Side hustles: Building real businesses  

Majority of workers in employment struggle to adequately and sustainably cover their costs of living using their salaries.

Thus, they experience a financial squeeze, which requires one to take deliberate and long-term plans to free oneself.

For instance, this can be achieved through saving and investing a portion of your earnings into a side business, which, if well run, has the potential to become a real income generator and a source of employment for you and others. 

Charles Ocici, the Enterprise Uganda executive director, says working for a salary can never be perpetual.

There will always be reasons and seasons for one to stop, because of termination, voluntary resignation, and hitting retirement age,  noting that it is safer to transition into an already running private enterprise.

“At some point, leaving employment will be inevitable; it may even be a risk; however, one strategic approach that offers a safety net and absorbs the shocks and increases the chances of long-term success is establishing a side business before quitting formal employment,” Ocici said at a one-week financial literacy session under the Entrepreneurship and Business Skills Programme, which seeks to benefit salaried employees running or planning to establish side businesses. 

Formal employment, Ocici says, provides a consistent and predictable income and related benefits such as loans and mortgages, and quitting such security without tested alternatives can lead to financial hardship.

But failure to invest while still in employment, he says, can limit progress in life.

The perils of getting out of employment have been shared widely.

Recently, Hassan Kasingye, a retired senior police officer, said that if someone invests while still employed, when such a person retires, he or she has a better chance of enhancing an already existing business than one who starts after retiring.

Ronald Mugasha, a human resource expert, says that whereas formal employment provides transferable skills such as communication, project management, budgeting, and customer service, many employees do not take advantage of such skills to run their side businesses. 

“Maintaining a job while managing a side business allows one to leverage their existing skills that can be replicated while running a side enterprise,” he says. 

Building networks

Janat Owomugisha, started a car hire business as a side hustle while at a Kenyan tour and travel firm, which allowed her to test ideas. 

Whereas it was challenging, it refined her business acumen and allowed her to develop a customer base without the pressure of generating immediate income. 

“My job granted me access to professional networks, mentorship, and industry-specific insights. These were instrumental when launching my side business,” she says. 

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