These tips on how to start a side hustle in Kenya at 40 are dying to get out of my head!
Reason?
Because I’m currently at that stage of life where 40 seems pretty young.
And I believe it’s never too late to start a side business.
Success can come at whatever age!
The best part of it though, research shows that the average best age of successful startup founders is 40 and that creative breakthroughs have no relationship to needing to get ID’d or not to enter go clubbing.
Yes, it’s awesome to know about a whole bunch of wildly successful entrepreneurs who didn’t start a business until they were probably way more ancient than you.
Cher Wang founded HTC when she was 39.
Talk about grandpa Ray Kroc who was 51 when pitched to a small chain of hamburger stands run by the MacDonald brothers the idea of expanding into a corporation.
And what about Martha Stewart who signed the Martha Stewart Living magazine when she was nearly fifty.
Deductively therefore, this means you’re well ahead of the pack if you’re looking for tips on starting a side hustle at 40.
Need help getting started?
But, I know you’re wondering HOW to start side hustling at 40, or a business at 90.
Mark you this is the time when you’re dealing with issues such as midlife crisis – either your spouse’s or your own, children, aging parents, too much noise in your apartment block, and health issues ranging from high blood pressure to diabetes.
It is therefore not that easy to start a side hustle at this stage in life.
There are also psychological issues such as personal insecurity, fear of failure, self doubt, etc. that cause us to stand in our own way of going for it.
And that’s the focus of my first tip on how to start a side hustle at 40.
My advice to anyone who is currently employed is this: no matter how stable your job appears, or how handsome your paycheck is, embrace the idea of side hustling.
Relying on the whims of a single human being is the greatest mistake you’ll ever make in life.
You must have a plan B, C, D, E, F, G and H to retrench-proof your life as an employee.
Those are 7.
The magic number.
Use your current resources, networks and steady paycheck to multiply your income streams.
And here I’m not talking buying 100 acres of land in Syokimau or Rimpa and waiting 10 years to sell it at 50% profit – Nothing against those doing this…
I am talking money making ideas you can package, test, re-design, launch, rinse, repeat in a span of 1 month.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, 1 month is a long time in Kenya.
Dough, I mean, this is a country that pulls 2 presidential elections in the span of one month.
That is why the focus is on quick experiments that can be done with existing skills and resources.
What's Covered in This Article
5 Tips on Starting a Side Hustle at 40
My first tip is largely to do with your attitude. The next four are action points…
1. Get outta your way
If you’re looking for suggestions on how to start a side hustle at 40, I reckon you’ve wanted to start a business in Kenya for the longest time.
True?
Something or someone is hindering you.
Perhaps it’s a concoction of not enoughs – not enough time, not enough money, not enough (jijazie).
A sea of buts – some factual, lots more imaginary – why you can’t start a side hustle.
But now that you’re approaching forth floor (or you’ve occupied several of its rooms), it’s time you did something about it.
Or, at least start looking for tips on starting a side hustle.
The first step at getting outta your way, you must know what it is you’ve put in your way.
- Do you have a talent, hobby or passion that has nothing to do with your eight-to-five job, but are often reluctant or intimidated by the process of turning it into a business? Get What If It Does Work Out?: How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life by Susie Moore – and actually DO all her exercises and activities.
- Do you know nothing about how to start a start a side hustle? Read Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days
by - Are you confused about what kind of side business to start? Read 88 Money-Making Writing Jobs by Robert Bly (one of my absolute favorite sources of information about how to start a freelance writing career at 40 or 50 or 200).
You want to learn how to make money while working your full time job.
If you don’t stop dreaming and start doing now, then when?
Stop letting your hesitation or fear get in your way.
All of us are skeptic, frightened, hesitant, and weak when it comes to taking the leap of faith!
And yet, we start.
2. Study books on how to start a side hustle
For me, engaging in different businesses at different points in my life is the best gift I have ever given to myself.
I’ve rented out my space on AirBnB.
I’ve rented out my space on booking.com.
I have been a business plan writer on Upwork.
I have flipped land on Olx.
And many other legal things.
Over time, I have learned a lot and still get a generous kick out of seeing my Payoneer account or Paypal account soar.
It’s the sweetest thing after a slice of white chocolate strawberry blondy.
One of the reasons I was largely successful at starting most of my side businesses was because I spent countless hours reading books about starting a side hustle.
Actually, I never stop doing any of my side hustle because it failed to pick up.
All the time I stopped a business it was either because I was moving places, selling a property, transitioning to bigger things, or something of the sort.
If you want to know how to start a side business at 40, you need to read books about side hustling.
And guess what, even if you don’t like reading, it’s okay.
There are tonnes of audio books all over Amazon.
Get you a couple copies.
3 quick tips on how to start a side hustle at 40:
- Get up! Unless you’re making money sleeping or sitting on that couch
- Get off social media unless you’re looking for tips on how to start your next business.
- Read print books about starting a side hustle.
You don’t have too much time on your hands. Do you?
4. Think business, not hobby
My very first, now extinct, blog, was called MakeALivingFreelancing.
That helped me focus on my freelancing career as an actual job that I had to make a living off of.
Not just pay the bills and go home.
It dictated how I organized my workflow, what clients I chose to work with, and what types of articles I even published on my site.
If you’re serious about making extra cash while working your full time eight to five job, you need to think business ideas.
And then definitely acting on your impetus (you’ll find several examples as soon as you start reading What If It Does Work Out?: How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life).
Starting a side hustle at 40 is not a walk in the park.
It takes a lot of muscle, discipline, work, and resources.
If you hold your side hustle with the seriousness it deserves, it will pay back big time.
If you’re lucky, one day it could pay as much as or more than your day job.
5. Embrace failure
For those who are serious about starting a side business, the fear of failure can be terrifying and may be what is holding you back.
After all, the whole premise of a business is to offer solutions.
Why would you want to be comfortable with failure?
Here’s the short answer—it is inevitable.
Even geniuses mess up.
One of the lessons I’ve learned over the last 39 years of my life is that success is a journey.
And that if treated that way, the little failures are best embraced as learning opportunities.
Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will – Suzzy Kassem
There are days when you will feel like the world is crashing down on you, but you’ll have to make choices that take you back to where you need to be.
You’ll choose to learn how to find ways to get more customers to your Etsy shop at 40 instead of choosing to read dumb jokes on Facebook.
You’ll choose to practice your Pinterest marketing skills instead of just blindly pinning the most beautiful authentic fair trade African baskets for the sake of it.
For tips to on how to become more comfortable with failure and how best to navigate these unpleasant circumstances as they arise, get Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth.
She about what goes on inside us when we fail, and how that—not talent or luck—is what makes all the difference.
Photo by Jonas Svidras on Unsplash
6. Have the right frame of mind
The next first step in starting that side hustle is having the right frame of mind.
Envision your broader future – where do you want to be?
And then realign your life towards those things that are necessary to take you there.
7. Be creative
Be creative.
Use your head.
Unlike in a regular 8 – 5 job, your creativity’s the limit in terms of what you can do and how far you can go.
It all boils down to how bad do you really want it?
When, for instance, you’re having coffee with the girls and you here someone complaining “I wish (fill in the blanks)”, instead of joining in the banter, ask yourself, how could I solve this problem and get paid for it?
Look around your life for trees. Not furniture – Bishop T. D. Jakes
At this stage in your life, you have to be very selfish with your time and general outlook in life.
So, before you decide to jump on that entrepreneurship class, go on that vacation, open that Whatsapp group page, take up that promotion, or bring Genesis 9:7 into reality – imagine what it can be.
Ask yourself how that action moves you closer towards your envisioned broader future.
I’m talking about constantly being on the look out for opportunities in unexpected places.
Only engage in those activities and with those people, that take you one step closer to your envisioned broader future which has, starting a side hustle, as one of the goals.
“Left” everything else that is instead drawing you closer to being 50 and regretful because you ignored my valuable advice on how to start a side hustle at 40.
This includes all those sources of negative energy in your life such as procrastination, comparing yourself with others, some friends and family, a negative attitude, feeling inadequate, etc.
Your Turn
What has been your experience about starting a side hustle at 40?
Who – or what – is holding you back from starting today?
