Ambitious people can use the gig economy to tackle opportunities in their free time, and developing a side hustle outside of your day job is a way to get a taste of entrepreneurship, as well.
Grow Your Side Hustle
But for some, a side hustle isn’t enough. Instead, they want to take that side hustle – their true passion – and grow it into a real career or business. Today’s infographic from Quid Corner gives 10 steps on how to make that transition a reality.
Taking your passion and converting it into a successful venture is not an easy move – otherwise everyone would do it. Instead, it takes hard work, knowledge, tenacity, and patience. Here are some key points worth considering as you grow your side hustle into something bigger.
10 Steps to Consider
- Cover Monthly Expenses It’s hard to replace your full monthly salary at the start, so aim to have your side hustle replace a set of monthly expenses at first. This will take some of the pressure off, and allow you to grow things organically.
- Network Meet with other side hustlers and learn from them. Develop strong relationships with the people that inspire you.
- Find a Mentor Studies show that small businesses with a mentor are twice as likely to succeed over a five year period.
- Register Eventually, register your business officially. This separates your personal and business assets, and it makes your side hustle more legit in the eyes of customers.
- Pareto’s Law With a new venture, there will be plenty of tasks to do. Pareto’s Law states that concentrating on 20% of these tasks (the most important) will generate most of your outputs (80%), so prioritize accordingly. See more on this mental model in a previous infographic.
- Delegate Delegate daily tasks outside of your core skillset. This will allow you to focus on your passion and what you uniquely bring to the table.
- Automate Use apps to automate repetitive tasks. You can schedule social media posts, track leads and conversions, run payroll, and manage inventory with apps – and much more.
- Focus on Cash Flow A whopping 82% of small businesses fail from cash flow problems. Therefore, this should be an important focus for any business owner.
- Set Goals Set long-term goals, and short-term objectives to achieve them. Use the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) framework to set near-term objectives.
- Stop, Collaborate, and Listen Collaborate with businesses that share your values, and learn from them at the same time.
on Every year, millions of new businesses are started across the world—in 2021, nearly 5.4 million new business applications were filed in the U.S. alone. And since startups and new businesses play a significant role in shaping a country’s economic growth, encouraging entrepreneurship is vital. But what types of businesses around the world are people most interested in starting? These maps by ZenBusiness show the most popular types of businesses that entrepreneurs in nearly every country want to start, based on analyzing relevant internet search results.
Most Searched Businesses Around the World
To source the data, ZenBusiness analyzed searches from Ahrefs, specifically looking for the term “start a business” and its equivalents in local languages as of February 2022. They then found the relevant topic or keyword with the highest search volume, and organized the results into 11 different industries:
Beauty & Cosmetics Food & Drink Logistics & Infrastructure Personal Services Recycling Software Development Business & Financial Leisure & Tourism Marketing Real Estate Retail & E-Commerce
The data showed that the industries entrepreneurs are most attracted to vary greatly from country to country, depending on a variety of factors such as infrastructure, business climate, and culture. Here’s a breakdown of the most searched businesses around the world, broken down by region.
Africa
From cooking gas refills in South Africa to supplements in the Gambia, entrepreneurs across Africa seem to be interested in starting a wide range of businesses (at least according to their searches). But while the results varied across the region, the most-searched industry was personal services such as cleaning, interior design, and contracting. Cleaning was especially popular, ranking first in six different African countries. One African country worth highlighting is Morocco, where freight is the most-searched startup term across the country. This makes sense considering Morocco is home to several major ports, including the Port of Tanger Med, which is Africa’s largest port by cargo capacity.
Europe
In Europe, real estate is the most-searched industry, ranking number one in seven different countries across the continent. Over the last decade, the European Union’s real estate market has boomed—between 2010 and 2021, home prices in the EU increased by 42%. Retail is also a popular industry across Europe, with clothing-related searching taking the top spot in five different European countries.
Middle East & Central Asia
From soap production in Uzbekistan to dropshipping in Azerbaijan, the Middle East & Central Asia have the most diverse searches compared to any other region. One particularly interesting top search was in the United Arab Emirates, where imports and exports ranked first. The UAE’s economy is heavily reliant on trade, especially oil, which makes up 30% of the region’s GDP and 41% of public revenues.
Rest of Asia & Oceania
Asia and Oceania had an interesting mix of unique business searches. For instance, pig farming ranked number one in the Solomon Islands, and lawn moving took the top spot in New Zealand. But generally speaking, retail was one of the most-searched-for business types across this region, with clothing taking the top spot in countries like Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
North America
Across North America, retail takes the top spot for most searched business type. In fact, the top searches in nearly half of the region’s countries are related to the retail or e-commerce industry. The U.S. currently has the largest retail market in the world, although China is close on its heels. In 2021, America’s retail market was valued at over $6.5 trillion U.S. dollars.
South America
Food was the top searched industry across South America, ranking number one in half the countries across the region. In Brazil, sweets took the top spot, which might not be surprising considering the country is the top sugar cane producer worldwide. Clothing was also a popular business idea, taking the top spot in five South American countries. Which countries surprised you the most with their new business interest?
