You probably started your side hustle to make a little extra money on the side – but I really want to invite you to dream bigger.
If you can make just an extra €1000 per month through your side hustle, that’s €12.000 extra per year you can spend on growing your business.
But an extra €1000 per month isn’t going to cut it if you want to make your side-hustle a full-time thing or want to build in a financial buffer.
Whenever you’re working on a new idea, product, or service, you need to be thinking: can this idea get me to €5.000 or €10.000 per month in the long run?
In this week's episode, I’m going to teach you how you can make extra money from your side hustle.
We’re going to dive into mindset, hitting targets, and why making money is NOT selfish.
Ready? Let’s go.
1. Dream bigger with your goals
The first step in all of my programs – step zero – is your mindset.
Mindset is EVERYTHING when you are looking at growing your business.
The advice I got back in the day, and I wish I had listened to it sooner, is: dream bigger for yourself.
To make sure you do just that, we work with a 10k protocol, or a control number protocol, in each of my fastforward programs.
You should always ask yourself:
Can my new idea generate €10.000 per month – or at least my control number – every month, in the longer run?
Whether it’s your side hustle or your full-time thing, you should never pursue an idea that does not provide you with the income you need every month.
You really want to focus on something that is big enough.
Something that can take your business to new levels.
Something that will get you to where you want to be.
Your idea needs to ensure you break even every month at the very least and help you make a nice profit.
Look, €1000 per month isn’t going to cut it. €2000 per month isn’t going to cut it. Your idea needs to have the potential to bring in at least an extra €5000 per month in the long run.
I know a lot of people with side-hustles who are like “I never want to go full-time, I love my job”. You don’t have to, you can always choose. I just want you to know what you’re capable of.
But you should focus your time and attention on something that has the potential to bring you big revenue in the future. You should never just accept a low profit margin or spend an excessive amount of time on delivering work that is never even going to pay your rent!
2. Set a target and commit to it!
If you’re listening to this episode, your target is probably €1000.
Great! Now, commit to that target. No f*cking around.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your side hustle – your business model still needs to be valid.
So, set a monetary target, and then work backward from that target.
Example: Let’s say you want to make an extra €800 per month. You divide that €800 by 4 weeks, which is €200 extra per week. That means you need 4 clients who pay €50 a week to make an extra €800 per month.
Reverse engineering is the perfect way to hit your targets: you just calculate backward from a number of clients or from product costs: i.e. how much consumers pay for your product.
3. Choose your product (or service) and find the right price
When you have a side-hustle, chances are you don’t have a lot of time – but you do need to make enough money to pay your bills every month.
That's why you need to sell your product or service at a decent price.
Example: you want to make €1000 extra per month as a business coach. Divided by 4 weeks, you need to make an extra €250 per week. Let's say you have 5 spare hours every week aside from your regular schedule, to reach your goal you need to charge €50/hour.*
Calculating backward from your targets is such a game-changer.
Most people get stuck figuring out how they are going to sell their product before they even know where they want to go. So we have to start from our end goal and then reverse engineer.
First, figure out what you want, and then figure out what product is going to get you to that target. Only then should you start thinking about how to sell it.
* This may seem a little blunt but this calculation is just a simple example to show you the logic of working backward!
4. Focus on what you REALLY need to make your sale happen
When you’re thinking about selling your product, you need to decide who you want to sell it to, how you can get your message across, and what you really need to do to make the sale happen.
For example: do you actually need a website? Find out why you might not need a website right now in episode 97 of the FastForwardAmy Show.
The only 3 things you should be focused on are setting your target, creating the one product or one offer that will get you to that target, and then selling that product.
If you don’t have a lot of time, I would recommend that you create products that have a higher average order value, or AOV.
Example: when you're selling products, don't just offer single products but offer them in (matching) sets. When you're running a service-based business, don't just offer 1-hour sessions but introduce packages where your clients can pay in advance at a reduced rate.
Setting up your product suite in a smart way will generate the cash flow that will allow you to build up more and more in the future – and will give you more stability in your business.
When you’re not sure what moves the needle in your business, ask for feedback from your clients and do some market research to find out what people need and want from your product.
Spoiler: you don't actually have to have your product all perfectly done in order to start selling, you just need to focus on the right things in the correct order, starting with your sales.
5. Make sure your admin is in order
Most people would start with this, but following the reverse-engineering logic means that all the ‘how' steps should be the very last thing you need to sort out.
Examples of these are: setting up your VAT number and arranging anything else needed ‘administratively' to sell products or services as an entrepreneur.
Try to not get carried away with getting the stuff you don't actually need like a logo or even a website, focus on your core offer sweet spot and make sure you can sell it first!
Remember: It’s not selfish to make money
Making money almost seems taboo these days but if you’re not being properly reimbursed, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
You won’t keep your side-hustle or business afloat if your prices are too low, and you’ll no longer be able to offer your services to people in the future.
When you're not making any money off of your business because you're too busy ‘just helping' people and for one reason or another, you can't work – who's going to pay your bills?
Whatever you do, make sure you build in a financial buffer to prevent these scenarios from happening.
You owe it to yourself and others to make sure your business is profitable – because money is energy.
If you’re not making (enough) money from what you’re doing, you’ll see after a while that you have an energy imbalance.
You’re not going to like your full-time job.
You’re not going to like your side-hustle.
You’re going to start feeling burnt out.
Make sure you get your money-energy balance right by getting paid properly for the work that you do.
When you start your side-hustle, your prices don’t have to be incredibly high. You just need to make sure you raise them on time so that they match your quality, and that you communicate this properly to your clients or customers.
Don't start by setting your prices too low or too high. You should set an ambitious target, but you also have to give yourself time to learn.
Therefore, work out your product suite and start building your side-hustle for the long run, this way when you decide to go all-in on your side-hustle, you don't have to change every single thing.
You can start by making an extra €1000 per month (which is still €12000 per year!) and expand your offer as you go to eventually scale your business.
When you’re working on a new business idea or side-hustle but don’t know where to get started, my team and I have created our ‘Start Your Business’ video training to help you take the first steps to kickstart your business and create your future dream life. Watch the training for FREE right here.
Watch this episode on YouTube, or listen via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 106 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
Leave a Reply