This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's listener question comes from Laura, who is struggling to balance her day job, family responsibilities, and her online jewelry boutique side hustle. It is always good to have a lot in the mix. At least that's how I feel. I'm always a bit of a maximalist, but it can also feel like a struggle. Like, let's just be real, let's be honest.
We try to do that here on the podcast. And by the way, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau. In this brief action-packed episode, we're gonna explore a couple of strategies for managing time and increasing efficiency in your side business, with a focus on outsourcing and automation, 'cause that's what Laura is wondering about. So if you are feeling overwhelmed, perhaps by multiple commitments, or it's just a struggle to keep up with everything, I mean, I get it.
This episode's gonna give you three practical tips to help you streamline your side hustle without compromising your other priorities. All right, I don't want you to compromise too much. I don't want you to sacrifice. I want you to do what's important to you. So stay tuned.
Laura's question's coming up, and then my detailed answer. [Music]
Hello, I'm Laura from Sacramento. I found your podcast through a Facebook group for side hustlers. I've been working on my side business, an online boutique for handmade jewelry for a few months, but I'm struggling to manage everything with my day job and family responsibilities. I'd like to dedicate more time to my passion project and grow it into a sustainable business.
Can you offer some advice on how to outsource or automate parts of my side hustle to maximize my time and efficiency so I can balance my commitments better? - Laura, it's great that you're pursuing your passion for handmade jewelry while balancing a day job and family life. I mean, this is the way, right? I mean, so many people are trying to do that in lots of different approaches and paths and so on. Now, outsourcing and automation can definitely help manage your time more efficiently.
But the way that these two tasks have evolved, or these two broad areas, I guess we should say outsourcing, automation, the way they have evolved has changed. Should I say is changing, has changed, is changing. You know, it's a brave new world, right? Lots of change out there. So let's go over three key strategies to streamline this side hustle.
Try to get Laura some help. So first, you wanna identify specific tasks to outsource. You know, sometimes you go into this thing and you're like, I'm gonna outsource stuff, but I don't know what specifically to do. That's the key point. Start by listing all the tasks involved in running your online boutique, identify which ones can be outsourced, and focus on tasks that are time-consuming, repetitive, or perhaps require specialized skills that you may not have, like product photography, social media management, maybe even customer service.
Next, you wanna find some reliable freelancers or agencies. So check out Upwork, check out Fiverr, freelancer.com. These are resources that I've used myself in the past. Fiverr has been a sponsor of the podcast just for disclosure, but I've also a customer, a frequent client of Fiverr. Check their reviews, portfolios, pricing, find the best fit for your business, and start with some small tasks.
That's really important. Start with small tasks to test someone's skills and reliability before entrusting them with more significant responsibilities. And then, so that's outsourcing, but automation, automate processes, like wherever possible, use some tools, some software to automate specific tasks, like email marketing software. You might use ConvertKit or Mailchimp, something like that, to automate newsletters and promotional campaigns. You can also integrate apps like Zapier.
Again, some of these companies have been sponsors, but it's often because I have used them as a customer. So Zapier is really great for integration. All of these kind of tools, you don't want to focus so much on the tools that you lose sight of the bigger picture, but they really can help. They can help you reclaim some of that time that's so important to you. I mean, time is your most precious resource, right?
It's part of why I try to make this podcast really short and succinct. So the point is to help you focus on the core elements of your business and invest more time in designing and creating your jewelry. That limited time you have to spend on your business, you want to spend it on what matters. So Laura, that's my encouragement to you listeners. I'm cheering you on as well.
I know it's tough out there, but keep going. You're doing this for a reason. And if there's something I can help with, we've got a question of your own, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Failing that, of course, we'll have a new episode every single day. So tune in tomorrow.
Thanks for being out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
