This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Side Hustle School friends, listeners, community, welcome to a new episode. My name is Chris Guillebeau, excited to have you out there. Today's caller is ready to go from Side Hustle to full-time business. It's always exciting when this happens, much jubilee and celebration, but of course it also produces questions and concerns because, you know, you started your hustle to create financial security in some form. How do you avoid insecurity as you make this big transition?
That's what we're gonna talk about in this episode. And by the way, if you've ever got a question you'd like to see addressed here on the show, I guess you'd like to hear addressed on the show, sidehustleschool.com/questions. I do my best to get to as many as possible and I really appreciate our entire community out there. All right, detailed question coming up after this quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
My name's Eric and I'm calling from Seattle, Washington.
I've been offering home cleaning services and I'm now ready to take the next step and turn it into a full-time business. However, I'm not sure how to handle the transition from side hustle to full-time business. And I'm worried about losing the benefits and stability of my current job. Can you offer any advice on how to make this transition effectively while minimizing the risk of financial insecurity? [Music]
Eric, thank you so much for the question.
I really appreciate it. Let's start with a reminder. Both to Eric and to our listeners out there, you don't have to make that transition. And I understand that Eric is ready too, so we'll get to that. But the goal of a side hustle is not always to become a full-time business.
In fact, quite often it's not. And a side hustle is also not something that can just make a small amount of money. Like throughout the history of the show, we have featured people making six-figure incomes through their side hustle, but they continue to keep their day job just because it works for them, because they like their day job for whatever reason, or because they need to have the income from the day job and from the side hustle. There's all kinds of scenarios out there. So that's the first thing is like, if it stresses you out to think about leaving your job to do your new business, like you don't have to do that, right?
But for those who want to, and of course for Eric, because it sounds like things are going well, and that's great. That's certainly, as I said, room for Jubilee in celebration. Couple of tips, build a safety net as much as possible, like consider building up a cushion of savings before making the leap. That can just help with any unexpected expenses or slow periods. You may also want to gradually make the transition.
Instead of just a clean break, can you begin taking on fewer hours at your current job? Is it possible to go part-time? And for some jobs, that may not be possible. You're kind of like there or not. But if it is possible, just kind of making a gradual transition can help.
And then I guess maybe the third thing is, when do you know it's the right time? And I always encourage people to think, okay, if I can devote more time to this business, will I be able to increase the income? And can I see, can I reasonably foresee stable income for at least the next six months to a year through this business? And does that income at least meet my current expenses? Hopefully a bit beyond that, of course.
Those are just some simple tests to kind of see, am I on the right track? Can I actually make more money doing this? Do I think it's sustainable? Something like a home cleaning business, well, that can be sustainable because people always need that service. And it is the kind of business that is eventually sellable.
So those are all good characteristics and good predictors of a sustainable business. For something that is very dependent on one source or a Google algorithm or any other algorithm, the Instagram algorithm, anything else, that's not necessarily so sustainable, at least not predictably so. So you wanna be a little bit more careful there. But anyway, it sounds like Eric is on the right track. I wish you good luck, Eric.
And I wish good luck to all of our listeners out there. Good luck, but also hard work because those things tend to go hand in hand sometimes. So just remember, I am cheering you on. I'd love to know how we can support you here on the podcast. It comes out every single day.
I also have a blog I post on, at least once a week, chrisguillebeau.com. And I hope you'll join me wherever is good for you. That's it for this episode. New one's coming out tomorrow. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
