The Ultimate Guide to Making 6 Figures As a Part-Time Entrepreneur

Imagine all the things you could do if you were earning 6 figures. While 6 figures may seem out of reach for you, we’re here to tell you it’s not. You can actually make six figures part-time as an entrepreneur. That means you don’t have to leave your stable job or give up your dream job to become a millionaire. However, if you were looking for an exit strategy for your current job, starting part-time as a freelancer can empower you to quit your job. 

Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’re here to give you a couple of 6 figure business ideas we have used and swear by.

This blog post may contain affiliate links which means we get commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no extra cost to you.

5 WAYS TO MAKE 6 FIGURES PART-TIME AS AN ENTREPRENEUR | SHE BOSS TALK

Can I Really Make 6 Figures As A Part-Time Entrepreneur?

Absolutely!

To be clear, a part-time entrepreneur is someone who has a full-time job and is running a business on the side. 

There are many examples of people who started a business on the side and have the business end up bringing in more money than their job. 

One great example is Jennifer Shealey. Shealey told CNBC that even though she had two part-time jobs, her freelancing income outpaced her salary. She made over $366,000 in sales freelancing. 

Shealey is not alone. Luisa Zhou made six figures within the first four months of starting her business while working a 9-5. 

Jennifer and Luisa are both women of color who made six figures from their business and you can too. 

It’s time to put earning 6 figures on your vision board to remind yourself that it’s possible. 

6 Figure Business Ideas 

By now, you must be eager to know what kind of businesses can yield six figures on a part-time basis. 

The great news is there are tons of ways you can earn six figures in entrepreneurship. Here are five 6 figure business ideas we recommend:

1. Becoming a Social Media Content Creator
2. Selling Digital Products 
3. Acquiring Corporate and Government Contracts 
4. Becoming an Affiliate Marketer 
5. Network Marketing

The key is doing some research to see which business idea is the best for you given your current situation. 

However, you can absolutely start a business while working full time AND make 6 figures. 

Becoming a Social Media Content Creator 

If you have any type of expertise, you can become a social media content creator. Being a social media content creator is one of the more popular 6 figure business ideas that you can start ASAP.

If you have an online business or even a brick-and-mortar business, you can earn money online by creating content about your business. 

Many of you are sitting on content that can make you six figures easily. 

As a social media content creator you can make money from:

• Adsense
• Brand deals
• Advertising your own products and services

In addition to that, you can make content for other people as a freelance graphic designer, social media copywriter, digital marketing expert, and more. You can absolutely start as a freelancer and eventually start hiring people, creating courses, digital products and more, while working a 9-5. 

Even if you’re creating content for others,  you’ll still want to create content for yourself to generate leads, book clients, and establish another stream of income. 

To get started with content creation you have to:

1. Decide who your content will be created for

No, everybody is not the right answer, You may have to do some research to find out more about people who need your content and make sure it’s geared towards them.

 For example, if you’re a working mom, you can create content helping mothers balance work and family. To be even more specific, you can target younger moms, older moms with a more demanding career, or single moms. 

2. Pick a platform

Pick one that you want to focus on first. When picking a platform, consider where your target audience is hanging out. For example, continuing with the working mom example, depending on the age range you may opt for TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. You can find stats about the ages of its users after a quick Google search. 

You can also ask your target audience where they spend their time by sending by doing an IG poll, sending around a survey, or employing other research methods. 

In addition to that, we suggest picking a platform that has a partnership program that will pay you for your content. Pretty much every platform has some type of partnership where you can make money. 

However, YouTube is at the top of the list. There are so many ways you can make money on YouTube. 

YouTube is the second largest search engine and a gem for business owners and anyone else to start earning money. If you’re interested in succeeding on YouTube, watch our YouTube masterclass so you can get the tools to start earning ASAP.

3. Get started 

This is the hardest part for most people. You don’t even fancy equipment when you’re just starting out. 

For graphics, you can start with Canva or you can hire a graphic designer to create them for your social media accounts. 

If you want to create videos, and we recommend you do, you can get a reasonably priced ring light and microphone to get started. 

4. Create content consistently 

This is the tricky part. Creating content consistently takes planning. Be hornets with yourself about how often you can create and publish content without burning yourself out. 

A great way to do that is to create a content calendar. If you’re going to post once a week, write down what date you’ll record, what date you’ll post and what the content will be about. 

One awesome hack that busy entrepreneurs use all the time is to batch content. That means creating many pieces of content in advance and scheduling them. 

That way you can show up online consistently without scrambling to create content. 

5. Engage with your community 

Sure, big influencers and celebrities can get away with posting content and ignoring comments. However, as a smaller creator, it’s best to be as engaging as possible. 

That means replying to comments, commenting under other people’s posts, responding to DMs.

You can set aside 15 minutes per day to engage with your audience even if you’re not posting anything that day. 

If you’re strapped for time, you can employ someone to engage for you, just make sure they have your tone and brand voice down. 

Selling Digital Products 

Selling digital products is a great way to make a 6 figure income passively. This is especially great for people who are busy. Of course, you’ll have to create a digital product or you could pay someone to do it. The only thing you’ll have to consistently do after that is market it. 

Before you think that you could never pull this off, consider going through your documents and journals. 

You can package information you already have for your target audience. For example, we were getting many grants during the pandemic. At the same time, we got tons of emails asking us how to get grants. We quickly realized that many business owners who really needed grants were not getting them. 

We started to document our winning grant strategy and packaged it as a digital product. Our graphic designer took my writing and branded it with Canva. We then uploaded it to Payhip and now it’s for sale. 

As of today, it’s our top-selling product and has generated 6 figures for our business!

What Kind of Digital Products Can I Sell?

There are many types of digital products you can sell. We mostly sell masterclasses on demand as well as checklists and ebooks.

You can sell:

• Checklists
• Masterclasses
• Courses
• Ebooks

Even though your content doesn’t have to be fancy, try to make it visually appealing. We often use Canva, you can do that. In addition to that, you can hire graphic designers on a per-project basis to create high-quality products for your business. 

Where Can I Sell Digital Products?

There are a ton of different platforms you can host your digital products on. We recommend Payhip. Payhip doesn’t charge us a monthly or yearly fee to host our products. All they do is take a minimal amount of each sale. 

Payhip allows us to host our ebooks and masterclass bundles so if that’s what you’re planning on hosting, you can use them. 

You can sell digital products on:

• Your Website- Owning the domain you sell your products on is always a great idea. You can create a sales page that compels people to buy and get 6 figures on a monthly or yearly basis. 
• Amazon- If you’re selling ebooks, Amazon is a great place to do so. We suggest looking at ebooks that are similar to yours. Read the comments. What did people like about those ebooks? What did they dislike? Use that to create an original and valuable product.
• Thinkific- Thinkific is a platform you can host courses on. If you’re thinking about creating a course and need help doing it, this is a great platform. Their plans range from $0 to $399 and so can fit any budget. 

There are many platforms out there, ask around, do your research and find one that works for you and your business. 

Acquiring Corporate and Government Contracts 

Part-time entrepreneurs can bring in 6 figures from acquiring corporate or government contracts. As a matter of fact, in some cases, one contract is valued at 6 figures. Before you opt for these contracts, make sure that your business is registered. 

Corporate Contracts 

Just so we’re clear, a corporate contract in this case is one offered to you by a business. Businesses may ask you to come in and train their staff in an area of expertise. If you have a food business they may hire you to cater an event. The possibilities are endless.

Want to position your small business to get a corporate contract? Chron says:

• Reach out to the decision-makers of businesses you want to work with. We suggest using LinkedIn. Chron says to make sure you approach them with a clear purpose and do a great job of marketing your products and services. 
• Make sure you have a website.
• Have a business email, not a Gmail or Yahoo!. For example, hello@shebosstalk.com
• Make sure you let them know how they can contact you

Government Contracts 

Government contracts are contracts given by government entities such as the federal government. 

Did you know the US government is the single largest procurer of goods and services in the world?

Therefore, if you have a business, chances are, the government is looking for your goods or services. 

We already created a detailed guide on government contracts for beginners that cover:

• What you need to get government contracts
• Types of certifications 
• Where to find government contracts

If you are seriously ready to get government contracts, we suggest watching our masterclass that’s available on demand. 

Become an Affiliate Marketer 

If you’re not an affiliate marketer, make that your goal this year.

An affiliate marketer is someone who advertises products or services for a business and gets paid when their content leads to a sale.

We love affiliate marketing and even have affiliates ourselves. Our affiliates help us to market our Payhip products. When someone uses their unique link to make a purchase, we pay them 30% of the sale. 

You can commission affiliates to sell your digital products using Shopify, Payhip, or other platforms. It’s a great way to get your products in front of more people.

In addition to that, you can sign up to be an affiliate with other companies, such as:

• She Boss Talk
• Amazon
• Wix
• Shopify 

The amount of money you can be paid will vary from company to company. However, you can be an affiliate for multiple companies and that will definitely help you to earn 6 figures. 

You can post your affiliate links on your social media platforms, your blog, your email list, and anywhere else you have an audience.

Each affiliate program has specific terms and conditions and so read them carefully beforehand. 

When you find an affiliate program that works for you, start creating content then prepare to earn!

Network Marketing

Network marketing can be simplified as word-of-mouth marketing. You basically help sell products and services of another business to your network. 

Examples of companies that do network marketing are Mary Kay and Avon. We partner with David Allen Capital. We didn’t need to pay for anything at all. As a matter of fact, we just took our time to learn the business and see how they can help our audience. If you’re interested, you can partner with them too by clicking the hyperlink above. 

Network Marketing Tips

When picking a company to do network marketing for, make sure that you:

• Research. Not all companies that use this business model are the same. Find out what’s being said about these companies. People who used to work for them are a great resource. 
• Make sure the company aligns with your values.
• Check out their compensation packages. They don’t all offer the same amount.
• Seek legal advice before you sign any contract. 

Tips For Making 6 Figures As a Part-Time Entrepreneur

There are many people who employ these 6 figure business ideas who make 6 figures and many people who don’t. If you want to increase your chance follow these tips:

Focus on building your community

If you don’t have a community that trusts you, you won’t make much money doing either of the business ideas we mentioned. Focus on getting to know your community and engaging with them. In addition to that don’t forget to be authentic. 

You can start as a freelancer

Starting your business as a freelancer can put you on the path to earning six figures. You can do that by getting your own clients via a website or by using a freelance platform like Fiverr. Many freelancers have a full-time job and freelance when they can. Others really take off, start earning more than their job pays them and then employ more of the ideas we gave. 

Learn copywriting or hire a copywriter

You can create awesome digital products and promote valuable businesses as an affiliate but if your copywriting skills are lacking, it will seriously hinder how much money you’ll earn. One tried and true copywriting tip is to focus on the benefits when you’re trying to promote something. 

It takes work to earn 6 figures

You can employ any of the 6 figure business ideas we mentioned while running a 9-5. However, it still requires proper planning and execution. Some days you’re going to be so tired and wonder if it’s all worth it. 

We definitely don’t want you to burn out. Try doing one thing at a time. When you have that one thing running smoothly you can try something else. 

For example, focus on building your community by creating valuable content. When you’ve found your tribe, start signing up for affiliate programs. Incorporate your affiliate links in your content. Maybe you find out that your audience keeps asking about affiliate marketing. Maybe you can do a masterclass on it, record it and sell it as a digital product. 

The point is you don’t have to do everything at once at first. Take your time. 

Conclusion

There are many other ways you can earn 6 figures part-time. For example, you can buy a business and earn money that way even if you’re not rich. The key to that income stream and the others is connecting with the right people and being knowledgeable.

So yes, it’s possible to earn 6 figures as a part-time entrepreneur. Yes, it will take some discipline and dedication but it is possible. Think about what you’re good at and make a plan to monetize it. We hope you take our 6 figure business ideas and secure a bag this year.

Share this with anyone you know wanting to earn more money this year. So, in other words, share this with everyone. 

Last updated December 8, 2022, at 5:34am EST