How to grow a side business while working a full-time job
Balancing a full-time job with a growing side business creates severe burnout and makes it difficult to decide where to invest time and money. When dealing with extreme exhaustion and competing priorities, people struggle to figure out what to focus on first without wasting funds on inventory or advertising.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Taking time off using savings
- 2Signing a contract for a new traditional job to secure income
- 3Starting small with a few sales through a resale app
- 4Growing organically through Reddit
- 5Participating in physical craft markets
- 6focus on learning and validating the clothing brand rather than trying to make everything perfect from the start
- 7keep your finances organized and separate business and personal money
- 8learn the basics yourself and pay for professionals when needed
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“How do you guys find the time to manage social, educational and productive time?”source ↗
“The problem is now that I’ve realized how burned out I am and I’m dreading going back.”source ↗
“What I’m struggling with is whether I’d be stupid to keep spending money on inventory, putting time into the business, and doing all the other things that come with trying to grow while I’m working my regular job.”source ↗
“I’ve recently started a tiny creative subscription business in the UK and I’m trying to work out how to grow it sensibly without throwing loads of money at advertising.”source ↗
“I currently have 10 paying subscribers, and I’m doing this alongside a full-time 9-5 job.”source ↗
“I’m trying to figure out what I should actually be prioritising at this stage.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 9How to balance wedding planning with a full time job
- 6How to quit a corporate job to start your own business
- 2How to date when teaching leaves you with zero emotional energy
- 4Finding a flexible part-time accounting job while in college
- 17How to go back to school while working full time with a family
- 14Why are teachers expected to be available 24/7?