Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPSnacks: 5 Steps To Start a Side Hustle with Hala

Episode Date: December 11, 2020

Hoping to start a side hustle this New Year?   Today on YAP Snacks, Hala walks through the misconceptions of a side hustle and how to start one. She started YAP Media while working full-time, and knows the ins and outs of designing a lucrative side hustle.   YAP Snack is a series of bite-size digestible and actionable content hosted by Hala Taha.   This episode of YAP Snacks is sponsored by SnackMagic! Head over to www.snackmagic.com to buy WFH snacks for your team!   Social Media:    Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash profiting. Booba one will save you on all your eats. Savings can't be beat. Up to 10 percent of your order. Join Booba one and save $0 delivery fee and percentage off discount subjects to older minimums and participating scores. Taxes and other fee sell apply. Hey everyone, you're listening to YAP Snacks, a series of bite-size, digestible, and actionable content hosted by me, Halataha.

Today on YAP Snacks, I'll be talking about everything side hustles. Are you craving more money and freedom and flexibility outside of your 95 job? Then you should consider pursuing a side hustle. In fact, 63% of Americans have had a side hustle at least once in their career. So what's stopping you? Tune into this episode to learn more about how you can identify a lucrative side hustle, how you can manage your time, and how to reduce the risk in starting your own business. So why side hustles?

The phrase side hustle has gained so much popularity over the years, and it started as a term referring to making a little money outside of your day job. And now it's turned into a way of life. And something to also note is that when side hustles first really started gaining traction, it was known as moon lighting,

and it actually had a very negative connotation. It was something that people considered was wrong to do to work somewhere else while you worked at your day job. But things have totally changed in the 21st century, and that's not the case anymore. The labor market has changed. And now a lot of people, like I mentioned earlier, 63% of Americans

have had a side hustle in the past, and that's because things have changed. Wages are stagnating. We're afraid that robots and automation are gonna replace our jobs. Corporations are outsourcing our jobs overseas, and pension funds are non-existent and drying up. It's become more and more challenging to say for retirement.

People are having trouble paying their student loans. Housing prices are on the rise. And with all these things considered, the normal 9-5 job just isn't cutting it anymore. We need multiple income streams to be successful in 2020 and beyond. There's no guarantees anymore for you to keep the same job for 30 years. It used to be that you got a job, you stayed there, you were tired, you got a pension, and life was good. That doesn't exist anymore.

You never know what's going to happen. There's layoffs. Look at everybody who got furloughed and laid off during COVID. You never know what's going to happen. And that kind of uncertainty is a really scary thought. And so there's many reasons why people start a side hustle, even if they can live comfortably off their primary income. The first reason, and I think it's the most obvious reason, it's making more money.

Making more money never goes out of style, and that's probably what draws most people to creating a side hustle, whether it's paying off debt like I mentioned before or saving for your kids' education or putting money aside for a special vacation, money is obviously the number one reason and you can always find a reason to spend more money. Other benefits may include wanting to learn a new practice or new skill, wanting to explore a passion of yours

or just wanting to empower yourself to find economic value outside of your day job or paycheck. And lastly, my personal reason for starting a side hustle and my favorite reason for starting a side hustle is to design a job that you love. When you start a side hustle, you really have the freedom because you have the stability of your day job. You have the freedom to do what you love, right, or do something that you love better than your day job. And so I think it's everyone's dream to make money doing something that they love. So for me, that's my number reason why I started a side hustle.

I wanted to design a job that I love. So let's talk about why I consider myself to be a side hustle expert now. I launched YAP Podcast back in 2018 as a hobby. I worked at Hewlett Packard, and although my show has seen lots of growth and I've secured lots of sponsors, the hard reality is that I definitely invested more in my podcast than I made money off of it

in about the first two years. Therefore, even though at the time I thought I was starting a side hustle, my podcast was really just a very popular and visible hobby up until recently. Now I use Young & Profiting podcast as a lead generation tool for YAP Media, which is my full service podcast, production and marketing agency.

And that's when things really turned into an actual side hustle and when the game really changed for me. So I launched YAP Media while working full time at Disney Streaming Services just about three, four months ago. And today I have five major clients, some of them are top podcasters, major bestselling authors, and a team of 30 people

who I pay, and I'm running a business that's already made multi-six figures in revenue in contracted business with just the last three, four months without any advertising and just using leads, the guests who come on my show end up becoming my clients and I've never had to pitch anyone, I've never had to advertise. It's just business that has fallen in my lap. And things have been so beyond crazy and it's been really tough managing a podcast, a business, a full-time job. I know that I can't keep this up forever. It's not healthy.

But I designed a business that runs on its own. That's the beauty of starting a side hustle because I was working every day, nine to five. I needed a team. I needed processes so that I didn't have to be involved in every single decision and so that things could move when I was at work. And so I essentially designed a business that can run on its own and that's why I'm still able to work full time.

So more on that later, I love to dig deeper on that because I think it's really important. And honestly, sometimes I can't believe how well things worked out and how I literally just get to do what I love most, podcasting and marketing my two most favorite things in the world is now going to be my profession in the near future. It's going to be my full time career. Every day is so fun. It barely feels like work. And I hope that everybody out there listening can learn a thing or two in this episode so that you can enjoy the same satisfaction in your life.

Okay, so I want to start off this episode with some misconceptions about side hustles. When thinking about starting a side hustle, it can seem very overwhelming. So right off the bat, I want to knock down some common misconceptions about starting one. The first one is that your side hustle has to

eventually become your full-time job. For a lot of people, the goal of their side hustle is to take it full time. But that's not always the case. If your side hustle isn't bringing you the same amount or more as your full-time job, then chances are you won't be able to make it your full-time gig. And so many side hustlers balance their full-time and part-time gig, and they find both extremely

satisfying for their needs. So if both make you happy, then you don't need to quit one or the other. It doesn't need to become your full-time thing. It can always be your side hustle. It's really up to you. Up until I launched the app media, I thought that YAP podcast might always be my little side project. But then once I started making more money, then I do my day job.

Now it's a different story, and I have some decisions to make. Misconception number two, your side hustle needs to take all of your time and attention. So first of all, it's impossible to give your side hustle 100% of your time when you're balancing a full-time job. But the good news is that it doesn't need to take all your time and attention. The average side hustler spends about 12 to 15 hours a week on their gig. But every job is different. So for example, starting an online store at Etsy to sell vintage clothes could only take

a few hours on the weekend. So try keeping a timed diary for a few weeks to keep track of where your free time goes. Once you do that, you're going to see different activities that are not productive, like watching TV or scrolling on social media. And you're going to take those blocks of time that you spent doing those non-productive things and you're going to utilize them to create time for a new successful side project. Side hustles are all about taking advantage

of the different short breaks in your daily and weekly routine. If you can find a few hours to spare, you can start bringing your ideas to life. When I started Young & Profiting podcast, I would work on the train on the way to my full-time job, so that was an hour each way, and I would do all, I would work on the train on the way to my full time job. So that was an hour each way.

And I would do all of my LinkedIn posts on the train. That's how I built my LinkedIn following. I have 67,000 followers. I probably built it to 50,000 followers just on my two hours a day on the train ride. I would write my post in the morning. And then I would do all my engagement on the ride home back. So that's 10 hours a week right there that you can work on your side hustle

if you've got a one hour commute and you get to ride a train. Now it's COVID, it's a little different, but you don't have a commute, so there's your time right there. Then you add in the occasional lunch hour or four hour chunks on the weekend, a couple hours at night or every other night,

and you could rank up like 25 hours a week to work on your side hustle. You would be surprised how much free time you have. Just quit TV, quit social media, quit things that just don't do you any service and will not move your life to the next level. Quit those things. It doesn't have to be forever. And starting a side hustle is a sacrifice. But you should find some time. And if you're unable to find time, you can't start a side hustle. If every single thing that you do is absolutely productive and necessary, then you don't have time to start a side hustle. But if you can find 15 hours a week, 12 hours a week, 20 hours a week, then you have enough time to start a side hustle, and you

don't have to do it all at once. It can be over time. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea, but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. The Millionaire University podcast is a show that's changing the game for aspiring entrepreneurs. Hosted by Justin and Tara Williams, it's the ultimate resource for those who want to run a successful business and graduate rich, not broke.

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all lowercase to take your business to the next level today. Again, that shopfide.com-profiting, shopfide.com-profiting, all lowercase. This is possibility powered by shopfife. And so time management is super important because you're juggling other responsibilities. One way to save time is to have a virtual assistant. And this can be a blessing.

This was one of the things that really accelerated my podcast inside hustle, is having a virtual assistant who is in there able to respond to fans in my comments and in my DMs and took a lot of the stuff that really wasn't moving the needle for me, that somebody else could easily replicate and do on my behalf in a quality way. And so they can schedule appointments, they can send follow-ups, they can manage your inbox, whatever it is.

Don't discount the value of a virtual assistant when you're starting out. There are very inexpensive way to save time. And I think the going rate, if you get somebody international from the Philippines or India, is like $5 an hour. And so most people can afford $5 an hour to save them that hour of time. And instead, work on something that's

going to actually bring revenue and make a meaningful difference for your side hustle. You could also consider hiring interns or part-time contractors. I think in general, just starting to build a team if it makes sense for you will really save a lot of time. And I think that's definitely one of the reasons why I'm able to still work full time.

And then I have run such a successful side hustle. It's because I have a team. I have a team that's helping me and I appreciate them. And I set the standard, I set the processes, and then they run with it. And I think that's what helps make my side hustle very successful. And so systems are really important.

Like I just mentioned, you need to make sure that there's a thought out process that can be executed efficiently each time. And make sure that you can guarantee consistent and quality work when you start building a team. And then the last thing I'm going to say is that you really need to be organized. When you have a lot going on, the last thing you want to do is go search for an image or go search for whatever you need to have ready for your client or whatever it is.

You need the proper folders and storage systems in place to keep running of inefficient business. So I can't underestimate the importance of being organized and having some proper folders and storage systems in place. And the third misconception is that it's going to put your full-time job at risk. So in an economy where 39% of millennials have started their own gig on their side, a lot of smart, modern employees just understand that bands on outside projects can stifle creativity. They can push employees underground and they can also create a culture of distress.

So most companies are cool with side houses by now, but if you're with a really conservative, outdated company, then you do need to take some precautions when starting a side hustle. The first thing you're going to want to do is know your guidelines. So you want to review your employment contract for any stipulations that might interfere with freelance or side business work. And so the most common are non-compete clauses. So these really prohibit outside employment or consulting work that is competing or conflicting with your employer's business.

So as long as your side hustle doesn't conflict, then you're good to go. Exclusivity clauses, so that prevents you from engaging in outside work, competitive or otherwise. So this is basically a showstopper. If you have an exclusivity clause in your contract that you basically can't work anywhere else, then that's really a showstopper for your side hustle

and you can't have one, unless you quit your job. The next is a non-disclosure agreement or NDA as it's called. And basically what that means is that as long as you don't use what you learn at work in your side hustle, then you're in the clear. You just can't use any intellectual property or sales models or build on any knowledge that you learn in your day job and then use it in your side hustle. It needs to be something that's separate from what you do in your day job and then you're

in the clear. So as long as what you do is allowed by the company, then there's really no reason why you need to disclose your side hustle, but even though it's not legally necessary to tell folks, it's more than likely, especially with social media, that somebody's gonna find out and the simple no-mess way to avoid any potential conflict of interest,

is to set up a meeting with your HR resource and your boss and let them know about your side hustle plan. So that's what I did with YAP. When I first got hired, I made it super clear that I had a podcast. I had to sit down with the legal team and let them know about it. I had to give them some information.

And then once we cleared that up, I was good to go. And I never got asked anything ever again. And I just got to continue on with my podcast. So you definitely can do it in a smart way. It doesn't need to put your job at risk. I think if you approach it in a smart way. It doesn't need to put your job at risk. I think if you approach it in a smart way, if you are smart about it from the start, and think through what you want to do

and make sure it's not a conflict with what you do at work, then I think it can work out. And it shouldn't be an issue. This episode of YAPSNACs is sponsored by Snack Magic. I love working from home. There's no commute, I don't have to wear stuffy clothes, and I'm getting much more sleep because half the time I can just roll at a bed

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So let's now talk about the five ways to start a side hustle. First, identify your strengths and skill set. Think about all the things that you're excited about. What do people always compliment you on or say that you're good at? Is there something that you secretly long to do? What ignites the passion inside of you? Do you like to write? Do you make grandma's envious with your crocheting skills? Do you like to tinker with and fix gadgets? Turning your

passions into a side hustle might be as simple as just looking at the things that you already spend your time doing and then commercializing it and making money off of it. So if you have a hobby that you like to do, think about how you can make money off that hobby and if what you're doing is valuable to you, it might be valuable to someone else. When I launched my podcast, the one thing that everybody always asked me was, who does your marketing? Who does your graphics? How did you grow so popular on LinkedIn?

How did you launch a successful podcast? How do you make videos? People would ask me the same things over and over and over again. And it never clicked. It wasn't until Heather Monahan came on my show and like forced herself as my first client that I realized like, oh, I have a business that I've been doing this as a hobby, this whole time. And I literally could flip the switch and scale and turn this over to a business if I wanted to. And it never clicked before that, but looking back, everybody always asked me the same questions, how do you do videos?

How do you promote yourself on LinkedIn? How do you launch a podcast? People wanted that from me. So now I've turned all that demand that I just was kind of oblivious to and just kind of ignored and just provided this free advice all the time.

I turned that demand into an actual product. So what is it that people are always asking you? Try to think about that and try to just start to monitor the questions that people ask you or the compliments that you get. And you'll start to generate some ideas in terms of what value people see in you. I personally think that aligning your passion to your side hustle is a great idea, but there are some considerations to take. You may get tired of your passion after you spend too much time on it. So for example, if you love to write, having it

be a job might like take the joy out of writing. So if you need to kind of test that, like if you like it so much that you want to do it every day, or is it something that you just like to do once a while with no pressure? So it's like having the pressure on your passion may like take the joy out of it. And so that's something that you need to consider. The other thing is that there may not be any market demand for your passion, but we'll get to that later. We're going to be able to test that in a way where you can launch your side hustle with very little risk and decide, you know, if it's something that has demand or not and if

it doesn't, then you need to switch your idea and if it does, you can go full force. And to that point, not every passion really deserves to be a side hustle. So just keep that in consideration. Nevertheless, I would definitely start by making a list of your passions and then also make another list of the products and services you could provide that people are willing to pay for. Any overlap between these two items, like make like a Venn diagram, is fertile ground for a side hustle idea.

So a list of your passions, a list of the products and services you could provide to people, and if there's any overlap, then that may be a good side hustle idea. And also, just something to keep in mind is that there's really no pressure to come up with a hundred percent original idea. Most successful businesses started by improving or putting a new spin on an existing product or service. You just have to pick an idea in which you can use your skills to deliver something uniquely valuable. Is there something that you can do better or differently than others? Yeah, bam.

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on the Kelly Roach show. Kelly is an inspirational entrepreneur, and I highly respect her. She's been a guest on YAP. She was a former social client. She's a podcast client, and I remember when she came on Young & Profiting and she talked about her conviction marketing framework, it was like mind-blowing to me. I remember immediately implementing what she taught me in the interview in my company and the marketing efforts that we were doing. And as a marketer, I really, really respect all Kelly has done, all Kelly has built. In the corporate world, Kelly secured seven promotions in just eight years, but she didn't just stop there. She was working in I-5 and at the same time she built her eight-figure company as a side hustle and eventually took it

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Tune into the Kelly Road Show, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, ya fam! As you may know, I've been a full-time entrepreneur for three years now. Yet media blew up so fast, it was really hard to keep everything under control, but things have settled a bit, and I'm really focused on revamping and improving our company culture. I have 16 employees, so it's a lot of people to try to rally and motivate, and I recently had best-selling author Kim Scott on the show. And after previewing her content in our conversation, I just knew I had to take her class on master class, tackle the hard conversations with radical candor

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See if you can pull some profitability data in relation to your idea and estimate how much it's going to cost to do and how much people would pay for it. If you aren't going to make money, it's not a business. It's just simply a hobby. And you don't want to spend a lot of time

on something and charge too little for it. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, you also don't want to overcharge for your skills and get no customers. So I would recommend charging at least 30 to 50% margin on your products and services. And do not forget to bake in your own time when it comes to your pricing. That's definitely the first mistake that I made when I first started. I forgot that it's not just the subscriptions, the contractors, and the value of the marketing services that I should bake into my pricing. It's my time, too. I make a great amount of money per hour at Disney, and so my time and the time

that I'm going to put in my client's work should also be baked in the pricing, and I think a lot of people forget that when they're building out their pricing. The next thing you want to do is validate your idea as quickly as possible. The only surefire way to know that you aren't wasting any time is to get your first customer as soon as you can. So don't worry about having a website, having a logo, having a pitch deck, you don't need any of those things. The only things that you need,

the bare minimum requirements to get your first paying customer is having something to sell, a willing buyer, and a way to collect money. That's all you need, and that's all you should start with when you're first figuring out what your side hustle is gonna be.

This is your test period, right? So you have your first side hustle idea, and this is your test period. You wanna try to get your first customer. And once you proved yourself that somebody's gonna buy into your idea, it's easier to stay motivated and figure out how to continually improve. And also getting your first customer and starting right away,

you'll get instant feedback. So you'll get instant feedback to know like if your pricing is too high, if somebody is countering you at the pricing. If people are just accepting your pricing, then you probably priced really well or you may want to try testing pricing a little bit higher next time and see like what's the highest range that you can go before people just kind of say, oh, no way. I can't afford that or no way. That makes no sense. So you definitely want to test and try to get that feedback from your customers at real-time feedback.

And like I said, don't invest in a website, logo, all that upfront capital. You don't want to waste that until you know that you have a business that's going to generate demand. So start with your existing contacts, start with your social media following, go knock on local businesses doors, and don't go invest in a fancy website. If nobody is willing to pay for it, then it's a hobby, not a business,

and you want to figure that out before you go make all these investments. So in summary, don't invest more than like $100 for each idea, test it out for a week or two, see if anybody's going to buy from you, and this lean startup approach will get you making money and get you real-world feedback as fast as possible, and those are key elements and making your side hustle work. And like I said, if your first idea doesn't work, pick another idea and keep it moving. The next step is to really start to further define

your target market and your marketing strategies. And fortunately, having everyone as your target market is gonna get you nowhere. So the more clear and specific you can be about who your side hustle will serve, it's gonna really help you. So creating a niche not only allows you to simplify your product or service, but it also allows you to simplify your messaging and your targeting in your marketing.

So a good test to follow is the, that's me test. If a potential customer can say that's me when you describe your audience, then you know you have a detailed enough market. Once you reach that point, you can get creative with your marketing and find out where those people hang out. And so when it comes to marketing your side hustle, it's a whole lesson in itself. But the best thing I can tell you is to focus your chips on where your target market hangs out.

So if you're targeting professionals, you want to be on LinkedIn. If you have something very visual, you want to be on Instagram. Figure out where your target market is spending their time online or in the real world and go meet them there. You don't want to try to pull the few people who are in the different places and spread out to you then. You want to market where your audience is hanging out. So for example, when I first started Young and Profiting podcast, I was equally spending my time on Instagram and LinkedIn trying to figure out what was going to work for me. I quickly realized that people on LinkedIn liked my content.

They wanted self-improvement content. People on Instagram just wanted to see me in a short skirt. Pretty much. content, people on Instagram just wanted to see me in a short skirt. Pretty much. So I decided I was going to focus all my chips on LinkedIn, and I literally ignored my Instagram profile. I still only have like 3000 followers on Instagram just getting into it now. I ignored my Instagram for like two years, literally didn't really post and focused everything

on LinkedIn. And it worked for me. Now I'm one of the based influencers on that platform. I figured it out. I figured how to get traction. I learned it on my own. I experimented. I posted every single day.

I was consistent. And I didn't spread myself thin by trying to win on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and all these other platforms. I focused on LinkedIn. And that's how I grew my following. and then now I'm able to take my following and point them to Instagram and start to grow with that and so on. So I think it's starting in one place and really focusing on that and figuring out where your target market hangs out and putting all your

chips on that. Step 5. build a team. Assuming you put in the work to follow the steps I outlined previously, there's a good chance that your side hustle is gonna be a success. And as your bank account grows, so will your responsibilities.

In the beginning, you just had to think about your passions, your offering, and now you're gonna run into issues like order fulfillment, invoicing, customer support, and you have real high stakes deadlines. So if you insist on doing everything yourself, you're going to get overwhelmed. You already have a 9.5 job. You certainly have other relationships to manage and other things that you need to spend

your time on. So don't be afraid to get help. Use some of that income to reinvest into your side hustles. So focus on getting better tools that are going to make you more efficient. Focus on outsourcing with virtual assistants like we talked about earlier. Building a team, hiring interns, hiring an accountant, whatever it may be, find those things that are going to help you free up time. You do not want to waste your time with mundane tasks that are not going to move

the needle for your side hustle. You want to outsource all of that and start building a team so that you can do what you love and what you're truly good at because that's why you started your side hustle in the first place. You probably didn't start it to do admin work. So eventually you're going to reach a point where it's time to decide whether to turn your hustle into a full-time thing or keep your day job. And that's where I am today and it's an incredible feeling. So the last thing I'm going to say before I close this out is that success doesn't happen overnight. You got to think about it. You're not working this side hustle 40 hours a week. You're probably going to work less than 20 hours a week.

So it's going to take twice as long to get any measurable results as it would as if you were working full time. So you need to really be in it for the long run. You've got to have great determination and a passion for your side hustle. Having a passion is so important because you need to, you know, in the ups and the downs, you need to still continue on and do things even when you don't feel like doing them. And so, you need to know your why, you need to understand your motivations for starting a side hustle, write all of that down, understand that you're going to be sacrificing time, doing things that you like to do, like TV, social media, hanging out with friends, all that kind of stuff may have to go on the wayside to make room for your side hustle.

So, you need to kind of accept that, own that, and then be in it for the long haul. While I hope this information will be helpful to you, this is by no means all the information you could ever have. It's just a good start. On Young & Profiting Podcast, we have the pleasure of interviewing marketing experts, entrepreneurs, and very skilled professionals. So here are a few episodes you may want to listen to if you're craving more side hustle tips. Number 10, this is the obvious one, the art of side hustles with Nicoloper. Number 26, the laws of selling with Richard Moore has so many gems in terms of how to sell your product. Also, number 37, go gig or go home if you want to understand the gig economy and why people are moving towards side hustles. Number 87, the practice of creativity with

Seth Godin. We really talk about the need to always be a professional even when you're doing creative work. And lastly, number five, getting shit done and improving your productivity with David Allen. So thank you so much for listening to this episode of YAP Snacks on Young and Profiting Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode on how to start a side hustle. Until next time, this is more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben

podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time energy or money. Suggestions such as follow the one-minute rule.

Choose a one-word theme for the year, or design your summer. We also feature segments like, know yourself better, where we discuss questions like, are you an over buyer or an under buyer? Morning person or night person, abundance lever or simplicity lever? And every episode includes a happiness hack, a quick, easy shortcut to more happy. Listen and follow the podcast happier with Gretchen Rubin.

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