A side business can be described as starting a business while holding down your day job. A side business is not about quitting your day job straight away to pursue becoming an entrepreneur. A side business is about making an additional income while enjoying every minute of running a part-time business, if your side business takes flight, you can decide to drop the side and take it as a full-time business.

Companies like Google enable their employees to spend 20% of their work time on their own projects (LinkedIn, Facebook and Apple do have similar ‘20% policies’), while other companies like Innocent Drinks encourages ‘intrapreneurship’, this means allowing employees to spend their work time developing new ideas.

People usually ask, why do I need a side business?  In as much as I am of the opinion that business is not meant for everyone, I feel that question sounds like someone asking ‘why do I need extra cash’ .. Don’t we all do?

The reason why people do not follow through with their plans of starting a side business is mostly because of:

• Fear
• Lack of confidence/ motivation.
• Lack of necessary tools or resources.

And not necessarily because they are not smart or capable.

Another question is why should I not just quit my job straight away and become an entrepreneur, wouldn’t that be too stressful? One of the reasons for this is that it reduces the typical risks/ fear associated with entrepreneurship. This helps you to keep the safety of a salary while giving yourself time to build confidence and grow your business. Does this mean you do not believe in your business or yourself? NO. This just means, you are taking your time, trying to have a feel of your new venture, building customers, having an income to help sustain this new venture as we all know it’s really financially draining to start most side businesses. Would this require more of your time? The answer is YES.

Starting a business while working or schooling is hard. I can tell from the first-hand experience. Every business I ever started was while studying and working, from my first blog to sales and freelance.   So why should we then do this, why should you start?

Below are some of the benefits of starting a side hustle.

• Afford you many luxuries and securities that go straight out the window when you quit your job to pursue a business idea
• Opportunity to pursue your passion – Ability to do something you love and turn it into a full-time business
• More money – Additional income on the side has to be one of the biggest attractions to having a side business.
• Financial security – If you lose your full–time job you have something to fall back on. Ability to afford many luxuries and no worry of running out of cash
• Immediate start – You can launch your side business by yourself. No need for investors.

So what are we waiting for?

Before you nose dive, below are four tips for coming up with a side business that you can launch while keeping your Job.

1) Identify and list your strengths and weakness (what you like and don’t like)

2) Do your research and identify the gaps

3) Use what you have (your skillset, your background knowledge)

4) Turn your hobby into money

• Identify and list your strengths and weakness: what you like and don’t like

  

If you have ever gone for an interview, you will remember this question because it’s one of those questions you are sure, an interviewer will ask you. This is because they want to validate your skillset with the job you applied for.

Now, let’s try to relate this to starting a business. We do not want to start a business that does not focus on our strengths or something we like doing. Imagine if I hate cooking and I start a cooking blog/vlog, what do you think will happen? It will most definitely flop. Or I hate video games and open a vlog about it, most likely the results will be evident in less than two weeks due to lack of passion and this will become a chore. We do not want a chore, I mean, your day job (if you have one) is enough stress.

You need to know yourself.

What are you good at?

That’s a question we all want to know about ourselves

What aren’t you good at?

The question that occasionally comes after it:

If you’re thinking about starting a successful business, identifying your strengths and your weaknesses will not only allow you to understand how you can be most effective at what you do but also where you’ll need to improve if you want to be successful.

The first thing I would suggest is to make 2 different lists

To help you think about what to include in your strengths and weaknesses, try asking yourself questions like:

• What am I good at?
• What are my hobbies?
• Why do I like doing them?
• What attributes have others complimented me about?
• Which projects and tasks drain my energy?
• Which projects do I often spend hours on without getting tired?

Now re-arrange them in order of importance (from most liked to least liked) and do the same for things you do not like which you have labeled weakness.

Secondly, you can talk to people you trust, people you feel know you and understand you.

• Do your research and identify the gaps

One of the easiest ways to come up with a business idea is to solve the problems you have. The second easiest is to solve problems others have. Look around you, there is always a problem to solve.

How to find those problems include paying close attention to your surroundings as you never know when a good idea will turn up. Often times as you look closer, you will spot profitable business ideas.

California web developer named Steve Peterson noticed commuters during the rush hour were looking out for shortcuts to and fro to make things quicker and easier. He identified this problem, used his existing skillset to build a go-to resource where people could see traffic patterns and get real-time updates on buses, roadwork, or any other pertinent information and he now makes a ton of money monthly.

Who knows you might even come up with ways to solve futuristic problems. Elon Musk stands out in this futuristic sense. Lack of fossil fuel might become a problem in the future and Elon is already taking steps to solve that problem with his ventures which include Solar City and Tesla Motors.

Getting into the habit of researching and identifying problems, could be a pain but once you do, will start enjoying it. Just remind yourself that every problem identified is an opportunity for you to start a new product, service, or company, especially if it’s a problem many others have too, which could in turn save lives, make others happy, and even boost your income.

• Use what you have (skill set, background knowledge)

We are living in times were we can wake up and develop our skillset. Platforms like CreativeLive, Skillshare, General Assembly, and others, have helped individuals learn a new skill set or improve on existing ones. It’s safe to say that online education is free and mostly inexpensive, therefore there is no excuse for not picking up new concepts and building on them.

Steve Peterson used his web development skills and career background to launch his side business. An individual working in content or copy-writing can consider working on a freelance basis and contribute articles to publications.

The strengths we earlier identified will be useful here. You’ll need to engage your strengths in order to become a successful entrepreneur within your field. You need to plan on leveraging those strengths and turn them into a side business. Examples of skill sets you can turn into a side business include Freelancing, online coaching, marketing (why not create physical products and sell).

James Gupta whose study tool has been ranked as one of the UK’s top 100 new businesses used his skill set to identify a problem. While studying medicine he created an intelligent study tool called Synap; using interactive quizzes that use tried-and-testing memory techniques to help aid learning. This was after he discovered a problem of needing to absorb a lot of information quickly.

• Turn your hobby into money

Things you do on a daily basis or often could potentially be turned into a business. Be it, fitness, baking, making arts and crafts, glass painting, writing, researching, jewelry making, fixing jewelry, illuminated lettering, social media training e.t.c.

If for example you are on a diet and you’re into working out, you could gain a personal trainer qualification and offer personal training courses. You could look to sell your own creations and designs on marketplaces such as Etsy, and eBay.

If you’re good at things you do regularly and you are looking for business ideas, you just might want to think about turning your hobby into a business.

How did you come up with an idea to start your side business?