Just like freelancing, solopreneurship and other millennial buzzwords, a side hustle
is also an emerging trend that has become more accepted in the pandemic era. And
well, the term speaks for itself. A side hustle is a source of income that is secondary,
serving as a side to your original primary source of income. Now, while a
professional originally pursues a side hustle out of financial reasons, there are also
plenty of reasons as to why you need one. For the fashion industry, in particular, having a side-hustle is not only a need but also a potential catalyst to your career. However, when it comes to the ‘need’ of having one in fashion, let’s just say that we blame it all on the fickle nature of the industry. With the constant flipping of seasons, trends, and the competitive demands of fashion, if there’s one thing aspirants need here, it is full-proof dedication, commitment, and consistency. And well, that only comes with patience and relentless hard work. That’s also exactly why you need a fashion side-hustle. Take a peek below to unravel what exactly we mean here. Why Do You Need a Fashion Side Hustle?
1. To Future-Proof Your Career Having a side hustle means more income, but it also means more skill development, more exposure, and more experience. This always leads to better opportunities for the future, along with an increased ability to handle more scope of work. What having a side hustle does is expand your skill-sets by infusing your basic ones with additional and game-changing skills such as better problem-solving, decision- making, etc.
Since your side-hustle is, well, your side-hustle, you learn to organize your work and manage multiple tasks at a given time. These inexhaustible skills offer you a commendable edge over others, in turn, preparing you for a future in fashion that can very well be unpredictable. With more skill-sets, exposure, and experience, you will only have a better chance at standing through any future changes and uncertainties in the industry. 2. To Add to Your Income Now, this is a given, isn’t it? A secondary source of income on the side is bound to add to your income, which is something many could use. Additional income means easy payment of necessities, loans, bills, etc. Moreover, this also means an additional budget for your leisure expenses. Of course, you know what you got to cover financially, we don’t need to tell you that. But, all in all, a side-hustle with an extra source of income is, certainly, a boon for your lifestyle!
Source: unsplash.com 3. To Test the Waters Let’s say that you’re a fashion marketer and you want to explore fashion writing too now. But, you cannot simply switch without being certain that your interest in designing is concrete. You cannot even switch from your primary career of marketing to a tentative one because that only means losing both, in many ways. So, what’s the middle ground? Well, testing the waters and checking if a career is meant for you or not.
Now, that’s where the concept of side-hustle comes into play. Here, you try to learn the relevant skills, adopt the right resources, and then apply for a freelance/part-time project just to enter the professional industry. Once there, you can take that side- hustle as a way to test the waters and really identify whether or not that direction is a good fit for you. 4. To Strengthen Your Financial Being You already know by now that having a side-hustle means a new stream of income for yourself, which also suggests that you have twice the financial security than what a person with only one income source has. So, if your primary income source seems to be on the line during an uncertain situation, you will still have that side-hustle to fall back on. It will pose as your back-up by diversifying your income, in turn, protecting your financial health and securing it, in fact.
How To Get Started It takes a dose of interest, skills, and maybe some kind of experience/knowledge to kick-start your side-hustle. But, when you really get to it, what does it take? How can you prepare yourself to accommodate it into your schedule and lifestyle seamlessly? Scroll below to get that secret sauce!
1. Organise Your To-Dos
If you’re going for a side-hustle, you probably already have a main job that takes up
a major chunk of your time. And, we know how exhausting it can be to juggle
between your work life and personal life. But, there’s a solution to everything,
including this. When it comes to the contemporary way of living, which includes a
hundred everyday tasks and the need for some downtime, time management is the
only thing that can work.
Source: Forbes The key lies in prioritizing your tasks, making a list, and organizing those tasks as per timelines. That way, you ensure that you finish a certain task in a given time, preventing work spill-over. In fact, when we do this, we may be surprised as to how little time it actually takes for us to complete our work to-dos. This way, you also make room for your side-hustle tasks and so, with peace. 2. Be Open to Failures When you start to pursue a side hustle, you’re trying something new and well, challenging. This means that you have to be open to making mistakes, taking criticism, and learning from them. You have to enter the work arrangement knowing and accepting that you may or may not succeed at it. But, learning through that experience is inevitable!
3. Be Receptive to Collaborations Having a side-hustle means that you’re going to be neck-deep with work and everyday tasks, which also means that you will need to delegate or collaborate with other professionals. If you want to make that work lifestyle work, you have to be open to the power of collaborations in any capacity. Say, if you’re trying your hand at marketing, be open to associating with graphic designers, writers, etc, who could take some load off you and contribute to your success at large. 4. Up-Skill and Learn Lastly, in order to really guarantee success, you need to be well-adept in certain skills. This means that up-skilling and learning new skills for you is not exactly an option. It’s a must if you want to be efficient at your side-hustle. Whether it is a series of workshops or a short course on the topic you want to learn about, we say, grab any opportunity you get to upgrade your skills and later, put them to use. Ready to begin that learning journey here? Join in!