Ever since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated by business and making money. Even while working my first jobs pushing carts and flipping burgers, I was both looking for ways that I could make my current workplace better if I were the boss and looking for ways to make money on the side. Why would a 16-year-old kid be doing such things? Well, mostly because I hated pushing carts and burning my hands in deep fryers on a daily basis. I knew that someday I would run my own business, and I wanted that someday to be sooner rather than later.

As time went on, I continued working odd jobs to make a little extra spending money. Unfortunately, at that time in my life I was spending money rather than saving up for school which would have saved me a ton of money on student loans. Today almost all of my extra income goes directly towards trying to fund my retirement accounts. I believe that everybody should have a side hustle regardless of whether they want a little more spending money or saving money for 10 reasons.

1. Make More Money

The most basic and intuitive reason to have a side hustle, is simply to make more money. Money certainly is not everything and it is not the only thing. However, all else being equal, would you rather make more money or less? Starting a side hustle is not the only way to make more money, but it can provide a tremendous upside in the long run.

2. Invest More Money

As an extension of number 1, when you make more money, you get the opportunity to invest more money! Whether you invest in stocks, real estate, or reinvest into your businesses, it is important to put as much money towards these endeavors as you can as early as you can. As mentioned in an earlier post, you should start investing today. Every year that goes by is costing your future self a lot of money due to compounding interest. By investing today, you are taking the steps necessary to secure your future rather than working until the “new normal retirement age“. I certainly don’t want to be forced to work until I’m 67. I would much rather continue working on something I love and because I want to. The difference is choice.

3. Multiple Income Streams

One of the most important reasons to start your own side hustle is to create multiple income streams. The main reason is for diversification. Diversification simply means spreading out the risk of failure to get rid of the noise. Another way to think of this is a type of insurance. You are insuring yourself that if a single business venture fails, that you are invested in others that are unrelated so won’t be failing (at least hopefully not at the same time).

How does this come into play for jobs and side hustles? It protects you if you lose your main job. Let’s pretend that you are a Telemarketer, did you know that NPR rated telemarketers to have a 99% of becoming automated? That is great news for the business owners of companies engaging in telemarketing, but bad news for people who are in that profession.

Maybe you are in a different field, but your company goes under due to a corporate scandal, or a fire puts out a small business, or one of a million different reasons. Who is going to fare better? The person who had no backup plan, or the person who was side-hustling and has a steady income on the side? Insure yourself by setting up another source of income. In the event that you suffer from a job loss, even a small amount of income on the side can make a big difference at least until you find another gig.

4. Capitalize On Grassroots Marketing

The third unavoidable expense for startups according to smallbiztrends is Marketing. Advertising and marketing can take a huge chunk out of your budget. It can even make jobs cost prohibitive for you to get started. This is why I am a huge fan of growing your business through a grassroots style. Grassroots marketing is the idea of marketing to a small group of people and letting them go out and promote your product for you, rather than marketing to a large group of people upfront.

The one downside to grassroots movements, is that they can take some time to catch on. However, if you do not need your business to take off immediately so that you can make your next rent payment, then you are able to take advantage of going for a grassroots marketing plan. This will both save you a ton of money, and bring you in much more loyal followers because you can spend your time and efforts on solving their problems rather than spending all your time and money on customer acquisition.

5. Go Full-Time

Maybe you are one of the 13% of people who are somewhat or completely dissatisfied with their job. Or maybe you are content in your current job, but you really just want to do more. Either way, if you start a side hustle, you have the chance to fully replace your current position if you want to. By working on your free time, you may just build up enough income that you can quit your current job and devote all your energies to this new hustle.

6. Improve Your Skills

When you are working on creating a business, you typically have to wear a lot of hats at first. You will not start the next Google overnight, which means you are going to have to do every job from the data entry person all the way up to the CEO. What this will do for you, is it will teach you a million things that you may not have learned in your current position. Whether you are learning the ins and outs of a related industry, or a completely new one, you are making yourself more valuable all around by learning new skills.

No matter what you do in life, make sure you take the time to continue to learn. Learning will make you more valuable to customers. Learning will make you more valuable to employers. Learning will make you more indispensable and less at risk of being automated away.

7. Spice Up Your Life

It is said that “variety is the spice of life.” I tend to believe that. Never was I more bored than in one of my high school summer jobs. My responsibility was to relabel machinery remotes and test to make sure that the buttons all worked. It was tedious and extremely boring. Thankfully I worked my butt off and they started giving me other things to do, but boy was I bored. I honestly think that I would fall into a deep depression if I were to have no variety in my life. Everything I do is in an attempt to try new things.

Have you ever felt like your life is on autopilot? You wake up, you go to work, you come home, you go to sleep, then you repeat until you die. Just by starting a side hustle, you can throw some variety in there to keep yourself more sane. You may just find that you start to enjoy your current position more simply by being involved in something else. Never take the option to do something new for granted.

8. Do Something Meaningful

Not only can you do something new, but you can do something meaningful to you. If your expenses are all covered by your main job, then you can do things that are important to you regardless of whether they will be profitable right away. Maybe you truly want to work on something that helps inner-city children stay in school, or a farming technique that can be used in arid climates, or maybe you don’t know yet by you just want to change the world. You can fuel your soul by starting a side hustle if it is something that you truly believe in and when money doesn’t need to be the primary motive.

9. Increase Your Connections

Building your own business on the side gives you the opportunity to build a ton of connections. Not only will this help reinforce some of the other areas such as teaching you new things, but it will benefit your business and career as well. It is said that connections are the currency of entrepreneurs. By building genuine connections in new areas, you will gain new friends, hear new stories, and improve your business. Do not take meeting somebody new for granted. Everybody is a potential friend, a potential customer, a potential co-worker, and a potential boss. Continue to help these people, and it will come back to you in return. Maybe I do believe in Karma to a point.

10. Gain Financial Freedom

I have said it multiple times on this blog, but it really is not about the money. It is about the Freedom. By building a side hustle, you are putting yourself in a position to escape the rat race. You put yourself in a situation where you can break free from the shackles of a desk and live your life on your own terms.

Double tap if your agree! Tag somebody! #freedom #money #inspiration #motivation #mountains #financialfreedom

A photo posted by Larry Green (@gettingrichyoung) on Mar 23, 2016 at 4:45am PDT

What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? What kind of person do you want other people to see? Gain financial freedom with the help of some side hustles, and you can focus more on building relationships and living life in the way that you see fit. A side hustle is just the first step towards financial independence by building up the passive income streams to help get you there.

Start A Side Hustle Today

There you have it. 10 reasons to start a side hustle. Go start right now. Start brainstorming businesses that you can start on the side and begin your journey right this second.

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