More and more people are creating secondary income streams by starting a side hustle. Here are several reasons you should consider beginning your own.
Side hustles are becoming increasingly more common for the average American than ever before. In fact, the NY Post reported that Bankrate.com revealed over 44 million Americans are juggling side hustles. That means for every 10 working age adults, at least 1-2 of them are bringing in more than one income every month. Why is that important? Because if you are not one of those 44 million, then there are some big benefits they are enjoying that you are missing out on.
Here are five of the biggest reasons you should step out of your comfort zone and seriously consider having a side hustle:
Multiply Your Income
The most obvious benefit from a side hustle is that your household now has an additional source of income. For each side hustle, you multiply your income opportunities, which allows you to do things like pay off loans quicker, save up for that vacation you’ve been putting off or finally start getting serious about putting aside money for your retirement.
Networking and building New Relationships
A side hustle will put you in many situations you normally wouldn’t be exposed to. Experiencing these new opportunities will connect you to people you would have never met otherwise. If one side hustle or opportunity doesn’t pan out right away, the relationships you build will always be valuable and could open up new doors to different opportunities in the future.
Break Away From Salary Dependence
A 9-5 is still the standard American work schedule, and with it comes many other socially accepted limitations, such as being your primary (or only) income. Once you start to realize there is true money to be made with a side hustle, the illusions society places on the need to live your life financially dependent to a factory line work schedule starts to slowly slip away. In fact, most successful millionaires have an average of 7 different sources of income that can keep them from being dependent of any 1 source in particular.
Prove To Yourself You Can Do It
Many people who begin a side hustle do it because they have a dream of one day running their own business. Now is always the best time to get started, but it isn’t always important to do it all at once. Starting a side hustle can begin slowly and at a pace you can sustain while you are still juggling a day job and family life. Eventually, your side hustle will begin to make a profit while you strategically work out the kinks. Given enough time and experience, you will not only have built up a viable business concept, but you will have also built up the confidence you need to step in with both feet.
Spend Your Spare Time Regret-Free
If you are like many other Americans, you could be spending nearly the same amount of time watching TV as you do at your full time job! This statistic probably has a lot to do with why we are seeing so many new shows and new ways to watch them such as Amazon Prime Originals, Netflix Originals, YouTube Red Originals, etc. By focusing on building up a side hustle instead of letting your all your free time get sucked into a valueless pit of distraction, you could be helping improve your financial situation. Not only that, but you will also be protecting yourself from looking back at those same hours with the regret of having nothing to show for it but a bag of potato chips as empty as your Netflix queue.
Starting your own side hustle doesn’t have to be expensive. With many side hustles you can begin for little to no startup costs, especially when it comes to gigs like blogging, coding, graphic design, etc. It also doesn’t have to be stressful or difficult. The best part, and arguably the whole point, is that you are in complete control of your schedule and your workload. And don’t forget that you can partner with a virtual receptionist to make sure all your professional responsibilities are being met. So don’t let your comfort zone keep you from expanding your opportunities and pursuing additional income doing things that you are truly interested in.
More posts you might want to check out:
3 Things Every Startup Must Know To Survive The 5 Year Mark