start a side business and increase your income

We, as human beings, have no limit to what we can achieve. For example, some people are doing two jobs to manage their household. On the other hand, people have started businesses in their homes and made them successful. Although we have established successful professional careers in our life, we always try to look for opportunities to start a side business. Since inflation has impacted several countries worldwide, people have understood that they cannot manage their expenditures with just one job. Hence, they try to find an additional source of income to maintain financial stability.

If you are a beginner, you can establish a successful side business from the comfort of your house. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the unemployment rate has increased across various industries, and people have found it challenging to get in-house jobs. Hence, they have started pursuing online jobs and making successful careers.

Tips to Start a Successful Side Business Today

1) Evaluate Yourself Objectively

Like your approach to starting a full-time business, you must evaluate yourself to determine your skills and attributes to start a side business. For example, YouTubers tend to make videos about their interests, such as sports, gaming, and makeup. The best approach is to look at your skills individually, regardless of whether it is coding or photography. To determine and evaluate your skills, you can ask yourself the following questions:

  • What are you doing during your free time?
  • What have been your passions previously?
  • What do you do if you are away from your working station?
  • Can you do something productive after your office hours?

2) Think of the Best Side Business Ideas

The best thing about starting a profitable side business is that entrepreneurs have several options. You can pick the right business ideas and see if you can do well. There are a few factors that you must consider while identifying your business ideas.

Firstly, you should determine the side business ideas based on your skills, interests, and passions. For example, if you are involved in coding or programming, you can start building mobile applications. Similarly, if you are involved in photography, you can consider different niches in this field. Here are some of the questions you must answer while choosing your side business idea:

  • Will you be able to withstand the competition from your competitors?
  • Is there a cost barrier to starting your side business?
  • Is your skill set good enough to execute this business idea?
  • What is the roadmap to make your business model work?

3) Research Stage

Once you have created a shortlist of side business ideas, you can shift your focus towards doing research on their feasibility before committing to them. The more in-depth your research is, the more confidence you have to execute your business idea. Here are some of the factors that you must consider in your business research:

  • Requirements (Equipment, tools, software, hardware, etc.)
  • Business startup costs
  • Overhead costs (Rent, utilities, etc.)
  • Competitors
  • The market size of your target demographic
  • Potential financial risks of your business venture
  • Potential to convert this side business to a full-time business

4) Formulate an Informal Plan

business informal plan

Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website

Once you realize that your side business idea is solid, you can start developing your business plan. Being a business owner, you will know how to fund your venture and acquire customers. You can make an informal plan to ensure a successful side business. The best approach is to write down all the aspects in a word document to make your business ideas more concrete. Here are the elements you must consider while writing your informal plan:

  • Business structure costs
  • A domain name, trademark
  • A business website, social media accounts
  • Resources (Equipment, tools, software, and hardware)
  • Customer acquisition

5) Get Feedback

If you feel you have everything at your disposal regarding your side business, find out what your family thinks about it. It is an excellent approach to ask your family or close friends about it because they will always reply with honest feedback. If they have concerns about the scope of your business idea, you must address those concerns immediately. Considering their issues shows your homework and would give more reasons to commit to this business idea.

Profitable Side Hustles to Choose in 2023

1) Freelancer

Freelancing is a profitable side business that helps to boost your income and convert your passion into a business. The best thing about freelancing is that you can do it on your computer remotely, allowing you to work from anywhere. You can also choose the number of clients you want to work with or the number of projects you can handle daily.

freelance web designer

Image taken from Strikingly

Freelancing is a successful side hustle because it removes all the drawbacks that a full-time freelancer can encounter. Here are the popular freelancing gigs with high demand in the market:

  • Writer: The role of freelance writing varies based on what type of content you can produce. For example, you can be a technical writer, journalist, author, or copywriter. Upwork and Fiverr are two of the most popular freelance websites on the Internet. You can register them and apply for the specified writing jobs.
  • Developer: Just like writing, freelance developers have multiple options to consider. For example, they can become iOS developers, WordPress specialists, or website designers.
  • Graphic designers: They are usually skilled in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, but some have mastered additional market programs. The more expressive or creative you are, the more opportunities will arise for your clients. You can use Fiverr to promote your work and attract new clients.

2) Virtual Assistant

The role of a virtual assistant can be considered a profitable side business because it helps entrepreneurs and business owners with multiple tasks. Being a virtual assistant, you can have input in invoicing, social media management, proofreading, response to customer problems, and much more.

virtual job opportunities

Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website

If you want to make a successful side business through this role, you must be organized, an ideal communicator and have interpersonal skills. You must also determine what skills you want to prioritize and focus on one niche to specify your expertise. Eventually, you will find it easy to market yourself and find clients who want to acquire your services.

If you want to be a part-time virtual assistant, you will likely work with clients who don't have enough budget to hire full-time or clients who can manage several weekly projects.

3) Start a Blog

Blogging is one of the most profitable businesses you can do from home. Starting a blog enables you to build your personal brand. If you find a breakthrough in blogging, you can market your experience and engage with the audience.

strikingly blog site

Image taken from Strikingly

The best thing about blogging is that you can write on anything. Here are some of the ideal blog topics to write on today:

  • Travel
  • Fitness
  • Yoga
  • Marketing
  • Cooking
  • Business
  • Beauty
  • Productivity
  • Health
  • Hacks

Regardless of what topic you choose, the best blogs are the ones that provide value through a unique voice.

Remember that your written content must have paragraphs and no grammatical mistakes to boost its readability. Moreover, it would be best to work on the best search engine optimization (SEO) practices to improve your Google ranking and attract more viewers.

Many people include blogs on eCommerce websites to provide information about their products. For example, if you are selling gaming consoles, you can use blogs to inform the audience about your experience while using them. You can also include images and videos in your blogs to urge your customers to buy your product. Sometimes, customers need to visit the blog section to read every detail.

Blogging is all about providing solutions to customers. The more solutions and relatable content you have in your blog, the more people will enjoy going through it.

Start a Side Business on Strikingly

In today's digital world, every successful business has a professional website in its working plans. Gone are when you had to rely on your practical work to make your businesses successful. You must have a professional website to reach vast audiences worldwide. Strikingly is a top-quality website builder that enables you to build your website within a couple of hours.

strikingly mobile website

Image taken from Strikingly

Once you have registered on our platform, you can choose one of our website templates and customize it according to the plans of your side business. Our free plan enables you to build a basic website with all the essential features of your side business. We provide our users with responsive website templates so their websites can function equally on both desktops and mobile. Since the number of mobile users has increased in recent years, we have ensured that we don't ignore mobile viewers.

We also provide you with the drag-and-drop feature to ensure that you assemble your website content according to your side business demands. You can add all your relevant business content to ensure that your viewers can get knowledge about your work.

Conclusion

Starting a side hustle takes time, effort, and patience. However, if you want to put in the hours, you can achieve your dreams and goals in no time. Since you are a business owner, you must research and establish a strong business foundation. Once you find the breakthrough in your side business, you shouldn't stop your hard work. It is essential to stay grounded and focused so you can grow your business successfully.

Building a professional website on Strikingly will help you to elevate your side business to greater heights. You can contact our Happiness Officers immediately to learn more about website development on our platform.