Changing Careers: From Side Hustle to a Full-time Business

This post lists 5 actionable steps on changing careers from running a side hustle into a full-time business.

You started your side hustle as a creative outlet, a way to make some extra cash, or a way to make money from home. But you never thought it would be a thriving business or have the possibility for you to change careers from an employee to a full-time business owner. 

You ran the numbers and you have determined the more time you spend on your business, the more money you can make. You are ready to take the leap of changing your career and taking your side hustle into a full-time business! It’s time.

But do you have the right mindset and organization of changing careers from an employee to a business owner? 

Your new role as a business owner will need a new job description, quarterly goals, and a company mission and vision statement. A similar organized set-up like the company you are pivoting out of.

I list 5 actionable steps to help you transition a career change from a side hustler to a full-time business owner.

1. Creating Your Company's Vision & Mission

When you first launched your side hustle, perhaps you never thought you would change careers and making it into a full-time business. But the business has proven its sustainability and has the possibility of long-term success and growth. The time has come to change your point of view of this part-time business to an official company that has a vision and mission.

A key step to transition your mindset from a side hustler to a new business owner is by viewing your company in a whole new light.

Every company has a vision and mission statement that they live by and act on. It can help a company stay on course and be a good reminder of their north star. 

So what's the difference between a vision and the mission of a company? 

A company’s vision states what will the company be in the future. 

A company’s mission states the problem they are solving for today. 

Need some vision and mission examples? Check-out how the top brands differentiates the two statements. 

2. Career Change: New Job Description

The second key step to a successful career change from an employee to being a self-employed business owner is by understanding what your new job role will entail. 

You would never accept a new role at a company if you didn’t know the requirements of the job and your responsibilities. Writing a job description as a business owner is a good way to wrap your mind around what to expect and is required from you. Seeing it in black in white will help reveal what you will bring to the business and what could be missing.

basic requirements of a job description: 

• Job Title- This may seem obvious, but defining your title may reveal what you only want to be responsible for. For example; you may discover you only want to be responsible for the innovation and creative side of the business. This defining moment doesn’t mean you need to rush into finding a partner to compensate the missing half of the business. But by recognizing this early on, could help avoid burn-out or quitting the business all together- making this career change more sustainable.
• Responsibilities & Duties- Create a bullet point list of your daily duties and the overall responsibilities. If you start to notice some key areas of the business missing from the list, this could be an indicator of where to invest some help to fill-in the gaps. 
• Qualifications & Skills- Keeping up with a bullet point format, list out your skills, certifications and qualifications. Any qualifications or skills missing from the list will be a new hire, or consider a "learn as you go" method, while you run the business.

Want a full guide to creating a job description? Check this article out by Indeed. 

3. Plan Quarterly Goals for your Business

Just like how you have performance goals as an employee, setting up business goals will help projects stay on track or monitor financial milestones along the way.  

Breaking down large business goals by three-month intervals is just enough time to get projects done. But waiting too long without planning a time to review and assess, can make it impossible to course correct before the year ends.

Setting quarterly goals will help the business stay on track for year-end goals (we'll go over the importance of creating year-end goals a little further down). 

The best way to keep track and to stay accountable for achieving your quarterly goals is to keep it front and center. 

Depending on how you like to work, here are suggestions for the techy organizer or the old-school pen to paper organizer.

For the techy organizers: 

• Asana- Could-based project management tool with a mobile app feature, Asana is designed to organize projects by tasks around timelines. Perfect for tracking quarterly goals.
• ClickUp- A goal setting and productivity tracking app that helps users define their goals and also track them by using customized dashboards.

For the pen to paper lovers:

• Passion Planner- A paper planner (also available in a digital copy form) designed to organize your daily appointments, prioritize your tasks and track your quarterly goals. A fun feature is the inspirational quotes and sayings printed throughout the planner.
• Quarterly Goal Planner by Poketo- Specifically designed to track your goals by quarter increments. There is a different color cover to capture your progression towards your year-end goal. The planner is organized into sections- first with the details of the goals, then by month/ week/ days. Lastly, a section at the end of each month to record any hindsights.

4. Create S.M.A.R.T Goals for your Business

The ultimate validation of changing careers from an employee to a self-employed business owner is crushing a year-end goal!

The key to ensuring your business goals has a fighting chance of getting crushed is by setting them up as S.M.A.R.T goals. 

The break down and meaning of S.M.A.R.T:

Specific- Be very clear on what you want to achieve. 

Measurable- Define the metrics to track success.

Achievable- Define what it takes for the goals to be reached. 

Realistic- Detail how the goal will be achievable. 

Time-bound- Prioritize and set a time frame for each task to meet the year-end timeline.

Sound familiar? Companies use this acronym for goal setting. Want more help around this step? Check out this article from Indeed. 

5. Work for that Bonus!

Most people stay in their 9-5 job to receive that year-end bonus. Companies use bonuses as an incentive for employees to perform above and beyond what is required. It also can help employees stay motivated during those low points during the year.

Why not give yourself the same incentive and motivation of a bonus to help you achieve your year-end goal for the business? The bonus could be a vacation trip or an over the top gift to yourself. 

Whatever bonus you decide, make sure you keep that vision close to you as a reminder to push a little bit more towards that sweet year-end reward. 

To create that vision, I suggest using Canva, a free cloud-based design tool.

Design a simple one-page document using Canva's image search feature and then- add text to the image with the bonus details. Viola! A handy reminder to incentivize you to work for that bonus!

I hope these 5 steps will help you create a smooth transition from being a once-employee side hustler to a full-time business owner. 

Are you in the middle of a career pivot? Share your transition of becoming your own boss below!