How to Build a Side Hustle From Scratch

Building a side hustle from scratch can seem like a difficult task, especially when you’re just starting out with little to no experience. However, if you’re willing to put in the work and dedicate yourself to your new endeavor, chances are high that it’ll be worth it in the end (even if it doesn’t turn out quite as you expected).

Decide what to focus on

Before you can start building a side hustle, it’s important to figure out what your strengths are. This is the place where many people go wrong — they get stuck in their comfort zone and never try something new.

It’s not enough to just say “I’m good at baking cakes.” You need to think bigger than that, because if you’re going to develop an online business based on selling baked goods, there will be plenty of other bakers who aren’t afraid of competing with each other for customers’ attention and dollars.

Instead, think about what else you enjoy doing besides baking cakes (or whatever your hobby might be). Maybe you love working with technology or maybe you have a passion for helping people solve problems in their daily lives. We’ll dive deeper into finding your niche later on in this chapter!

Develop your idea

Now that you have your heart set on a side hustle, it’s time to develop the idea. Before starting anything, there are a few things to consider. The first thing you should do is identify what your main goal is with this new side hustle. Is it just to make some extra money? Or do you want this new venture to be something that can help propel your career forward? These factors will play into how exactly you go about developing and executing your plan.

Next, take a look at the market demand for whatever type of product or service you’re thinking of selling — there has been an explosion in online businesses thanks largely in part to services like Shopify which allow anyone (with little technical knowledge) to build their own eCommerce store without needing any coding skills or expensive software licenses.

So if there’s demand for something like that particular product or service then chances are good that someone already has one already up and running!
Finally, think about whether or not there’s room for automation: If so then great; otherwise don’t bother starting unless it’s something relatively simple (like selling handmade crafts).

Understand your target audience

The first step to building a successful side hustle is understanding your target audience. You need to know who they are, what their needs and wants are, where they spend time online, and how much money they’re willing to pay for your products or services.
This may seem like an overwhelming task at first but it’s actually easier than you think.

First off, if you want a side hustle that will give you real results (and not just help pay some bills), then it should be something that appeals specifically to a niche group of people — not everyone in the world!
Secondly, this group of people tends to spend more time than average on social media such as Facebook or Twitter because these platforms have become the new way for businesses to market themselves online and reach out directly with consumers like never before.”

Define your goals and create a plan

Determine your goals: If you have no idea what you want to do, how can you expect your side hustle to be successful? You need to have a clear idea of what the end result of your side hustle will look like before getting started. It’s also important to keep in mind that if it is something that hasn’t been done before, there will be obstacles along the way and it may not go as planned at first.

Create a plan: The next step is creating a plan for how you will achieve those goals. What steps do you need to take in order for this thing of yours (which may not even exist yet) actually get off the ground?
Do some research on similar businesses or products/services and see if there are any patterns or trends that could help inform decisions about pricing, marketing channels, etc…

Make sure it’s achievable: Don’t set yourself up for failure by making unrealistic expectations.

For example, maybe selling cupcakes at school during lunch hour sounds like an easy way to make money but once reality hits (the kids won’t buy them because they’re too busy talking) then what happens?

You go home disappointed because trying something new didn’t work out like expected — and now all those hours spent working on recipes were wasted time!

Estimate how much time you’ll need to dedicate to it

The next step is to figure out how much time you’ll need to dedicate to your new side hustle.
Deciding how much time you can realistically devote to your new venture will help you avoid burnout and over-committing yourself.
Take a look at your schedule now and think about what other obligations are already competing for your time, like work, family commitments, sleep… and maybe even another side hustle (hey there!).

It’s also important to consider how much additional work might be required in order for the business venture to thrive: Will there be meetings? Deadlines? Meetings with deadlines? Organizing supplies? While making predictions about these variables may be hard at first — after all, it depends on exactly what type of venture you choose — the more specific the better!

For example, if I decide that my side hustle will be an Etsy store selling handmade jewelry from my studio apartment in Brooklyn on weekends when I’m not busy working at my day job as a copywriter for an ad agency in Manhattan during weekdays … then I know that this could add up quickly into hours upon hours spent trying (and failing) not just at making jewelry but also running errands like going shopping for supplies or managing social media accounts during those same precious weekends.

However if instead, I choose something less involved like writing freelance articles for companies who hire writers via Upwork… then there would only need to be minimal levels of organization involved since everything else would largely happen online via email correspondence between myself and clients which could happen after work hours even!

Accept that some things probably won’t go quite to plan

Don’t expect everything to go exactly as planned. Things don’t always work out how you hope they will, and things can always take longer or be more difficult than anticipated.
The truth is that no matter how much research you do and how many conversations you have with your target audience, there are just some things that will never be clear until you actually get started.
So accept that some things probably won’t go quite to plan — after all, if they did then every business would be successful!

Remember: even if something doesn’t work out exactly as expected, there are always ways of adapting so that it still works for the business overall.Furthermore, the most important thing is to learn from your mistakes.

Find people who can help you along the way

Now that you have a plan and are ready to execute it, the next step is finding people who can help you along the way.
I’m not talking about your friends and family who will tell you what they think is best for your side hustle even though they don’t actually know anything about it or people who give advice without any experience or success themselves.

I’m talking about real experts: people who already run successful side hustles, have built businesses from scratch, and sell products online.
They are doing what you want to get started on (or scale up) yourself in the future, so why not learn from some of their knowledge right now?

Find someone with expertise in something similar to what you want to do — whether that be photography, writing, or coaching — and ask them if they would be willing to share their knowledge with you by answering questions via email/text, or Skype calls.
Ask them if there are any mistakes they made during their journey which could help keep you from making similar ones when starting out too!

Don’t be afraid of failure, because it’s an opportunity to learn

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve failed at something. The first time I ran a 5K, I finished in 47 minutes and thought to myself, “I will never do this again.”

The first time I tried selling my photography services and realized that people don’t want to pay for pictures of their food on Instagram, I cried on the phone with my mom and questioned why she ever thought I should be an entrepreneur in the first place.

Failure is part of life and success requires learning from mistakes so you can keep moving forward to what matters most to you. When we fail at something, we often feel like giving up because it feels like such a waste of time and energy — but failure is actually an opportunity!

Failing means we did something that didn’t work out as planned which means we have more information to add to our toolkit. So next time we try something new, it’s even better than before!