The thought of a career transition can feel overwhelming. But what if you have been working in a career that is no longer a great fit or worse yet, a job that is soul-sucking. Most of us have been there, right?

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Based on my experience over the last few years, there is an opportunity to build a side hustle and then transition your side hustle into a full-time career. It can be done with “micro” steps. Small steps where you can build the new career knowledge, if necessary, leverage your existing career experience while entering a new career. Ask yourself, “What problem am I looking to solve?”

The next question truly becomes, where do you start? Most discussion around a side hustle is to make additional streams of money, which is true; however, for our conversation, I feel it’s important to mention that your side hustle can also turn into a full-time career transition. Based on your specific skill set, it is possible! 

Here are a few ideas for how you can begin to create your side hustle, essentially the career life you wish to create!

First, begin by creating a side hustle road map. Do you have a new career idea or seeking to create one? These are two different scenarios. I’m discussing the former, ideal for people who know what they want to create. You’ll want to put your idea on paper first by creating your mission statement, target market, value proposition, financial budget, and time budget for your side hustle. Remind yourself during this process that your full-time job fuels your “why” – “why” you are doing the side hustle. Do your market research in this step.

Next, start telling people. Yes, you read that correctly, begin telling people about your side hustle. This could be the most terrifying step of them all – and it doesn’t need to be perfected yet. By telling the right people, your idea can blossom with energy. My transition into career coaching didn’t take flight until I began telling people with who I deemed as the best people to share my dream.

Once you have verbally validated your idea, give it a test run. Beta test your idea! By telling people in your inner circle whom you trust, these same people can be involved in your beta test and know of other people who would be interested. This is a great time to get feedback on what to tweak with your offerings.

After running a beta test, does the idea have viability for a side hustle or even better, a full-time career transition? What I have mentioned is just about getting started, initiating the idea. I have worked in the wellness and natural products industries for years and have seen this format roll out time and time again. Many people in these industries have gone from lawyers to owning a spa, accountants to starting a natural products brand, nurses to starting a holistic healing practice. I personally know these career dreamers who have started with a side hustle and turned their side hustles into a soul fulfilled career which has paid for vacations and to actually making more money than in their previous professional roles.