Tips On Taking Your Ecommerce Side Hustle To Full-Time
Are you ready to quit your day job? Learn how to increase your business growth to pay the bills.
Running an ecommerce store has become easier than ever before with new tools and platforms that systematize many parts of the process. Whereas a few years ago you might have needed business background, coding skills and marketing experience, would-be entrepreneurs can now use all-in-one platforms like Shopify, Etsy or BigCartel to take care of everything from customer attraction to payment portals.
Big Business
However, while setting up an ecommerce business to sell homemade hats or hand-drawn prints is one thing, taking your shop to the next level by making it a full time hustle is another challenge entirely. This is a spot where a lot of entrepreneurs stumble. They’re keen to quit their job to take their e-commerce hustle to the next level, but they’re not entirely sure what that will entail, if they have the skills, and if it’s going to be a huge mistake. After all, there’s a huge difference in terms of time investment between a humble Etsy store and a massive e-commerce enterprise like Nasty Gal.
That said, if you’ve dabbled in the ecommerce world as a side hustle and you’re keen to grow, here are some tips to scale your business and make it worthwhile for you to quit your day job:
Seek investment to help with cash flow.
Quitting your day job can be terrifying because the financial cushion you once had in case of a bad sales month is no longer there. All of a sudden, your supplementary income becomes primary. However, if you already have proof of concept from running your store part time, why not ask for financial backing in the form of an investor or loan? This can alleviate the financial pressure a little and if you’re prudent about not taking too big a loan or cash injection, it can help you scale up more quickly without too much financial risk.
Hire more people.
When you’re a side hustle entrepreneur, it can be possible to operate by doing everything from marketing to customer service yourself. But when you scale up to full time, things can become unmanageable very quickly. Be honest with yourself about what your strengths and weaknesses are, and if you see one area of the business floundering, then don’t be afraid to contract a specialist for help. After all, the gig economy means you don’t have to hire someone full time; you can simply contract people when you need help to test out what you can manage yourself.
Be prepared to listen to—and invest in—your customers.
The biggest mistake a lot of ecommerce sites make is not responding to their customers needs. Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you don’t need a dedicated customer service strategy. If you get feedback or complaints from your customers, do not ignore it. Invest time into listening and liaising with them until you make things right. You want customers, to become advocates and then they’ll be your most effective advertising tool. If they are not evangelizing on your behalf it will be that much harder to scale your side hustle into a full time career.
Try content marketing.
Most small e-commerce stores go straight to Facebook or social ad placements, but consider the power of content marketing as you scale. Writing content that adds value to a given community—but is not overtly “salesy”—can result in lots of leads and new social media followers. If you have time or money to spare, invest in content marketing to make your brand bigger. Freelancers would be glad to assist you in developing, managing and completing a content strategy.
Think about diversification.
The worst thing you can do is assume that your revenue stream or the way you do business is fixed. As one small business owner put it in Founder Mag: “Never be so reliant on one stream of income that if it vanishes, your business completely crashes. For example, if 90% of your sales are coming from Facebook/Google/Amazon, and something changes (like it always does), you could be in big trouble. Businesses have died overnight due to stuff like that.”