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Did you know there are so many? 45% of Americans have side hustles? For many, these side hustles are passion projects they hope to turn into careers. Starting a business while working full-time elsewhere is a common path for many aspiring entrepreneurs, but it can be very difficult.
Balancing daily work, personal life, and a brand new business can lead to burnout and potential failure if not actively and carefully managed. Here are some tips that have helped me the most when building my business and sustaining my career.
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1. Create two separate workspaces
When your personal life and work intertwine, it’s easy to lose focus and become overwhelmed. Even though your side project is a business, it’s still personal and should be treated as separate from your main job.
To keep business development from impacting corporate work hours (or vice versa), spend time creating two different work environments. He can do this even if he only has one desk or computer.
One of the easiest ways is to create a separate user account on your computer dedicated to personal projects or company work settings. If you can’t afford another computer or desk, this is a great first step to isolation. personal business.
Now try using different communication channels for different jobs. If your full-time team uses his Slack, use Google Chat or RocketChat for side-project communication to curb the temptation to switch channels. The same applies to task planning. If you use Asana for one job, use Jira or Backlog for the other and make sure you’re really using them. Don’t keep tasks in your head. This can lead to a distraction and a “quick break” to work on other tasks.
This kind of multitasking increases stress, poor performance It does both tasks. Our brains work best when they are focused on a single thing (e.g. only working or developing a side hustle), so doing so will keep us holistically focused. efficiency.
Plus, creating this separation makes it easier to switch gears and get into “creative mode” when working on your business. You are no longer someone else’s worker bee. Now you are in control. This will give you the extra motivation you need in the long run.
2. Stay motivated by asking for feedback on your business idea.
For better or worse, burnout is just part of the process of starting a business and maintaining a full-time job. on average, 77% of employees Say you experienced burnout at work, and 63% of entrepreneurs They say they’ve dealt with burnout. If you’re both an employee and an entrepreneur, it’s almost inevitable, no matter how much you love your job.
There’s a lot of great advice out there about intentionally taking breaks. Refresh your mind and body Alternatively, building rest periods into your daily schedule is also an important strategy. However, sometimes entrepreneurs need more to stay motivated.
My biggest piece of advice for overcoming burnout and staying motivated is to get continuous feedback from customers and colleagues. When your startup is in its early stages, your first clients are usually very loyal and like to keep in touch. They love what you do and want to support you in any way they can. Calls, chats and messages can be very motivating, whether positive or negative (we need both!).
Positive feedback lifts your spirits and lets you know you’re doing something right. After all, everyone needs someone to believe in them. Even getting negative feedback is not a bad thing. It should inspire you to keep working and make the product better.
Finding creator groups to get input, support, and advice from other founders, especially those already on this path, can also be very helpful.
Another thing that helped me stay motivated was paying myself a small amount of money for the work I did to grow the business. You can get into the mindset of investing in a business and getting paid for your work, even if it’s just pennies, creating a positive feedback loop.
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3. Outsource as much as possible.
With that initial momentum, freelancers can be a valuable resource to help you offload work and progress faster. Even hiring one freelancer for 10 hours a week can make a big difference in how quickly and effectively you can scale.
Let freelancers help you write social media posts, develop websites, prepare taxes and handle administrative duties. These tasks can waste a lot of time just not helping you reach your goals. Additionally, you can rely on AI if you are in the “no budget” stage of your operations. Using Midjourney or other stable spreading tools for logo creation or ChatGPT for social media copy can be of great help. Even if you have to work with a freelancer to finalize the deliverables, you can still save a lot of time and money.
However, keep important abilities to yourself. This includes hiring additional helpers, overseeing finances, and talking to customers. Anything that directly affects your reputation should always go through you.
Outsourcing workers through platforms like Upwork is easy, legally safe and non-binding, making it ideal for the early stages of building a business. It also simplifies the hiring process with access to a global talent pool. As reported by LinkedIn, 83% of small business owners who hire freelancers appreciate how well they help them “get the job done.” 64% By leveraging these workers, they say they can build better virtual teams.
One of the downsides of freelance work is that the person is not as passionate or personally invested in the success of the project. They care more about getting the job done and getting paid. However, if you set clear goals and expectations from the beginning, it’s easy to find like-minded people.
It’s important to remember that no one can do better than you when it comes to setting a vision and recruiting people to higher positions.
4. Set up a clear communication channel.
Having a regular job during the day keeps you from communicating with freelancers, contractors, and employees, leaving you with a limited time slot at night to handle everything. For this reason, it is important to establish clear communication channels and outline detailed guidelines so that everyone can work autonomously and asynchronously.
I prefer using project management tools like Jira or Trello to set and track weekly goals. Both offer free versions. Having explicit direction and a centralized platform keeps everyone on the same page and helps with prioritization, accountability, and momentum.
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5. Know when to quit (and how to quit)
Before you start working on your business, it’s important to set financial goals that indicate when it’s time to quit your day job. Paul Graham popularized the word “”.Ramen profitabilityThis means that the startup has enough income to pay for the basic expenses of the founder. I think this is a good way to quit a full-time job.
The goal for me was to earn the same amount of money as doing a regular job. I knew that if I could reach that goal on a consistent basis, I should stop. Of course, if you have family or other circumstances, this goal may be different. It doesn’t matter what the tipping point is. Just set a tipping point and stick to it.
Knowing how to quit is just as important as deciding when to quit. Building bridges when leaving a company is never a good idea. So one of the best things you can do is to keep the “retire gracefully” mentality. Start thinking about the steps you can take to ensure a smooth retirement for both of you, and prepare yourself (and your successor) for a smooth transition. Not only is this good business practice, but it also opens the door if you ever need to rehire.
Building a business is a balancing act
They don’t call it a passionate project in vain. Adding more full-time work load to an already busy life is always difficult, and passion is often the only fuel that keeps you motivated in the early days. The good news is that despite the challenges, once you learn how to effectively manage your time, stress, and goals, you can shift into the role of a founder and work full-time on the single business you truly care about. It means that you can devote your time.
