

Money•Blogging
5 Simple Steps to Start Your Side Hustle and Finally Spring into Action
April 5, 2020This article contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission at no cost to you! Read my disclosure for more information.
If you are anything like me you want to start making money online so badly but you are frozen with indecision. For months, I researched different ways to make money online jumping from method to method. Print on Demand? Selling ebooks on Amazon? Dropshipping? Digital Marketing Agencies?
I literally researched it all! For hours and hours, I read blog posts, surfed Youtube and took notes. That is all well and good until I realized that I was still at point A.
Knowledge is great to have but action is where the magic truly happens.
I was spending so much time learning ways people were generating money online that I could not pick one. I fell prey to shiny object syndrome. I was bouncing from one online business idea to the next like a frustrated little ping pong ball.
In 2019, I dabbled in online arbitrage which is buying things online for a low price and relisting them online at a higher price. I created some shirts for Merch By Amazon to try to get into the print on demand world but soon gave up on that too.
I was giving up before I gave these methods a fair chance. If I didn’t see results in a few days I was like THANK YOU, NEXT.
I wish someone could have reality checked me and told me that, one, I was being crazy.
Two, making money online does not happen overnight.
And three, it takes time and consistent effort to be successful.
Making money online is not easy and procrastination can definitely set in. The fact that you have so many options can make it difficult to pick just one. Ultimately, that is what you have to do. You’re the boss here so you make the hard calls lol!
Pick a Hustle
Do Some Research (Just not too much)! Off the top of my head, these are some ways people are currently making money online.
- Blogging
- Affiliate Marketing
- Dropshipping/Ecommerce
- Digital Marketing Agencies
- Social Media Management
- Lead Generation for Local Businesses
What I did was write down everything I did not want to have to do for my business and then ruled out methods that way. For instance, I knew that I did not want to do cold calling to gain clients so I crossed off starting a lead generation or marketing agency. Find out the skills you will need to learn, the start up costs, tools you need etc.
Cap your research stage to a week. The longer you are researching, the longer it is taking for you to start your side hustle,
If at the end of the week you still can’t decide, cross off all the side hustles you definitely do not want to do and then randomly select one.
Draw names out of a hat, flip a coin, roll a die… I don’t care how you do but be sure to make a decision.
COMMIT for at Least 3 Months!
I know 3 months is a small amount of time when trying to upstart a business but I have commitment issues y’all! When I tried to commit to 6 months, I almost picked up my wedding dress and ran out of the church.
Bad jokes aside, I plan on trying to make this blog a success for 3 months and when the time comes to commit to another 3 months. Kinda like renewing a contract with myself. If it takes these mental tricks to keep you going, do what you need to do!
When I say commit, I do mean commit. Do not cheat on your business. Do not research other money making methods. As the wise Ron Swanson once said, “Do not half ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.” (Please tell me you get the reference.)
Let’s put all of our effort, time and energy into this one method so at the end of the day, even if we fail, we tried our very freaking best. We want #noragrets (I hope you got this reference too! lol)
Make sure you are blogging or selling or marketing something you are at least somewhat interested in because this will be taking up your spare time for the next several months. Entrepreneurship is hard but should still be enjoyable! Choose wisely!
Create an Action Plan
I was reading and watching so many videos about blogging that I had no idea where to start. My mind works fast and my brain was so active that I couldn’t sleep at night!
There were so many things I had to consider…domain names, hosting, logos, web design, SEO and the list goes on. I finally decided to sit down and get my thoughts on paper.
To stop feeling so overwhelmed, I wrote down the 7 most important things I needed to do to get my blog started.
What are the 7 essential things you need to do to launch your business?
No more overthinking now, guys. No excuses. No procrastination. Just action.
Set Goals and Deadlines
Now that we have written down what we have to do, we have to make sure we actually do it! Next to every action on your list, write down a date you should be done by. It is time to hold yourself accountable if you want to reach your goals! We got this!
Setting big picture goals is also important and can help you stay motivated when the going gets tough.
What is your main goal for your online business? A little extra pocket money? Quitting your day job and full-time income? Write it down on a post-it and stick it somewhere you can see it every day. Stay focused on your goal and hustle hard to achieve it. The only person who will change your life is you.
Determine What Motivates You
I am not going to lie to you, I have given up on a lot of making money online methods. Sometimes I was lazy or confused or just plain frustrated with lack of results leading me to quit. This time I switched things up and decided to try a new way to stay motivated to keep trying.
I took away a daily privilege from myself and I won’t get it back until I make my first dollar online. When I say daily privilege I mean something that you do in your leisure time like playing games on your phone or eating junk food. Something that you usually do everyday that is not a necessity like drinking water or exercise.
I used to be obsessed with dating apps, swiping left and right in all my free time but they have all gone bye-bye now. I will get my dating apps back when I start meeting my goals! It may be a little thing but it does give me a push. It is probably for the best as I need to work on being happy by myself and it killed my productivity.
Good luck with starting your businesses and side hustles! May you stay committed, focused and motivated to start earning an income online. Other people are making money online so what is stopping us? Don’t stay in procrastination station, as I call it. Get on a train and GO somewhere.
Remember successful people are always taking action.
Keep Hustlin’
Kay ????
Susan says
I want to make money to stay alive and support my family.how can I be a stay at home worker?
Kay Zane says
There are many ways to make money online although doing so isn’t super easy like some people claim it is! I’d suggest you take a look at your skills and go from there. You can start a blog like this one and sell digital products/do affiliate marketing. You can start an Etsy shop, resell things on Ebay, be a virtual assistant, start a Shopify store. The possibilities are seriously endless! You can even just apply to remote jobs at companies if you don’t want to go the entrepreneur route. Good luck!!