Side Hustle to Full Hustle

Last week I talked to two different entrepreneurs working on side hustles. We talked about the big ideas, progress so far, what’s working, what’s not, etc. Then, I asked the hard question: what will it take to go full-time? Going full-time is a huge milestone, and rarely achieved. I’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years working on side hustles and it’s easily less than 5% conversion from part-time to full-time status. And therein lies the ultimate problem.

Working on a business part-time almost never provides for enough progress due to lack of rapid iteration.

Sure, you can make some progress. There are simple items to complete, basic infrastructure to organize. Things like customer discovery and business model canvas can be started. These are all worthwhile and part of the journey. Ultimately, startups are all about speed. The faster you translate market needs into solutions, the faster you find product/market fit. The faster you iterate on the customer acquisition process, the faster you find a repeatable, scalable business model. The faster you achieve these milestones, the faster you can raise capital (if needed!). Speed, speed, speed.

Startups require a herculean effort. A day job, plus a side hustle, plus a family, plus other obligations is often too much. If the vast majority of full-time entrepreneurs fail, what are the odds of a part-time side hustle? I realize not all entrepreneurs can go full-time and that other facets of life create their own opportunities and challenges.

Startups are hard. Doing it part-time makes it 10x harder. If possible, figure out a path to being full-time as quick as possible and improve the chance of success.