Side hustle – a pathway to increased financial freedom

Side hustle? Well, it’s just hustling on the side isn’t it?

In the previous article I laid down bare the plans I have to move towards my notion of financial freedom. In this article I am gonna get myself a side hustle!

What I really mean is that I am going to evaluate the suitability of alternative income streams. From that I hope to establish a focus for my attention.

How am I going to evaluate a potential side hustle?

There is little point in trying to base a decision on gut instinct alone. Let’s establish some baseline points of comparison:

1. How much income does it generate?
2. How much investment does it require?
3. Does it offer potential for passive income streams?

Without further ado let’s jump in and see what this side hustle is really saying.

What options do I have?

I am fortunate in that I have relatively niche skills that are in relatively high demand. I am a software engineer with particular experience in mobile apps. So here we go with idea number one…

Side hustle #1: Build a mobile application 

Is this really a worthwhile endeavour. I mean, how much money do mobile apps actually deliver?

Given the proliferation of mobile apps you would think that data would be plentiful. Wrong! Anecdotal statistics are wildly varying but the underlying theme is fairly common – the chances of making an impactful amount is slim to none.

Statista.com reported that as of Q4 2019 there were 2.57 million apps in Google Play while Apple’s App Store was the second-largest app store with almost 1.84 million. This is a very competitive market. This means you have to have a key differentiator so as to stand out of the crowd.

The truth is, no matter how much I like to laud my skills, I am unlikely to create the next big thing. 

Second stop on the side hustle express: freelancing 

The next contender in the side hustle bustle is good ol’ freelancing.

Freelancing has gone through a renaissance of sorts recently. This is certainly the case in my particular area of expertise: software engineering.

There are lots of services now offering you the ability to advertise your skills to perspective buyers. These same services also allow perspective buyers to post job specifications.

The number one offering in this market appears to be Fiverr. The latest data suggests that freelancers on Fiverr have made upwards of $1 billion since its inception 10 years. This is sounding promising.

Furthermore, some online research has shown the mobile app development is one of the highest yielding side hustles on Fiverr (see details here)

A quick search for “mobile app development” showed there to be 17698 offerings (at the time of writing this article).

A further deep dive showed that the makeup of these offerings are very different:

Of the 17698 only 41 are top rated sellers. Taking a browse through some of these too sellers shows that they have in excess of 1000 reviews! This is prolific. 

Therefore, if we look at this from a pure numbers perspective then I would need to be a Top Rated Seller if I was to make this viable. This is not an easy proposition as it involves an application direct to Fiverr. While this is entirely possible, there is still the elephant in the room: passive income!

There is the potential to make lucrative returns from Fiverr but this is directly in correlation to the amount of work you invest. There is no passivity to the remuneration. While this is not necessarily a problem it is certainly a consideration.

Side hustle #3 is more leftfield: Affiliate Marketing 

Now I must make a confession. I have been researching the subject of side hustles for some time. In particular, I have been reviewing the concept of affiliate marketing. The basic premise is attractive – establish a stream of traffic for a product or offering and then sit back and watch as the cash rolls in…

I am not that naive to believe the hype. I have watched so many clickbait videos on YouTube professing to know the secret to making your millions from no investment and little effort. This is patently untrue. Fortunately though there are some YouTubers out there who espouse a more realistic approach to affiliate marketing (Liam James Kay is my personal favourite).

The current affiliate marketing market share is valued at approximately $12 billion and projected to grow more than 10% in the next year alone. The presence of so many affiliate schemes is also evidence of the viability of this market.

Initial financial investment is low: tick. Time investment is initially high but this is through a general lack of knowledge in general marketing terms and practices. Potential for passivity – very, very high. Of the potential side hustles, affiliate marketing is definitely the forerunner.

Sounds like I have already made up my mind!

Kind of. I think the initial assessment shows that affiliate marketing has potential. Next, I need to establish a minimal viable product (MVP) to prove the effectiveness. I am excited already.

I have the benefit of falling back on my software engineering skills to build a side hustle so this is relatively low risk. Furthermore, there are elements of affiliate marketing that require knowledge of website development and management as well as software configuration – this definitely plays into my skill set.

So where to next?

I need to establish my MVP and in order to do that I need to decide what success looks like. In the next article I will cover off my decision making process and start on the path to affiliate marketing. See you on the other side.