Firmly on the Side: Ensuring Your Online Store Stays Efficient as a Side Hustler*

Being a side hustler is one of those practices that should remain firmly on the side of your life. This is why so many people set up an online store because it’s an excellent way to earn a little bit of money as you go. But when you’re trying to run an efficient side hustle, you’ve got to make sure that your online store is delivering on all fronts. Here are a few things to consider:

Choosing the Right Platform

There are very popular options such as WooCommerce for WordPress, and when you choose the right type of platform, you should also prioritize trusted payment gateways to facilitate those online transactions. The right providers will help you process WooCommerce payments far more securely. It’s a very simple thing to overlook, but if you have the right e-commerce platform and payment gateway, this can take away a lot of headaches ensuring that your side hustle stays on the side.

Learn to Automate Where You Can

There are a number of ways that you can automate your side hustle, for example, order processing, email marketing, and inventory updates. Depending on the e-commerce platform you choose, you will be able to use the integrated apps and tools which will make a huge difference in terms of your time management. Additionally, if you find certain tasks too time-consuming, for example, copywriting or product photography, you could outsource these, particularly photography, because these are things that you will only need to do once, so make sure you get them right first time.

Managing Your Time

Ensuring that you as a side hustler is on the side, remember it’s all about sticking to a schedule. It can be easy to let it spill over into our lives, but if you set a schedule and dedicate a certain amount of hours each week to your side hustle and treat it like another job commitment where you clock off as soon as you’ve done a certain amount of hours, this will help you to focus your efforts. It’s always worth remembering that, as per the Pareto principle, 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of the work, so make sure that you are focusing on the high-impact tasks that genuinely serve your business over busy work. Batch tasks of a similar ilk together, and this can increase your focus and efficiency as well, for example, customer emails and product uploads.

Looking at Its Effects on You

We may end up treating a side hustle like a small business, but we have to remember that it shouldn’t result in staying up all hours to fix things. It needs to be on the side of our lives, and therefore, if it gets to the point where we’re not enjoying it, then we should decide whether it’s worth stepping away. We need to make sure that our side hustle stays efficient, and this is why the right types of tools, but also your mindset can make a huge difference.

Follow these practices and you can keep your online store running efficiently alongside all of your other commitments.