Nowadays, only 4.9% of Americans work more than one job at a time. It may be a small number, but you might be one of these Americans.
Whether it’s to bring in extra income or it’s to pursue your passions, your side hustle may not be doing as well as you’d hoped. However, you may not have the funds to get it to where you want it to be.
That doesn’t mean the dream’s dead though. Here are a few ways you can boost your side hustle by using loans.
Create a Website
A huge amount of people do most of their shopping online. Consumers like to compare and shop around, which has caused brick and mortar shops to fall out of favor.
Whether you have a brick and mortar shop or not, it’s always a good idea to have a website. This serves two purposes: it draws in new customers, and it shows your existing customers what new products you’re getting in.
If you don’t have a website, you may be losing out on lots of potential business. Perhaps someone’s browsed your kiosk at a convention recently and remembered your store name. Later, at home, they logged on to search for you, but don’t come up with anything.
As you can see, not having a website creates a huge disconnect between you and your potential customers.
Update Your Existing Website
If you already have a website but don’t get much traffic, then there may be elements you can update to attract more attention. For example, your site might be very crudely put together, with basic elements and text. This won’t be very interesting to visitors.
Take the money from your small business loan and invest in a more professionally done website. This means buying your own domain and working with a web designer to upgrade the look and feel. Sit down to discuss what you wish to achieve with your site, and they can come up with some suggestions.
Invest in Marketing
Marketing is one area you can’t afford to skimp on. If you didn’t have enough funds for it before, you will when you get a business loan.
Since there is a variety of marketing available, you can choose the types that not only fit your budget, but also reach your target audience. For instance, if you’re creating geeky merchandise, your target audience is probably young adults.
You can market your products on social media, where the demographic is on the younger side. A great platform would be Instagram, where pictures of your products can be shared by people who genuinely like what you have to offer.
Social media is a relatively cheap way of marketing and all you’d need to do is hire a social media manager. If your marketing is going to be image heavy, you may need a photographer and graphic designer too.
But once you get a few posts or pictures up, your products will speak for themselves. If it’s truly something people want, they’ll do the marketing for you by reposting. That’s free advertising right there!
Hire Some Help
You might feel like you can handle all the tasks for your side hustle all on your own. While you’re able to, it may not be the best use of your time.
With any type of business, there are things you can either automate or delegate to others. Even by hiring a virtual assistant, you can free up a significant amount of your day to work on what you truly care about.
You should also consider spending some of your loan money on automation programs. For example, if you spend a lot of time creating invoices, sending them out, and tracking them, try out invoicing software. This should eliminate a lot of your time spent not making money from your side hustle.
Go to Events and Conventions
Networking events and conventions can be fun ways of getting your name out there. But usually, these come with high price tags for entrance. You may have sat these out in the past since you didn’t feel a side hustle warranted such an investment.
But with some money from a small business loan, you can now attend these things to mingle with like-minded people. Not only will you make new friends, but you may also find partners or customers. It can’t hurt to network, since you never know what connections these people may have.
Have Giveaways
You may be making a small stream of revenue with your products already, so giveaways weren’t feasible before, as it’d eat into your profits and put you in the red. But giveaways are a great way to get people talking about your goods, and it helps people to get familiar with you and what you offer.
Once you get some loan money in, you can use it to make up for whatever you’d potentially lose from offering your product for free. It can also be used to market your giveaways, such as through display ads or Facebook ads.
Consumers love free things, so you can count on word of mouth to spread quickly. With the flow of new customers interested in your side hustle, you’ll be able to pay back that small business loan in no time.
Grow Your Side Hustle with Loans
Just because it’s a side hustle doesn’t mean it isn’t important, nor should it be neglected in favor of your regular job. By getting a small business loan, you can grow your passion without having to give it up. Get the capital you need and increase your revenues.
Are you interested in getting a small business loan? Then apply for one with us now!