MBA2051 How Much Time You Should Dedicate to Your Side Hustle

Dear McDonald's, your breakfast menu fire tens across the board. I could be happy with anything even though I order the same thing every time. Thanks for not judging me. I'll try something new next time.

Maybe score a two for five dollar deal on a sausage McMuffin with egg and more. Limited time only. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Single item at regular price.

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Dear McDonald's, your breakfast menu fire tens across the board. I could be happy with anything even though I order the same thing every time. Thanks for not judging me. I'll try something new next time.

Maybe score a two for five dollar deal on a sausage McMuffin with egg and more. Limited time only. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer single item at regular price.

I'm sure you hear this statement a lot. Every business is different and their needs are different. And my advice to you may or may not apply to your business. I get that and I hear that myself all the time. And I understand where it's coming from. I agree with it to some extent. But I'm here to tell you what the minimum is, right? Where you have to put in this much time and how to put in that time. What kind of work you should be doing and how you should be working in order for you to expect any kinds of results. Anything less and you're really shooting yourself in the foot. You're really going to have a hard time getting traction. So we're going to talk about a few things. The amount of time, the frequency of the work that you're going to be dedicating to, your side hustle, how you should be working, and the do's and don'ts when you're side hustling to make sure you're making the most of every minute. I want to start by saying this is hard. I know firsthand building a business on the side while you have a full time committed job with its own responsibilities and your attention and energy and all that kind of stuff is dedicated to. It's very hard for you to build a viable business on the side. It's not impossible. I know I've done it several times, but it's really hard. I would say it's actually harder than working full time on a business because of several reasons. You have a lack of momentum, you have a lack of velocity because you're not putting the same amount of hours as your competitors. You have a lack of attention, you have a lack of focus. There's so much going on here. But there are things you can do to mitigate all these things and help you get as much as you can out of your side hustle time. Because I understand understand that you can't just quit your job sometimes. Sometimes you just can't say I'm going to be a full time entrepreneur and just throw everything, including caution to the wind. You can't do that. And I know that firsthand. I had to methodically, slowly realize, okay, now it's the time to become a full time entrepreneur. After 10 years of side hustling, after some wins under my belt, after some successes, after understanding what kind of entrepreneur, what kind of business I want to run, this is what worked for me. And I can at least share that because I know every business is different, everybody's different, but this is what worked for me. Number one, let's talk about the total amount of hours. This is going to sound harsh, but you're going to need to put in at least 20 hours a week. I know that's a lot of hours, but I've tried so many different iterations of this. I've tried to put in 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours a week, and it's just a slog. And I found the tipping point is 20 hours, actually, for me at least in the circumstances I was in. Now, how you split those 20 hours a week is going to be up to you to some extent. But I have some advice when it comes to that as well. Part of success and traction in your business comes from momentum. You need to build upon what you've been working on. And if I work on something and then leave it and come back maybe a couple weeks later, I lose momentum. I actually have to waste more time to kind of get up to speed again and to refocus and to get my mind around things. We are not machines, right? We are human beings that have deficiencies, including our attention span and our memories. Right? So what we need to do is have as much momentum as possible. But at the same time, you want to have a good stretch of time each time you work on your side hustle, that allows you to focus and get things done. So the formula that worked best for me was I put in two hours every single weekday into my side hustle in the evenings, and then I spent 10 hours on the weekends. For me, that was one solid day where I just dedicated to my business, to my side hustle. I had one day off the other day. I was just totally in the zone working on my side hustle. Now if you're working a nine to five, if you're working a day job and then you spend another two hours at night working on your business, it may sound like you're working all the time time. And it sounds like that because that's exactly what you're going to have to do. I know that sounds horrible, I know that sounds harsh, maybe, but if you love what you do, if you're passionate about what you're trying to do. If you're trying to build something significant and you're excited about it, that should be enough to push you through. And it was for me. I was actually looking forward to leaving my job so I can spend those two hours working on my business. I found when I had this kind of cadence and the amount of hours I would put in, I was starting to get some momentum and my business started it to grow. This is why it's really important for you to love what you do, to be passionate about it, to really be hungry for it. Because you're going to have to do your business when you're tired, when you're not really feeling it, sometimes, when you're maybe more inclined to just sit on the couch and veg out like on the weekend. But I can't tell you how rewarding it is to put in that time for your side hustle in the evenings, in the afternoons, at night, on the weekends, whatever it is for you and see the result. Now, it's not enough just to put 20 hours in, in my opinion, minimum, and to have momentum and work on it six days a week or so, but in those two hour sprints that you're gonna work on your business during the week, during the weekdays and on the weekend, whenever you work on your business, you gotta be totally focused. You can't be distracted. You gotta be incredibly disciplined. Because every second matters. If you're spending 30 to 40 minutes on social media in those two hours and just chalking it up and calling it research, you're shooting yourself in the foot. This needs to be production, this needs to be creation. This needs to be time where you're making decisions, where you're planning things out, where you're creating content, where you're creating your website, where you're creating your products and services, serving customers, whatever it is. You need to be doing things here, making things. And this might mean putting your phone on silent or do not disturb. This might mean installing, you know, maybe chrome extensions that block your newsfeed or social media sites. Do what you got to do to just make sure that these hours are sacred. They should be the most productive hours of your day and you should be just going at it. You cannot afford. You cannot afford wasting any minutes or seconds in your allotted time working on your side hustle because you have limited time as it is. And guess what? That discipline that you are instilling now is going to be so useful when you go and move on as a full time entrepreneur. And you're working on your business full time. You will know how to discipline yourself and not be distracted and get work done and be efficient and all that kind of stuff. Now, I want to pause for a second because you might be thinking, omar, this seems really hard. This seems like a lot. This seems intense. 20 hours a week, plus my job, plus, you know, no distractions and working on the weekend. And I definitely can understand how that can come off and sound. But I want to explain a couple things. Number one, you're actually doing two things at the same time. You're launching or building a new business, which is a lot of work as it is, even if you were doing it full time and you're doing it with one hand behind your back. Okay, so two things are happening here. You have less time and less energy and less dedication. Plus you gotta still build and launch this business just like any other business. So it's gonna require sacrifice. Everything in life is a trade off. And you're gonna have to trade off something. Whether it's your leisure time, whether it's even time with family and friends, maybe some hobbies you enjoy. This becomes your side hustle, becomes your only other thing outside of your necessities and immediate responsibilities to your family and your full time job. This is all you have time for now. And this is why people don't do it. Okay? People don't even start businesses because this seems so hard for them. But trust me, it may sound hard, but once you start doing it and it becomes your life, you start to realize how enjoyable it is that you have a calling, you have something to do. You are so excited to get to it. I mentioned I was looking forward to getting off my job so I can work on my side hustle. It becomes like a blessing. Like, wow, I am so lucky that I have this in my life. And you start to realize you don't really miss the things you had to give up so that you can work on your side hustle.

We heard you. Nine years of bring back the snack wrap and you've won. But maybe you should have asked for more. Say hello to the hot panty snack wrap. Now you've really won. Go to McDonald's and get it while you can.

Now, we talked about how much time and how to divvy it up and the momentum and the focus you're going to need. Part of the focus equation is where you work, where you put in the time to work on your business. Now listen, you got to know yourself. If working at home is just not a great environment Whether you have too many distractions or there's other people in the house that are going to pull you away, then you need to create an environment where you can focus and get things done. If you're wondering, is this going to happen to me or is this applicable to my situation, try it out. Work from home, in a home office or on the couch or whatever, you would work on your business from home for three days. And if every day you are distracted or pulled Aside or not 100% focused, it's time to make a change. You've given it three days. Things won't just change miraculously if you can't pull it off in three days. So you could do what I did. I wanted no distractions. So I actually went from work to a co working space and I worked there for two hours solid. For you, that might be the public library. For you, that might be a cafe. It might be your business partner's house where there's no distractions. Or a bunch of your friends, they're also working on their hustle. And you guys are going to focus and hold each other accountable. I did this because I was honest with myself. I knew that if it's the weekend and I have to control myself with the distractions that are available at home, it won't happen. I have to go somewhere where I'm not distracted, where it's not so easy for me to just flip on the TV and watch what's going on in the NBA, in basketball or the playoffs, or whatever's going, going on at the time. You know your distractions, you know what's going to pull you away. Create an environment where you cannot be distracted. And here is my last piece of advice. When it comes to side hustle and the time you spend building your side hustle, this is probably the most important thing. And if you do anything I mentioned today, do this, okay? Have a conversation with the people in your life, especially people that you live with. Whether it's your family, whether it's a significant other, whether it's your parents, whether it's whatever, whoever you share your life with on a regular basis every single day. Even close friends that you see every single day, you got to tell them what's going on. You got to actually just say to them, hey, I'm going to be dedicating 20 hours a week working on my business while I'm working. So I need full attention, I need full dedication. This means I'm not going to be able to do this, this, this and this. I won't Be available. I'm going to go here to work. I need your support. You to be okay with this, but also support me and push me. If you ever see me not doing this, hold me accountable. You got to get the people closest to you, especially that you live with, in your environment, to be on the same page as you. Don't leave them in the dark. Have a conversation and tell them, hey, I really believe in this. This is what I want to do. This is what's going to happen. This is how I'm going to work on it and how I'm going to spend my time and what's going to change in our life or in our lifestyle because it will affect them. Okay? And it's your responsibility, it's your obligation to tell them this is what's going to happen. It's only fair. On top of that, you're going to get the support and the accountability you need because you put it out there now. And that's going to help you to stick to your goals, stick to your timelines, stick to your time, dedication, and focus. I hope that helps, and I hope you implement the things I just shared with you. When it comes to spending time working on your side hustle, you can do this. I've done this in the past. It's a challenge. It's not easy, but it's incredibly rewarding and you learn a ton in the process. If you love what you hear and you love this podcast, hit subscribe, hit follow on your favorite podcast app. Also, leave us a rating and review. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. We read every single review. And of course, when you leave us a review, you enter our weekly random draw we call Free Ride Friday. Every Friday, somebody wins a free ride to one of our programs. Just leave us an Apple podcast rating and review to enter the weekly random draw. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Sometimes you're going to be tired. You're not going to feel like working on your side hustle, and it's going to be time for you to work on your side hustle. And it could be a multitude of things. It could be, you had a stressful day at work. Something is happening in your personal life. You're just feeling physically tired. Things are not going your way when it comes to the side hustle. This is when I advise everybody to stay the course and just remind themselves, why are you doing this? Why are you starting this business? What's the end goal? Yes. Okay. To have profitable business and to make money. And to, you know, provide a product or service to your customers. But why? It's probably something like you want to be financially free. You want to have freedom over your time. You want to be able to have a flexible lifestyle. You want to be able to control what you work and how you work and all that kind of stuff. Remind yourself of why you're doing this. Even if you have to write it down and read it back to yourself aloud, it will give you the motivation you need to kick it in gear. It's helped me in the past and I'm sure it can help you too. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

We heard you. Nine years of bring back the snack wrap and you've won. But maybe you should have asked for more. Say hello to the Hot Honey snack wrap. Now you've really won. Go to McDonald's and get it while you can.