Guide To Starting a Side Business While Working a Full-time Job
Starting a side business while working a full-time job is helpful in a lot of ways. While some individuals set up a side business to boost their financial income and stability, others do it to explore new opportunities, get a new skill and improve their creativity.
Beginning a new business together with a 9-5 job is never going to be easy, however, you will achieve success when you follow the right steps. This guide therefore provides all you need to know about starting a side business while working a full-time job.
Steps to Starting a Side Business While Working a Full-time Job
Starting a side business while working on a full-time job requires that you follow mapped-out steps. Here are the steps to follow.
1. Set realistic Goals
As part of the business preparations, you should set goals. However, you should only come up with realistic goals that could be achieved within a set period. It is normal to be excited about carrying out one project or the other within your business. However, when you plan on starting, you should only take one step after the other so you don’t get overwhelmed. Apart from that, setting too many or unrealistic goals could hinder you from achieving your business aims.
2. Make Plans
For any business to be successful, adequate plans must be made. As such you will need to decide on a lot of things before you actually start the business. The first will be to determine the type of product or service you want to render and the target audience for which the business will serve.
Once you know that, you would want to do market research for the product, find out what marketing strategy you would use to generate sales and so on. Of utmost importance is the capital you will need for the business. Thus, you need to consider the money at hand and how much in total you will need. However, if you would be rendering service, you might not need a lot of capital for you to start. But you would need to learn and be proficient with the skills you desire to offer.
Overall making plans before starting your business helps you stay consistent in the game, figure out what’s needed and what’s not and help you prepare financially ahead.
3. Determine the Business Structure
Once you have your business plan ready, you should decide on the business structure. Most individuals start their side business as a sole trader before expanding to other business structures. Setting up as a sole trader is quite easy as you don’t need much filing and documentation before you start. However, you will be required to register the business with HMRC for tax purposes.
Other individuals also register their business as a limited company as this offers some benefits that aren’t available to the sole trader. This involves the ability to get loans from investors and the credibility and trust that comes with a business that is registered with the UK Companies House. Other business structure that is available is Limited Liability Partnerships which require at least two partners for it to be set up. As a full-time worker looking forward to starting a business, you can begin as a sole trader but make preparations to incorporate your business with the Companies House at a later time.
4. Choose a Business Name
You would need a business name. However, if you are starting as a sole trader, you officially do not need to register a company name. For a limited company and limited liability Partnership, you would need to select a suitable business name. This name must be in accordance with the UK company naming rule and as such must not be offensive and sensitive. You must not also use a name that is similar or the same as another existing company.
On the other hand, if your business will be sole trading, it is also important to ensure that your business name is not too similar or the same as another business. This is to ensure that the public can easily differentiate one business from the other and therefore avoid confusion.
5. Get a Business Website
Since you will be starting the business as a side hustle, you are most likely not going to have a shop or special physical space for it. Most individuals who run a business with a full-time job do it online. As such you would need to have a well-designed and functioning website for your business. This will serve as your shop where your products or services will be displayed.
Your website should preferably showcase your business missions and visions, what you do, how you can help your customers and so on. It must also be well-designed, with error-free and engaging content. A website would be like your shop where customers could see what you offer and buy from you. As such, you must make it suitable for this purpose.
6. Set up your Social Media Handles
Apart from the business website which you should have, your business should have two or more social media handles where you could interact with customers. Even if you have a physical shop that is managed by a representative, it’s still better to have social media handles for your side business. If on the other hand, you do not have a shop or physical space for your business, then you need to maximize the online platforms as your shop.
From there you would be able to reach a larger audience and potential customers. Ideally, your social media handles should strictly be for business purposes, contain engaging and interesting content, demonstrate your business goals and should also contain some portfolio if you render service as a side business.
7. Get the Necessary license
If licenses or permits are needed for the side business you want to venture into, then you have to get them. You would need to consult with your local authority or business industry to see the kind of licenses and permits that are needed and obtain them. There are no rules and regulations that exclude side business owners from obtaining the necessary license. As such there are penalties if the rules and regulations aren’t followed.
8. Check through your Employment Contract
It would be necessary to check through your employment contract before starting your side business. While some jobs would allow you to run a side business or job, others would not. It is therefore important to check your employment contract to be sure of the terms and conditions involved. If there are no restrictions, then you can go ahead, but if there are, you would want to ensure that you don’t breach your service contract.
9. Save and Reinvest
As you start making profits from your side business, you should reinvest more in it. With that, it becomes easier for the business to grow and expand. If you are into products, then you would want to get more stock, equipment or machines that will aid your business. If on the other hand, you are a service provider, you can decide to acquire more skills within your field. In all, the goal should be to do one thing or the other that will help expand your business.
Advantages of having a Side Business While Working a Full-time job
Here are some of the advantages of having a side business while working a full-time job
1. Financial Freedom
Having a successful side business together with your full-time job gives you the financial freedom that you need. It is no longer news that multiple streams of income are needed to thrive and survive in today’s world. With the financial obligations here and there, a side business makes it easier to fulfil them.
2. Serves as Plan B
Although your 9-5 employment would most likely give you job security, however, you never can tell what the future would be like. We’ve seen cases where employees were laid off as a result of one reason or the other. As such a side business is what you can fall back on if an unexpected situation occurs.
Apart from that, a side business could help you stay financially active when you eventually retire from your job.
3. Helps Acquire a New Skill
If you particularly love to learn new skills, having a side business would help you achieve that. With it, you can decide to learn several IT Skills, baking and catering skills, home decoration and many more. This alone helps you build your confidence and keeps you active in today's world.
4. Helps you get more Creative
When you have an idea, a side business allows you to test it. In the process of testing, you get creative until you finally validate the ideas through first-hand results. Without testing an idea, there is no way you can develop your creativity or achieve results outside of your 9-5 job.
Should I Turn My Side Business into a Full-time Job?
There might come a time when you would want to decide whether or not you should turn your side business into a full-time job. But there are some points to note before leaving your full-time employment.
1. Income
You should only leave your full-time job if your side business is giving you more income than you get from your full-time job. The difference between the two sources of income should be different. And apart from that, your side business must be guaranteed to give you income consistently after leaving your full-time job.
2. Time Commitment
If you are taking your side business to the next level by making it a full-time one, then you might need to dedicate more time to it. Running a full-time business is quite easier than having the business as a part-time one because you might need to attend to the business at some irregular time. So if you are into some other projects or would like to focus on some other parts of life, you might want to consider the time commitment before turning your side business into a full-time own.
3. Sustainability
Sustainability in every business is key. When you leave a 9-5 job, that means you are no longer eligible to be paid by the employer. As such you must be sure that your business is a sustainable one before turning it into a full-time own. Be sure that the business can resist competition from other business owners, withstand technological changes and advancement and stand the test of time without being out of vogue.
4. Responsibility
Running a business requires more attention and effort than being an employee. If you would be turning your side business into a full-time own, then that means you would be working and expanding the business more. As such you have to prepare yourself for this.
5. Adaptability
Being able to adapt to the new work atmosphere is another aspect you would want to consider. Leaving a full-time job means you do not need to go to a workplace every day, you might not have colleagues to speak and interact with and so on. If you even plan on running the business alone, then that could mean you might be in your shop, working space or home all alone during work period. While some people can cope with working alone, others cannot. So it’s important to note this.
Is it Legal to Start a Side Business While Working a Full-time Job in the UK?
Yes, it is legal to start a side business while having a full-time job in the UK. In fact, many individuals do that before they later have the business as a full-time owner. There are no laws or restrictions against having a side business, however, as an employee of a company, you must be aware of the requirements and guidelines in your employment contract. If the contract doesn’t allow a side job or business, then, you should avoid breaching your contract.
On the other hand, some employers would not restrict you but would require that you inform the company before starting a side business. So you should be sure of what your job contract entails before beginning your side business.
Tips to Successfully Start a Side Business
1. Be organized
Combining a 9-5 job with a side business might not be easy, however, you would be able to scale through and achieve meaningful results if you are organized. This would involve you setting goals that would be achieved within a period of time let’s say a week, 30 or 60 days and so on. With that, you would need to map out the activities that would be done every day to achieve these goals. There are various apps you can download to help you manage and organize your activities.
2. Ensure a Work/Life Balance
Maintaining a work/life balance is very important. For you to be able to manage your job and the side business together, you must stay mentally and physically healthy. As such, you need to always create personal time when you can rest and socialize.
3. Be Committed
Commitment is key in every business. Starting a new side business together with your job might first seem so stressful but would get better with time. As such you have to be committed to attaining success so you can get positive results.
4. Discover your Strengths and Weaknesses
Discovering your strengths and weaknesses before starting your side business would make things less complex. With it, you would be able to know what and what you are capable of doing within the business and which one needs to be outsourced.
5. Validate your Business Idea
To ensure that the new business succeeds, you should validate a business idea from someone else. It wouldn’t be good to discover that your business idea isn’t valid when you’ve already set up the business. This could weigh you down and might even affect your performance in the workplace. So be sure to validate the idea from trusted friends or families before setting it up.
Examples of Side Business You Can Start While Working a Full-Time Job
There are many side businesses you can choose to do while working a full-time job. While you can sell a product (either digital or physical), you can also render services and be paid for it. Here are some of the businesses.
- House cleaning
- Dropshipping business
- Coaching
- Consulting (within or outside your career)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Blogging
- Online Tutoring, Transcribing
- Photography
- Monetize a YouTube channel
- Digital Marketing
- Writing
- Sell online course or product
Incorporate Your Company with Incorpuk Today
At Incorpuk, we will help you file accurate information when you register your company through us. We will help you with incorporation articles, a registered office address, and all you may need to register your company in the UK. Contact our team if you seek any information; we will gladly assist.
Conclusion
Running a successful side business together with a full-time job might not be simple. Apart from the fact that you need to set out your plan, make preparations and follow the right steps, you also need to be committed to the goal and be consistent to achieve great results. If you have any questions about starting a side business while working a full-time job, don’t hesitate to contact us here, and we’ll do everything we can to help.