Create Financial Freedom with Your Side Hustle

How are those “new year, new me” goals coming along? January is officially over and things are getting real. If your goal for 2018 was to change your financial future then there’s no time like the present to embrace entrepreneurship. You don’t have to quit your job to start a side hustle. You can monetize your skills starting right now.

Make a list of everything that you can do with relative ease. Call this list your “Bankable Skills” since this will be the foundation for what you can hustle as a business. Give yourself an hour taking inventory of what you’ve got working in your favor.

Are you a spreadsheet nerd? If so, think about how you can leverage your organizational skills.

Are you great at public speaking? If so, think about how you can leverage your skills as someone who can effectively deliver a message.

Do you dazzle the room when you’re networking? If so, think about how you can leverage your skills to cultivate relationships.

Are you a skilled wordsmith? If so, think about how you can leverage your writing skills.

Consolidate your list until you get the top 5 bankable skills. You will leverage these skills to build your side hustle. Once you have your top 5 bankable skills, organize your skills into one of 3 categories: utility, service, and education. This will help you better understand exactly how you will monetize your skills so that you’re in the best position to leverage your strengths for profit.

Utility skills are practical and useful. They are often the apps we download such as Uber, Paypal or Slack. Service-based skills are the most common form of side hustles. These are the designers, coaches, publicists, marketing services, and virtual assistants. Education skills are for hustlers who want to scale their expertise.

Once you have a grasp of your bankable skills, you’ll have a better sense for which platforms to leverage. Below is a list of 15 ways you can start to monetize your bankable skills, right now, and the platforms that can help you transform your side hustle into a profitable business.

1. Sell your goods on a marketplace website such as Etsy.
2. Set up your own store with Shopify.
3. Teach your courses on Teachable.
4. Build your authority on Medium.
5. Publish your book using Blurb.
6. Sell your designs on Creative Market.
7. Host your events using Meetup.
8. Launch a membership website using Memberspace.
9. Start a subscription box using CrateJoy.
10. Run webinars using WebinarJam.
11. Offer premium content to your audience using Patreon.
12. Offer payment plans using Moonclerk.
13. Create and sell products using Society6.
14. Start a daily newsletter using Mailchimp.
15. Get into affiliate marketing using Share A Sale.

Regardless of what your bankable skills are, there’s a platform you can harness to get into the entrepreneurial game. Start where you’re at and build from there. Entrepreneurship is a gateway to financial freedom, but you have to first take that leap of faith and get started. You don’t have to quit your job or invest your life savings to get started. You just need to decide what you want to do and take action on doing something out of your comfort zone. So let’s change those “new year, new me” into “new year, profitable me.”