16 million side hustlers (source: London Loves Business) add £14.4bn a year in economic activity to the economy which, in turn, supports 600,000 full-time jobs in the country (source: Business Advice). A “side hustle” is defined by Wonolo as “any type of employment undertaken in addition to one’s full time job…providing a supplementary income.”
Are you a side hustler? Do you do it for a few extra grand a year? Or do you have bigger dreams that, one day, you’ll be able to tell your ogre of a boss exactly where he or she can stick their job so that you can move on to the sunlit uplands of full-time self-employment?
In this article, Loan Broker considers how taking out a personal no guarantor loan can help turn your side-line into a business which earns you great money and of which you can be proud.
What is a side-hustle?
According to research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and web hosting firm GoDaddy, the number of UK side hustlers has risen by one third in the UK in the last ten years.
The French call the British, among other things, a “nation of shopkeepers”, a reflection of the fact that we tend to rely on ourselves and that we have a talent for business as a nation. The internet has opened up a plethora of opportunities for employed men and women to supplement their wages and to provide them with additional sources of revenue so they’re not just reliant on one.
Side Hustle Nation did an excellent article on the types of side hustle people are engaging in to bring in extra income to their households – please click here for potential inspiration. Many of them, by their very nature, will not turn into full-time businesses for various different reasons however many will and do.
Turning the part-time into the full-time
Before making the leap, you should prepare yourself as much as possible to run your business full time. You should:
- feel absolutely sure that this is the right thing for you because full-time self-employment is very different from juggling one or more side hustles on top of full-time employment
- try to anticipate the demand you might experience and put the systems into place to fulfill your orders to clients and to look after them once the sale has been made
- shop around for as many different suppliers as possible because you may be able to pay other suppliers less than what you’re paying current suppliers – that means more money for you
- try to identify other markets which would need and appreciate your product or service so that you’re not solely reliant on getting just one type of customer
- experiment with different routes to market – you should be able to bring in business using different types of advertising and from different types of internet platform
- try to build a team of freelancers and other side-hustlers who will be able to help you fulfill orders on time if you experience a rush in sales or if you intend to grow slowly and steadily over time
- get recommendations and testimonials from your existing customers – in the age of the internet, they’re the new “word of mouth”
- speak to an accountant about what you’ll need to do to stay compliant with HMRC
It’s very easy to find yourself torn in different directions when you’ve launched a new full-time business – the number of responsibilities that entrepreneurs must handle at once is vast. Prepare yourself personally and professionally as much as you can before you start your business and leave your job.
What could a no guarantor personal loan be used for?
Buying stock
Lots of side-hustlers make extra money by buying stock in from around the world to sell on eBay, Amazon, etsy, and other apps. However, depending on how you take payment in from customers, it can be up to 31 days before you receive your customers’ monies. In this case, you can take out a no guarantor loan in to buy stock to take advantage of the demand and to steal a march over your competitors.
Better machinery
Do you sell personalised T-shirts, cups, or clothing? You can manufacture these from home using the latest machinery which you can source from all around the world. The better the machinery you have, the more products you can manufacture quicker and with fewer errors. You could use a no guarantor loan to buy in the very best machinery for your business.
Build a dedicated website
Would you buy anything from a company if it didn’t have a website? The answer is probably not so why should you expect your customers to? You could use a no guarantor loan to employ professional freelancers to build a search-engine-friendly website that allows your customers to order online at any time of the day or night and from anywhere in the world.
Cash flow
“Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash flow is reality,” so goes the old business expression. You could have the most profitable business in the world but, if you’re not collecting your money in from customers, you’ll run out of cash very quickly. Use a no guarantor loan to provide you with a cash buffer while you’re waiting for your clients to pay. Also, having cash in the bank means that you can continue to trade and to find new customers to grow your business and to book in future revenues.
No guarantor loans for side hustlers
Here at Loan Broker, we help Britain’s side hustlers find the best no guarantor loans by matching you with a panel of experienced, responsive, and Financial Conduct Authority-licensed lenders. We offer loans with no guarantor required meaning that you don’t have to find someone else to promise to pay off your loan if you’re not able to.
To start your application for a no guarantor loan to turn your side-hustle into a full-time business, please click here.
