Brand Building

2021 Brand Booster: The Professional Side Hustle

Your goal of taking your livelihood into your own hands is the new normal. We have some ideas about how you can supercharge your efforts.

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December 18, 2020

As an everyday entrepreneur, you are no longer the outlier.Your goal of taking your livelihood into your own hands is the new normal. We have some ideas about how you can supercharge your efforts. 2021, friends, is yours for the hustling…

Key insights

1. If you’ve been contemplating a side hustle, now is the perfect time to go for it. Nurturing a tiny business for extra income, and taking that chance to live your dream, is the new normal.


2. Witnessing the devastation of the pandemic on small business, consumers are also more aware, and supportive, of the little guy. It follows that the more small businesses start up, the more in tune with grassroots entrepreneurship we all become.


3. Adapt, innovate and evolve. Agility and resilience are essential. The uncertainty of the coming years will require businesses to be light on their feet, which puts the everyday entrepreneur like you at an advantage.


4. The e-commerce opportunity is gigantic…and the barrier to entry has never been lower. Combining DIY platforms with some basic design and branding consideration, you can easily start competing for your share in a global marketplace.


5. Platforms and systems have been democratized. Easy-to-use products and tools that offer professional results, supported by expert assistance, are yours for the taking. Content creation, marketing strategy, and design are easily self-taught.


6. Gen-Z is the side hustle generation.Regardless of your age, this generation of consumers is redefining traditional ideas of commerce. Flow into this new paradigm, filled with myriad opportunities… or ignore it at your peril.

*All of the templates you see here are available right now in Over, and can easily be customized for your brand!

The P Word

We’ve all probably heard and used the word ‘pivot’ more than we’d like to admit in 2020. But rapidly shifting your business’ strategy and operations in a new direction is a lot easier said than done – and it’s a problem proportionate to the size of your business. A speedboat would’ve been able to swerve around the iceberg that the Titanic couldn’t avoid… just saying.

2021 is the year to take things up a notch– and create a personality for your brand.

Keep Things Lean ‘n Mean

In 2020 we witnessed the value of being lean, agile, economical, innovative, gritty; able to absorb the blows, get right back up, and keep on keeping on.  If you’re an entrepreneur running a small business, or a side hustler trying to make a big dream come true, this probably sounds like you before the pandemic even dawned on us. Being the scrappy little guy puts you in good stead to thrive in uncertain times. Your training has made you strong.

If 2020 forced your hand, and you’ve had to find new ways to generate an income – to pivot towards running your own business – then 2021 might just be the best possible time to get into the small biz dojo, and start doing your daily push-ups.  

A consistent visual brand style will make it easier to run campaigns across platforms.

The World At Your Fingertips

For one thing, getting an online business up and running has never been cheaper or easier. You can get your own domain name, website, online shop, SEO strategy, ads, analytics, social media designs, and unique brand identity for less than 20 bucks a month, on a single platform, and put it all together yourself in days. Hours, if you’re in a real hurry. With technology taking care of all the complicated stuff, you’re free to harness your own creativity as a valuable asset in building your dream.

Creativity doesn’t only apply to design. Running your own business is an opportunity for you to share fresh ideas and approaches with the world, to challenge the status quo. You can create the type of business culture or service that you’d like to experience, and take advantage of brave new ways of doing things in a brave new world. Just imagine…

Show up consistently, and stylishly.

Level Up

As we’ll read more about later, personal development and learning is another dam that broke in 2020. Building a professional marketing and promotion pipeline – from registering a domain name to designing your own logo, business cards, website, and posters – really is something you can do yourself. All the knowledge and support you need is freely available, and taking some time to learn these valuable skills is a worthwhile (and very satisfying) project to undertake. You might be surprised at how awesome you can make your brand look, when you put your mind to it.  


Social media platforms provide an equal playing field for big and small brands alike. Attracting customers in this hyper-crowded marketplace is ultimately a game of attention – and that game can be won, with beautiful design and consistent branding.

 

Carpe Diem

Taking your marketing, e-commerce, design, and SEO into your own hand isn’t just empowering, it saves you a small fortune. Rather use what marketing dollars you have for promoting posts, and paying for ads. With such a low barrier to entry into the market, it makes it less scary to take that first step – even if that means with a free trial, after work, and on weekends. You don’t need much money on the table to try out the game, so you might as well roll the dice.  

Nurturing a side hustle for added financial security is smart, if you can do it. In a world where (as we all now know) anything can happen, why not take a bet on your craziest dream coming true? We see it happening around use every day, whether that dream is selling bowties, or corn grits. Life is short; that’s the other thing we’ve come to value a little more. Expect to see more people following the path of their passion in a post-pandemic world, with renewed appreciation of our freedom, and humanity.

Brand your side hustle professionally, and we'll all start to see it that way.

Join the Global Marketplace

Spurred on by half a year of being confined to our homes and having to order more stuff online, e-commerce will continue to infiltrate our lives, further opening up an already gigantic opportunity in 2021 and beyond. Re-selling, making, and trading represent some of the most common side hustle opportunities, all of which exploded this year. With DIY tools capable of automating the shopping experience to be as simple for your customers as they’d experience with any mega-brand, it makes no difference whether your store is based on the high street, or your bedroom.  

With GoDaddy, you can set up your own online shop, and replicate its presence on Amazon, Etsy, Instagram, or Facebook by simply checking a couple of boxes. Boom! You’re a global enterprise.


Even if you're a one-person business, you can still create a world-class impression.

First Impressions Count

Little as you might be in the early stages of building your own brand, our advice is to go out into the world with supreme confidence, and create a first impression of seasoned professionalism. Fake it ‘til you make it… or rather, let your experience catch up with your persona in due course. Aim to portray the best version of your brand from the get-go.

The best way to do this is with a beautiful and consistent brand identity. Start by developing your brand’s story, designing a logo, and then gradually build up your own customized fonts, graphics, images, and colors. Put on your best dress, and take your place at the cocktail party. We have a feeling you’re going to be a big hit…

Ultimately, your brand should have its own unique visual identity, and templates to use consistently. Over makes this easy enough to do yourself.

3 Things You Can Do Today

1. If you’ve been contemplating a side hustle, now is the perfect time to give it a go. Start the Instagram account, buy the domain, and try making a website for free. Everybody’s doing it, it’s never been easier or cheaper to look pro and go global, and – who knows? It might just work out splendidly.


2. If you do have a small business or side hustle, take it up a notch in 2021. Create a beautiful, consistent brand identity. And if you already have one, what better time could there be to refresh it, for a sparkling new year? Our ‘Brand New Brand’ toolkit can help you do this step-by-step.


3. Get on all the platforms (the ones that make sense for your product or service, that is) with a consistent look and feel. Showing up regularly on a range of platforms – from Google to Etsy to IGTV – is a guaranteed way to grow an audience, and a business. With a brand identity kit in place, it’s easy to multiply designs across different formats, and get recognized wherever you show up.

Find all of these templates – and thousands more – in Over. Make them your own with customized colors, fonts, and graphics, and take your side hustle to the next level in 2021. This is the year it happens!

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