Hello Reader,

This is a common fear of corporate employees who want to start a side hustle.

How to do it in a way that doesn’t get them in trouble with their current employer.

Here are five key areas to address that will enable you to speak freely about your side hustle.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. You should seek professional legal advice if you have any doubts about the implications of side hustling based on the terms of your employment contract.

1. Non-compete clauses

Most companies will not allow you to start a business in a related field. If that’s you, explore how your skills can be transferred to another non-related field.

For example, I’m in HR in the logistics industry. While I cannot offer HR services to other companies, my interviewing skills gained from recruiting, training skills from leadership workshops I conducted, and coaching skills from dealing with employee non-performance can easily be transferred to my side hustle that helps corporate women start a side business.

The same skills to help people identify their strengths, weaknesses, skills, and experiences, set and achieve goals, and solve root problems and challenges that prevent them from getting results are highly relevant when helping women start a side hustle.

Figure out what skills and strengths you have and how you can apply them in an area that interests you.

2. Conflict of interest

Conflict of interest shows up in various ways. The clearest example is starting a business in direct competition with your employer, using their proprietary information, and poaching clients from your job to your side hustle.

This will get you fired, so don’t do this!

Other less obvious examples are the usage of resources like time and equipment.

Time management

Assess how much you can realistically dedicate to your side hustle without affecting the performance of your job.

Your side hustle may grow slower because you’re working on it with limited time, but that’s okay.

The time you have if you’re working full-time and raising young kids or are a caregiver for a family member, versus if you’re single or an empty nester will look very different.

You may also want to consider what kind of job you’re doing while building your side hustle. I chose to step away from climbing the corporate ladder and declined promotions because I wanted to dedicate more time and energy to my side business.

It took several years before I started making money from my side hustle because I also had mindset barriers that slowed me down. Often, it’s these mental blocks that get in way more than we realise.

Get clear on where your side hustle fits into your life, use whatever time you have to work on your side hustle based on the season of life you’re in, and do the work to clear any mindset barriers.

Equipment management

To avoid conflict of interest relating to the use of equipment, keep everything you use for your side hustle separate.

I have separate laptops, mobile phones, and printers for my job and my side hustle. This keeps things simple for me to manage.

Of course, sometimes, there are grey areas, like when I’m on LinkedIn during my lunch break. I’ll use my work computer or sometimes my mobile phone.

This is where the next points, disclosure and trust are crucial.

3. Disclosure

Some companies require you to disclose additional employment or business activities.

Most employers are reasonable, especially if you’ve proven to be a valuable employee and your side hustle doesn’t pose any conflict of interest.

If your company doesn’t allow you to have any additional employment or business activities besides your job, consider exploring other options if starting a side hustle is your priority.

The future of work will see more people having side gigs and taking up fractional roles. Companies that don’t adapt to this new way of working will lose talent.

Disclose your side hustle or start looking for another company that doesn't have an issue with your side business.

4. Trust

A large part of your fear of your boss or colleagues seeing you talk about your side hustle comes down to trust and transparency.

From the employer’s perspective, all they want to know is that you’ll do what you’re paid to do and that your side hustle won’t interfere with that.

Be great at your job, earn the trust of your boss and colleagues, and invest in building that relationship so it’s easy for you to be transparent about your side hustle.

Your employer is currently your one key retained client you’re providing your services.

Use it as a practice to build good business relationships which are foundational to growing your side business anyway.

5. Respect

Some companies have a policy on social media about what employees can say about the company. They do this to protect their reputation in the marketplace.

Likewise, think about what kind of personal brand you’re putting out there with what you’re saying on social media. You wouldn’t want your brand to be associated with negativity and disrespect, would you?

Are you being respectful, considerate and thoughtful about how you’re saying things?

I know the experts tell you to be polarising to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

But you can be polarising without being disrespectful and insensitive to other people’s feelings.

Summary

To summarise, take these 5 factors into account when starting a side hustle as a corporate employee:

• Non-compete clauses
• Conflict of interest
• Disclosure
• Trust
• Respect

When you do, your employer has no reason to fire you because of your side hustle.

If you want to have a successful side hustle, you must talk about what you do so that people will find out about what you offer.

When you don’t do this, you’ll forever be in obscurity in an age where attention is the new currency of business. You can’t just build it and expect people to come. You have to shout it out from the rooftops.

Growing your business on the side of your 9 to 5 can feel challenging at times, but it is also very rewarding.

I’ve found it to be the perfect combination where I get to enjoy the perks of being an employee and the freedom that comes from being a business owner. You can have your cake and eat it too as long as you cover these 5 areas.

Good luck!

Take one step at a time and keep going,

Sharon

P.S. I use my 20+ years in HR and 10+ years of side hustling to help time-crunched corporate women start a side hustle. Book a call with me to find out if side hustling is for you and how to start if you’re still working a full-time job.