Five helpful things to know BEFORE digitising your side hustle

If your side hustle is picking up pace, it may be time to consider digitising some aspects of your business to allow you to focus on the important stuff. But where to begin? Business digital trainer and author of Australia’s 2021 business book of the year, The End of Technophobia, Tracy Sheen shares five important things to consider before you go too crazy.

Side hustles have never been more popular. It seems everyone you talk to has a side gig they are trying to get off the ground or hustling to grow.

In my own family, my stepson has a very successful leathercraft business and my niece has started an eCommerce business selling clothing; both are running these side hustles on top of busy jobs and family lives.

In order to keep it manageable, many side hustlers ask me how to digitise their business to make it simpler, faster and easier to run.

Five things you should know before digitising your business

There are a few easy things you can consider which will help make your life easier, but beware – post COVID, customers are looking for connection. Overly automated, bot-answering businesses have left us desperately searching for more human interactions and less automated funnels.

With that being said, here are five things I’d encourage you to consider before you digitise your side hustle.

1. Start with the end in mind

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey tells the reader to ‘start with the end in mind’. Knowing what you want from your side hustle will help you to support your long term goals.

The point is, you need to get crystal clear on your end goal if you want to understand how much digitisation you need. Then you can build your technology strategy to suit your plans.

2. Take stock of what you’re using

One of the big pieces missing from most side hustles (and small businesses) is a technology strategy. We invest time to develop our business strategy and our marketing plan, but very few of us have thought through what role technology plays in the success of our hustle.

You can get ahead of the curve by completing a technology audit. The upshot of a tech audit is to understand what you already have – before taking the next step.

3. Identify your gap(s)

Once you’ve completed your digital audit, you’ll have a clear indicator of what areas you’d like to focus on to digitise. Keep drilling down on your list until you’ve identified your number one priority.

It’s fine to create a list, but if you focus on any more than one thing at a time, you’ll likely go into overwhelm and do nothing. Identify the one thing that, if ‘fixed’, would have the biggest positive impact on your side hustle. That’s the thing you want to start with.

4. Research

With your one thing in mind, you can begin to research solutions to resolve the issue. Admitting ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ is powerful. Be curious and open to learning. Read blogs, watch videos or join a small business tech club to help you get answers.

There are LOTS of digital solutions available, so creating a matrix to keep you focused on what you need to achieve will help you sort the wheat from the chaff.

Keep in mind the adage “more haste, less speed”. Choose your solution quickly, but with care.

5. Test and learn

Following on from the previous point, don’t agonise over which is ‘the best’ app or platform or software. Pick one of the popular solutions (trust me, they’re all pretty good) and dedicate at least 30 days to get familiar with everything the solution has to offer.

At the end of that time, sit back and evaluate whether the solution is ticking all the boxes you identified. This method is how you will quickly and easily identify what is working for you.

Remember, don’t get caught up in the sunk cost. If it’s not doing all you’d hoped, now is the time to get rid of it and try something different.

A side hustle can be really rewarding. Knowing what to digitise and when can make it more fun and more profitable.

Just remember to keep your customers at the centre of your decisions and strive to deliver the best possible experience. Do that, and whatever digitisation you choose will be perfect for your business.

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