By Chris Lewis
According to an Intuit survey, 64% of startups start with a capital of about $10,000 and are self-funded. The majority of the owners also agree that things are the hardest during their first year and a great number of startups fail because they simply run out of cash. That’s why having side income sources can make a difference between failure and success. This will definitely take some stress off your shoulders, but only if your side jobs are flexible and don’t require much time and effort. Luckily, many ways to make money online require little commitment and have flexible hours, so they won’t prevent you from building your own business.
3 Ways to Make Money Online While Building a Startup
1. Educate
Creating an online course or webinar will take quite a bit of time. However, once you’re done, you can upload them to specialized educational platforms, like Udemy, SkillShare, Teachable, and many others. This will turn your course into a source of passive income.
Hosting an occasional webinar is similar, though requires more immediate involvement. You can have a recording of it available for download to both attract future ‘students’ and make more money in the long run.
You can use this experience as an educator to boost your personal brand and the startup you are building.
2. Sell
An eCommerce shop will require a lot of time and commitment to run. However, if you are selling digital products, you can simplify the process by using specialized platforms. Most profitable options in this field are eBooks, photos, courses, and web elements. You can also sell music, short videos, and various types of graphics.
Some platforms for digital sales are ClickBank, Gumroad, and EasyDigitalDownloads. You can find dozens of others and many specialized platforms for the exact type of product you want to sell.
You can also include affiliate marketing programs in the ways of making money online by selling. It’s not you who will be making the actual sale, but you can contribute to it by promoting the product after creating an affiliate marketing blog. Working with such a blog will give you some experience you can use for optimizing and marketing your own website.
3. Consult
Of all the ways of making money online while getting your startup running, consulting can be the most profitable. The trick here is not to take up any long-term contracts and inform your clients about your schedule so they understand when exactly you are available.
Consulting is a lucrative business on its own and you call the shots regarding the level of your commitment. But bear in mind that succeeding with consults while your startup struggles to take off will be a huge temptation to just give up the company. Be sure to set your priorities right by assessing your future chances of success in both fields.
Can You Make Your Startup Succeed While Busy with Another Job?
This is a difficult question that can’t be answered by anyone but you. The truth is that it’s possible to get your own business up and running while having a day job. Many successful entrepreneurs started this way to minimize the risks.
However, starting a business puts you under an enormous amount of stress, so any kind of additional job will be taxing. When you are stressed, you might make mistakes that will affect your chances of success. That’s why finding passive income sources is the most beneficial in this case.
What you need is an honest assessment of your current situation and personal strength. Consider your health, funds, savings, expenses, responsibilities, personal liability through LLC formation (quickly formed through the best LLC service) and realistic chances of the startup’s profitability. Prioritize your ‘other job’ based on this assessment and determine how much time exactly you can dedicate to it.
There will come a moment when you’ll need to either give up on the startup or get fully committed to it. Be prepared to make this decision.
