Are you an actor (or creative) considering dipping your toe into the side hustle waters? Wondering how to pick the best job for you?
There are a few things you should consider when making your choice so you can make it with confidence. One of the main purposes of a side hustle is to help you expend less energy on income generation so that you have more energy to put toward your artistic career. If you enjoy what you’re doing, are capable, competent, and interested in what you’re doing, then whatever you’re doing will take less energy to do. That’s why you want a side hustle where those qualities of enjoyment, capability, competency, and interest naturally overlap.
Here’s how you can find that job.
1. Make a list of your skills and strengths.
A skill is something you’ve learned how to do well, like sewing, script analysis, researching, or keeping websites up and running. A strength is a quality you’ve cultivated or just naturally have like being calm, witty, precise, aesthetically-oriented, or athletic.
To create your list, ask yourself: What do people compliment you on or come to you for advice about? What are you particularly knowledgeable about? How could you save someone time, energy, or money?
If you’re feeling stuck, select a few folks who know you well and ask them what they think some of your top skills and strengths are.
An Actor’s Guide to Survival Jobs 2. Determine how you prefer to work.
If you’re working in the way that suits you best, you’ll use less energy. Do you like working indoors or out? Alone or with a community? At home or on location? Days or nights? Do you prefer to teach or to do?
3. Notice where your skills, strengths, and preferences intersect.
Does any combination of your skills, strengths, and work preferences strike you as the building blocks of a possible side hustle? If you’re a good photographer who loves kids and is patient and playful, perhaps you can photograph children’s birthday parties. If you’re excellent at spelling and grammar and are detail-oriented and methodical, maybe you can be a copyeditor for folks who want to publish ebooks.
4. Evaluate your idea.
While it’s important that you choose a side hustle that you can do without a lot of effort, it’s even more important that you choose a side hustle that’s viable in the marketplace. Does your idea alleviate a pain that an easily-identifiable group of people shares? If a person has a problem that is causing them pain, they’ll usually pay you money if you can relieve it. That said, you want to be sure there are more than just a handful of people who have that pain. How do you find this out? Observe people. Listen to what they complain about. Read what they vent about on Facebook and other online groups or simply ask what’s been frustrating them lately.
3 Remote Side Jobs for Actors Think about if these people will pay for what you’re offering. The problem you’re solving for the people you’re targeting has to be significant enough that they’ll be willing to take action to get relief. Notice if your target market is already paying for similar or related services or products. People paying for yoga classes might also pay for your meditation class. People paying a pet sitter might also pay for a professional organizer. Also, consider if you can reach those people to tell them about what you’re offering. The easiest path to getting someone’s attention is to go where their attention already is. So if you want to sell butterfly earrings to butterfly aficionados then you’ll need to be able to figure out where those folks hang-out on and offline, what they read, and who they listen to so you can get your message in front of them.
Do you currently have the capacity to deliver what you’re offering? The best ideas don’t require you to learn a lot of stuff, buy a lot of stuff, or get a lot of people to help you. Lastly, can you sustain what you’re offering? Will you be able to keep your side hustle up and running in conjunction with the other responsibilities and commitments you’ve chosen to keep on your plate?
If you pay attention to what other folks are doing and notice whenever a person reveals a pain point that you could possibly relieve, you’ll eventually find a side hustle idea that’s a good fit for you!
Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!
The views expressed in this article are solely that of the individual(s) providing them,
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Backstage or its staff.
