Every once in a while online lifestyle portals publish articles about people who manage to combine a full-time job and some freelancing activities. Although these stories are usually sugar coated for the sake of readability and higher website traffic, taking two parallel business tracks at the same time is feasible. However, it can hardly happen overnight. It’s a process that requires a lot of planning, hard work and determination. Since we’ve been there, we’d like to share our impressions and encourage other business fellows to pursue their vision.
Test your market potential
When you’re planning to start working on side projects, it’s important to test your market potential beforehand.
Truth be told, it’s a bit easier to feel the pulse of the market in tangible fields of work. For instance, if you’re planning to take part in e-commerce, you can offer some products via Facebook, just to see if customers are interested in your stock.
As opposed to that, launching a business that would provide services is a riskier move. If you spend months working on a project that doesn’t take off well, you might lose motivation for your regular job, as well.
Because of that, it’s clever to conduct a market research before you plunge into side projects. You can gather a load of useful information through various questionnaires and online surveys.
It’s important to find out more about your potential competitors, as well. If there’s a rising business star in the market you’ve been planning to conquer, think twice before you keep working on that particular project.
Commit yourself to in-depth planning
Adding a few more hours to an already exhausting work day is a bold move. Since you’re already going an extra mile and trying to push the envelope in your career, this process should be accompanied by in-depth planning.
For starters, you need to plan your work day to tiny details (more about that later in the text).
Also, coin a strategy that you’ll apply in case your side business becomes too demanding and time-consuming. The best solution for such a scenario is to form a group of reliable outsourcers. Nowadays, there’s no need to bother with non-core business activities. For example, to sort out the accounting aspect of your business, what you can do instead is start using a reliable accounting software tool or an experienced bookkeeper. When talking about advanced planning, it’s vital to mention the importance of plan B in business. In line with the paragraph on your market potential, prepare an alternative option in case your initial plan doesn’t work.
For instance, if you want to start creating websites, but your target audience doesn’t show interest in your services, try to be more specific. In this particular case, you could concentrate on business logos, brochures or infographics. You’re more likely going to succeed if you offer something unique.
Prepare for your work day
If you’re planning to keep your regular job while working on side projects, you have to properly prepare for every work day. As a matter of fact, every single minute of your day has to be well-planned in advance. Especially if you’re a family person.
What you can do first is reorganize your sleep. Every business person boldly covering two career paths should get enough sleep. Forget about the stories that glorify short sleepers in business. Getting enough sleep will keep your brain fresh and enhance your work performance.
It would be great if you could start going to bed earlier – say 11pm – and get up at dawn – between 5 and 6 am. That way, you’ll get six or seven hours of sleep and still have some time to do all the daily tasks for your side projects. And most importantly, you’ll be able to work when your folks are still sleeping.
As for single people, they can work whenever they want, but they should also get enough sleep.
Moreover, introduce a certain number of morning routines, so as to start every new day with a productive mindset. These activities will help your mind and body reach the optimal work temperature from the very beginning of the day.
Finally, don’t neglect the social and physical aspect of your life. Drinking coffee with your friends at least once a week and going for a run at least twice a week will bring benefit to your physical and mental health.
Avoid taking on too many side projects
Combining a full-time job and an additional business escapade often takes its toll on the full-time job. Since it’s still the job that covers your social and health insurance and pays your bills, you should never take it for granted.
Therefore, you shouldn’t take on too many side projects. Once they start piling up, you won’t be able to meet the demands of your primary job.
Apart from that, it’s highly likely that you’ll start missing deadlines for those additional tasks. In return, this might affect your reputation and ruin your future business potential.
What you can do to prevent such an outcome is calculate the number of your free hours for the entire week in advance. For example, if you work from 9 to 5, you could work on your side projects from 6am to 8am every morning. If we assume that you’d like to have a rest at the weekend, it makes ten work hours a week for your extra job.
Of course, if you have more flexible work schedule at your regular job, you might squeeze in more side projects into your work day.
Calculate the price of your work
In business, it’s all about math. In line with that, it would be a shame to abandon a steady job if you’re not sure that your new business will bring more money. Such a scenario would not only affect your motivation for the planned career shift, but it would also endanger your personal standard of living.
Therefore, don’t make any hasty moves before you’ve done some thorough calculations.
First of all, calculate the value of the work hour at your current job. The simplest way to do that is to take your gross monthly salary and divide it by the number of work days and hours. It’s extremely important to do this evaluation using your gross income. Only that way you will get the whole picture and the full price of your work. Also, the Investopedia calculator might help you get your figures right.
When you’re done with this, calculate the hourly rates you get for your side projects. If that amount is significantly lower than the payment you receive from your current employer, it should stay only an extra job.
Conclusion
Pursuing two parallel careers will yield a higher monthly income and bring more experience. However, it will also bring more stress less rest. Therefore, you have to be clever when you’re taking on side projects. You should accept them only if they motivate you to learn new things and make some extra money. Contrary to that, when they become too demanding, it’s time to either leave your full-time job or reduce the number of your additional projects.
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