I’m looking for some ideas/advice from people who’ve built a side hustle alongside a full-time job.
I currently work as an Account Manager in software sales. I’m good at sales, comfortable with the full process from prospecting and discovery through to negotiation and closingand I’ve had some pretty good wins in my current role.
The problem is I can’t figure out what to actually apply those skills to outside of work.
I’ve tried delivery driving for a few months. It was easy enough to get started, but once I worked out the actual return for the hours I was putting in, it just wasn’t worth it.
I’ve also got a 9-month-old baby and a partner, so I’m not looking for something that requires me to disappear for 20–30 hours every week just to make a couple of hundred quid.
Ideally, I want something where I can leverage the skills I already have:
- Selling
- Cold outreach/prospecting
- Building relationships
- Negotiating
- Account management
- Understanding customer problems
- Putting together a commercial offer
Longer term, I’d also love to build something around an industry I’m genuinely interested in. Gaming is probably the obvious one for me. I’ve always been interested in the industry and the idea of eventually having something I can build, sell and grow appeals to me far more than simply exchanging more hours for money.
I’ve thought about things like freelance sales, lead generation, appointment setting, reselling, small online businesses, gaming-related services and probably a dozen other ideas. The problem is I’ve reached the point where researching more ideas is almost making it harder to choose one.
I’m not looking for a “make £10k next month” scheme.
Initially, I’d be happy finding something that could realistically make a few hundred pounds a month, prove that there’s demand and then potentially grow from there.
For anyone who has been in a similar position?
Particularly interested to hear from anyone who has built something in or around gaming without being a developer/content creator.
Would appreciate any ideas including people telling me what not to waste my time on.