Alot of people believe that starting a business or freelancing is risky. When people think about jumping into the deep end with a business, they think about the stories of people putting their life savings into a dream business and going through a roller-coaster of ups and downs. It can be this way, but it doesn’t have to.
In my opinion, starting with a side hustle is the best way to go. Before you jump all in, there are some valuable skills you must learn first like improving on your craft, negotiating and handling client requests, sales, marketing, and more. You can learn these while still working your 9-5 to mitigate risk.
The key here is to start small then scale. What is the bare minimum you need to get started? A website? A social media profile? Some product? These are all things that must be taken into consideration. For example, let’s say you want to start a bakery. Rather than taking out a business loan on appliances, a building, and hiring, start by yourself in your kitchen with the stuff you have available to you now.
The next most important thing is to have retainer income from your business. A business that requires a constant flow of new clients will be unreliable and risky but if you are able to charge a monthly fee for a service, it will be much more consistent and safe. In fact, once you have several clients willing to pay you monthly, it is safer than a regular job. At a job, one person has complete control over your fate. They can decide to halt your income for any reason or in many states, no reason at all. On the other hand, if you are a freelancer or business owner with 8 clients and one leaves, you still have 7/8ths of your income.
If you are able to learn these skills and grow a business, you will have something with far more security than the average person especially with the rapid changes that are happening in the world. Once you can do it with one thing, you can quickly learn to do it in other industries.
