Having a side business is one of the best ways you can give yourself a more secure foundation. If you play your cards right, you can have the opportunity to expand your side business and eventually say hello to self-employment. There are many ideas for a side job out there, however, people overlook the most important thing they already possess: their skills. What’s better than making a profit out of something you’re already good at doing? To get started, you first need to identify your strongest skills sets. Then, you can turn it into a side business with these five ways.
Freelancing
One way you could use your skills to your advantage is to start a freelancing business on the side, especially if you’ve managed to enhance your skills because of your career and your day job. Because of everything that’s going on now, there is an increasing demand for freelancers not only in the US, but in other parts of the world, too.
Build a high-quality portfolio that is sure to attract freelance clients by listing your skills, presenting some of your best work, and get recommendations. If you have skills that involve social media management, marketing, writing, drawing, graphic design, or any digital skill, then your chances of attracting clients are high. The more connections you have, the higher your chances of bringing in freelance clients, too.
Blogging
Blogging is great. However, it is something that takes effort and time in building a steady and loyal following. It’s what you would consider a long-term investment. If this doesn’t bother you, then, you could make blogging your side business. To become integrated into a community, start with a certain topic that can attract a crowd. For example, if cooking is something you’re passionate about, you could start a cooking blog. Eventually, when you’ve gained a steady stream of followers, you can consider expanding to other topics.
Online Coaching
If you possess a skill that is highly desired by others and you want to teach people how to get better at it, then online coaching is the side hustle for you. You can coach people you already know. However, if you’re looking to attract a bigger crowd, then there are online coaching websites that already have a community of people wanting to improve certain skills. The plus side is, the more people you coach, the more you get better at coaching. This means, over time you can tailor your coaching to a more polished version such as an online course, which leads us to our next way.
Online Courses
Another way for you to gain profit out of your skill is by creating an online course that others can participate in at their own enjoyment. An online course is one of the most flexible online business out there as of recently. Personally, when this whole lockdown situation started, I enrolled myself in 5 online courses just to feel less guilty about how I spent my time. Unfortunately, I only actively finished 3 out of 5. But I digress. Anyway, there are websites out there like Teachable and Thinkific that help you figure out how to create and launch an online course. It’s great for those who are looking for an already well-known platform as you don’t exactly have to start from scratch.
Selling Products
Whether it’s making DIYs out of things people don’t have the time to do or making something extremely new and innovative, you can definitely earn money selling products on the side. There are websites like Etsy that help you advertise the products you are selling. You can even take it a step further by creating social media accounts to further promote your products. With the right audience and the right products, pretty soon you’ll be having orders left and right.