Whether you’re a blogger, selling a physical or digital product, running a part-time online business can not only be fun but profitable too. Sometimes it can even be more profitable than your full-time job. Working part-time online is also a great way to reduce your risk while you unleash your entrepreneurial skills. My name’s Andrew and I run my own part-time online business, with my wife, Amy, called Aubrey Bay. In this post, I’ll cover my 5 best tips for running a part-time online business and I’m sure there will be some great actionable ideas should you wish to give it a go.

 

Running a part-time business in the UK

When I started running my first part-time online business, I started in the world of blogging. Blogging is a great way to earn an additional income and it’s exciting to work with lots of different people and brands.

My first blogs were in health and lifestyle. However, it wasn’t until I launched my third blog which was a financial-technology blog until I realised how profitable a part-time job could be.

I ran that blog for 3 years and left it sitting nicely on Google page 1 after a third party made me an offer to buy it. Sometimes you have to sell something you love if it makes commercial sense.

And now I help my wife run her candle company website, blog and social media. She is the creative behind the brand and really loves bringing beautiful, affordable luxury products to UK candle lovers.

So here are my top best 5 tips for running a part-time online business.

Running a part-time online business – understanding your investment

When you start a part-time business, there are two important ‘investments’ you need to get to grips with. The first is money. How much is it going to cost you financially to launch? It’s always a good idea to create a cost projection or cost plan.

Knowing your expenditure and revenue projections will not only give you a clear sense of where you’re going but it will help you save money along the way.

Secondly, is the time investment you will be putting into the business. What is part-time to you? Is it 5 hours per week? 10 hours? Remember that your time investment needs to be repaid by the business. It’s quite easy to undervalue, or not even value, your own time which leads to burnout.

Running a part-time online business – family and friends

When you commit to launching a new venture, while keeping the day job, this will put pressure on your family time. You’ll have to work evenings and weekends. This is possible but needs to be managed carefully as not to deny your significant others your full attention.

In our case, Amy and I run Aubrey Bay together. We share jobs and we work as a team which actually means we spend a lot of great creative time together.

Running a part-time online business – time management

When you launch your business, you’ll be taking on a greater weekly workload. Being super disciplined will be a necessity for success.

Sometimes I like to get up around 6 am on a Saturday morning. When the world is quiet, this is a great time to write content, prepare social media pushes and balance the books.

I also finding having a clear to-do list will help crystallise exactly what needs to be done and when.

Running a part-time online business – relationships

In business, success never comes from being an island. Reach out to customers. Reach out to people who work in your industry. Engage with bloggers, vloggers and influencers.

Since launching Aubrey Bay, I have worked with many inspiring people who I’ll stay in touch with throughout my whole journey.

People genuinely like to help and when they do you can repay them back over the long term by supporting them with their goals and projects.

Opportunities to collaborate are only an email or message away and can lead to amazing win-win projects.

 Running a part-time online business – embrace failure

Perhaps the best tip for running a part-time online business is to embrace failure. And embrace it effectively. There’ll be many challenges along the way and when you have invested so much in a venture setbacks can be difficult to deal with.

If we reframe failure as a positive experience, that allows us to learn and grow, and then failure becomes a point of improvement.

For example, when we launched Aubrey Bay, we relied on our own marketing efforts to sell our candles. We didn’t make the most of an affiliate programme of high-powered, creative influencers to help us reach our sales target. Many of them who are infinitely more gifted than us at putting a spot light on our brand.

We, therefore, implemented a candle affiliate programme for UK influencers and immediately our sales increased. We only learned this by making the mistake of not putting it in first!

5 Best Tips for Running a Part-Time Online Business

And that’s my top tips. There are so many exciting niche indie brands in the world today. If you’re thinking of giving online entrepreneurship a go, I hope some of these ideas will give you an insight into the process. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

About the Author

Andrew Crossland is the co-founder of Aubrey Bay hand-poured candle company, UK. Andrew and Amy’s goal is to bring beautiful, affordable luxury candles to UK homes.