4 Reasons Growing Your Side-Hustle Might Feel Harder Than You Expected

Written by: Brenda Johnston, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

So you have a “side-hustle” and you want to build it into a sustainable business so you can leave your corporate day job. I’ve been there and done that! I can tell you that growing your side-hustle into a successful business that allows you to say good-bye to your corporate job is an awesome feeling.

I get a lot of questions from people with this same intention, but they find themselves struggling to make it happen. The truth is, a lot of side-hustles never turn into anything more because many people don’t have the mindset or the strategies to make it happen.

Here are four reasons why growing your side-hustle may feel like a struggle:

You’re in it for the wrong reasons

These days it’s fairly easy to start a business with little to no money, especially in the Coaching or the MLM world. This makes the idea of the entrepreneur lifestyle even more appealing for many people who want to escape their corporate day job.

The challenge is, if you want your business to grow and be successful, it needs to solve a problem, it needs to be scalable and you need to actually like what you are doing.

That last point might seem logical but I’ve spoken to a LOT of people with the mindset that the single most important goal is to make enough money to leave their corporate job. They tell me that they started their side-hustle because they thought it would make them happy, it would be fun, and wouldn’t it be great to be able to work from anywhere and still make money?

Not truly enjoying what you are doing or believing in what you are selling will cause your subconscious mind to create reasons for it not to work. You’ll find yourself self-sabotaging more often than not because your mind is telling you that you’re not in alignment with what you are trying to do.

You don’t have a strategy

If you really want to build a business that is a replacement for a corporate job, you need to have a strategy. How long will it take to replace your corporate income? How many clients do you need to have, how many can you actually take on while you still have your fulltime job? I highly recommend hiring a good business consultant/coach to help you navigate this.

There are many coaches out there who make it seem like there is an easy, one-size-fits-all template or solution to taking your side-hustle and turning it into a thriving six or seven-figure business “just like that”. I recommend you do your research and invest in a business coach that understands your business as well as YOU as a person.

And trust me, I know that investing in yourself and your business can seem overwhelming, especially if it’s not actually making much money. Hiring the right coach can sustainably accelerate your growth so you can create a business that takes you where you want to do something you love.

You’re not nourishing your mindset

Building your side-hustle means you are going to be working after hours and finding pockets of time to get things done. In some cases it can feel like you are actually working two fulltime jobs instead of one.

Being serious about success means you need also to be serious about taking care of your mindset as well as your physical health.

Getting a good night’s sleep and moving your body is great, but having a healthy mindset is key. This starts by creating a business mindset, it means setting designated hours for when you are working and when you are not. It also includes setting boundaries for when clients can reach you and when they can expect a reply.

Not doing this can leave you feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and burnt out and maybe hating your side-hustle.

You don’t have gratitude for your fulltime job

No matter how much you might despise your day job, you need to have gratitude for that job. I’m telling you, even though it’s a lot of work to have two jobs, it’s a lot less stressful to build a side-hustle when you are not worried about how you are going to pay your bills.

You also need to change your perspective, look at that job as a stepping stone to being able to do something you’re passionate about. It will make going in every day a lot less painful and you never know, you may realize there are some skills you can transfer into your own business.

If growing your side-hustle is something you are passionate about, I highly encourage you to go for it. Take some time to think about why you are doing it, what impact you want to make in the lives of others, and start taking steps towards your goal. This doesn’t have to be a race, it took me 10 years to get serious about building my side-hustle. But when I got serious, changed my mindset, and created a strategy, it only took a year to make my great escape and I have never looked back!

Let’s get social, connect with me on Instagram, visit my website or check out The Limitless Life Podcast.

Read more from Brenda Johnston:

3 Tips to Help You Shift From Worry to Wealth

Brenda Johnston, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

After being chained to the same corporate job for close to 14 years and living with debt for most of her adult life, Brenda decided it was time to stop playing small. She changed her relationship with money and success (and more importantly herself) to turn her passion into profit. Within 7 months of leaving her corporate job, she had built a successful 6-figure business. As a High-Performance Mindset Coach, and the host of The Limitless Life podcast Brenda helps other driven Women tap into the power of their subconscious minds so they can access their full manifesting potential. She does this by helping transform limiting beliefs and fears that are creating patterns of self-sabotage so they can create an abundance mindset and go from worry to wealth.