White Hat Blogging is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, in addition, I am an independent Jasper Affiliate, not an employee. I receive referral payments from Jasper and possibly other affiliates.
When you are trying to figure out how to get more out of life than you can from working your 9-5 job you may hear about side hustles. These are, at their core, ways to build a business in yourself and allow you to grow outside of direct employment.
So then you may wonder what are the benefits of side hustles? They can provide you a mental challenge from your daily work and life, additionally they can help you bring in additional income, clear debt along with allowing you more freedom like taking vacations while building confidence and feelings of self-worth.
Now that we have piqued your interest and shown you the vast array of life-altering benefits you can achieve. Let’s dig into each one and why they are valuable to learning how to start a side hustle to make extra income.
What is a Side Hustle?
For many it is a way to start trying to get ahead of where they currently are in life, either to allow them to look at new opportunities or to find a way to be financially open to exploring or maybe complete freedom from traditional employment.
Just note, side hustles that actually make money will typically take time and effort to build up and they won’t be instant riches. None of this will be a get rich quick style scheme and if you need instant money then you need to look at a second job instead.
Benefits of a Side Hustle
There are a lot of reasons why you may decide to look at taking on a side hustle, many times any of the benefits below may be enough on their own for you to pursue one or more good side hustles.
Many side hustles can be done via local businesses and opportunities in your community and others are able to be run completely as an online side hustle.
Additional Income Streams
This is a clear benefit to finding a side hustle as they can generate another income stream for you which in the world today is very powerful, as we all know most of us live on only one income stream, our job.
Any time someone can find something they enjoy on the side but that can also bring in additional income it is highly preferred. Much of this income could be passive methods like eBooks or active like teaching but both are equally as helpful.
Clear Out Debts
Lets face it as you grow up you begin to accumulate debts, its very unfortunate in how our society works to put people in a spot where they always owe someone and are always working hard to repay the debt.
With a side hustle you have the chance to work on your debt situation and you can use many methods to pay it down, one of the favorites is to use the Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball approach, I prefer Audible version for the car.
No matter what we all should try to get back to a zero balance sheet with no outstanding money owed to anyone as this is when you will truly begin to hit real financial freedom, no longer tied to the system and open to do more with your time.
Increase Savings
In addition to paying off your debts you have the ability to begin building a savings of money which can save you in a time of aid or instability. Most Americans have nearly $0 in savings and if and when a problem hits they need to borrow.
As with Dave Ramsey above he has some ways to focus on building your emergency fund. He speaks about having a set amount ready in case of a problem so you don’t add debt, your side hustle should be used to build this up to help you.
Take More Vacations
Another benefit to your side hustle is the ability to take more vacations, by building a supplemental income stream from your hustle will give you more opportunity to spend money on travel and leaving home.
Unfortunately due to people having almost no money due to debts and related stressors when they take a “vacation” they choose to stay home and basically just shelter in place.
What if you could knock down those debts and go take a vacation to the place you find most amazing, that would allow you to visit the Grand Canyon or Australia and the Outback.
Change Career Direction
Sometimes a side hustle will actually lead to a career change as you find that you don’t need the soul crushing job you have been “stuck” in and unable to gain freedom from.
While this may be scary for a great many of you this is actually optimal as you want to enjoy what you do and not feel that what you do exhausts you and leaves you drained everyday, that leads to burnout.
Ownership and Accountability On You
Building a side hustle allows you to have ownership and accountability and this means that your success or failure in on you not on some boss behind other doors who never tells you before the annual review.
You are the CEO of your side hustle and this allows you to manage this as you see fit, no longer only under someone else’s thumb you have the power to build this into, quite possibly, your own business.
For a blogger this means the amount of posts you write and what you create is only tied to you, this is amazingly freeing and can help you work harder and longer.
New Contacts and Expanding Opportunities
A side hustle will help you find and meet new people who would typically be outside your sphere of influence or acknowledgement. These people will expand your chances for other opportunities and will broaden your horizons.
These new people will be business owners, entrepreneurs, or just people interested in the side hustle but all will typically be people that you may have never crossed paths with had you not started a side hustle.
Build Self Confidence
Many of us lack a sense of self confidence, whether from parents, school, employers, or other source we have been told numerous times information that hurt the ability to believe in the fact that “you are amazing”.
Building your side hustle can help you start to rebuild your personal sense of self confidence and build your own mental resolve. Having to make decisions and rebuild your belief in yourself is a awesome feeling of empowerment.
Increase Feelings of Self Worth
Building up a side hustle from nothing will help you prove to yourself that you have unique value in the world that people are interested in, we have a big lack in self worth for a great amount of people in current society.
You will be able to engage with people, whether visitors to a website, or with customers on a storefront site like Etsy or Redbubble and with feedback you will see that you are valuable.
Engaging Your Creativity
Who loves expressing their love of art, photography, or other creative outlet? This is where you could pair your creative side with a side hustle that would help you earn some side income.
If you love designing you could open up a Fiverr shop and offer gigs based on making logos, writing, or so many other options it is incredibly crazy.
Expanding Horizons
When looking at side hustles you will be able to look at what you see as options but over time this will continue to expand and you will find other niches and areas that you may find interesting that you were unaware of currently.
That’s what happened with me as I started my side hustles trying to figure out dropshipping only to find it doesn’t fit me but then I found affiliate marketing side and have fell head over heels into it learning more each day.
Final Thoughts on What Are the Benefits of Side Hustles
Finding something you can do outside of your job is something more people should take time to figure out, it can have a whole host of benefits to your mental and physical health while causing joy and entertainment.
We have slowly all become zombies and finish our normal work day to come home and watch television and be absolutely brainless, allowing the media and others to tell us how we should feel and act.
Instead I would say you need to find your personal side hustle and how you can add more enjoyment and hopefully income to your days allowing for more time off and more vacation or breaks.
If you are interested in starting a side hustle with a blog head on over to our quick start guide which can get you up and blogging today, I would love to hear from you and make sure you start out on the right foot!
