3 Successful Side Hustlers Share the Best Investments They Made While Getting Started
You may have heard that you need money to make money. While social media has made it easier than ever to start an online business for free, it’s accurate to say that you’ll still have to invest some money into your new venture to speed up the growth process.
Make Money With AI and ChatGPT: How To Earn $1,000 a Month
Helpful: What To Do If You Owe Back Taxes to the IRS
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when starting a new side gig because you’re unsure how much time and money you should pour into this project. We want to help you by sharing some of the best investments others made when starting new side ventures. We reached out to experts with profitable side gigs that became something more to find out the best money they spent when they were first starting.
Entrepreneurs Share Their Best Initial Investments
When looking into side gigs, you may realize that some of these ventures require an upfront investment. Some might be free to start (like starting a social media channel) but will require a financial commitment if you want to accelerate the growth.
Here are some of the best initial investments from the entrepreneurs we spoke with.
Paying for Proper Hosting and Email
“Paying to host my email on my domain. People take you more seriously if you’re not using a Gmail email address,” commented Jessica Bishop from The Budget Savvy Bride, who turned her blog into a multiple six-figure business. When you invest in your business from the very beginning, you’re telling yourself and others that this is something you’re serious about.
Daniella Flores from I Like to Dabble echoed the sentiment. “An initial business investment that was worth it would probably be my website. I spent under $100 for hosting, domain, and email list setup. That website now pays me passively every month,” she said.
Find: 5 Ways To Use AI To Generate Passive Income
While finding a free platform to host your blog or your new business can be tempting, you may want to consider paying for your hosting to appear more professional. The money you spend here will be a tiny amount when you notice that your business starts bringing in significant revenue in the future.
Joining a Business Mastermind
When you start a side gig or any business venture, it can be difficult to know what to focus on or how to grow this into something more. It helps to surround yourself with like-minded people with similar goals to support you in your journey because chances are that your inner circle isn’t on the same path.
This is why many entrepreneurs turn to masterminds. When we reached out to Rachel Richards, a 2x best-selling author who could retire from her corporate job at 27 because of her real estate portfolio, she shared that her best business investment when she started was joining her first mastermind.
“I didn’t know anyone locally doing the things I was doing, and I didn’t have any network. So by finally surrounding myself with people working towards similar goals and paying for expert advice, I was able to grow a real estate portfolio,” she said
Richards invested about $15,000 for one year in that mastermind, but it helped her build her real estate portfolio since she was finally around the right people who could help her out. If you’re just starting a new business venture, you can speed up the entire process by gaining access to those ahead of you. Instead of trying to figure it out independently, you can have others with a proven track record help you figure out how to build your business.
The good news is that a mastermind or professional association is available in every industry. While the initial investment may seem intimidating, it could be the best financial decision of your life.
Hiring Help and Outsourcing Tasks
As a solopreneur, one thing that you learn is that you can’t do it all on your own. There are only so many hours in a day and you don’t want to burn out in the early stages.
Richards disclosed that the other best investment she made when she started her business was hiring a virtual assistant for regular tasks. “It was great to finally delegate and take more of the tedious tasks off my plate so I could focus on generating revenue,” she said.
She ended up bringing someone into her business for about five to ten hours a week at a rate of $25/hour. This assistance allowed her to focus on business activities that would help her generate revenue and grow the business. If you find that you’re stuck on tasks like marketing, design or sales, you could bring in help to focus on what you’re good at to increase the revenue of this side gig.
The Right Business Tools
“When I started creating digital products, I spent about $150 on software, and I still earn money from those digital products today without much maintenance,” said Flores. Spending the money upfront allowed her to have the right tools on her side. She shared that these tools allowed her to create digital products that now bring in anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 in recurring monthly passive income.
What business tools did she invest in? Teachable, Canva and Leadpages. You need the right business tools to run your operation efficiently. You don’t want to feel stuck with your side gig because you simply don’t have the proper tools at your disposal.
When Should You Invest in Your Side Gig?
As you can tell from our expert insights, the best thing you can do for your side gig is invest some money into it from the very start to give it a chance to turn into something more.
When you start a side hustle, seeing the dollars rolling in is exciting. The goal should be to reinvest some of these profits back into the business so that it can eventually replace your day job and give you more options in life.
More From GOBankingRates
10 Best Canadian Cities To Retire on a Budget of $2,500 a Month
The 4 Types of Bank Accounts All Small Businesses Should Have
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 3 Successful Side Hustlers Share the Best Investments They Made While Getting Started
