Top Five Ways To Turn A Side Gig Into A Full-Time Business

Let’s face it: we all have seen those silly ads on the internet boasting about making thousands of dollars all while sitting in the comfort of your home. Perhaps, we even clicked on these links once or twice just to make sure these completely fake ads weren’t cleverly disguised real ones created to “weed out the skeptics.” However, these ads never fail to disappoint us and leave us begging for a chance to make money doing what we love without having to leave our homes to do it.

However, although it can be difficult to transform a writing side gig into a full-time business, there are many ways to get yourself set on the right path and become one of the few that can happily say they are being paid to do what they love and living the life those pesky ads always made you dream of in the past. Below are five ways to turn your journalistic side gig into a full-time business without breaking your wallet or hitting the proverbial “brick wall” along the way.

1.   The $5 Marketing Campaign

One of the main concerns that individuals have when considering turning their writing side gigs into businesses is the marketing costs it would take to gain enough traffic for the writing service they are providing  in order to leave their current positions behind. However, one of the most effective and barely noticeable ways to do this is by following the $5 marketing campaign, which works as follows: put aside $5 every day of the month and, at the end of the month, you will have roughly $150 which can be used to promote your brand and pay for various different forms of marketing.

The best way to use this money is by putting half of it into social media marketing (SMM) and the other half into search engine optimization (SEO) for your site. This will allow you to earn some traffic, create an engaged fan base on your personal blog, and also expand your reach on the web. However, if $5 is still too much for you to begin with, you can easily create a free marketing campaign by simply joining groups on social media associated with writing and marketing yourself and your services on these groups. From there, you can make new client connections and have even more projects to showcase when you next write an article or get commissioned to do a blog.

Furthermore, by knowing your cost-to-profits ratio, you can recognize when things are risky and when they are actually helping you make a profit. For instance, many people choose to run an Airbnb business as the site is already set up, the marketing is already present, and, depending on your location, the interest is typically already present. However, in many situations, running this business can become risky due to the chance of someone defacing your property, stealing your items, or even leasing out their rental to an untrustworthy individual after the transaction has been made. That is why recognizing what to look out for in Airbnb management and, furthermore, in business as a whole is essential if you intend on keeping your business cost-effective and headed in the right direction.

2.   Outsource or Do-It-Yourself Website

Going back to SEO and marketing for your site, it is pretty beneficial to have a business site if you want to look like a professional business. Although it can often be painfully expensive to hire web development companies to create your custom site, there are various resources that will provide easy-to-use customizable site alternatives that make site building and maintaining simple in the long run.

However, if your company plans on selling its service or products online, it is best to have your own site which you can have made for you — or even by trying to tackle basic web design on your own. If you happen to choose the latter, however, the best way to do it is by using a site such as Wordpress which will still make it fairly easy to accomplish and has multiple opportunities to grow and expand the site through it.

Once you have your site up and running, you should begin to focus on keywords which connect to your site and onsite content that not only entices your customers but also engages them in your business and its future as well. After all, a site that is bland and doesn’t engage your customer is a site they will want to quickly be done with, and this lowers your clickthrough rate (CTR) and limits your ability to sink the hook which will make them buy your products or service before they close the tab.

However, although content is a vital part of the site creation process, it is even more important that whatever site creation option you choose is secure. With over 4 billion data records stolen globally in 2016, your network security is a crucial element to ensuring that your site and your company information is secure when on the internet. The main issue revolving around this topic is that new site owners will often fall for the illusion of a safe network and, in turn, face countless cyber attacks until their company site is either completely destroyed or replaced with a hacker’s own site.

Therefore, it is important that your security settings are as strong as your onsite content, especially if you plan on creating an ecommerce website with client information tying back to your site. After all, with the risk of identity theft being so prevalent nowadays, the ability to create a safe transaction process for your customers can also increase business as well.

Once your site is fully optimized, frequently engaging with customers through posts and incentive programs, and gaining valuable traffic, you can move on to the next step which is honing your business by knowing your market and the demographic most interested in the service you provide.

3.  Know Your Market: “Green is Great”

When it comes to business, the demographic always reigns supreme. After all, trying to sell skateboards at senior citizen homes or walkers at Coachella probably wouldn’t be smart marketing choices (yes, I know that’s a pretty unique analogy — but it works). Knowing your demographic not only will allow you to directly target the most likely customers in your area but also save you money on marketing that is virtually useless as it is targeting demographics completely uninterested in your product or service.

However, if you are hoping to simply jump on the bandwagon of an already budding demographic market, one of the best options you have is the eco-conscious market which makes up a very large portion of modern business and has a very wide and promising demographic likewise. For this, small transitions, such as solar-powered offices and recyclable shipping materials, can make all the difference and help you gain a strong and caring fanbase as well as help you to get your name out there through companies that put a spotlight on green-conscious businesses across the world.

When it comes to solar power in business, it is important that you are aware of how solar works and how it can be beneficial to your company and your brand recognition as a whole. For instance, let’s just say your company happens to make wood tables. If you made these tables from reclaimed wood while using solar-powered devices, you could add these two aspects of your company on your site and market your product as an eco-conscious alternative online to expand your brand and gain recognition from a demographic that respects it.

In turn, there are various other simple ways to transform your business into an eco-friendly environment. For instance, if you use recycled paper for documents, recycle bottles, encourage your customers through incentive programs to keep their neighborhoods clean and eco-friendly, and allow employees to telecommute on your site, you can create a business model that directly targets a wide demographic of green business supporters which will raise your company up, promote its products, and help you gain even more traffic each and every day.

4.  Personal Touches Count: Separate Yourself From Competition

On top of finding your demographic, it is important that you also add those personal touches which will make your customers feel special and also separate yourself from the various other companies within your demographic. For instance, simple personal touches such as handwritten thank you cards with each purchase or calls during product progress can separate you from the faceless (and all too often voiceless) competitors within your market.

If you are charismatic in nature, using this to your advantage is a smart way to garner more positive reviews and feedback, as well as entice new customers into purchasing your product or service. For instance, by calling them on the phone about appointments or product progress you can create a sense of professionalism other companies may lack and create lasting relationships with customers through friendly engagement. Likewise, by learning how to set up voicemails for your business, you can also allow them to feel as though they are dealing with an established business that is willing to receive feedback at any given time.

5. Understand Your Worth

One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make is they undervalue themselves and the product or service they are offering because they want customers so badly. Although this may increase traffic to your site and social media accounts and be beneficial at first, this means that raising your prices later becomes a tricky and difficult process which often leads to many customers no longer frequenting your business and even complaining about rising prices on your various reviews pages.

Therefore, it is smart as a new business to simply just sit down and hash out the price of materials, labor, shipping, and any other costs ahead of time so you know what you are looking at instead of guesstimating and paying dearly in the process. The best way to do this is by using the model below which I created when I began my own business online:

(Desired Hourly Wage X Hours Worked on Product) + Materials Cost + Shipping Cost +

Various Minor Costs (i.e. personalized thank you card, packaging, etc.) =

Rough Estimate of Cost for Clients

Once you have your rough estimate, you can recognize your value and market your brand in a way that actually is profitable and consistent over time. By doing this, you will be making the appropriate amount of money per product from day one and be able to transition to full-time in no time.

Another thing you must consider when it comes to understanding your worth is that the customer is not always right. Although the old stigma may say otherwise, modern business recognizes the need to correct particular customers for the sake of their dignity on the line. A great example of that comes in the form of women in the workplace and the struggles they have faced running their own businesses over the years.

In fact, according to a recent study, male and female entrepreneurs get asked different questions by VCs — and it affects how much funding they get. Although this is merely one example out of many, it is important to understand that gender should not determine your worth. However, the same goes for men in many ways as they can often be characterized as messy,” “unorganized,” and “unfit” for work that requires precision. However, there are many men out there that run their own successful businesses in the jewelry industry, the clothing industry, and even the art industry that would certainly say otherwise. Therefore, it is important to recognize your worth, stick by your ideals, and never let someone discredit you simply because they consider your time and work unimportant.

In the end, there are thousands of other ways to continue to expand your side gig into a full-fledged, lucrative business. However, these are some of the most important steps any dreamer must take when hoping to turn their dreams into realities. By focusing your efforts on these five steps as you forge on into the somewhat scary and uncertain world of business management, you can take what was once a series of fake ads and false hopes and turn them into a future that is full of fun, adventure, and growth — not only as an individual but as a business likewise.