Four Steps to Making Any Side Hustle a Success

There are endless ways to fail or just be mediocre when starting a side hustle. That is why we admire success; because it is rare and suggests that a person is special. One of the most valuable skills we can develop in life is learning how to take on something new and make it work. Many of us probably had some previous success at work or school, but that is different than starting something from scratch.

If you are tired of feeling limited at your current job and want to take control of your own destiny, you must earn the right to do so. You will no longer have a boss telling you what to do. That sounds nice but most of us underestimate how important structure is to our success. A typical work structure includes clearly defined goals, experienced leadership, specific tasks with deadlines, and financial rewards tied to performance. These incentivize productivity and results-driven behavior.

The way structure is expressed in the workplace can feel oppressive sometimes, if not downright toxic, so most of us love the idea of being free of it. Once it is gone, however, we must recreate a new, better version of that structure to be successful on our own. Doing so is one of the most valuable skills we can learn and essential to becoming a professional digital nomad.

When we left our high-paying jobs in 2016, it quickly became clear that unless we wanted to boomerang right back, we needed a framework for pursuing new projects that when matched with hard work would create RESULTS. After years of trial and error on everything from fitness plans to income-generating side hustles, we now have a formula that works. In fact, we won’t even pursue a project unless we are willing to commit to the resources this formula requires. These are the four steps to making any side hustle a success:

“If we do not know where we are going, how will we know when we arrive?”

The first step is to clearly define your desired outcome. If you were trying to lose weight, for example, you would first define how much weight you wanted to lose because losing 2% of your body weight requires a different plan than say 10%. The same logic holds here. You can’t make a plan until you have a clear goal defined.

Your goal can change with time, but you need to have something defined before you move to the next step. The point here isn’t to “dream big.” It is to define a realistic endpoint so that you can then begin working backward from it. Also, it’s fine to have an initial period of exploration without being too rigid with your time, but your focus should be to have a clear endpoint before you really dig in.

When we started as travel content creators and social influencers, we started by just posting content and hoping for likes and followers. We thought this is how it worked – grow a large social media following, then you magically start making money. Despite months of hard work, we didn’t feel any closer to ‘success’ and it was incredibly frustrating. Once we defined specific goals and started working backward from them, things started to click.

Start at the end and work your way backward. It’s worth the time upfront to define your motivations and be clear on your end goal.

“If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance.”

Once you are clear on what you want to achieve, it is time to find an expert or coach to help get you there. Even the greatest athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs have coaches. True professionals understand the importance of someone to keep them accountable, help them continue to grow, and avoid distractions.

So what makes us think that we should do it on our own? Probably because if we fail, we want to do so in private and without consequence. But if we want RESULTS, then we need to come out of the shadows and attach ourselves to someone who can help us get where we want to go.

Coaches can come in different forms (one-on-one, mastermind groups, etc.), and you don’t need the ‘perfect’ coach to begin. The important thing is that you find a person, or in some cases, a community, who has some expertise in your field and MOST IMPORTANTLY will keep you accountable to your stated goal. Remarkably, most of us have no problem letting ourselves down, but if someone else is watching then we will keep our word.

Passively participating in an online group or community is not enough. You need a dedicated resource that can keep you on track and help you make real-time adjustments.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

You now have a clear goal and a coach to keep you accountable. What you need next is a plan. Often this can be put together by working with your coach. It doesn’t have to be a perfect plan, but it must be simple, something you can commit to, and deliver on consistently.

For most of us, we’d like to make money doing something we enjoy, but we aren’t quite sure how to make it work. That means we must learn before we earn and it is in the period between active learning and achieving results that most people quit. Having a clear plan in place keeps your focus on doing the daily work rather than the immediate results.

A plan also tempers the highs and lows – some days you will want to do more, others you won’t want to do anything. Following your daily plan will keep you moving ten steps forward every day, regardless. You want to remove ambiguity from your efforts. Our minds quickly become restless when we are unsure if we have done what needs to be done. That restlessness will begin to negatively impact the other areas of your life. It is only when we know that our work for the day is completed that we find peace of mind and turn our attention elsewhere.

The main point of having a plan is to not waste energy thinking about what needs to be done, but instead actually doing the work.

“Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose – and commit myself to – what is best for me.”

Finally, nothing really begins to move until you commit. You must have skin in the game. Consider it an offering to the gods or simply an investment in yourself. Either way, a deal isn’t closed until something of value is on the line and the same applies here.

For years, we spent lavishly on nice dinners and vacations without a second thought. When it came to signing up for a new class, or hiring a personal trainer or career coach, however, we became cheap fast. Humans avoid commitment because we prefer to fail without consequences, but avoiding commitment all but guarantees our failure.

Typically, it isn’t the amount of money that matters as much as the act of committing. You need to make it at least a little uncomfortable for you to walk away. So sign up for that masterclass, hire someone to build your website, or buy the camera you’ve been eying. Think of commitment as the glue that keeps your ‘success structure’ together.

Bottom Line

Becoming a professional digital nomad is not just about taking time off work to travel. It’s about creating a location-independent lifestyle that is sustainable. In order to do that, you must replace the structure provided by your job with a version of your own. This includes setting clear goals, finding a coach or community, having a plan, and making a commitment. This framework, combined with consistent effort, will empower you to take on any new project and make it a success.