Financial Roadmap
When you embark on the journey to launch and scale a side hustle, the financial roadmap becomes your trusted guide. This proven framework equips you with the tips, tools, and tactics for mastering the fundamentals, avoiding pitfalls, bootstrapping, maintaining 100% equity ownership, and adopting a social mindset while making a profit. The 10 essential steps of the financial roadmap are:
Defining Motivation
Identify your financial motivation for launching a side hustle, determine your SMART financial goals, and create a financial vision board and budget.
Generating Ideas
Brainstorm ideas for your side hustle based on the 6 Ps: pain, passion, pedigree, pet peeve, profession, and purpose, before you learn to organize idea by mind mapping.
Meeting Compliance
Follow good business practices, which include registering your side hustle, getting proper licenses and permits, paying taxes, and protecting intellectual property.
Structuring Business
Select the correct structure for your side hustle to minimize tax liability, protect personal assets, simplify financial management, and maintain 100% equity control.
Doing Good
Donate to nonprofits; sponsor events, teams, and initiatives that align with your side hustle's values; and participate in "days of service" in your local community.
Managing Inflows
Understand how to fund your side hustle and establish pricing strategies.
Managing Outflows
Understand how to bootstrap your side hustle and avoid commingling funds.
Tracking Transactions
Understand how to manage cash flow, establish a budget, track capital accounts, and navigate accounting apps and workflows.
Optimizing Taxes
Undertake tax planning to identify tax strategies to minimize tax liability.
Building Team
Find the best financial advisors and mentors, consider a partnership and alternatives such as JV, connect with your peers via masterminds, and recruit your clients as ambassadors.
Triad
Yes, the sales function is arguably the most important for your side hustle to prosper. It is responsible for generating revenue that allows your side hustle to operate and scale. Key activities include prospecting, networking, closing deals, and upselling. However, there are three interdependent functions, referred to as a "triad" that are essential to achieving long-term success in a side hustle:
Ensures your side hustle has the resources it needs to operate, grow, and meet its obligations, while also managing risks. Key activities include budgeting, accounting, bookkeeping, managing cash flow, and tax planning and compliance.
Ensures that the business complies with laws and regulations, and helps mitigate risks. Key activities include contract management, regulatory compliance, intellectual property management, and managing legal disputes.
Focuses on understanding customer needs, promoting products or services, and building a brand that resonates with the target audience. Key activities include branding, advertising, public relations, and sales promotions and campaigns.