The growth of online businesses has been exponential since the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the pandemic has been over for a while, most people continue to provide remote services in their spare time to earn extra income.
If you want to venture into the world of part-time businesses online to make extra cash or help get a dream side hustle off the ground, we provide you with all the information you need to get your business going.
- Why Venturing Into Online Business Part-Time Is Beneficial
- Potential Drawbacks to Keep In Mind
- Considerations to Remember
- Online Business Ideas to Tap Into
- Preparing for Business
- Financing Options
Why Venturing Into Online Business Part-Time Is Beneficial
Like with every aspect of life, there are pros and cons. The best part of bringing life to your part-time business ideas is that you can revel in the spoils of your effort.
- Extra income: Once your business reaches stability, you’ll start seeing a profit, which can supplement your primary income or be used to save for other future goals.
- Financial security: As soon as you start seeing success in your business, it can provide better financial stability for you and your family, and you can also begin creating generational wealth for your family.
- Growth: Success means growth. You’ll have the power to expand your enterprise and further grow your wealth.
- Earn from a hobby: If you’re creating a side business from talent or skills that you have and that you love working with, you’ll have the satisfaction of doing what you love and being paid for it.
Potential Drawbacks to Keep In Mind
While launching a part-time business is exciting, it might not always be fun and games. You need to be aware of the potential disadvantages that can crop up.
- Time management: You’ll have to find a way around working a full-time job and still be able to give attention to your side business in order for it to work. If you’re not careful, you might burn out and see both jobs suffer.
- Attention: You might find that your attention is divided. You may pour effort into either your main job or your part-time business and neglect the other source of your work, which can put either or both jobs in jeopardy.
- Long hours: Because of how demanding managing both careers will be, you might neglect sectioning time for yourself and your family.
- Success: You won’t see instant results from your part-time job, and you might have to wait to see any payoff from your efforts.
- Taxation: Due to having two incomes, you might be taxed on both.
Considerations to Remember
If you want to start a part-time business but don’t have any idea where to begin, these are some aspects to keep in mind.
- Business idea: If you want to know what business direction to take, it would be helpful to examine your skills and the industry you’re passionate about.
- Business plan: Create a comprehensive business plan. To do so, you’ll need to conduct thorough market research on the industry you want to venture into.
- Assistance: If your part-time business is not a one-person show, then you need to consider if you want to hire in-house staff or outsource services instead.
- Soft skills: Running a business requires the entrepreneur to be resilient in the face of adversity. Work on developing the skills you’ll need to tackle any problem you face in the future.
- Legal research: Have a thorough idea of the laws and regulations surrounding the industry you want to venture into.
- Dedication: You need to think about how much time you’re able to dedicate to your part-time venture. Be realistic and be conscious of whether you want your venture to eventually go full-time and how this will affect other aspects of your life.
- Conflict of interest: Make sure that the business idea you settle on does not infringe on your full-time work, especially if they deal in the same industry. Check in with your boss if you have concerns that a conflict of interest might arise.
Online Business Ideas to Tap Into
Online part-time business ideas are rife with options; look at niche markets where there are substantial gaps that you can tap into.
Freelancing
This option is perfect if you have skills that you can offer up in your personal time. This includes copywriting, content writing, social media managers, graphic design, transcriber, app development and more.
Consulting or Support
If you have expertise in a specific topic, you can provide advice and insight to those who need it. Options include business analyst, SEO, marketing, business strategy, and financial.
If you have technical skills in tech, you’ll be able to provide remote support to people in need.
Dropshipping
It’s a form of eCommerce. Dropshipping involves providing goods from a manufacturer to clients. One of the main aspects of dropshipping is that you don’t have to keep stock on hand. You’re essentially the third party who connects the manufacturer to the customer.
Blogging
Blogging is a passion project where you’re able to share knowledge about a certain topic. Earnings through this include allowing companies to advertise on your platform or sponsoring reviews. If you gain enough traction, you’ll be able to monetize your content.
Virtual Assistance
By being a virtual assistant, you can work with multiple companies at once. You’ll be required to do general administrative tasks online and remotely.
Affiliate Marketing
By advertising a company’s products, you’ll be earning a commission based on the customers they get through your referral. This can be done in conjunction with a passion project like blogging or social media influencing.
Arts and Crafts
Another passion project is selling hand-made crafts you create through your talents. If you have innate talent and want to make arts and crafts, then you can sell the products you make online.
PR and Marketing
Digital marketing is an ever-thriving industry that won’t be boring. If you have the sufficient industry knowledge and can create great content for companies, you can provide an outsourcing service for them part-time.
Financial Planning
If you’re adept at financial planning, this is another outsourcing service that can be offered to companies needing assistance in this field.
Preparing for Business
Once you know which industry you’re going into, you can get the ball rolling and start setting up your business.
Registration
The first step is to register your business. This makes it a legal entity and won’t affect your personal assets if the business gets into any trouble in the future.
Income and Expenses
After registration, the next thing you need to do is create a separate bank account for your business dealings. It’s important to keep it separate from your personal finances so you don’t get confused, and also a business account will open you up to business-related opportunities.
Finances
Unless you’re entering the finance industry, you need to be prepared to do your own finances. Alternatively, you can outsource assistance; all you need to do is keep track of your income and spending.
Platform
Your main platform can vary, but having your own website is a good point of contact for clients and also adds a layer of professionalism. The best option for you would be to get in touch with a host provider to set up your domain and related factors.
Marketing
Despite what industry you’re going into or how big you want your business to expand to, you need to have a good marketing strategy to have a steady business. Consider using social media platforms and free tools that will help you with this.
Financing Options
In order for your business to run, you need capital. This capital is used for registration and tax, inventory, and all the things you need to start. There are quite a few ways to get funding for your business or specific needs for your business.
Crowdfunding
A fundraising campaign that allows multiple people to invest in your business.
Saving
By putting money away into a savings account, you can work toward the amount you need to use as capital for your business.
Peer-to-peer lending
This option allows businesses to get funding from independent investors. There are many apps that support peer-to-peer lending, like Solo, Lendme, and Earnin. There is less red tape and a wide variety of funding amounts to borrow.
Business loans
Here, financial institutions offer you a wide variety of options suitable for your business’s specific needs.
Grants
You’ll need to apply for this type of funding. For instance, grants are provided by the government, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions. If accepted, you’ll receive the funding for your start-up.
The Bottom Line
If you plan on creating a part-time business, either to expand a hobby or to earn extra income, there needs to be a lot of thought and research that needs to go into your ideas for your business to become successful.
Apart from having an idea, you need to work on your skills and know about the different options for funding your business before you even register it.
These tips will help you create a business that is sustainable and positioned to grow into a full-time project.
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Author: Jodie Hurst
