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A recent study conducted by art supplier Jackson’s Art found that three in five adults in the UK (61 per cent) either already have, or are considering, a side hustle.
Research states that people are looking to live bigger and better, with 43 per cent saying their top reasoning is to earn more for disposable income to spend on luxuries such as holidays, self-care or eating out.
Others are simply trying to keep up with the cost of living – as much an issue in the UK as it is in Ireland – with one in three saying earning extra money for living expenses such as bills and mortgages is a main motivator. With this in mind, we spoke with founder and CEO of MIB International, Leona Burton, about which side hustles can actually make money.
Burton has been helping companies build their brand for more than eight years. She is also an investor, has several businesses that have been invested in by TV’s Dragons’ Den and has a community of over 400,000 women and mums in business globally – a lot of who have created successful side hustles with her help.
1. Freelance services
“Looking at our skill set and qualifications that we might have done a while ago is the best place to start when it comes to side hustles and offering freelancing services,” Burton says.
“There are things you can do freelance that people are prepared to pay for and it also gives you the freedom and flexibility to do so within your own hours. Freelance services are a great way to grow a business with little to no investment,” she adds.
When it comes to getting services on the market, Burton says for herself and her clients, she always recommends starting out with marketing them on social media. “With side hustles it can very quickly become an expensive game. If you start with socials, you don’t need to spend money on ads and you can identify who your ideal client is and spend your time marketing to those people.
“I recommend you create three pieces of content per day for the main platform you’re focused on – firstly educate people on who you are and what you do; secondly, ask relevant questions around their struggles and challenges; then thirdly would be a sales post to show what you can offer.”
2. Digital products
“Although similar to freelance services, digital products still have a massive part to play in the ecosystem and online space for side hustles,” Burton explains.
“Digital products come in forms such as an e-book, a downloadable workbook or an evergreen course. What you can do is take your knowledge and create your own digital product and market that again through social media.
“This also doesn’t have to be an expensive game,” she continues. “When I first began, I used to send people a Dropbox link and they would pay me through PayPal. Therefore my recommendation with this method would be to start small and build up your cash flow – then start investing and looking at a platform that could eventually host these things.”
3. Consultancy
Burton explains that consultancy is another form of freelancing, however, we must tread carefully with it. Freelance consultants are those who work with businesses on a freelance basis to provide expertise in a certain field.
“Sitting in your experience and knowledge is very important when it comes to consultancy, making sure we are very truthful and honest with our audience,” Burton says. “This is due to the coaching space growing massively over the past few years.
“However, that has brought about some challenges, because people don’t tend to tell the truth. It’s really important that we identify where those boundaries are, what we do and don’t know and, again, helping people with their challenges. When it comes to consultancy, for example, one of my clients consults other cleaning organisations because she built a seven-figure business in cleaning,” she says.
4. Content creation
Burton says when it comes to content creation, it’s really important for people to understand that it can be difficult to nail. “Absolutely, you can create content and you can get paid for it. However, what I would recommend is people getting strategic with it – start to think about who their ideal client is and what they want to see,” she says.
“If you’re a lifestyle blogger or vlogger, what type of company would pay you to be in front of the audience and how would you effectively monetise that? Otherwise what happens is people spend a lot of time in content creation mode and actually don’t monetise at all.
“The game here is that if you decide to be a content creator, what is the end goal and how much do you want to be making and by when? Having these goals and KPIs really put in place means you can effectively monetise.
“You can also then do direct outreach, so reaching out to people and saying, ‘this is who I am and this is what I do… I’m looking for paid collaborations and is this something that would be of interest to you?’
“A lot of companies are now using micro and nano-influencers versus big influencers to market their products because they know that nano and micro are actually proven to have more influence traditionally over their market.”
5. E-commerce
Burton recommends e-commerce as the fifth idea which is the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. “This can be a difficult, however, because it depends upon the product that you’re looking to create,” Burton says.
“I would put this one at the bottom of the five side hustles, just because it is a little bit more challenging to start and you also have got to have some money to put into either the creation of the designs, or the relationship that you build with the people. It is still a great way to make money, but it is harder than it once was.”
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