Why You Should Have a ‘Side Business’

Often, the term ‘side business’ is used in reference to any activity that generates income for an individual other than his or her regular full time job. So for instance, you work as a banker full time. However, aside your full time job, you MC (master of ceremony) events such as entertainment shows on weekends. Being an MC is your side business.

Years gone by, having a side business was perhaps not as common and as compelling as it is today. A growing number of professionals are venturing into multiple income generating activities, and there are clear reasons why this is increasingly becoming the norm. This article highlights three cardinal drivers of this trend, but more importantly, why you should have a side business irrespective of your profession.

Supplement regular salary, and for investment purposes

The first reason often alluded to for having a side business is that, it creates multiple streams of income, which then lessens the financial pressures associated with holding onto one job. With a thriving side business, there is little need to wait impatiently and anxiously for a salary at the end of the month, amidst a multiplicity of needs requiring urgent attention. With a worsening economy, characterized in part by rising prices of goods and services, your salary may routinely be exhausted long before the month ends, bringing untold pressure, including high indebtedness. Under such circumstances, the thought of channeling some funds into ‘passive’ investments, or even into savings becomes a non-starter and a no-brainer. Your pre-occupation becomes meeting present needs. Amidst these glaring and gloomy realities, it is only prudent that you have a side business to ‘cushion you’ somehow.

Create wealth

The second reason often given for having a side business or creating multiple streams of income is somewhat linked to the first, but is quite distinct, in that, it is far reaching in its goals and outcomes. Some financial experts and wealthy folks hold the view that it is often impracticable for anyone to become wealthy as an employee, without creating/having multiple streams of income. Therefore, for many, they create multiple side businesses to enhance their chances of becoming wealthy. Quite evidently, many of the world’s rich folks have multiple streams of income or side businesses, and that speaks volumes.

Safety net in the event of a job loss

Yet another reason why you should have a side business as an employee is that, it would provide for you a safety net or as it were, a sustainable means of income in the event of a job loss. A job loss can occur irrespective of your competences and sterling work outcomes. Think of the job losses that occasioned the banking sector clean-up exercise in Ghana, and the many companies that have either closed down or retrenched the vast majority of their staffs owing largely to financial difficulties. To suffer an abrupt job loss in an economy such as ours, amidst intense competition on the job market can be depressing, especially if you have dependents. However, if you had a side business prior to the job loss, the side business can then seamlessly become your main job, – a viable income generating activity to meet your personal needs and that of your family/dependents.

I remember years ago, barely three months to my wedding, the approximately 40-year old organization I worked with, and where I held a promising job, retrenched its entire staff, as a precursor to folding up. My promising job as the substantive editor of an educational publishing company was gone. With a wedding ceremony a few months ahead, I knew I was in for a rough ride, and that troubled me greatly. My wife-to-be was equally troubled. But I had a side business, which I had thought so less of. It however proved to be a lifeline. It helped provide what was necessary for the wedding ceremony, and provided for the home as well. It actually kept the home running for approximately three years – during which period we had were blessed with two children. I shudder to think what would have been our fate, without this one-time side business.

Written by Daniel Dela Dunoo

(Freelance writer, published author)

Email: danieldeladunoo@gmail.com