Three reasons you haven't started a side hustle
Absolutely everyone has an idea that they think could become a side hustle that makes money. Shockingly few people actually take that idea and turn it into a side hustle. Why? What makes us so scared to venture out of our comfort zones and try something new, start something different and potentially improve our financial situations? We seem to have society that scared of starting.
I want to change that.
Over the past 20 years I have built many side hustles, some succeeded and became a fulltime gig for me, many did not but thanks to these attempts I realised that there are three main reasons that I and other people don’t start a side hustle. They are not complicated reasons but they are real and scary for most people.
I want to talk about them so that we can address them and let them go.
1. You’re scared of failure.
Fear of failure is the number 1 reason people don’t start a side hustle. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that fear of failure is the number 1 reason people don’t do anything exciting, scaring, new, difficult or risky.
“What if I fail?” is the question that keeps you up at night, that you wont bring up with your partner or friends and that eventually makes you want to crawl into a little ball in bed, cover your head with the duvet and rock yourself to sleep.
Failure is a bitch. It hurts, it’s a blow to the ego and often you believe it’s the thing people are waiting for or expecting of you. But you’re wrong. As much as it hurts, failure is a fantastic way to learn and if your frame failure as a method of teaching then you never lose! You actually gain. You gain experience. You learn what not to do the next time. You have lived. If you never start then you have definitely not experienced a full life.
I like to ask people to test out their idea in the following way:
If your side hustle fails will you die?
I’m serious.
Will you literally die? No? Then fuckit, do the thing.
If all that happens when you fail is that you feel bad, learn something new and move on then what the hell do you have to lose? NOTHING!
2. You're scared of what people will say.
Do you know how many people are thinking about you right now as you read this sentence? None.
No one is actively thinking about your achievements this very minute. That means that while you sit and worry about other people, they are not doing the same. No one does that. Do you?
Do you sit and think about the people you know throughout the day hoping they’re failing at what they do? Waiting for them to update their LinkedIn profile that they have quit their new side hustle? No, of course not! That’s insane.
When I was running Nic Harry (a fashion side hustle that I started with $350 and turned into a full-time six figure business before selling it) I would tell people that they shouldn’t worry about what people think of their outfit because everyone is only worried about how their own outfits look.
Same thing with your side hustle.
But let’s say that you do actually give a shit what other people say. Why do you think the people in your life would berate you for failing? If you truly believe they would then you have the wrong people in your life. Before you consider starting your side hustle you better get your house in order and find the right people to support you through this experience.
Starting a side hustle is no joke and the people you surround yourself with can make or break your ability to survive the beginning stages of a side hustle.
Take a good look at the people you call your closest friends and family, anyone who would mock you for failing or starting should be gone, soon.
3. You think you don't have enough startup capital.
It’s strange to think that people believe the only way to start a side hustle is with startup capital. There are hundreds of thousands of businesses all over the world that start with a sale, a thought, a product that took years to build because money was tight.
Lack of funding is a roadblock that you put infront of your path to success. It’s strange how much we sabotage ourselves with roadblocks. It’s like we hate succeeding.
Let’s break out some figures:
If you save $50 a month for 12 months you’ll have $600.
At the start of the 13th month you can take $600 and buy product you believe in and then sell it for $1200.
You get where I’m going with this, right?
You need to build something small before you can build something big and we all think too big when we start out.
You don’t need a lot of money and most often you don’t need any money at all to start a business.
What do you need?
A product or service to sell.
A customer who wants to buy.
If the product you want to sell costs money then start saving right now and work out how long it’ll take you before you can buy stock.
There are ways to make it work. Think laterally, talk to people and probe the problem from different angles until you’ve found a way to build the side hustle you want.
But don’t rush.
Very often people want capital because they believe that they need to start TODAY or it’ll never work. That’s bullshit. There are very, very few side hustles that are time sensitive and I am almost certain that yours is not one of them.
Be calm, save money and then get started.
If you are serious about your side hustle but think you need some help then you’re at the right place.
Click the button below to find out more about my book, online course and coaching. Let’s #StartSomething together.
