[eBook] How to turn your side hustle into a business

South Africa’s economy is highly dependent on its small businesses, which is no surprise seeing as our nation is filled with innovative minds.

However, COVID-19 did a number on small and medium-sized businesses, with many people impacted by pay cuts and retrenchments. Still, that didn’t stop South Africans from keeping their bank accounts in the black through side hustling.

But how do you start a side hustle? Is it worth the extra time and resources? And can you turn your side hustle into a profitable, full-time gig?

How to turn your side hustle into a business is the latest guide that explores successful side hustles and answers the key questions about turning them into successful businesses.

It covers topics such as:

• Finding your first customer
• How to pay tax
• Managing your cash flow
• Getting paid
• Creating important documentation

Here’s a taste of what you can expect from How to turn your side hustle into a business:

The urge to hustle

There’s no perfect age or time to become an entrepreneur. With the right mindset, a supportive network, and a good dose of grit, you can transform your side hustle into a centrepiece.

From side hustle to a successful business – your questions answered 

Did you know that you are still considered a sole proprietor, even if your small business isn’t registered? Or that a business plan is like a CV for your business?

Get valuable insight into the complex details needed to run a side hustle with a list of 6 FAQs and top tips on how to handle each.

Muscle to the hustle

If you’ve come this far, you should know all the basics of starting a side hustle: creating a business plan, getting customers, paying taxes, and getting cash flow under control.

The next step is to start growing that seed, and we have the advice to match! Learn how to understand your customers, maximise your sales, diversify your products or services, and scale your resources.

The balancing act

Golden nuggets from four successful entrepreneurs who’ve been there, done that, and are ready to share their strategies.

From side hustle to full-time gig

The magic of starting a side hustle is the prospect of becoming your own boss and leaving the grind of ‘traditional’ employment behind.

At the end of the day, if running your own business full time is the goal, you need to start somewhere and do it right from the start. This means having a business plan, understanding your target market, ensuring you’re tax compliant, and managing your cash flow.

Ready, set, HUSTLE

Building any successful venture takes time, effort, and resources you never thought you’d need. However, if you’re going to ditch the 9-to-5 or start a side hustle, the journey is equally as fulfilling as the destination.

Sound interesting? Here are some top tip highlights from the pros:

“The ability to keep evolving is a vital skill because we don’t live in what could, should, or didn’t happen. We deal with the current facts and explore within those possibilities. It is very fluid and painfully humbling.” – Lerato Litheko, Nameless VPA’s

“Always keep communicating with your loyal customers, even if it’s just to ask them how they’re doing. This will make them feel that you care while keeping your business top of mind for future projects.” – Brian Malatji, Dinoko Automation Service & Repair

“The way we make money has changed, and so has the way we manage it. Making money online used to be rare; now it’s normal. The same goes for how we manage our money. We used to do our accounting manually, but now we use cloud accounting.” – Thandolwethu Ndlovu, Small Steps to Freedom

“I really applied myself to finding and creating new and better ways of making my juice. I realised that good relationships with good suppliers are like gold and focused on establishing procurement networks with reliable companies in the Cape that could give me the raw material I needed.” Sizwe Dladla, Last Drop Juice

“Worry less about your competitors and more about your customers. Think of ways you can make their lives better.” – Khimbini Hlongwane, Vomba Tours & Safaris

“True resilience comes from pivoting within your skillset in response to macroeconomic factors like a global pandemic and – most importantly – identifying what’s missing and upskilling yourself to plug the gaps.” – Andile Gcaza and Phetole Raseropo, Evergrow

“Have a clear overview of your finances at any given time to understand when money is leaving your account, where it’s going, and if the expense is necessary.” – Keitumetse Pule, Foundhers Circle