How I Created a System That Allows Me to Run a Side Business While Working a 9–5

I’m only two months into my business and I’m already thinking about scale.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

You’ve always been drawn to entrepreneurship.

You’re now looking to make the move, but want to take a calculated risk, so you’ve started a side hustle that has now turned into a proper business while still working a 9–5.

I started this year envisioning a life where I could really take control of my financial freedom and live the life I’ve always dreamt of. That is, building businesses and creating an impact.

Earlier in the year, I’ve slowly started to build out my own online content creation business. First, by publishing a book, and then by building up an educational brand online.

I’ve been doing this while working a 9–5 in tech.

Let’s be honest: in tech, the work is usually way more demanding than that. It’s not just as if you can completely unplug after 5 p.m. Often, you are left still thinking about a problem at work during the wee hours in the night.

I get it. It’s difficult and the idea of even starting yet another side thing is completely frightening.

But I did it. The biggest contributing factor to how I’m able to keep up with it all? Systems.

Just like a supply chain, I found, an effective system requires three things:

1. Input — in business, this often comes from suppliers as raw goods and components. For my system, the input was the ideas and raw thoughts by which I could create content from.
2. Process — similarly, businesses that produce physical goods have a manufacturing facility that contains well-run assembly lines that take the idea to output. This is the part of the system that does the magic. For my online education brand, the process was the step-by-step actions I take to take an idea all the way to becoming a video or a blog.
3. Output — ideas are only potential power. They are only as good as your use and organization of them. For physical goods businesses, this is the final product that then gets shipped to the end-user. For my brand, the output was content (e.g., videos on YouTube, blogs, websites).

Here’s how I build my business systems on Notion, Airtable, and a physical notebook:

In this video, I share the step-by-step instructions in how I build my system (with screen share to the tools I use).

Document. Document. Document.

Even before I started building an online education brand, I’ve been an avid information consumer.

I’ve been an avid documenter of everything I learn, whether it’s through books, podcasts, blogs, and videos.

First, I built up a process that allowed me to document and take notes really easily. Here, I use Notion and a paper notebook as my primary note-taking system.

I aim to ensure my future self would understand whatever heck I wrote (so, no chicken-scratch notes here), but I also needed a way to allow for free-form, creative thinking notes.

This is where my paper + digital methods come into play.

I’m a morning person, which means I do my best-structured way of work in the mornings. Alternatively, I do my best free-form, all-over-the-place thinking in the evenings.

I started to jot ideas in mindmaps and free-flowing notes on paper in the evenings, then I transform those notes into structured and cleaned versions in a digital format for my future reference.

This is where my system starts. I then sourced this personal knowledge base with ideas and thoughts on a subject.

My knowledge base became the supplier to my supply chain.

Create an Assembly Line for Your Process.

Next, I went on to document the key activities I did in certain projects (e.g., creation of YouTube videos). I went on to create a Kanban board for my tasks.

I would document every single task I needed to do in order to go from an idea to a published YouTube video that performs.

This allows you to delegate the process-remembering activity to a tool (I use Airtable) and lets you document your system in one place.

In the future, as I think about scaling myself and my business, I could now entrust this process to someone else when I grow my team or look to outsource specific tasks, like video editing or scriptwriting.

This also builds a database of content that I can then use to syndicate or re-use content for other outlets — scaling my reach and expanding the input to multiple outputs.

Start. Iterate. Then, Iterate Once More.

When I started all of this, I had to keep iterating.

I kept iterating on how I did think, so I could keep personally growing.

I kept iterating the system in order to keep making my system productive and efficient.

I kept iterating my tools and process in order to best suit my needs, my personality, and my routines.

That’s the key. Ultimately, your system will become your intellectual property and the heart of your business.

Keep iterating and building upon learnings every day.

I implemented all of the productivity hacks when it comes to managing my time, including:

• Beat Your Own Time: I would set a stopwatch on my iPhone whenever I would go do a task on my Kanban board, then I record the time and aim to beat my own time the next time. It’s how I keep my competitive self sane and challenge my past self in order to keep improving.
• Time Batching: As I went on to produce more content for my online brand, I realized the tasks that are similar, such as editing videos and taking photos, or copywriting and doing search engine optimization research. From here, I would batch similar tasks to avoid context switching.

Build Systems, Even if You’re Just Starting Out.

I’m only two months into my business and I’m already thinking about scale.

I’d encourage you to do the same, so that, when you do take the leap of faith to start a side hustle, you can build it up to become an actual business.

Think about a system that contains:

1. Input
2. Process
3. Output.

Keep iterating and tweaking based on what you learn every day, what suits your needs, and what suits your ambitions.

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