August
14, 2018

7 min read

This story originally appeared on GOBankingRates

Thinking about starting your own business or taking on a second job? You’re in luck.

GOBankingRates asked today’s top finance experts and bloggers the following: What is the No. 1 thing you wish someone had told you before you started your side hustle and why?

Related: 10 Things to Know About Working With Your Spouse

Below is expert advice on side gigs that will help you keep your sanity while working two jobs.

(By Terence Loose)

Make a daily to-do list

When you’re juggling two jobs, be aware of what you actually need to get done each day.

“I’ve worked a full-time job while maintaining several freelance contracts on the side, and the critical advice I can give is to stay organized,” said Glenn Carter, author of the personal finance blog The Casual Capitalist.

Carter recommends taking 15 minutes at the beginning and end of each day to make a task list and organize it in order of importance. If you want to be successful, you have to spend your time wisely.

Begin your day with a proactive task

It can be easy to get sucked into checking email and social media first thing in the morning, but Nick Loper, founder of Side Hustle Nation, advises that it’s best to start your day by checking a concrete task off your to-do list.

“For me, the biggest productivity win in the last 12 months came from a simple micro-habit of forcing myself to do one proactive task before diving into email or social media,” he said. “It’s way too easy to start your day in reactive mode, and before you know it, hours have gone by and you haven’t touched any of your highest priority projects. Itemize out those high-priority tasks the night before, and make sure to accomplish at least one of them first thing.”

Make sure you know what customers want

It’s important to have a unique idea for a product or service if you are launching a side hustle, but make sure your idea is viable and is something consumers actually want before investing time and money into it.

“Ideas alone possess little value until you actually start building, creating, making and most importantly — selling your idea,” said Ryan Robinson, a content marketing consultant to the world’s top experts and growing startups.

Related: The First Thing These Famous and Successful People Do Every Morning

“Most side hustlers I talk to wish they would’ve spent more time validating their idea by going out and talking to would-be customers, and asking them to pre-order the product or service they’re thinking of creating before investing tons of time and financial resources into things like a website, legal business entity, flyers and business cards. At the end of the day, if you don’t have paying customers, nothing else matters.”

Prioritize sleep

It might seem impossible to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night when you are working more than one job, but it’s important to make sleep a priority — otherwise, your performance at both jobs could suffer.

“Other things in life may fall by the wayside when you are working two jobs in order to make ends meet, but sleep should not be sacrificed,” said Jeff Proctor, a finance expert at DollarSprout.com, who himself has worked two jobs at the same time. “Missing sleep can quickly compound into less focus and decreased productivity at work, which can actually lead to depression. Moral of the story: get your sleep.”

Have a clear end game

When you’ve got your nose to two grindstones, trying to earn additional cash and putting in extra time, it’s easy to lose sight of your overall goal. Bobbi Rebell, financial expert and author of “How to Be a Financial Grownup,” said that there’s a difference between having a career-boosting side hustle and working two jobs. The latter involves having a clear, strategic reason for working hard.

“For example, to earn money to pay down a debt. Or to save for a vacation. Or to acquire a new skill that can expand your professional options. Or to explore whether a business is financially viable. You have to be careful not to just work two jobs for the sake of it, because that can be exhausting,” she said.

Understand that there are no rules

Get a job, buy a house, start a family, save, retire — or don’t. Just because most of your friends follow a certain path in life doesn’t mean you have to walk in their footsteps.

Mohawk-donning financial blogger J. Money, who broke the rules by posting his net worth online, was able to leave his 9-to-5 job. In fact, in seven years he managed to save $400,000 through side gigs, blogging and financial smarts, mostly against the advice of others.

The BudgetsAreSexy.com blogger wants entrepreneurs to remember that there aren’t any rules in life, particularly when it comes to your career.

“I had no idea you could make a living as a blogger or freelancer or anything outside of a standard 9 to 5, really,” said Money. “Or that you can craft your own lifestyle, too, even if the rest of the world thinks you’re crazy! The ‘early retirement’ movement online is doing a great job helping get this message out, which I’m beyond thankful for.”

Scale up sooner

If you dream of turning your side hustle into a full-time gig, you will probably need to scale up sooner rather than later. However, expanding your business can be intimidating.

Millennial money expert Stefanie O’Connell says you should never be shy about believing in yourself. A professional speaker and author of “The Broke and Beautiful Life,” O’Connell has a passion for helping people achieve financial greatness. However, those with successful side gigs sometimes doubt that they can or should be able to earn more, she said.

Related: How to Set Career and Financial Goals You’ll Actually Achieve

“When you find out you can make money doing something on your own time and terms, it’s so exciting and you feel lucky. Often to the point that you stop being aggressive in your money asks,” she said. “Remember, you’re still a business, and you should always be seeking growth. Once you’ve validated your side hustle idea with a few paying clients, think about your next step — raising your rates, finding more prestigious clients, building a team, etc.”

Set up a corporation

David Bach, a best-selling author and respected financial expert, said the best thing someone told him before he started his business was to set up a corporation for his new business.

He said that, at first, he was unsure of the decision. He had an attorney, bookkeeper and tax accountant, but no income. His attorney told him the reason he needed to be setup was because “‘there will be business. And you want to be set up from day one like a real business,'” Bach recalled.

Stick to your schedule

When you’re working two jobs, distractions can mean the difference between success and financial failure. A money expert, blogger and financial consultant, John Rampton said that success relies on creating a schedule and sticking to it with laser focus.

“It seems like we never have enough hours in the day,” he said. “This is especially true when balancing a full-time gig with a side hustle. It’s doable, but you need to budget your time to the minute.”

Set regular hours

Yes, you need to work hard and stick to a schedule if you hope to succeed at your side hustle, especially if you’re picking up work as a stay-at-home parent. However, money expert Lauren Greutman said you should also create a schedule that allows for life outside work. If you don’t budget time for yourself, your side gig could overwhelm your life.

Greutman currently operates LaurenGreutman.com — a finance website that helps women live better lives for less. She said the one thing she wished someone would have told her when she launched her business was to set regular work hours.

“A side hustle is something that can easily get in the way of your life if you let it. I started my website in 2010 with two kids at home, and it quickly grew into a full-time job with irregular hours,” she said. “I wish the phrase, ‘Work Smarter, Not Harder,’ was one that I knew back then. Once I started treating my side hustle like a business, I was able to make more money and put stricter boundaries on my work time.”

August
12, 2018

2 min read

While you might be smart and have all the right skills to succeed at your job, if you lack emotional intelligence (EQ), there’s a high chance you’ll struggle to fully succeed in the workplace.

Related: Why You Need Emotional Intelligence to Succeed in Business

The official definition of “emotional intelligence” is “the capacity to be aware of, control and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.” How you carry yourself and how you communicate with others can make or break your success at work and in life. This is especially true if you’re working on a team, because succeeding together means understanding, connecting and building relationships with others. If you identify yourself as being self-aware and socially aware, then there’s a good chance you’ve got a high EQ.

Related: 11 Signs That You Lack Emotional Intelligence

However, you’d be surprised to know just how many people lack these important EQ skills. Average EQ scores have dropped 25 points while average IQ scores have increased 25 points in recent years. While this might look good on paper, a number of advantages come with a high EQ such as employee retention, increased productivity and overall increased business profits because teammates are happy and working together.

Related: Use These 7 Emotional Intelligence Tips to Be a Better Leader

If you feel like you’re lacking a good EQ, it might be time to better manage your stress, change your attitude, constructively resolve conflict and think before you speak. To learn more about the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace, check out Initiative One’s infographic below.

August
11, 2018

2 min read

The bigger your network is, the better off you are in every aspect of your life. At work, among friends or with family, the more people like you, the more they want to help you. Whether you’re trying to get a promotion or trying to ask someone out on a date, getting in people’s good books is important for personal growth. But that can be harder than it sounds. To make it easier, here are some tips to help.

Related: How to Network, for Those Who Hate to Network

For starters, when talking to someone, always try to bring up shared interests. According to research, people are inherently attracted to those who are similar to themselves. And in a more literal sense, when actually talking to a person, you can show your similarities by mirroring a person’s gestures. This “chameleon effect” has been found to encourage the development of bonds.

Related: 25 Tips for Having Meaningful Relationships

Another important tip when communicating with someone is to always say that person’s name throughout a conversation. Using a person’s name not only shows that you remember and acknowledge who they are, but that you’re paying attention and think they are important. Beyond just saying a person’s name, you should also try opening up to them. Sharing personal things about yourself rather than just making small talk instills a sense of trust and closeness. This can be a great way to jumpstart a relationship.

Related: The Key to Success? Relationships.

From having a sense of humor to smiling and having open body language, check out QuidCorner’s infographic below for 12 science-backed ways to get people to like you.

August
8, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Check out any publication talking about HR these days and you’ll see that diversity and inclusion is a hot topic. And we’re totally on board and encouraged, because from any and all angles — ethically, socially, culturally and in every sense of business success — the mission to create more inclusive work environments is a positive development.

Related: This AI Tool Helps Companies Eliminate Hiring Bias in the Name of Productivity

This move to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace (beyond just playing lip service to it on a website) is pushing employers to evaluate their practices at every level — from recruitment to learning and development, to terminations and everything in between. Thought leaders and leading practitioners are reckoning with more than just outright discrimination in their talent programs, too. It’s now time to dig into the accidentally biased practices that, though unintentionally prejudiced, are problematic nonetheless. And unfortunately, they’re also pervasive.

Think you’re in the clear? Take a look at the examples below. These six slip-ups are in fact common primarily because the underlying bias is accidental (and, for many, non-obvious at first glance). See if any of these sound familiar …

1. Writing exclusionary job descriptions

Well-meaning managers and recruiters can inadvertently discourage whole groups of would-be applicants by using gendered, ageist or otherwise restrictive terms in job descriptions. Consider postings that use titles such as social media “rock star” or analytics “ninja” — these are both male-oriented words, and could turn some people off.

Another thing to be careful of: labeling certain skills, degrees or experiences “required” when they’re really just nice-to-haves. Research shows that women are significantly more likely than men to interpret listed requirements as literally required and forego applying if they don’t meet the exact qualifications.

(Tip: Tools such as Textio Hire and Koru’s Job Description Analyzer can help you refine and optimize your job descriptions.)

Related: What Google Learned Fighting Hiring Bias, Bad Meetings and Failing Products

2. Overlooking (or not expanding beyond) certain job boards

Think about where you post your jobs: Are your listings reaching a diverse audience? Do you stick only to mainstream job boards? Are you partial to niche sites, exclusive networks or certain college job hubs?

None of these approaches are inherently bad but be mindful of how wide (or not) of a net you’re really casting. It’s fine to target these sites and networks, but not at the exclusion of other job boards and communities that could just as well send you great candidates.

3. Filtering for big-name schools or brands

We totally get it. Recruiters are slammed and need to sift through hundreds, sometimes thousands, of resumes. So, it’s understandable that they’ve historically used markers like alma mater or previous employer to quickly cut down a giant pile of resumes. But, consider the baked-in privilege and prejudice that’s perpetuated with this approach. By favoring certain universities or companies, you’re adopting other institutions’ admissions or selection criteria, which are undoubtedly rife with their own biases.

Related: How to Stop Unconscious Bias Before It Starts, Against the People You Hire

Check out how diversity in a talent pool changes for campus recruiting initiatives when filtering for school or GPA. As the data shows, if you screen by top brand colleges, you reduce the opportunity for underrepresented minorities by 23 percent.

Better to select for criteria that are proven to be predictive of performance.

4. Using non-diverse interview panels

Even the most informed, most kind-hearted, most self-aware humans among us are not entirely objective. No one is immune to developing implicit biases, the automatic assumptions and generalizations based on society’s stereotypes we all subconsciously make. Unfortunately, these skewed views often go unchecked in the interview process due to using a non-diverse mix of interviewers. Having multiple backgrounds and worldviews in the interview loop helps counter incorrect presumptions and illegitimate hiring decisions.

Related: Why It’s Still So Difficult to Hire a Diverse Team

5. Using unstructured interview processes

When you’re hiring for a particular role at your company, do your interviewers ask a consistent set of questions or do they ask whatever’s on top of mind? Do each of the interviewers follow the same framework for assessing and ranking candidates from interview to interview?

It seems obvious that standardizing all elements of the interview process is the only way to make it fair, but too often, things are a little (or a lot) less streamlined. And when things are loose, the door for bias is left open. Moreover, they aren’t effective anyways. An unstructured interview adds only 8 percent to the predictive power of knowing someone’s raw intelligence alone.

6. Letting likeness or likeability sway decisions

We have all heard of “the beer test” and “mini-me hiring,” or at least the general concepts behind them: hiring someone based on if you’d enjoy having a beer with them, or hiring someone who reminds you of yourself, respectively. These are pretty plainly biased ways of choosing a new team member, but people aren’t always aware they’re engaging in them (diverse panels and structured interviews really help here).

Two related issues under the likeness/likeability umbrella are: hiring based on communication skills (really, interviewing skills) and hiring for “culture fit” (when your culture itself contains biases). In the former, a strong interviewee can beat out a more qualified candidate just by virtue of being more likeable or sounding more competent. In the latter, a great candidate can be overlooked because he or she is deemed “not a fit” — which itself is a perfectly fine reason to pass on someone, but only if your cultural principles are free of bias.

The HR world has certainly made progress on reducing bias and increasing diversity, but there’s still a long way to go. The more recruiters and talent leaders examine their organizations’ hiring habits, the more they uncover, and the more things improve. Take these examples and run with them — and let’s all keep looking, listening, and learning.