A Side Gig?

A side gig, something that you do in addition to your main source of income, may be the best place to start in your search for career satisfaction. It’s important to recognize that the purpose of the side gig is NOT to earn you a little more money. A side gig, in this context, is about finding a way to do something that you love and make money.

In that order.

Starting small and not putting all your eggs in one basket has a number of advantages:

• less stress and anxiety
• learning from small-mistakes where the stakes are not so high
• more time to reflect and fine-tune
• find out whether you really do enjoy the job
• discover how much money you can make
• conduct market research and build contacts

But you need to accept:

• no matter how much you prepare, once your side gig becomes your main gig, there will be more stress
• in almost every line of work you will have to spend time doing things that are outside of your passion – accounts, selling, managing others, answering emails. There is no job that is 100% ‘doing what you love’.
• circumstances will change – customers will move away, competitors will fight back, technology will change. But there may, of course, be new opportunities that you could never have envisaged before you started.
• you may lose interest in your original passion

I can’t remember not having a side gig. Whatever my day job has been, I have always been planning and working on ‘the big idea’ or absorbed in some activity that could generate revenue in the future. This program began as a side gig.

For much of my career, it has been the side gig that has inspired and energised me. Side gigs have pushed me to extend my knowledge and grow. Although many ultimately failed the critical test: can I make a living from this, while I was working on the side gig I was certainly happy. And, almost without exception, I have taken something from the side gig which has helped in the development of more successful ideas.

If I could go back in time, the thing I would change about my own personal approach to my side gigs – and I recognize this may have a lot to do with my personality – is that I would research the competition very early on. In my humble opinion, I developed some great ideas. The only problem was, other people had already had similar ideas and established a strong market presence. That’s not to say that every idea needs to be unique but market awareness can help you to focus your efforts where you are likely to gain most reward.