The terms ‘hustle’ or ‘side hustle’ are common to many if not, all of you. The going word is that you should all invest in a side hustle; I am sure you hear that often. There is not really anything gravely wrong with that, but I have issues with what the term connotes. I am also not comfortable with the hustle culture that comes with it. Kindly check out the article on why the hustle culture is toxic. There is also an article differentiating 3 terms: hustling, business, and entrepreneurship. Do check it out if you have not, because it will open up your mind. Hustling should never be your lifelong destination or comfort zone. You have to come to a point where you formalize your operations into a proper business or startup. How do you know it is time to formalize, though?
Are You Mentally Prepared?
Formalizing your side hustle brings in more pressing obligations. When hustling, you can dodge so many responsibilities, which become inevitable in formalized operations. Of course, hustling entails risk and often demanding operational aspects. However, under formalized operations, it becomes riskier and more demanding. You will have obligations to your customers, suppliers, investors, regulatory authorities and the like. Are you ready for that? It will demand from you solid psycho-emotional stamina. Integrity and work ethic will be demanded from you. You need to be able to ask yourself and answer honestly whether or not you are ready. If you are not yet mentally prepared, formalizing your side hustle is still premature.
Closely related to this is whether or not you have the necessary support. Hustling can survive with you operating as an island. A formalized business or startup cannot survive that way. You will need all the support you can get, e.g. social, financial, legal, governmental, and the like. Can you ascertain that you will have these various support elements? Starting and running a formalized business or startup is no mean thing. It is demanding. Any successful entrepreneur or business person will tell you the importance of having enough support. If you can and are sure the necessary support is there, then you are good to go. All of this will have a huge bearing on your mental strength.
Do You Have A Clear Business Or Entrepreneurial Vision?
Business and entrepreneurship differ greatly from hustling. Hustling is mostly trial and error and usually does not follow some vision of sorts. It is usually unstructured and chases whatever money-making venture that pops up at any given time. If your mind is not contemplating having some sort of long-haul vision, then you better keep hustling. If you have a clear vision for a business or startup, then that indicates you want to graduate from mere hustling. That means business planning is a precursor to formalizing your side hustle.
If you can, and once you have put together a business plan, then it is time. This is because a business plan will be a detailed and structured roadmap of how you will build your entity. If you are yet to do that, you are not ready to transition from hustling. I have a buddy of mine who has often seemed keen on formalizing his side hustles. However, he always seems to never get past putting together a business plan or at least having a clear vision. Those are typically tell-tale signs you are still not ready to formalize things.
Do Your Financials Indicate Independent Sustainability
This assumes you will be keeping detailed financial records. There are 2 dimensions to any hustle. One, you want the hustle to survive sustainably. Two, you also want your personal life to survive sustainably. Essentially you do not want the two to infringe on each other. Ideally, it would be best for the two to co-exist symbiotically, with no friction. Often time side hustles are interwoven with personal life dynamics.
For example, your monies will not have clear demarcations – side hustle or personal? If your side hustle now has a life of its own independent of your personal life, then it is time. If your current financial performance for your side hustle indicates positive cash flow projections, you are good to go. When those conditions are or can be satisfied, you can now formalize your operations.
If you can tick these 3 boxes honestly, then it is time to formalize your side hustle. If not, steadily give it time because rushing to formalize can just be as detrimental. There are many benefits that come with running a formalized business or startup. For instance, you increase your chances of accessing funding and even general support. You also increase your revenue prospects by being more trusted and getting customer inflows. There are big clients you might never get simply because they only deal with formalized entities. That is why it is vital that you work on formalizing your side hustle at some point.
