

Quit.

Only employees can quit work bout in many case a lot of them aren’t ready. Students can drop out but it isn’t a good idea for many. Housewives can’t drop out of their parenting responsibility so quitting is not an option for them.

Just hang in there and do nothing

A bad option

Hang in there and start a hustle on the side

I would opt for bullet 3.

Which one would you opt for?

I guess you will go for bullet 3 as well.

I have documented 10 reasons why bullet 3 rocks.

Reason 1: You get to keep both worlds – the job and the business

If you like your job and don’t want to leave it and yet you need money, side hustle is the best option.

Reason 2: You get to augment income from your job/ stipend

I believe this is the main motive why employees, students and others decide to go into side hustle. A number of reports reveal that wages have been qualitatively lagging behind for many classes of work. An extra income from a side hustle will help their meet basic needs; afford them good things that would otherwise have been off limits to them.

So they go in like I went in.

Reason 3: You get to accelerate your wealth creation plan

If you liken creating wealth through the job to building a house with 20 bricks a month, it means you need many years to complete the house. But if you add business to the job, that could be equivalent to raising the number of bricks required for the construction of same house to 200 bricks thus reducing the time taken to build the house. Wealth create is the same as building the house, you need resources most of which our jobs can’t obtain at current wages or even obtain at all. Building wealth through the job alone has been proven to be a slow process that may take one 40 to 50 years to master.

Reason 4: You get to make economic use of your “spare” time

Some employees, students and housewives or househusbands have lots of time wasted on unfruitful activities can’t be account for. So a hustle on the side is a better investment of such time. There are stories of housewives who went on to build business empires because they fruitfully used the time (when children and the husband were away) to start and operate own successful business.

I am told Pamela Golding of Pam Golding Properties started her business as a side hustle to her parenting role.

This “spare” time could turn out to be the goldmine you have been overlooking.

Reason 5: You are contemplating leaving current employment shortly but have nothing in place to fill the void with

I quit my last employment in a hurry and had nothing to fill the void that followed with. Instead of quitting into a vacuum like me those contemplating leaving employment can start work on a hustle so that by the time they quit they are up and running.

And there are advantages to starting and running business now than starting when you have already quit employment;

Your side business now evolved into a full time one will have momentum because it is already operating.
Starting a business on the side now is an ideal way to test business waters before venturing full time.
Starting business on the side now could serve as spring board for life after employment.
Running a business is much better filler of the “time and work void” created as a result of quitting employment than finding another potentially lowly paying job. With a business that you own, you have control over your destiny.

Reason 6: You have burning passion that can be turned into businesses

We all have burning passions and hobbies, it is human nature. Some of us like music. Others like adventure, writing, baking, farming, etc.

There is a lot that we are passionate about.

I guess there is something you are passionate about too. Instead of wasting their passions; employees, students and others are putting them to good use – into side hustle?

Reason 7: You want “back-up” or insurance against possible future layoffs

One distinguished Greek mathematician and philosopher, Thales, had this to say about the future;

The past is certain, the future is obscure.

Who can be sure of what their employment situation will look like 5 years from now?

None. Nada.

College students can never be sure they will be employed after graduation.

Given the volatility of the world economy and politics, it is not inconceivable that in the next few years we may experience another global economic recession. Those who want t change their fortunes don’t want to wait for the economic doomsday to happen so they start a side hustle as an insurance against possible layoffs. They say prevention is better than cure – they prevent future pain by starting a business on the side even as they work.

It’s a tough world we live in; no one is indispensable hence the need for some side hustles.

Thus despite earning millions, millionaire employees still see the need to create back up against future layoffs by starting businesses on the side.

Start your side hustle and rock…

Welcome to Side Hustle Mania

I am Boiki Keaitaya Chief Mission Officer of Side Hustle Mania blog!

Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to this blog.

I am a teacher by training and for life.

I exist to inspire other people into action that has the potential to change their lives for the better.

Side Hustle Mania(SHM) blog is one such medium through which I strive to achieve my mission. It is true one can’t impact all the people in the world, hence through the SHM blog, my focus shall be on those who may be interested in the starting a business on the side lines of their major occupations: job, studies, parental roles etc.

Our approach to side hustle will be limited to business only. As you may be aware there are those who hustle on the side by getting second or third jobs. We see no reason why we should advise to get second job.

And finally ss you read articles on this blog, you will come across these lingo; side hustle, side business, part time business and moonlight – all referring to business on the side.

Once again welcome to Side Hustle Mania

Thank you for reading.

If you any comments don’t hesitate to share them with us- as we are also in the learning curve.