What Is The Mindset Of An Employee With A Side Hustle Turned Business Owner? Are You Really Better Of As A Business Owner?

According to a June 7, 2022 article by Zapier, an automation software company: one in three Americans have a side hustle. According to them also, 24% of all Americans plan to have a side hustle.

In a similar report on June 27, 2022 by CNBC, a noted news media company reported: 40% of Americans engage in side hustles to make ends meet. As you can see, these two reports paint a grim picture for Americans in terms of financial security.

But Americans are not alone in experiencing this, On June 13, 2022, AVIVA, a UK financial services company reported this: “One in five Brits have started a 'side hustle' since March 2020”.

If many people from the most developed countries in the world, namely US and the UK are doing side hustles to make ends meet, then what about the people in developing and especially poor countries?

Most of these people take on side hustles not because they want to become full-time business owners, but to make ends meet. Others see side hustles as an additional source of income and nothing else, they don’t have much grander plans.

These people are thinking of financial stability that is why they don’t leave a full-time work where they have a stable salary. But, they also know that just being an employee is not enough these days to become financially secure. That’s why they also do side hustles.

As already said, these people have very prudent financial goals: to have an additional source of income besides their salary. They’re not the sort of people who would gamble their savings on high risk businesses and prefer the more safer and proven side hustles.

But don’t get them wrong. These people may have prudent financial goals like saving for their children’s education but they’re not lazy. They’re in fact hardworking and most of them believe that working harder and harder is the key to making more money.

Are you this kind of person or is planning to be one? Are you the one in your company whose always selling something to their co-employees? Don’t feel embarrassed because as has been stated, there are already many people even from developed countries doing this.

Many people have become so dependent on receiving a salary for a living that they forgot or are not aware that they have already become so financially vulnerable. I’m sure many people can relate to the agony one experiences when they lose their job unexpectedly without any reason.

For example, companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and so on suddenly fired several thousands of their employees without almost any notice just because they missed their profit targets.

This reason may sound unfair to the fired employees but it is legitimate right by companies. Fired employees cannot ask the government to prevent their companies from firing them. All in all, an employee can be fired anytime and they are on their own afterwards.

If you think that you have job security just because you have already a very long tenure with your company, think again. Your company might not be losing money but they can still fire you for example for “poor performance”. Again, you have very limited legal recourse to fight your company.

Your company might not fire you but can refuse to increase your salary until you are force to resign voluntarily. Job security is a myth and a side hustle can limit its financial impact on you.

Now that we have established that job security is a myth and a company can fire you anytime, let’s discuss what you are before you become an employee with a side hustle: Dreamer. You are the type of person who complains about their job but does nothing about it.

You usually daydream while you are working. You usually dream big as most dreamers are. You are inspired by business motivational speakers who tell you that all you need is an attitude and a winning business plan.

At first you would try the different side hustles you read about online. You would watch endless videos on motivation, personal development and most of all: ”business ideas that cost nothing to start, can be done in your own home and have sure huge earnings potential”.

Then when you actually try these side hustles you spectacularly fail and think that you’re a loser. Are you this person? Don’t you know that most businesses even side hustles usually take a long time to become profitable?

Are you the dreamer who’s so arrogant that tried and tested old business ideas seem beneath you? For example, many people sell real estate, personal care and so on which earns them commissions. These side hustles might seem boring but many people have become rich off it.

After you’ve realized that you don’t earn money just because you read and watch motivational and personal development gurus you see online, and you’ve also realized that even the seemingly boring old business ideas can make you lots of money, you stop being a “Dreamer”.

You start to realize that there’s more to earning money than just depending on a salary and quick rich schemes. You start to pay little attention and even ignore people especially financial influencers that tell you that it is easy to earn money and become rich if you buy their course.

You might still be employed but you’re now planning to stick with your side hustle for a long time. You start to enjoy that at least with your side hustle, you yourself are responsible for the destiny of your financial earnings.

By being in-charge of your own side hustle, you might start to detest being just an employee and might even feel disdain whenever you are bossed around. This is especially true if your boss is an actual fraud as a manager.

By this time you would have thoughts of grander things for your financial career. You might actually start to believe that you can actually work for and afford the things you only dreamed about before like a better standard of living.

But make no mistake, being a full-time business owner is no walk in the park. The successful celebrity business owners you see in media is not the prototypical business owner. Most business owners usually have no time to become celebrities because they’re so busy working.

If you become a business owner you must be prepared to do everything and expect to do it frequently especially if you are just starting. Many business owners work from dusk till dawn seven days a week.

If you hate sales work then don’t become a business owner and stay an employee. It’s the job business owners must do at least part of the time even though they hate it. Many businesses have been started by a business founder with only a telephone as their tool.

This is because these days you don’t even need employees. In theory, every aspect of your business can be subcontracted: from sales, advertising, marketing, manufacturing, logistics and so on.

But even though you can subcontract everything, you still need to manage all the subcontractors of all the aspects of your business which includes clients, partners and suppliers. In the end, a business owner is always hustling.

Most employees don’t see the part where their company has to pay them a salary despite the fact that the company is not earning any profit at the moment. You as an employee might be celebrating after you receive your regular salary.

As you do so, your company may be having problems on where to get the money to pay your salary the next month. As a business owner, you would experience this and many other financial problems.

As the previous example has shown, you might not have any capital left but you are still required to pay your employees, suppliers, debtors and other people that need to be paid by you.

You might also realize at one point that your business would not be a roaring success and the best that your business can do for you financially is to sustain you modestly. You might reach a point that you will earn more as an employee than a business owner.

You’re not the first one to experience this situation. You might also come to a point where you cannot start again from the bottom as an employee after being a failed owner of a business. Are you ready to accept this possible eventuality?

Don’t think that I’m trying to discourage you from being a full-time business owner based on the last few sentences I have written in this article. My goal is to only enlighten you that sometimes being a full-time business owner is not the best thing in the world.

By only having a side hustle while being a full-time employee and not a full-time business owner, you have the peace of mind that more than likely, you would have regular income coming to you by the way of a salary.

You also don’t need to be a full-time business owner to be rich. There are people who earn good money from their side hustle alone and are even rich off it. There are for example sales oriented people who take on boring jobs as a safety net during dry spells of their side hustles.

There are real high risk and high reward side hustles that really almost require one to have a more stable source of income like a salary. Insurance and Real Estate sales for example can be very profitable side hustles but you would need lots of luck to be rich off them.

Many employees dream of becoming bosses and owning their own business but many fail to do this. Side hustles are a gateway to becoming a full-time business owner. It’s like being a business owner without much of the risks.

You also don’t need to be a full-time business owner to get rich. Side hustles might be the only business activity you need based on your needs. Aspiring business owners need also to realize that being one means more work than you would regularly do as an employee.

It also needs to be stated that being a full-time business owner is very risky. You might lose all your capital without profiting a single cent. There is also a good possibility that your business won’t make you rich and may not even support you financially that you’re better of an employee with just a side hustle.

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