If you feel as if your current job isn’t providing the satisfaction it should, you are certainly not alone. In fact, according to the Conference Board, 37% of Americans are unhappy with their current job. If you have been contemplating switching careers to find more fulfillment, you are in luck because the ‘passion economy’ is in full swing.

While a side hustle doesn’t necessarily have to be your only passion, the passion economy represents a massive shift away from traditional employment toward an economy that actually enables people to combine their career with their outside interests. If you find yourself dreading Mondays and yearning for 5:00 pm on Friday, we are breaking down exactly how you can turn a side hustle into a full-time gig.

To Get Going, Go Digital

In a comprehensive survey done by Bankrate, as many as 39% of working Americans now have a side hustle outside of their full-time job. The primary reasons for starting a side hustle are both to bring in extra money and to serve as a stepping stone toward more career fulfillment.

But to genuinely make your side hustle a full-time gig, you must treat it as a business from day one, because it will eventually need to replace your entire full-time income. It will take time to gain real traction unless you are starting with an already established network of potential clients or customers. To push through this initial phase, you must put in significant hours outside of your regular working schedule to make it grow. However, thanks to the massive growth of digital marketing, one of the most effective ways to grow your side hustle is through your own website and social media presence.

For most modern businesses, this process typically begins with professional website and brand design. Having a strong, authoritative online presence starts with a recognizable, clearly defined brand, and a website serves as your primary storefront in today’s digital world. As with most things, utilizing a professional service can help ensure it is done correctly. These services can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars all the way up to several thousand, depending on the designer’s expertise and experience.

Next, it is time to get your business directly in front of the audience that can benefit most from the value you provide. This can be accomplished by creating dedicated business accounts on major social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. To quickly bring awareness to your products or services, running targeted ads and marketing on these platforms is one of the fastest ways to get your name out there. Ads on Facebook can cost as little as a dollar a day; after you figure out exactly what ads produce the best results, you can begin scaling your ad spend to gain more traction.

For a longer-term marketing play, consistently posting educational and entertaining content (such as videos or detailed infographics) around what you do can help build deep familiarity and trust with your growing following. You are actively showing that you can solve a specific problem or fill a need that they have. This content doesn’t have to be incredibly elaborate; it just needs to be well-produced and, most importantly, consistent. For example, one small floral design firm successfully built a massive following simply by posting a gorgeous bouquet picture and an inspiring quote every single morning. As people commented, the owner interacted with every single comment, which showcased her work and introduced her core values to potential customers.

Breaking Down the Costs

You must understand the potential hard costs of doing business so you can budget appropriately. This typically includes essential things such as:

• Forming a legal business entity
• Getting proper business licenses
• Marketing expenses
• Regular, recurring business expenses

When mapping out these costs, always give yourself some financial wiggle room. There will almost always be unexpected expenses that drive your total start-up costs much higher than you initially anticipated.

How to Begin Creating Freedom

To successfully turn a side hustle into your full-time career, you must begin creating freedom. This means deliberately building up the side hustle’s revenue to support the transition, while concurrently developing personal financial freedom for yourself.

Think of this transition like a regular career change; if you were changing traditional careers, you would likely need some money saved to cover your daily expenses while between jobs. If you haven’t already, one of the very first and most important things to do when trying to make a side hustle your full-time gig is building a robust emergency fund to help cover both personal expenses and unexpected business costs.

While it’s incredibly easy to think big and imagine that your side hustle will fuel every dream you have and that you’ll never want to stop doing it, the reality is that it remains very important to prioritize your long-term retirement savings and investments. By doing this, you are effectively creating freedom for your future self. Depending on your exact situation, it is wise to continue contributing to your employer’s 401(k) up to the company match and to prioritize investing in individual accounts while you are still employed. That way, during the actual transition, more money can be directed toward the business if needed, rather than trying to desperately catch up on missed investing.

Crucial actionable steps that need to take place during this phase include: laying out a highly realistic timeline for going full-time, precisely determining how much cash you need saved for a “runway” after you make the transition, and deeply thinking through your current personal responsibilities.

Taking the Leap, But Covering the Bases

Now that you have successfully built up your side hustle, it’s time to turn it into your full-fledged career. Before finally saying bye to the 9-5 life, it is crucial to carefully evaluate your current situation and your ongoing responsibilities. If you are single, you might be naturally more risk-tolerant and can slash your personal expenses as low as you desire, but if you are providing for a family, the math can be a little trickier.

Take the necessary time to figure out your family’s total cash flow and exactly how you will be able to support the transition financially. Some vital questions to consider that can help shape the way you approach the transition include:

• Will you temporarily rely on your partner’s income to help with the transition?
• Does your partner’s employer provide family health insurance?
• Has your current side hustle income completely replaced your 9-5 income?
• If you don’t currently match your income with your side hustle, could it at least confidently allow you to earn a livable wage right now?

Connectivity is Everything

Maybe you have heard the old business saying ‘your network is your net worth’. Get deeply involved within your local community, meet people, give your time and expertise without expectations, and actively build relationships because you never know what massive opportunity could come from a seemingly random conversation.

Also, it can be incredibly helpful to seek out someone who has successfully built up their own business. This allows you to rapidly speed up your own learning curve by learning directly from the painful mistakes they may have made early on, and the invaluable lessons they have learned over the years.

Once you have done all that, give yourself a massive pat on the back. Transitioning entirely out of the 9-5 life is a scary but deeply rewarding decision. Now, all that is left to do is actively grow your new business, diligently maintain your revenue, build out the essential processes and workflows you need to run the business efficiently, and—above all—don’t forget to enjoy the journey.

The Takeaway

Side hustles have always been around, but today many people find themselves growing their side hustle to a point where they can permanently ‘retire’ from the 9-5 and make a great living doing exactly what they have chosen to do. By carefully planning out your finances and deeply thinking through the logistics of the transition, you could be one critical decision away from successfully changing your career and finding true fulfillment in your work.