Side-Hustle to Day job: Why your side hustle should be your day job

To live in Nigeria, you need seven streams of income, at least a million naira vex money, and a 12 million naira annual income. That’s a near unattainable stretch for most Nigerians, but we can all agree that to simply exist in Nigeria, you need much more than a regular job. You need something extra.

This is where side hustles come in. 

A side hustle, according to Merriam-Webster, the mother of all definitions, is work performed for income supplementary to one’s primary job.

Basically, it’s any work you do besides your main job that supports your income and helps you keep up with your financial needs and rising inflation. 

Side hustles are often jobs that aren’t as time-consuming or work-intensive as regular day jobs. They could be a part-time job or an entirely new business—anything that lets people make something extra while keeping their day jobs. 

These can sometimes be difficult to find. If there was an easy way to make the most money in the minimum time spent, you probably wouldn’t be working at your day job. But desperate times call for creativity. And this is where side hustles get interesting. 

Because of the conditions that give birth to some side hustles, especially the ones that are new businesses, they have the potential to be more fulfilling and more profitable than a lot of day jobs. They are less time-consuming, scalable, more flexible, and worth a lot more than working in, let's say, a government institution.

However, a lot of people don’t seem to realize this. Or they see the potential but choose to look the other way because of the security and certainty the day jobs provide. 

Working a day job at an established institution means working under an organized body with a proven track record and a boss who has a history of success. If that day job is for the government, then you don’t even have to do much besides showing up to work, and your salary is secured. The day jobs take a lot of weight off a Nigerian’s shoulders. However, we’ve gotten to a point in the economy where the purchasing power of one’s salary can be eroded overnight. 

At times like this, a job or business with the potential to be scalable becomes ideal, instead of something that can only provide security. 

With a side hustle, you don’t just get to have an extra income; you get to have a means of income that grows in part as you dictate or something that allows you to earn money while having most of the day to do other things. That’s two kinds of leverage you have to make more income. 

Let’s also not forget that side hustles could be businesses that provide actual value. 

A lot of people get creative with the things they want to do on the side, especially when those things are actual businesses. Something that seems as little as selling bed sheets online could turn out to be a valuable business idea if you have the right audience, and it could grow into massive scales with the right strategies. That’s a more profitable and fulfilling source of income than a day job. 

Nigerians could do much better if they focused on their side hustles instead of their day jobs. 

But this isn’t absolute. And it certainly doesn’t mean people shouldn’t work day jobs. 

A 9-5 could put you in a position to earn a reasonable income if you weren’t earning much already. It will put you in a position to gain experience and expertise in a given field, which will help you later on if you try to start a business. 

9 to 5s could also be very scalable. As you gain experience working for a company or organization, you don’t have to be limited to that same place. You always have the option of applying to some place else that has a better office and better pay than what you presently do. You could also just work abroad remotely. 

The options are endless, but you should consider paying attention to that side hustle. It might just be your ticket out of the trenches.

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