You don’t have to quit your job to start earning a side income. In fact, I wouldn’t advise of it all. Instead you can start out slow, and keep it small while keeping the security and income of your full-time job at the same time. If earning a side income isn’t for you (and it’s not for everyone!) then you can easily stop and go back to your normal routine with little or no loss and regret.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of great entrepreneurs, and the majority either had full-time jobs while earning a side income or had a full-time job at the time they started their side hustle.

Ensure that you do your research, make smart decisions, and be patient – you will ultimately be much wealthier in life than the rest of the 9-5ers.

Here’s my story on how I started making earning a side income all while I was still working full-time.

Your Passion

In order to enjoy doing something, and do it well, you need to be passionate about it. The extra money earned will not be enough to keep you going for a long period of time.

Determine why you want to earn a side income. Do you want to help others? Are you looking for a side income? or maybe you want to be your own boss one day. These are just of the thoughts that I asked my self when I started out. Soon enough I realized, even though I like the money, the biggest driving force for me starting a side hustle is that one day I hoped to turn it into a full-time gig and become my own boss.

How To Find Extra Time

You wake up early, go to work on time, and come home late. How the heck are you supposed to find time to earn an extra income? If you’re single, maybe you can spare a couple hours each night to work on a project. If you’re married and/or have children, finding even a glimpse of free time can be near impossible.

Here are a few helpful tips I learned over time. Most of these will help you find some extra time:

1. Join Activities

We often don’t realize how we can prudently use our time. We spend a lot of time thinking, rather than doing. When I first started out, I would drive to a friends house, out on a date or to my parents, and I would make a point of taking some flyer’s or business cards to drop off to potential prospects en route. This has worked for me and paid dividends many times over, and all because I planned ahead, gave my self some time, and combined two activities.

Let’s look at it another way.

You drive to work and you’re listening to tunes in the car. Later you may go for a workout and you’ll be listening to tunes again. Why not combine your activities or driving with some business learning. Rather than listening to tunes and boring repetitive commercials on the radio, you can listen to pod-casts about entrepreneurship, small businesses or other inspirational pod-casts.

2. Pay Attention To Your Time

Working full-time you’re bound to have long days, but even throughout long days, you’ll have some free time that you can use to your advantage. Maybe a few hours before bed or after the kids are asleep. I make very good use of 1.5 hours (twice per week) that I have after I get home from work, and the time I head to the gym. Usually I’m answering emails, doing research or creating invoices to be mailed out.

3. Cut Down On Your TV Time

If you’re a sports junkie like me, you probably watch a lot of TV throughout the week. Why not just cut down on your TV time? I haven’t cut out TV out totally, but I’ve worked hard to effectively use my free time to do work, research, and develop without watching TV. Thus far it’s worked very well for me.

Final Thoughts

The nice thing about not having to quit your full-time day job is that you put less pressure on your self. You’re not in scramble mode of, “I need to make money” or more importantly you don’t feel desperate. And when you feel desperate, you tend to take the shortest routes, rather than truly creating value in your product or service.

Readers, how much TV do you watch? Do you have a side income with a full-time job? How are you handling it?

Cheers!

Eddie

Photo Credit (listentothemountains)