August
7, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It seems like almost everyone has a side hustle these days. According to Bankrate, more than 44 million Americans have one. Having a side hustle is a great way to make a little extra money, do something you enjoy and feel empowered. But, do you dream of quitting your 9-to-5 and turning the side hustle you love into your full-time gig?

Related: How to Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Full-Time Gig

That’s the ultimate goal, but it can be difficult to achieve. The daily grind of working a day job and coming home to work on your side hustle can wear you down. You might think you don’t have enough time or money to turn your dream into a reality. So, how can that be possible? In fact, there are some simple, low-cost hacks to take you from hobbyist to professional.

So, whether you write, sell products online, flip houses or plan to start a podcast, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, you can take your side hustle full-time and make more than you would have working for someone else. Now, pull up your bootstraps and check out these four tips to take your side hustle to the next level.

Determine your goals.

One of the first steps to starting any business is to determine your goals. You have to know where you want to go, and when, in order to keep your business on the path to success. Not only will setting your goals keep you more organized, but it will keep you accountable and motivate you to keep pushing forward.

Once you’ve written down your goals, you should create smaller but necessary tasks that you can complete in less than an hour. For example, if you have a goal of writing three blog posts a week, you can break down those individual tasks to create: a blog idea, an outline, the necessary research, a draft and a revision.

Another tip is to use a time-tracking tool, like Time Doctor, to keep you on pace.

Get organized.

If you’re the type who has all your ideas written down on notepads thrown haphazardly all over your desk, you’ll need to get more organized, to create a successful business. A scattered mind will do you no good at managing and completingthe tasks you need to get done in a day.

You can use a free tool like Trello to visually plan out tasks, projects and company goals.

Image source: Trello Board. https://trello.com/

By organizing all your business ideas in one place, you’ll be stay on track and get more done. Create a daily to-do list as well as a calendar to track project-due dates and meetings, to make sure you’re completing the goals needed to turn your side hustle into a business. When you know what’s coming up in the pipeline, you’ll be more effective at prioritizing and meeting important deadlines.

Related: Your Side Hustle Can Become a Million-Dollar Business. These 5 Examples Prove It.

Build your brand.

Building your brand is one of the most important strategies to take your side hustle to the next level and develop an identity for your business. Get a great logo crafted and create a style guide for your brand that covers colors and font you’ll be using; then design your website around it.

Zendesk has created a brand and logo for its company that is recognizable, consistent and distinctly its own.

Image source: Zendesk Brand Consistency. https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34227/15-businesses-to-admire-for-consistent-stellar-branding.aspx

Your brand needs to be consistent across all platforms, including print and social media. That’swhy it’s important to create a branding style guide that you can refer to. When you make your side hustle look more professional, people will take you more seriously. As you’re building your brand, visitors will form a connection with your business, which will look more and more like a legitimate business and not just a hobby.  

Start marketing yourself.

With your side hustle you might be doing work only for people you know, or selling to friends and neighbors, but to take it to the next level, you need to widen your audience by marketing yourself. One great tactic to utilize here is a website for your personal brand. Another: Building your email list.

An email list is an awesome way to talk to targeted leads directly any time you have something to say, whether that consists of educating them with useful content or announcing a sale. The users on your email list are going to be the easiest to convert to customers for your business.

Julie Ewald was a freelancer who founded her own company. She uses this pop-up to encourage visitors to her site to sign up for her email list.

Image source: email opt-in pop-up from Julie Ewald. https://julieewald.com/

Another great way to market yourself is to get onto social media. You can reach a whole new audience for your business by promoting your business on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. By using the power of email and social media, you can connect with an engaged audience and skyrocket your sales without ever having to pay for advertising.  

Related; 50 Ideas for a Lucrative Side Hustle

In sum, starting a business can be scary. But you’ve already proven you have the chops to become the boss of your own company by starting a side hustle. By following these strategies you can take your brilliant side hustle from a part-time gif to a full-time labor of love and become the entrepreneur you’ve always wanted to be.

August
5, 2018

1 min read

Coming up with new, creative ideas can be tricky. That’s why it’s important to find a way to get inspired. After all, it’s our own unique rituals that can bring mental clarity and creativity. That could be a quirky habit or routine such as doing headstands or wearing lots of hats.

Related: 5 Science-Backed Ways to Boost Your Creativity

Igor Stravinksy did headstands, which he believed helped to rest his head and clear his brain. Author Dr. Seuss felt that wearing lots of crazy hats helped inspire his creativity and overcome writer’s block. However, those aren’t even the strangest routines that some of the world’s most brilliant minds have utilized. Steve Jobs bathed his feet in toilet water to reduce stress levels while Honore de Balzac drank up to 50 cups of coffee a day.

Related: 8 Ways to Come Up With a Business Idea

Check out Business Backer’s infographic below to learn the weird ways that nine creative minds got their ideas.

August
4, 2018

1 min read

Ever wonder what the future holds? Some of the best people to ask might be your kids, nephews or nieces. It turns out, they’ve got a tech-forward outlook on what the future holds.

Related: 11 Successful Kid Entrepreneurs Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

Decluttr.com asked a group of children aged 4- to 11-years-old to conceptualize the tech products they predict people will use in 30 years’ time. Then, the company asked a concept artist to bring their sketches to life. The result? An “eatwatch,” a “recycle bot,” a “print-a-food” and more.

Related: 5 Benefits of Teaching Young Children About Entrepreneurship

For 4-year-old Ayana, her idea of a bright future involves a futuristic smartwatch that notifies a person’s body when they are running low on energy. For Jade, 6, a recycle bot that would help make recycling easy and hassle-free is really what the world needs. From 3D printed food to driving hover cars with retractable wings, check out these eight futuristic inventions from the world’s next kidpreneurs.

August 3, 2018

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Tens of thousands of people have left traditional careers or pivoted to join the cannabis space within the last five years. The one thing all these people will all tell you is that with legalization comes new layers of business responsibilities. Taxes, and how they are levied and collected, are causing major growing pains. Getting everything right is crucial in developing positive relationships with government regulators, vendors, end consumers, and ultimately protecting the bottom line.

Here’s how the most successful entrepreneurs are managing it.

Related: What East Coast Cannabis Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Colorado

1. Understand Local Tax Laws

The importance of taxation is quite apparent in California, the largest and most diverse legal cannabis market in the world. The state is divided into 58 counties, and 482 incorporated cities and towns. By law, each of these territories is permitted to determine its own cannabis policies and taxes in addition to the state regulations. It makes things incredibly confusing for businesses and consumers alike.

Here’s a breakdown of taxes charged for a $35 eighth of cannabis in eight US cities. You’ll notice the total cost is widely different, even when comparing cities in California.

It’s never been more important for cannabis industry hopefuls to understand how state and local taxation affects them. Before setting up automated tax calculations at your dispensary, it’s wise to consult an accountant or attorney to ensure compliance and accuracy.

2. Keep Detailed Records

Though the task may seem daunting at first, even the largest cannabis retailers can easily handle its compliance responsibilities by keeping detailed records of every transaction.

Using a point-of-sale system specifically built for the cannabis industry makes it seamless, and creates a beneficial paper trail for the business, should any issues arise with finances or regulations.

Related: 5 Routes the Cannabis Industry Could Take to Get Around Federal Banking Restrictions

3. Set An Order of Operations for Taxes

Setting an order of operations for your calculations is also important, as there are several different compounding types of taxes. Standard surcharges could include a state-mandated excise tax on cannabis products, and local or municipal taxes, on top of the regular statewide sales tax. By creating a specific procedure for applying these taxes and fees, you will ensure accuracy in your tax reports and payments

4. Be Transparent with Customers

Because of tax differences, the price of a jar of cannabis can vary up to 15 percent based on geography and the policies in that area. That’s a huge shock for cannabis consumers, who end up paying between 20 and 45 percent over the sticker price in tax surcharges.

Though vendors and distributors have to pay taxes too, this particular burden is largely passed on to the retailers. They’re the ones that have to face the customer at the cash register.

Get ahead of the confusion by helping your customers understand exactly what taxes are being charged. Retailers can do this by clearly printing tax details on their receipts. Doing so will alleviate price complaints and visually explain how their total cost was calculated. Staff should also be trained on various tax types so they can intelligently answer questions and provide education about how tax revenue is being used to improve the community.

5. Fight for Fairness

The illicit market for cannabis is shrinking but still exists. If the total cost of cannabis is unaffordable, consumers will continue turning to the black market to save a buck. Additionally, if the business taxes keep climbing as the price of flower falls, the industry will continue to push out smaller players who can’t afford to stay in business.

Fairly-priced cannabis benefits the entire industry. Stay in close communication with your vendors, distributors, and other retailers in your area in order to stress the importance of responsible pricing.

Death and taxes are inevitable, even in the prosperous world of cannabis. Entrepreneurs have an inherent responsibility to advocate for fairness when it comes to taxes the taxes they pay. By taking a stand against excessive taxation and implementing customer-focused best practices, businesses can stand the test of time.

Related: 5 Things You Need to Know Before Opening a Dispensary

August
2, 2018

7 min read

Elon Musk may be trying to save the world, whether that’s through electric cars or exploring outer space, but he’s having fun while doing it. He takes whatever chance he gets to provide nods to some of his favorite science-fiction stories, videogames and old comedy movies, whether that’s on Twitter or through a crazy Tesla easter egg.

Related: 23 Weird Things We’ve Learned About Elon Musk

Click through the slideshow to see examples of Musk showing off his nerdiness.

The magic of 3.

Consider this one a self-reference. In the first discovered Easter egg exclusively for Tesla Model 3 owners, people who can go to the “About” dialog box on the car’s touch screen will be in for a little surprise. Holding the “3” in the Model 3 label for about 10 seconds will display an image of the vehicle’s development team, which includes the man himself, Elon Musk.

See it in action here:

God of Prank?

Did Musk accidentally tweet his phone number? Numerous news organizations seem to think so. In a now deleted tweet, Musk asked Oculus VR chief technology officer John Carmack to call a number. Website Jalopnik says confirmed the number is associated with Musk. But considering that when the number was called, it lead to a hidden message from the video game God of War, we think this may just be a prank.

Image Credit: Sony

The answer is always 42.

Musk has been charting sales of hats emblazoned with the logo of his pet project, The Boring Company. When the number of hats sold reached 42,000, Musk couldn’t resist to drop a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, a favorite among science-fiction fans. For those who haven’t read the book, 42 is given as the answer to life, the universe and everything.

HG2G

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2017

There’s also an elaborate Tesla easter egg involving 42.

Where “real” money comes from.

Musk has clearly been enjoying his success selling Boring Company hats, and made a reference to Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs, a spoof of Star Wars, to drive his point home.

The *real* money comes from merchandising. I learned it from this documentary https://t.co/E4gpqhl6KF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2017

Related: Elon Musk Has Found a Creative Way to Fundraise for His Newest Company

Always look on the bright side of life.

Musk is a huge fan of classic British comedy group Monty Python, so much so that Tesla added a feature to its vehicles that allow you to play any of the groups skits.

In the US, you can ask your Tesla to play any Monty Python (or other comedy) skit. Doesn’t work outside US yet.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 8, 2017

Love Monty Python so much

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 8, 2017

Isn’t he from that movie?

Musk dipped into a different well when naming the first digging machine for The Boring Company.

Third one will be from Frost. Maybe the second.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2017

The first machine is named after Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot.

First machine is Godot. Still waiting … Don’t know why, when or where.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2017

Mars explorers.

The throughline between Tesla and SpaceX is that Musk is CEO of both, so Tesla would be remiss not to throw in space-themed easter egg. Drivers can enter the code “Mars” to turn their GPS maps from one of Earth to one of Mars, and the vehicle into a rover.

Tesla’s holiday Easter Egg. We are now in the Model S(paceship), exploring Mars. pic.twitter.com/pISb94gwm9

— Brenner (@BrennerSpear) December 25, 2016

That’s our favorite animal too!

When one of Musk’s sons asked his billionaire father what his favorite animal was, he answered with a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — of course.

My son recently asked what my favorite animal was. Well, of course … https://t.co/hpTniMe1mF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 29, 2016

Related: The Real Reason Why Elon Musk Is a Twitter Power User

Turtle shells not included.

Musk revealed a Tesla easter egg in early 2016 that he dubbed “psychedelic cowbell road.”

Activate autopilot 4X in quick succession for psychedelic cowbell road. And, yes, we are adding more cowbell soon.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2016

When activated it puts your on-screen car on a rainbow road highly reminiscent of the infamous level from the Mario Kart series.

And Musk’s tweet also had a second reference, to the famous Saturday Night Live skit.

I’ve been a miner for a …

At what point will Musk start having to pay royalties to Douglas Adams’s estate? When it came time to name the first SpaceX vessel bound for Mars, of course Musk dipped into Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“We’re thinking about names. The names thing is really hard,” Musk said in 2016. “And the name of the first ship that goes to Mars not the name of the whole ship line necessarily but the first ship that goes to Mars … my current favorite is Heart of Gold.”

Heart of Gold is the name of a ship in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy commandeered by a character named Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Image Credit: Crown Publishing

That’s ludicrous!

Owners of Tesla’s P85D Model S in 2015 were able to upgrade their vehicles to access a new feature: Ludicrous Mode, which allowed the cars to go from 0 to 60 in just 2.8 seconds. So where did this name come from? Spaceballs, of course.

To top it off, rapper Ludicris was the warm-up music for the call announcing the feature.

Check out the feature in action:

In the same vein, the second version of the Tesla Roadster will have a Plaid Mode, which is faster than Ludicrous in Spaceballs. That mode will allow the cars to go from 0 to 60 in under 2 seconds.

Musk, Elon Musk.

Musk has been a fan of James Bond films since he was young, so much so that he spent $866,000 to buy the Lotus Esprit submarine car from the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me. His love of this vehicle made its way into Tesla cars as well.

Owners of the Model S can hold down the “T” button and then input “007” into the technician log-in screen, which will transform the vehicle shown on the screen into submarine car.

Image Credit: United Artists

Related: Elon Musk May Be Sending a Tesla Roadster to Space on a SpaceX Rocket

A tribute to Culture.

SpaceX typically lands its rockets on ships piloted by drones. Musk gave two of these ships interesting names: Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You. These are actually ripped straight from the pages of the late Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels. Musk mentioned the connection in 2015.

@elonmusk … In honor of IMB, RIP.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2015

Going to 11.

The volume in Tesla vehicles go up to 11, which is a reference to the classic music satire film This Is Spinal Tap.

Very mature.

Not all of Musk’s references are to science fiction. The names of Tesla’s thee models are S, 3 and X, which spells out SEX if you’re paying attention. The only reason why there’s no Model E is that Ford threatened to sue Tesla if it pursued a trademark. Oh well. Apparently, there’s also a Model Y coming.

Image Credit: Tesla

Related: It Was Fun for a While, But Elon Musk Denies Theory He Created Bitcoin

Not quite hyperspace ready.

SpaceX’s rockets, including the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, are named after the iconic Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. While that vessel was piloted by the suave Han Solo, we bet SpaceX’s astronauts are also pretty cool. Meanwhile, the Dragon capsule is named after the song “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios

Don’t game and drive.

Musk is a known gamer, so it makes sense that he announced that with Tesla’s next software update, drivers will have access to classic Atari games.

Some of best classic @Atari games coming as Easter eggs in Tesla V9.0 release in about 4 weeks. Thanks @Atari!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2018

Hoping to include last three in this release, with pole position linked to actual car steering wheel (while stationary tbc haha)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2018

Of course, the car has to be parked to play the games.

August 1, 2018

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Tell us how you got into the cannabis business.

While attending college, I started working on a small family-owned medical cannabis cooperative in northern Oregon. I learned the basics of growing and working with the plant. With this knowledge and money saved from my years working in Oregon, I purchased a farm in Northern California. 

Once cannabis legalization went through, I knew I needed to build a brand. The days of shady, back room deals were coming to a close and the cannabis industry had a deficit of mature, upscale brands. I recruited the lead designer of Snoop Dogg’s “Leafs by Snoop” line and flew her out to the farm to capture the natural beauty for our packaging.

Related: 5 Questions to Ask Before Picking Your Packaging

Image credit: Stone Road Farms

What is Stone Road Farms?

We are a pre-roll company that puts an emphasis on transparency, consistent quality, and upscale branding. We use the highest possible quality, Grade-A flower in all of our products. We also hand-roll our joints ensuring each one is virtually perfect. A Stone Road joint goes through three stages of quality control and is lab-tested twice before reaching the consumer.

What did you do to differentiate Stone Road from the competition?

I knew I had to create a unique aspect to the brand so I recruited a childhood friend to build out the ‘Stone Road’ rewards app — available on IOS and Android. This platform allows us to offer our customers tickets to cannabis-friendly yoga classes in Venice, Hollywood Bowl tickets, even surf lessons. The updated app also now has a full product guide plus a find-a-store feature. 

The app saved the business — being able to access the data from our biggest supporters allowed us to discover that 78 percent of all app scans were from women, and more importantly, they were from two shops! I altered Stone Road’s brand identity to match the new information we gleaned from the app data. We started sponsoring every and any women-run, women-focused, or women-branded event. And soon this strategy worked. Our sales took off and now my biggest focus and challenge is rapid production, ramping without sacrificing the Stone Road quality. 

Related: 9 Business Ideas for People Looking to Cash in on the Marijuana Boom

What was one of the toughest challenges you faced in your business and how did you overcome it?

Choosing business partners. Both of my former partners left the company within the first six months for various reasons. My advice to people starting a business: Be very cautious when choosing a partner . A start-up partnership means you are going to be with this person 12 to 16 hours a day every day. You not only have to get along, but you have to be sure you communicate well.

Most major business disagreements I had stemmed from a lack of communication. I overcame this challenge by putting in a ridiculous amount of work. Eighteen-hour days for weeks on end. Doing literally every job myself from managing the farm, rolling the joints, producing digital and promo content, managing the social media, keeping all the books and all legal compliance, all the while spending every day trying to open new accounts! It was grueling, but when the noise of the world gets too loud you have to just lower your head and continue. It’s supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would be their own boss. 

Related: 

How do you get people to buy into your mission?

Transparency and trust. Be honest with investors about what you plan to do with their investment. The same group of 8 to 12 individuals in my life fund virtually all of my ventures. Some have been losers. But some are now incredibly successful. One of my good friends and another successful young entrepreneur always tells his investors, “I will do whatever is best for the business. No matter what.” And he is true to his word. He fired his best friend. Was it terrible? I’m sure. But at the end of the day you have to stay true to your word and if someone isn’t pulling their weight plus some, you have to find someone else. 

Also, most good investors invest in the team and not the product. A product can change. It’s really hard to change a team. Also, you have to put in your own money. Money talks. I don’t raise money for firms I don’t personally have equity in. 

Related: How To Convince Cannabis Investors to Give You Money

What trait do you depend on most when making decisions?

While analytical thinking and collaborative decision making is super important, you have to trust your gut. Sometimes you’re right. Most times you’re not. But each experience and each failure is a learning opportunity. Each day I apply lessons I learn in one business to another one of my businesses. 

For example, everyone told me not to invest in “Light Phone,” a Brooklyn-based telecom startup that is creating a credit-card sized social-media free phone with a 5-day battery life. Even my mom, a full-blown iPhone addict, strongly suggested against investing. But I threw in a lot of money anyways and then raised far more for the company. Now we’ve built and sold our first 10,000 phones, and are working hard on creating a second-generation phone. Our manufacturing partner tasked us with raising $250k online in one month to show interest in the phone. We ended our Indiegogo with $1.71 million and over 7,000 pre-orders for a phone that is still a year away. 

What’s the best advice u can give to people starting off in the cannabis industry?

Be tough. People are mean and the business is very exclusive. It will be hard to break in. Be nimble, and know that the business changes constantly. You need to stay light on your feet to keep up. Even the biggest companies in the industry are constantly evolving and innovating. 

Lastly, tell us about how you created and auctioned off the world’s most expensive joint.

I needed a PR stunt to get more press to my party to announce a state-wide sales campaign. I knew I wanted to create a giant, goofy, lavish joint and auction it off for charity. I couldn’t get any organizations to take the money except the African Wildlife Foundation. I then enlisted Weavers, a famous joint artist, to create a giant elephant tusk rather than a normal joint. I reached out to the good people at Shine, and they donated enough 24 karat gold leaf to cover the tusk with four layers! The interior contents were all donated, too. Soilgrown Solventless donated some of their Cannabis Cup-winning Rosin, and Team Elite Genetics donated some of their 2018 Cannabis Cup-winning flower. Overall, we raised over $4,000 for the African Wildlife Foundation’s new anti-poaching campaign.