Earn Extra Income in 11 Steps

Are you living from paycheck to paycheck? Do you find things to be less affordable? Or, are you questing for financial freedom? If your answer is yes, then it is time you start making extra income through a side quest!

Now, Adventurers, we have already covered the whys of side questing for extra income. So, it is time to talk about the hows of starting a side venture. But, before we get started, I need to say this is not a plan for making money quickly. I’m focused on long-term, sustainable income and hope to help you do the same.

So, let’s jump into how you can start earning extra income.

It All Starts with You

Before you can start a side venture to generate income, you need to identify what value you have to offer and to whom.

Step 1: What’s Your Value?

Now, I’m not asking what value you have as a person; I’m asking what value you have as a business. The first step is to find out what you are good at and what you can offer to others. Before starting a side venture, always make it a point to do a self-evaluation. Write down what you most enjoy doing and what you are naturally good at. You can always look at past awards, certificates, and special recognitions for inspiration.

Another source can be your closest friends. The keyword here being closest. You can have 1000 friends, but if only 2 have your best interest at heart, those are the only two you want to ask. In becoming self-aware, you will quickly identify where your key strengths lie. A good side quest is one that you can easily slide into, without having to learn too many new skills.

Step 2: Choose a Niche

The second step in starting your side venture is to choose a niche. Now how do you choose a niche, you may ask? Well, I think the best place to start is with something you are passionate about. Think: what can I talk about all day? For me, that is personal finance and games, and so I started a personal finance blog with a nerd culture theme.

However, you need to be careful here and find a good balance between what you are passionate about and what you can monetize. Remember, the goal is to earn extra income from your side venture.

While I do have a passion for personal finance and like to blog about it, the opportunities may not be so lucrative. The market is already very saturated, and so I have other side quests to generate extra income.

So, when choosing your niche, remember that you need to identify a gap in the market. This gap will become the niche that you will be working towards filling. And, the more closely you can relate to the gap, the easier it will be to fill it. This way, you will have more drive to continue even when the venture may not be realizing any profits.

Step 3: Get Creative with Your Money Making

Now that you have identified a gap, how do you plan to fill it? I say start by exploring different ideas and get creative. You know what your key strengths are, so bounce around a few ideas. For example, if you enjoy drawing in your spare time, could you teach a drawing class or do gigs on Fiverr?

Come up with several ideas, all based around your natural inclinations. However, remember to not limit yourself to your current tangible skills, but rather think about the application of the skills. For instance, if you can draw, you probably have an eye for design, so maybe you could learn how to design websites or illustrate books. I say don’t limit yourself to what you can do right now. With access to the internet and a little time, there is very little you can’t learn.

From the list of ideas, look at what is most viable or interesting and select the best two. You can do this by looking at the pros and cons of each, and seeing which has the most longevity, as well as the potential to generate income as a side quest.

Step 4: Understand the Market

After choosing a niche and coming up with ideas of how to make money, you’ll next need to understand the market and your competition. As is often the case, your brilliant idea for your side quest is already in action. However, that does not mean it is a bad idea.

You will need to study the competition and understand what makes them tick! You should look at what the public is saying about them. Look at the positives as well as the negatives. See what the other business is missing, and use this to your advantage. One way that your side venture can stay viable is through innovation.

Start by asking some fundamental questions:

• Are they serious competitors?
• What are their marketing strategies?
• How could I leverage the competition to my advantage?
• Is there a gap in the market they are missing?

Questions like these will help you better understand your competition and find out how you could do better. You could even go as far as making a purchase from them. The more research and analysis you do, the better you will do in the long run.

However, a word of warning: do not get analysis paralysis! There is such a thing as too much information, and once you have a good understanding, stop! You can always do more later. There is no point in getting lost in the details and never getting started.

Side Business Fundamentals

If you haven’t realized this already, starting a side quest to earn extra income is essentially starting a business. Now, I know that can seem like a daunting thing, but don’t panic! The next few steps will outline the basics of business planning and management.

Step 5: Draft a Business Outline

A business plan is a very important aspect of any venture; however, writing a full plan will require a lot of time and effort to do effectively. For that reason, I suggest starting off with a business outline to begin your side quest.

The outline does not need to be overly complicated; however, it should make you think about the basics of your business.

Ask yourself these three questions about your side quest before getting started:

• What will the side quest be called?
  • This is important to think about because the name will convey what type of operation it is.
• Who is your target demographic?
  • Define your customer archetype.
  • Be specific with it, since the more detailed you are, the easier it will be to market to them.
• What do you plan to provide your customer?
  • Are you going to be providing a service, or a product?
  • And do you know how you plan to do that?

By answering those three questions about your side quest, you’ll be able to better develop a strategy for setting up and running your new venture. Some of the best advice I’ve gotten about business strategy comes from Professor Michael E. Porter: “the sign of a good strategy is that it makes some customers unhappy.”

Step 6: Set Milestones

A business is only viable to the extent that it can reach its objectives. Therefore, when starting your side quest, you should start with the end in mind. Or, at least where you see the venture in one, three, and five years.

Then define those milestones with how you plan to achieve them. I suggest using the SMART concept to do that.

Basically, this means that aside from being specific and measurable, they should also be achievable, realistic, as well as time-bound. As you set each milestone, think about how it is moving you towards your end goals.

As you start your side quest, continue to measure your progress towards your targets and make strategic adjustments along the way. Seeing the progress will keep you motivated and help when times get tough.

At the end of the day, your reasons for starting a side venture shouldn’t only be about making extra income. It should also enable you to try new things and grow your passions.

Your targets should be set in a way that they build on each other. As you start to achieve your set goals and milestones, you’ll feel more confident in yourself and what you are doing.

A common mistake that is made far too often is being overly ambitious and focusing only on the money. Targets set too high and broad can be a source of frustration when not met.

Set targets that are at attainable levels and make sure you have ones that you can quickly achieve. Also, set targets based on non-monetary metrics, such as the number of people you want to reach out to daily, or how much time you want to commit every week.

Step 7: Spend Money to Make Money

Another important element you might consider is how you plan to fund the side quest. Now, I really do hate the saying, but you really do need to spend money to make money.

How much money you’ll need will depend on what type of side quest you’re planning to start. Funding sources could range from personal savings to crowdfunding, microfinance institutions, or banks, to mention but a few. (Questing Tools went the crowdfunding route with its own dice, the Town of Click Clack, which funded on Kickstarter in April 2022.)

However, always plan accordingly and budget out what you think you could be spending before you start. It can be painful to start a side quest to make money and realize that the quest will end up costing you money, even in the long run.

Step 8: By the Book

Whether it is the financials or who you sold a product to, always keep records. Data is important for any business, whether you are just starting out or established. As your side quest grows, keep track of your progress, and log any information that is pertinent.

Keep track of everything from customer contact info to the number of hours you have committed. This information will help you in validating your business. If you realize that you are putting in so much effort but getting minimal returns, it is time to stop and evaluate your venture.

Additionally, you are a business now and will need to keep track of your financials. Regardless of whether you have a registered entity or not, keep everything separate. It will help when it comes to tax season, and it is just good practice. There are several different methods and programs out there that will make the process easier.

Just Do It!

Alright Adventurers, enough chit chat and planning, it is time to start your side quest to make extra income!

Step 9: Start that Venture

Once you have checked all the above boxes, it is time to put everything into action. Now Adventurer, start small and see what the response is. A good place to begin is with your neighbors and online community.

Family does not constitute a great market at the start since they will not give you honest feedback. We all have that one family member who is always critical and the other who is super supportive. You will need to get feedback from customers outside of your family, since customers that are actually paying are going to give you the most honest feedback.

Step 10: Welcome Customer Feedback

According to Inc.com, about 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Therefore, as you get your first few customers, there is no harm in asking them for feedback and referrals. This will help you fix any shortcomings that your business has, and you can adjust accordingly.

Customers are more likely to buy from you if they get a recommendation from a friend. Something as simple as a Facebook page will provide a starting platform for customer reviews. And as an added bonus, referrals will reduce your marketing and advertising costs.

Building up reviews and referrals is not likely to happen overnight. That is why it is so important to set milestones so that you can still recognize progress.

Step 11: Re-invest Earned Income into Your Side Quest

As your side quest starts to grow and you begin to generate more income, it is essential to put money back into it. This will enable you to grow it more by investing in better systems and developing new products or services.

Technology is evolving daily, and new processes are being introduced to make work easier. Take some time to look at what is trending, and see if it can add any value to your venture. Better quality brings in more money, so it benefits you in the long run.

As a side note, reinvesting into your venture does not mean spending everything you earn. As with having an emergency fund for your own life, having something similar for your business is an important thing to do. Those cash reserves will help the venture make it through downturns. So plan accordingly.

Conclusion

There we have it, Adventurers: my 11 steps to earning extra income. I hope that you found them helpful. Have I left anything out, and which step have you found most useful?