Episode 115: 14th May 2020

Side Hustles, Rethinking Old Ideas, Planning Your Covid19 Return Strategy and Etsy give us some positives to focus on this week.

Regardless of current uncertainties, for those of us with even the slightest modicum of entrepreneurial spirit there is often the thought that surely there must be some way to subsidise our income without selling our souls and this week we take some time to reflect on how we might achieve this. The term Side Hustle, as Tracy discovered, has  a story all of it’s own which you can find out here, however, during recent weeks and months the term has emerged as common parlance for those who want to subsidised their income with an ‘on the side’ business idea which can run alongside their day job and possibly grow into their main source of income generation in time.

Suffice to say it’s a broad subject so we’d like to share some useful links for those who want to explore the idea in more detail.

• The Side Hustle Revolution TED Talk,
• Direct Selling Association dsa.org.uk
• HM Revenue and Customs hmrc.gov.uk/Self Employed Helpline: 0845 915 4515
• Small Business UK – Start A New Business 

In other news we revisit the ONS statistics which continue to unearth the current mood around Coronavirus and will, surely, continue to provide an insight into how businesses and individuals are feeling through the crisis. You can keep checking back for more updates via ONS.gov.uk.

Following the latest announcements from No 10 Downing Street, Heather flags up an article in the CIPD website regarding planning your businesses reopening as we begin to emerge from the recent and ongoing guidance regarding compliance and being Covid Safe.

Difficult times often provide hidden opportunities and this week Tracy found an article in Management Today about using this sort of ‘down time’ to revisit old ideas and see whether things and time have moved on sufficiently to make those shelved ideas viable. Well worth a read and food for thought. So dust off those old notebooks and brainstorm sheets and rethink your strategy.

Our Discovery this week sticks with the Side Hustle theme and takes a look at a book with that exact title.  Side Hustle by Chris Guillebeau tackles the concept of side hustling, how, why and when to do it and provides some very generous guidance on how to go from zero to launch in just 27 days. Easy to read, easy to digest and easy to put into practice, it gets a thumbs up from us.

And finally, with the increased popularity and ease of online trading there are a number of platforms upon which to sell you wares and services, some of which get a mention in the aforementioned book, but we chose to focus our attention on Etsy.com. Founded by a group of guys it fast became the huge online marketplace it is today and in doing so allowed the smallest of makers, crafters and suppliers to find their audience and make online sales. Their story is an interesting one, the ethos of the business seems genuine and there is no doubting their success which they are happy to share with their trader and customers alike.  Their blog also makes for interesting reading.

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