Some people are entrepreneurs from the get go. They’ve been negotiating from the days of their first lemonade stand. Other people blossom as an entrepreneur later in life, and they might still be in a full time job.

How do we make sure we gain success with our side hustle when we are doing it alongside our day job? We still need the income and security of the day job, but we know the side hustle will take off if we put in maximum effort.

Here are 4 ways you can succeed while working your day job:

1. Plan your time when you get home

It’s easy to get back after a 30-minute commute, put your feet up on the sofa and relax; well this isn’t the time to start doing that! You have four precious hours from when you set foot through that door to when you go to bed, make them count.

At the beginning of the week write down how many spare hours you’re going to have after work. Factor in your commute from your place of work and time for food. Then build a plan for that week set goals with times, instead of: “Build the new website for selling goods”. Set the following goal: “Spend 1 hour on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night on the new website”.

This will give you clearer definition, an agreed timescale and proves to yourself that you’re using the time after your day job wisely.

“Stop whining, start hustling.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

2. Squeeze extra hours out of the day

What time does the average worker wake up to leave for work? Let’s say 6:30 to leave an hour later? Then what do they do with that hour? Sit on their phone checking their latest social media accounts? What a waste of time.

How much more could you get done if you woke up at 5:30am, and left at the same time of 7:30am for your commute? That’s two extra hours you have to grind towards success, whilst everyone else is sleeping.

Committing to these two extra hours every morning you’ll walk into your day job with the following thoughts:

1. You’ll be much more positive as you’ve already made a change to your life that morning. You’ve written an inspirational blog post, or sold another service, moving towards your personal goals aside from your day job.
2. You’ll feel more energised compared to the other staff at your day job. They’ve soaked up all the negativity from social media, and still half asleep.

3. Write ideas down during the day

We can use the day job to our advantage, by finding solutions to problems. Solutions will come out of nowhere for problems that you may be having away from your day job. The problem is we’re not at our desks at home to act on them straight away, we can’t write that inspirational blog post, or sketch out our new product idea.

This is where the single most important object of my life comes in, my notebook. Write down whatever comes to mind, don’t think, just write. You may think you’re writing down the silliest idea you’ve ever had, but trust me that’s when the best ideas can come. We forget the best ideas can stem from the most insignificant idea, history tells us this.

Then when you get home you can scan through your notebook picking out all your ideas, thoughts and solutions. There will be some gems in there that you would have forgotten about. The practice of writing something down scribes it in our subconscious, and gives us a much better chance of remembering it in the future.

“Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you.” – Henry J. Kaiser

4. Remember your day job doesn’t define you

In this day and age people are impressed by the letters after their names, or titles on their business cards. No job title will ever define you.

The head of a company may have Director on their business card, but it doesn’t mean that they are a leader; it might just mean they are great at instilling fear into people.

You have so many talents that can not be written on a business card: “Go-getter, Personal Developer, An Inspiration, Motivator”. These are the real traits that will get you far in life so stop comparing yourself to your manager or your director. You focus on your success, don’t worry what other people say they are or what they’re doing, what you do to progress and enhance your life defines you.

These steps are foundations to help turn your side hustle into your everyday hustle. It will take hard work, but trust me it will be sweeter than any promotion given to you by someone else, because you will have done it yourself.

How do you manage your side hustle while working a day job? Leave your thoughts below!