Durban - When people look into what they should do as a side hustle to earn extra income, they often seek what’s trendy and that’s usually something that’s online, to do with e-commerce or drop shipping.
“I urge them to ignore that and pivot towards their skills set for a market that exists, whether it be walking dogs or teaching swimming,” Nic Haralambous, author of the newly-released book Start a Side Hustle: A Playbook for a New Economy, told the Independent on Saturday.
While singing the praises of the internet for the access it gives to distant markets, he cautioned people to ignore information Google offered about ideas for side hustles because, on the day, many other people will be acting on that advice and flooding the market.
As an “obsessive entrepreneur” for the past 20 years, Haralambous also stressed that side hustles should aim to be just that, supplementing one’s income, rather than vehicles to make billions.
Haralambous recommended that people starting a side hustle aim to make about R3 000 a month to supplement a salary and offer a more sustainable life.
While it requires mental adjustment and commitment, costing time normally spent on activities such as seeing friends and family over weekends, he pointed out that people needed to debunk the myth that one needs to “suffer” to build something sustainable.
Turning to companies who employ people with side hustles, Haralambous said, depending on the generation in which they were born, they either take a hard stand on not allowing side hustles or, like younger companies, recognise that it could make employers want to stay with them and work harder.
Haralambous said he believed that the economy, which could expect 20 brutal years ahead because of state capture and deep-seated corruption in South Africa, needed small business to enable more people to have more money to stimulate the economy.
Launched off the back of his book, Haralambous has started an initiative for those wishing to start a side hustle, through the site https://www.slowhustle.org/
How to Start a Side Hustle: A Playbook for a New Economy is published by Tafelberg and retails for R192.
The Independent on Saturday