Even for those, it didn’t directly harm, the arrival of COVID-19 was a shock to the system. Very suddenly, we all had to suspend our social and professional connections, abandoning them entirely or moving them exclusively online. The results were catastrophic. Businesses were shut down due to lack of footfall, employees were furloughed or fired due to lacking resources, and no one had any idea of how long restrictions were going to last.
Some of the people trapped and hopeful succumbed to frustration and despair, scraping by each day while waiting for things to turn around — but not all of them. Some responded very differently, taking the situation as a challenge or even an opportunity to change their destinies. This led to a major rise in side hustles. People used their isolation to create complex online projects, going into business for themselves instead of serving others.
By now, we’re (seemingly) through the worst of the virus, but there’s still so much to learn from the innovation that emerged from it. So if you’re still feeling a little behind the curve when it comes to online dealings and entrepreneurial tactics, why not start a side hustle now? It can give you something interesting to work on, and if you’re out of work then you can aspire to grow it into a standard business that can provide you with a regular income.
What we’re going to focus on is this piece, though, is how it can help improve your understanding of the online world — particularly as it pertains to marketing. Let’s get started.
It can provide invaluable first-hand experience
Reading about principles of the online world is extremely useful, certainly, but it’s also limited in a fundamental way. Not only does it leave some notable gaps through failing to address specific elements (even the most comprehensive guide to a given tool or platform won’t cover everything you’ll encounter), but it also fails to indicate what it’s actually like to work in that industry.
Imagine getting the most skilled piano players in the world to write a guide to playing the piano, for instance. Even if you read that guide a thousand times and could recite every line, you wouldn’t be able to play the piano without practising and developing muscle memory, and you wouldn’t have any appreciation for what it feels like.
Similarly, all the tutorials and courses about personal branding or pay-per-click advertising won’t give you an adequate grounding. The only way you’ll learn how to do it is by actually doing it (and failing many times), and running your own business is the perfect way to get stuck in.
It can help you experiment with techniques and approaches
Taking charge of a side hustle isn’t the only way to get real-world experience, obviously. You can also work a regular job that encompasses the tasks and topics that interest you, or just set up some practice projects for fake businesses. That said, it is the best way for you to experiment with different techniques and approaches, and there are two big reasons why.
Firstly, it keeps the stakes low. A side hustle is necessarily limited and accordingly low-risk (otherwise it would be the main hustle), and side hustles in the online world can require minimal investment to get going — all you need is a basic website and you can set up a consultancy, position yourself as a freelancer, or even go into the eCommerce business that’s currently booming due to spiking demand (approaches like the dropshipping model are very cheap, but in general it’s far more affordable than ever before due to major advances in the SaaS world).
Consider that you can develop your technical expertise at your own pace through relying on intuitive systems to cover your bases. A platform like Cloudways can provide full-spectrum online store hosting with easy management features designed to take the admin out of running a high-value site, freeing you up to learn the component elements only when you’re ready to.
Secondly, it really motivates you to try. Wanting to learn is a fine motivation, but it can easily get sidetracked or pushed down the list of priorities. When you have something satisfying to gain (whether it’s profit or brand growth), you can more easily avoid the temptation to give up and work on something else instead — or just watch TV.
It can put you in touch with smart entrepreneurs
Learning from others is incredibly useful. I already addressed the gap between what you can glean from a training document and what it’s like to actually do something, and having a conversation with someone who’s already done what you’re attempting to do can provide incredible insight to help you fill that gap (while you work on the doing, of course).
If you just approach someone (virtually, that is, though the fundamentals of professional networking are essentially the same through any channel) and ask them for some tips, they may well oblige, but they won’t make a lot of time for you. If you start your own business, though, you’ll find that other business owners will be more willing to help you by guiding you through the growth of your venture. You’ll be their peer in a meaningful way.
There are many communities online geared towards business owners, and you can make a beeline for them once you have your side hustle set up. Build some professional relationships, listen (and read) very carefully, and you’ll soon know far more about how the marketing world really works than you could previously have imagined.
It can yield proceeds that can go towards further learning
Lastly, a side hustle can make you more internet and marketing savvy by making money that you can put towards your broader development. We’ve already established that learning by doing is great, but you can’t do everything at the same time, and there’s always value in taking new courses and trying new software and hardware — efforts that are often costly.
If you can manage to yield some profit from your side hustle, it’ll be a great accomplishment, but it’ll also leave you with money to put towards further growth. You could spend it on something else, but if you’re serious about enhancing your long-term professional prospects then you should make the right decision.
If you’re feeling major stagnation, you should invest some time and effort into working on a side hustle. Approach it in the right way and you’ll come out of it with greatly-expanded knowledge of the internet and marketing worlds (regardless of the extent to which it succeeds).