The Side Hustle System: How To Make Money In Your Free Time

Do you have a side hustle? Have you been building a side hustle? Do you want to turn your side hustle into your main hustle? There's now estimated over 50 million side hustle, which essentially means people that are making income outside of their day job or another business. Well, we're going to talk about it today and I want to help you build that side hustle to create something sustainable that's going to transform your wealth. Now, my name is Mark Kohler. I'm a CPA attorney, best selling author. I'm a small business owner myself, real estate investor, and I love Main Street America. I love small business and I think the side hustle is the gateway drug to live in the American dream. And so I want to give you seven ways that is going to seriously impact your side hustle in a magnificent way. I've done my 10,000 consultations with small business owners over the last 25 years and the impact I've seen these principles have in their lives has been exponential. This is also going to be simulcast on the podcast, the Main Street Business Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Check out my weekly Main Street Business podcast. But here Today we're on YouTube and just excited to be able to demonstrate these seven principles. It's going to go fast and hard and you're going to love it. Get a pencil and paper handy. Number one is I need you to know your what and your why. I've even received coaching on what do you do, Mark? Oh, well, I'm a tax lawyer and I help small business owners with their tax legal plan. And then they're like, no, no, make it shorter, make it cleaner. Da, da da da da. We've got to be able to say what we do in one sent, clean, sharp and clear. Many people call that maybe an elevator pitch, maybe it's the back of an Uber pitch. But you need to be able to say it short and sweet and then if they ask more questions, you can go deeper. But at least you make that initial statement. And you know why you need it too, because you need to know what you do. You need to be clear on your mission and purpose. I influence others on how to lose weight. I'm a creative landscaper around people's swimming pools. I'm a consultant on supply chain dynamics. I am a tax advisor and help small business owners just be able to say it in one sentence. This is what I do. Why am I doing this? Have a why and it means something to you. Because, people, it is going to be hard to motivate yourself get up every day and do that side hustle. If you don't know why, maybe someone will ask you why you do it. That's fine, but this answer is more for you. I'm getting out of debt and then I'm going to build wealth. I'm building my retirement exclusively. Every dollar I make in this side hustle goes towards my future. I'm paying some extra bills right now so in the long run I can build a better future. I'm building the college savings plans for my kids. I've always dreamed I wanted to do that. What and why come first? Number two, treat it like a business. A side hustle is a business. So many people are. I got the side hustle. You've got a business. It's like I said, it's the gateway drug to mar dream. Oh, I drive some Uber. Oh, I do some doordash. Oh yeah, I do a little consulting. I get a check once in a while. People, it's a business. Treat it like one. And the beauty of it is we may be able to create that income tax free by taking deductions against it that you may not be aware of because you've been in the maybe the W2 corporate world. When you've got a side hustle, we're going to be writing off things like auto dining, electronics, cell phones, home office travel. So many different things that normally a W2 wage earner can't write off against their day job. So when you have the side hustle, realize that you've cracked open this whole other world of being able to build tax free wealth. You know, we've set up solo 401ks for Uber drivers and all of their Uber money goes into a 401k. The power of treating this like a business and unlocking all of the business tax strategies and wealth building strategies is, is almost indescribable. I could spend a whole hour on that. But when you have that side hustle, you've got to realize I can take it to the next level or I can eke out of it. Different strategies that will work because it's now a business, not just this side thing. Next, once you've got your what, your why, and you're in this business mindset, I want you to set some smart goals. You know, your what and your why. But where in the hell are you going set some smart goals. Now, if you haven't heard that acronym before, S for specific. Be very specific on the financial goal, the impact goal, the number of followers, the number of whatever it's got to be measurable. M for measurable. And it needs to be achievable. So when you set this specific goal of a dollar amount and say in the next six months, I'm going to make 20 grand. Okay, is that achievable? Sure. You may say, well, 200 grand. Okay, well, slow down, tiger. Let's say, I don't know, Maybe it is 200 grand. But set something that is achievable. It's achievable and realistic. You're being real with yourself, too. And why I like the realistic conversation is because you've got to put it in context of your day job, of your family, of your hobbies. It may be achievable, but is it realistic that you're going to be able to balance all of this if it burns you out? It's not realistic. And finally, it's timely. And what I mean by timely is again, stepping back, going, what's the big picture of my life? Where am I at in my trajectory? I've got young kids. I just got married. I'm retired. I'm old, I have bad health. You're looking at your overall trajectory for your life. Think of the smart acronym and just write each one of those down and tape it on the mirror in your bathroom. Okay? Now, we're going to treat it like a business, right? We got our goals, we know our what, we know our why. Now it's time for some structure. We've got to have the foundational structure. And I want to give you four things to do here. Four things, super easy. You're going to have an llc, a limited limited liability company. Now, LLC does not save taxes, but it sets the foundation to where you can convert it to an S corporation when the time's right and save taxes. The LLC legitimizes you. You're going to get a tax ID number, you're going to have a name. The LLC is that first step of legitimizing your small business. Do it right. Don't think it's one sheet of paper at the state for 50 bucks. You're going to have to invest a little bit. Our law firm has been setting up LLCs for 22 years. A real lawyer walks through all the questions you don't even know to ask. So do it right. Don't try to cut corners and click a button on a website and think you're done. Number two is you're going to open a bank account. Get that bank account set up. The bank account is an important foundation. We're going to talk about a credit card and bookkeeping here in a minute. But just make sure you get that bank account. And why? Because number three, you need to set up your payment platforms. You want to make it easy for your customers to pay you. Now I get it. If you're driving for Uber or DoorDash, you're on a platform that automatically is going to send you money, but where you got to send it to your business bank account. You're a business owner, so make sure you get that business bank account up and going and it's going to allow you to open the doors of Venmo and Zale and PayPal and Apple Pay. You've got a business. I don't want that going into your personal account and commingling. And finally the website, we're not talking marketing yet. We're going to come to that in a moment too. You need a URL, some place that your customer, your client can go to to see what you're doing and why. And I know somebody. Again, I keep using the Uber example because you're like, well, it's Uber, it's a side hustle. I don't need a website. But what's the long term plan? What's the smart goal? Oh, well, I want to maybe become a private driver. I want to invest in a sprinter van. I can charge X dollars more and get off the Uber platform and do even better. The Uber is just a small step in the bigger smart goal. So having a bank account, having your llc, getting your payment platforms lined up and getting your website are all going to be those four steps of creating some structure. Now number five is bookkeeping. Now, I know this is a dirty word. Some you're like, oh, bookkeeping. I know, and it's the accountant in me. Here's the bottom line. You're going to have to file a tax return. This is not just something you can throw under a mattress, throw in a bank account and think you're okay, and that's okay. We can generally make your side hustle tax free up to maybe 20 or $30,000 because we're going to be writing off a ton of stuff against it. But treat it legitimately. It's a real business, which now requires some bookkeeping. Now I'll tell you, the 800 pound gorilla out there that I think is really easy to adopt and implement is online QuickBooks. You pay a monthly fee. You can access your books anywhere from any portal, any device. You're able to receive payments, send invoices, you can get reports, start getting A feel of how your business is developing. Smart business owners track their income and expenses. They see how the business is developing. Where are their blind spots? Where am I making more money? With which type of service or product or avatar? Your books is the lifeblood of the business. It's going to give you the blood work, if you will, of how you're doing. And if you don't have a set of books, you're at a disadvantage. How much did I make last month? How much did I make in the last six months? What are my expenses? How much should I profit? How much should I set aside for taxes? See, the byproduct of having good bookkeeping is we're going to try to set aside a certain amount of your revenue for taxes. Now, yeah, we might be able to make the bulk of it tax free. But a big recommendation I have out of the gate, and I'll say it now, is you take 10% of your revenue from your side hustle and set it aside in a separate bank account, not the business account, but a separate savings account for taxes. When you come around the corner next year into April and it's time to file your tax return, you're going to have a bank account over there that's peeled off 10% of your revenue and now you can send that into the IRS and no pain. If we did some good tax planning. Let's think about it. If I'm an Uber driver and I'm making say $30,000 and I take 10% of that every time I get paid and I put it in a bank account, I've got three sitting over there. I go to do my taxes, I have 30,000 of income, but I also have 20,000 in write offs. I'm going to be writing off my cell phone, the mileage on the auto, maybe actual expenses with gas. I'm going to write off some home, office, my computer, maybe a little marketing, some dining, all of a sudden you're only taxed on 10,000. Let's say you're in a 20% bracket. So what's your tax on 10,000 of profit? $2,000. Oh, and over here in this bank account, how much should we set aside? 10% of gross. So you brought in 30, we set aside $3,000, but then we go to do the tax return. The 30,000 is on the top line. We wrote off 20,000 of stuff legitimately. You have 10,000 of profit, 2,000 of tax, you're ahead 1,000. Now you can take that thousand and invest it. That's the beauty of doing good bookkeeping is it helps you make intelligent decisions on setting aside money for taxes and tracking your write offs. Now in this bookkeeping section, I want to point this out too. This is a good time to dedicate a credit card to your business. You don't have to have a credit card in the name of your side hustle, just a credit card that you dedicate to your business that you don't use for personal so you don't co mingle at the end of the year. It makes life so much easier. The bookkeeping tells you how you're doing. It helps you make better decisions and prepare for taxes and build wealth. Number six we are now to your marketing plan and I love marketing. Let me just make a few simple points. Don't pay someone to go create a marketing plan for you. Don't pay someone to go do your social media posting. Own it first. Be engaged in it. Be involved in it. Learn the mindset of who you're trying to sell to. What's your why? Who's your perfect customer? You should be able to say in one sentence, my perfect customer is X. Where do your customers typically hang out? What are the social media platforms they like? Are you going to go to conferences instead? Are you going to go to monthly meetups in the local area? Are you going to go to conventions events? Are you going to be on a podcast versus a YouTube channel? Where do your avatars hang out? Do some testing. Play around with it. See if they're going to be reading blog articles. More than listening to podcasts or vice versa, you need to be able to present what you're doing. Building a relationship, having them drink your Kool Aid. Give something away. Teach. Talk about what you do. Provide value. Get followers. If you're going to be reaching these avatars, have them be thinking about you. How are you interacting with them? It could be a newsletter, a regular broadcast or podcast or live a tweet. What is it that you're giving them so that they will someday be okay with you asking for something? If you're giving and giving and giving and building relationship, making deposits with them once in a while you can make a withdrawal. You now can convert them. You can give them a call to action and say I would really like you to buy this product or buy this service. Once they spend money with you now, they've gone to a whole new level. Not only did you reach them and they're following you now, they've invested in you. So now that customer, you may have bought that customer for another year or two where you can continue to build a relationship. So you want to be able to reach this avatar, be able to build with this avatar relationship, and then third, be able to convert them with a call to action. So as you're going back to your smart goals, one of those goals might be, I want to have X number of followers. I want to be in front of X number of people at regular events. That marketing plan needs to equate to some goals for financial purposes. Now, number seven, I bet you I could do a survey right now and no one would guess what number seven is. Number seven in your effort to build your side hustle and take it to the next level is to have a board, a board of advisors. This is your think tank. These are the people you're gonna share all of this with. It is scary because you're gonna take these smart goals and your what and your why and your little brand book for your LLC and your website and your colors and your logos, and you're gonna go to dinner or you're gonna invite them over for a legitimate meeting at a table where it's not watching football. And you're talking during halftime. You're gonna have a legitimate board meeting, and you're going to say, hey, check out what my plans are. And once you say it out loud to someone else, it takes on its own life. It becomes real. This is such a powerful tool because they're not there just to hold you accountable. They're there to give you support, emotional support, advice, direction, feedback. Every time we set up an LLC for clients, we say, who's your closest friends and family that you might travel with? Because it's going to be a tax deduction to travel with them, by the way, and have these board meetings and write off the dining. Mom or dad, husband or wife, brother, sister, adult children, maybe even teenagers. You get those people around you and you start talking about it, the relationship evolves, too. It gets to be pretty cool. All of a sudden your kids are like, whoa, you've got dreams. Oh, we're talking about, what is this? Financial literacy. What's that mean? You're trying to make more money. Why? You're trying to get out of debt. Maybe I should, too. And you start having deeper, more meaningful conversations with family members and friends. And what was the catalyst? A little side hustle, people. The side hustle will change your life for the better. It's going to help you live your American dream, make more income, build more retirement. Do something you're passionate about. Do it. Go. You have to get licensed. What do you have to do where you go? Can we get a website going? Where are you going to take people? What's your pitch? How much? What's your product? Just go through these seven steps. Have a side hustle that is front and center in your life. It's a badge of honor. I'm taking ownership of my own future. I don't care what's happening in politics or interest rates or finance. I know what's going on in my economy and my economy is going in the right direction. I'm making more money, I'm cutting costs, I'm getting out of debt. And I'm passionate about something. Let me tell you my what and let me tell you my why. That, my friends, is a side hustle. I'm always teaching or presenting something to help you build your wealth. Oh my gosh. I've got a three day workshop in December in Phoenix. Please come. If you just fell upon this video, please give it a like give it a subscribe. I am here for the rest of my life doing my what and that is helping Main Street America live their dream. And why? Because I just love people and I love building something and seeing people live that experience. You can do this. That side hustle is the coolest thing in your life. Own it. Take it to the next level and I'll be right alongside you with your journey. It.