What do you do outside your day job?
What do you do outside of your day job? Are you a data scientist and budding writer who wants to set up your own magazine?
What do you do outside of your day job? Are you a data scientist and budding writer who wants to set up your own magazine?
Are you a data scientist and budding writer who wants to set up your own magazine? Perhaps you’re a busy managerial accountant who dreams of one day running photography workshops at the weekends? Or maybe you’re a teacher who wants to generate additional income by selling your metalwork sculptures? These are all real stories of real people that have successfully set up their own ‘side hustles’.
I’m sure many of you are reading this feeling confused as to what exactly a side hustle is, or perhaps harbour some misconceptions. So, let me rewind a little.
Granted, there are a lot of conflicting definitions and opinions out there about what exactly is classed as a side hustle and what isn’t. And your opinion may well differ from mine. But my thoughts on this are aligned very much to those of author and speaker, and founder of the Side Hustle School, Chris Guillebeau, who is widely thought of as an authority in this area.
In my mind, a side hustle isn’t a second job you do for another employer when you get home after your 9-5 job, like Uber driving for instance. Driving an Uber isn’t a side hustle, it’s a part time job. There’s a big difference.
As Guillebeau puts it, side hustles are about creating assets, and creating them in a way that you own and control – they’re not about working for another employer in your spare time. As such, when you set up a side hustle, you are the master of its destiny, nobody else. It’s yours and yours alone.
A side hustle can bring you both economic empowerment and often a huge amount of creative freedom. As such, they’re often born from a passion, as creative strategist Nicaila Matthews Okome says in her TED video: “A side hustle is a little different to a second job, a second job is about necessity. While a side hustle can certainly bring in additional income, it’s a little more aspirational. Side hustles capture a certain kind of scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit.”
The stats on this are mind blowing and almost incomprehensible – according to Henley Business School, as many as one in four people in the UK are running at least one business project alongside their day job. Over in the US, nearly 40% of workers have a side hustle, with many, many more seriously considering it. That’s a lot of entrepreneurial spirit being released! Also, as cited in this Harvard Business Review piece, a recent Deloitte survey of millennial and Gen Z workers show that nearly two-thirds of respondents would consider a side hustle to supplement their full time employment.
So, I think we’ve now established what a side hustle is, and the fact that they’re growing in popularity. It’s clear to see that side hustling is here to stay, and that’s no bad thing in my mind, for reasons which I’ll go on to shortly.
However, in an employer’s mind, the very thought that many of their staff could already have side hustles (or are seriously thinking about setting them up), may, at first thought, cause worry and apprehension. Maybe their staff won’t be able to get the balance right and they’ll get burnout. Or perhaps they’ll work on their side project in company time or using company property? Or worse, maybe they’ll eventually quit once their side hustle takes off. I understand these worries, they are understandable and I’m sure relatable to many. In fact, they are backed up by research.
However, I also believe that employers must not live in fear of the side hustle. As I said, they’re not going away. So, you have no choice but to change your perspective and start to see them for all the good things they will bring to your team and ultimately your business. If you really think about it, by side hustling, your employees are:
When we look internally in my own business at people development and succession planning, we are often looking for broader roles and projects to stretch our future leaders so that they become more rounded and skilled in preparation for their next step up. If they are learning some of those broader skills in their side hustle, that actually helps the situation.
And lastly, and most importantly, your side hustling employees will likely feel happier and more fulfilled because they are spending time creating or working on something they are passionate about. That’s not a threat to their day job – in fact, it puts them in a great position to give their all in the time that they are working for you. As Danny Harmer, Chief People Office at Metro Bank says in this HR Magazine article, “If someone has interests and things that fulfil them they’ll be happy. As long as someone comes to work for us and they love their job, they fit with the culture and they’re aligned to our business, it’s fine.”
The way we work is constantly evolving, and I think the rise in side hustles is a great example of that. So, I’d love to hear from those of you who have a side hustle – what is yours, does your employer know about it, and what skills has it taught you?
What do you do outside of your day job? Are you a data scientist and budding writer who wants to set up your own magazine?