Ep6. How to Start a Side Hustle Without Jeopardizing Your Corporate Career

What if building wealth and financial security could start right alongside your 9-to-5?

In today’s episode, I’m tackling one of the most critical questions for corporate professionals with side hustle dreams: how to build a side business without risking your 9-to-5 job.

I’m sharing the story of an online coaching masterclass I attended where an unexpected (and questionable) piece of advice made me reconsider how side hustles should be done with a corporate career.

Instead of secrecy, I believe in building a side business with honesty, transparency and integrity. And today, I’ll walk you through exactly how to do that.

We'll dive into:

• How to clarify your ‘Why’ and long-term vision for your side hustle
• Why understanding your employment contract is essential before you begin
• Choosing a niche that won’t conflict with your corporate role
• How to approach your employer about your side hustle while keeping your professional integrity
• The importance of setting boundaries and managing your time so your side hustle can grow without impacting your day job

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to build on your side hustle journey, you’ll learn practical steps to build a business on a foundation of honesty, transparency, and integrity.

Ready to build something that aligns with your values and goals? You won’t want to miss this episode.


Links

Sign up for my Free live workshop, Taking Control of Your Financial Future on Your Terms, here

Connect with me on LinkedIn here

Check out my Instagram here

Transcript

  Welcome to the Hustle with Heels podcast. I'm your host, Cindy Excell, a corporate girl, start hustler, wife, and a mom of two. In 2020, I started my first start hustle as an online fitness coach while working in my corporate job as a private wealth manager. Over the years, I have been living proof that a corporate career And a side hustle can absolutely co exist in harmony.

Today, I'm helping corporate women and early stage entrepreneurs create wealth beyond that nine to five jobs and build an online business on their terms. On this podcast, I'll share my knowledge, strategies, and the stories that will help you start and grow your side hustle. Whether you are ready to diversify your income streams, or are looking to build a side business that aligns with your goals.

I'm here to support you every step of the way. Now, let's get started.  Hello, friend. Welcome back to Hustle with Heels podcast. Today, we are diving into a topic that's incredibly relevant for high achieving professionals looking to build a start business without jeopardizing that nine to five career. But first I want to share a quick story.

A few years ago, I attended an online coaching masterclass hosted by a quite well known business coach in the community I was in. During the session, one of the attendees raised a very relatable question. So he said that he wanted to start his coaching business, but he's also working in a corporate job.

And he wants to use LinkedIn as a platform. To share the content to grow his audience, but he's also worried about what if his employer found out and he asked this business coach what he should do. I was also eager to hear this coach's response, expecting some practical and ethical advice, but what came next left me quite a disappointment.

This coach suggested that this attendee create a second LinkedIn profile and keep it hidden from his employer. Well, as a side note, I actually don't know how you can hide your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn profile from someone because it is a open platform, especially if your goal is to grow audience.

Anyways, the moment I heard that I knew that I was in the wrong place. Integrity is non negotiable for me and building a business on the foundation of secrecy and lie just felt wrong. I immediately exit that masterclass, unfollowed the coach and never engaged with his content. So why am I telling you this story?

Thank you. Because starting and growing a sad hustle business while working in a 9 to 5 job can be complex and sensitive sometimes. But one thing I firmly believe is that your sad hustle should be built on integrity, honesty, and transparency. Yes, it is a delicate subject. Yes, there are boundaries and considerations to be mindful of as well, but there are ways to approach building your side hustle coaching business alongside your corporate career that align with your values and protect your professional integrity.

Here's the truth. You cannot create a sustainable and fulfilling side hustle coaching business based on a lie. It is as simple as that. You deserve to build something that reflects your true self, your value, not something you have to hide or lie about. So in today's episode, I will share my experience and what worked for me and my clients on this topic.

I will dive into how you can navigate the challenges of starting a side business while maintaining your corporate job, how to approach your journey with integrity and how to set the boundaries so that you feel confident in every step you take. First of all, you need to be crystal clear on why you want to start this side hustle business in the first place.

So ask yourself, why do I want to start this side business while maintaining my corporate career? What is my true intention or motivation? I'm not saying that you need to choose between your corporate job and your side hustle business. Not at all. But you need to get clear on your short term and long term goals and priorities.

Is your goal to climb the corporate ladder while nurturing a passion project on the side? Or is it to build something that one day might become your main source of income or even a legacy? Or is your goal to balance both because you are multi passionate and you want to enjoin the benefit of both corporate and entrepreneurship.

You need to define this for yourself and let that guide your decisions. Once you are clear on your short term and long term goals, then you can set your priorities. If your long term goal is to transition fully into entrepreneurship, your side hustle will need more strategic attention, such as what's the timeframe, how much income you need to generate from your side business, and how can you scale your side business so that you can truly build that financial security, et cetera.

But if you start a startup business because you want to create options and additional income streams and build a business of your own, but you are not yet ready to give up your corporate job, meaning you are seeking to maintain both roles in the medium or even longer term, you will need to balance them in a way that aligns with your career, your lifestyle and the financial goals.

So this clarity isn't about the choosing between your corporate career and your startup business. It is about understanding what you want and aligning your actions with that goal and the priority. So whether you pursue a career goal in a corporate environment, or you start your entrepreneurial journey with a bigger vision, you need to be really clear on what you really want.

And the choice you make and the actions you take should serve that purpose. Now that you are clear on your goals and priorities, you need to have a good understanding of your employment contract. So go back to your employment contract, review it in detail and identify any clauses about outside business activities.

Now, many contracts have some non compete agreements or conflict of interest clauses that concerning specific activities that in your industry, you must know what's allowed and what's not before you pick a niche for your side of business. You need to really understand whether there are specific rules about any outside work activities.

You need to understand your obligations as an employee and as a professional in your industry, what's allowed and what's not. If your contract requires full disclosure of external business activities, comply with it. Some roles even mandate that any outside activities, um, must be approved by the company.

So you need to be very clear on what those steps are. In my experience, whether or not it has been clearly stated in your contract, it's always a good practice to communicate that to your manager or your company about your outside business activities. Now, in terms of how to approach them, I will talk about that in a second in more detail.

So this step might seem intimidating and uncomfortable, but I truly believe that the transparency is key. Avoiding that could lead to potential conflicts down the road, which may put you in a very awkward position later on. Once you're clear on what's required in your contract, so choosing your niche is one of the most important steps.

You want to pick something that does not create a conflict of interest with your current corporate job. This is especially important if your side hustle falls into the same industry as your corporate role. There are usually two main rules you can take when choosing the side hustle niche without conflicts.

Rule number one is that choose a completely different industry. So this approach helps separate your two roles and reduce the risk of any overlap or any conflicts. For example, if you work in finance, a side hustle in fitness coaching would be distinct enough. And that's exactly what I did with my first side hustle.

Rule number two is that choose a complimentary business to your corporate job. What I meant is that choosing the niche that is related but doesn't directly compete or create conflicts to your corporate role. This is especially important if your side hustle falls into  The same industry as your corporate role.

For example, if you are in marketing, but you don't really use social media for your corporate job, then offering general consulting or calls on social media tactics can be complimentary personally. I prefer picking something in the completely different industry. This makes it easier to separate your corporate career from your side hustle and the maintain peace of mind, knowing that your side of business has nothing to do with your corporate jobs. 

Now you've picked your niche, which has no conflict of interest to your corporate job. The next step is that you need to work out how you are going to approach your employer. How are you going to break the news? I believe that the best way is to be honest and have open communication with your employer.

Sometimes this can feel daunting or even feel, you know, very uncomfortable to tell your employer about your side hustle. In my view, being honest, transparent, and full disclosure is always the best approach. The goal is to let your employer know that starting your side business is not going to have any adverse impact on your 9 to 5 job and your job performance.

This shows integrity and builds trust. You need to show them that your side hustle won't interfere with your nine to five responsibilities, and there is no conflict of interest. You can even walk them through how your side business works, what it involves, if you want to, but you don't have to. Let them know that how you plan out your time to work on your side of business.

You can even let them know that how the skills you learn from your side hustle can actually even benefit your corporate job, because in many cases they actually do so that your employer also have peace of mind that you will not blend your company, you know, hours with your side hustle. From my own experience and many corporate professionals I know who also have side hustles.

Many employer these days are actually quite open minded as long as you fully disclose, demonstrate to them how you will separate your corporate job from your side business and stay on top of the performance at your job. Once you have the green light from your employer, it's best to even get that approval in writing.

This precaution can actually protect you in case of management change and help avoid any potential disputes later on.  Now, for some people, you might come across an employer who does not accept your side hustle business. If this is the case, then you need to go back to your why. You need to really go back to What we discussed earlier at the beginning of this podcast about your goals, your priorities, and you also need to consider your current financial situation, your financial commitments, and the people you also support around you, et cetera.

So this can be a very difficult situation, especially if you have a bigger vision for your side hustle, because this is a question that only you can answer. And you need to be clear on what you really want and how this will impact you in the short term and the longterm as well. Lastly, after you've got a green light from your employer, let's talk about managing your side hustle alongside your full time job.

Now, when you start a new online coaching business, you are very passionate about it. You can't stop talking about it. You wish you could work on all your new ideas in and on your business. So this is where setting boundaries comes in. Because although you are now a business owner, but during the weekdays, during your normal nine to five hours, you still have responsibilities to your employer as an employee.

So being responsible as an employee means setting clear boundaries between your job and your business. This is critical. For example, do not use company time to work on your business. Do not use company resources or assets for your side hustle business. This is not only unethical, but it could also violate your company policies and put you in a bad position.

Keeping a clean line between your two roles will help maintain professional integrity. In addition, at this stage, it's even more important that you stay on top of your performance at your corporate job. Why? Because the moment your employer sees a drop in your work quality or performance, it could raise red flags.

The last thing you want is for your start business to be perceived as a distraction for your nine to five job. If you plan to still stay in this job for a little longer. Now, time management and, uh, Productivity are your best friends here. Plan out your week strategically, blocking specific times outside your company working hours for your side business, because they will help you stay consistent without compromising your corporate roles.

Next week on this episode, I'm actually going to share with you more about that. I'm going to share with you the habits that have helped me build my side hustle business while working in corporate. So if you're interested, make sure to tune in next week's episode. To wrap up, starting a start business while maintaining a corporate job requires clarity, honesty, integrity, and discipline.

Be crystal clear on why you are starting and understanding your employment contract. Choose a niche that avoids conflicts, have open communication with your employer, and set strong boundaries between the two roles. It's not just about building a start business. It's about building it the right way while you are still in your nine to five.

Now, if you are interested in creating wealth through a start hustle business, then you should join my free live workshop, taking control of your financial future on your terms next week. It will be held on zoom on Tuesday next week, which is the 12th of November at 7 PM Australian Eastern. They lost him.

It's time. And the replay is also available upon registration. Make sure to check out the link in the show notes below. Thank you for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who's also considering starting a start hustle. And if you have any questions or want to hear more about this topic, reach out to me on LinkedIn or Instagram at Cindy Excell.

I'd love to include your insights in a future episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Hustle with Heels podcast. I hope this episode has inspired you to take action towards your sad hustle dream. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a second to rate and review it. Each review helps me help more corporate women and early stage entrepreneurs just like you.

Don't forget to take a screenshot, share it in your Instagram stories or on LinkedIn and check me at Cindy Excell. I will see you next week.