If you are making a couple of bucks on the side you are much closer to a real business than you might realize.
However, if you are struggling to make ends meet, that might not be the path for you. But, either way you look at it, there are ways you can turn your side hustle into full-time, income-producing businesses.
It is simply a matter of identifying and scaling out the proper activities that bring you the biggest results. Here is how you can do just that.
1. Effectively manage your time.
Okay. I know. It sounds pretty basic, right? But, how well are you managing your time? The truth is that most of us waste lots of time. When you waste time, you have less of it on things like growing your side hustle. The hard part? Being honest with yourself and just how you spend your time.
If you want to figure out where all the time is going, start logging all the time you spend. Chunk them into 15-minute or 30-minute intervals. Use the quadrant time management system. Simply categorize each of the types of activities that you did during that interval based on the following four quadrants:
Quadrant 1 : Important and urgent crises that have to be handled in that very moment
Quadrant 2 : Important but not urgent tasks related to your long-term goals (i.e. growing your side hustle)
Quadrant 3 : Not important but urgent tasks that interrupt your time
Quadrant 4 : Not important and not urgent tasks that simply waste your time (i.e. binge watching television or endlessly surfing the web)
Throughout the day, in each block of time you choose to track, place the corresponding number of the quadrant and circle it. At the end of the day, do an audit. How much time did you spend in each of the quadrants? How much did you waste in quadrant 4? How much did you devote to quadrant 2? You might be shocked by the results. If you are serious about scaling your side hustle, then knowing where your time is going is crucial.
2. Follow the 80-20 Rule.
The 80-20 Rule, or the Pareto Principle, states that 80 percent of our results comes from 20 percent of our efforts. When it comes to your side hustle, that means that only a fraction of your efforts are generating the biggest results. The key here is to identify those efforts if you intend to scale.
In fact, the best way to scale your side hustle idea is to follow this rule. By tracking your time, you can better manage this. But, you need to be meticulous about how you track all your efforts. Identifying this might be a challenge. But, once you do, the sky really is the limit.
3. Spend one hour every day planning.
Take the first hour of every morning and spend it planning. Sit and think about your business. Notebook and pen in hand, do it the old-fashioned way. Ditch the laptop and phone for the hour. Turn off all the other distractions. And just write down what it is you plan to do to get you from your current situation toward your goals.
If you are serious about achieving your goals, you need to plan. The devil is in the so-called details. That is why you have to obsess over the planning phase. Make it a habit. Do it every single morning. It will help you to determine what is working and what is not.
4. Model other successful businesses.
Tony Robbins often says that you should model what works. “Success leaves clues,” are words that he often speaks. However, it is not just Robbins who believes in this. Russell Brunson, who is one of the greatest marketers in modern history, believes wholeheartedly in modeling. He calls it funnel hacking. And he has devoted an entire TV series to help instill this into his fans, followers and overall culture.
Brunson suggests going through a business and buying everything they have to offer. And record it while you do it. This way, you can see all the up-sells and down-sells and emails and headlines and copy throughout the process. Then, you can just model what is working. If there are five paragraphs under a title, write five paragraphs. If there were two one-time offers, create two one-time offers. And so on.
You can scale any side hustle by doing this. It does not matter what industry you are in. Head to Facebook and like all the pages and groups associated with that interest so that advertisers begin targeting you.
culled from www.thetrend.org
