đ usncan Note: How To Start A $100,000+ Business When Working Full-Time In 2025
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When working full-time, concentrate on the business actions that matter most: building relationships and credibility
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You’ve seen it in the headlines. You know that you could be laid off any minute, and you understand just how critical it is to have a secondary stream of income before your full-time job becomes eliminated. But you’re at a crossroads.
How do you take out the time to invest in building your brand, your business, while at the same time being fully present for your boss? How do you ensure that the two do not clash? According to a recent survey, 41% of professionals worked on their side hustle during the hours allocated for their full-time job, Fortune reported. Whether thatâs ethical or not isnât the question here.
The real question is, how will you be able to fully commit yourself to building passive income or starting a business that can eventually replace your salary, while having the nagging fear that your employer is looking over your actions, micromanaging everything you do? How can you fully concentrate on your business because your attention is split between your employer and your own venture?
And outside of work, your time is already limited. You have personal responsibilities, family, the kids, chores, walking the dog, etc. All these things engulf your time. Is it even possible to build multiple streams of income while working full-time?
Yes, it is. I was able to do it. And if I could do it, so can you. I started my business in 2019, but then moved into employment as a project manager in 2021. Yet, even though I was working full-time leading nationwide workforce development contracts (believe me, this consumed a significant amount of time and energy) I never let my business fall by the wayside.
In fact, I proactively took steps to ensure that in the event Iâd be laid off, I would have a backup income stream to tie me over until Iâd be back on my feet again.
Now, that business has done more than tie me over. When I was eventually laid off in 2023, that business took me from broke and unemployed for months, to making six figures for the past two years, and I havenât been âemployedâ since.
But thatâs only because I built the right foundation. Without this foundation, Iâd have to start from scratch, and it wouldâve taken me longer to get to where I am today.
The misconception many people have is that they have to allocate a ton of hours and work all day and night to get their business off the ground. And if youâre eager to jumpstart your business with urgency, that might be the best route for you. But if you are simply looking to build a professional and financial cushion that future-proofs you and maintains your career stability, all you need to worry about are a few small actions, done consistently, every week.
These actions, outlined in this article, will set up the perfect foundation for you to expand and scale, just like I did, and even get to the point where your business outpays your salary and makes six figures annually, so you then have the option to quit and go all-in.
How To Start A Business As A Busy Professional In 2025
Here are the steps I took, which you can take starting from today:
1. Figure Out What Your $100,000 Skill Is
A $100,000 skill is a high-income skill that is in strong demand and directly solves people’s problems. Usually those people will have a large enough budget to pay for what you have to offer and it will be a pain point that keeps them up at night.
Once you have that perfect combination–a problem that keeps your target customer up at night, and a skill that you can use to provide a direct solution–you have the ultimate $100,000+ business idea.
So, take out your notepad or online notes app and make a list of all the things you do now in your current job (especially if youâre a knowledge worker), and the skills you exercise within your role.
Which one of these skills could be your next $100,000 idea? And how can you productize them and turn them into passive income?
2. Rewrite Your Resume
Whenever we think of resumes, we usually tend to think about using them as documents to apply for jobs. But today, Iâm challenging you to think about them differently.
Use your resume as a personal brand asset, to help you understand all the areas where you have added tangible value with this one (or more) high-income skill. List your accolades, and if you donât think you have any note-worthy achievements that would make clients want to hire you, ask a coach or even ChatGPT to ask you the right questions so you can figure this out.
Then, transfer these achievements to your LinkedIn profile. Turn your LinkedIn into a sales pitch or landing page. Speak directly to your audienceâs needs, and how youâve solved them in the past.
3. Establish Your Digital Footprint
Your digital presence is your core asset because this is your primary marketing engine, and will speak loudly for you before you even open your mouth to deliver a sales pitch. You need to have a strong LinkedIn profile that is fully engaged and optimized. I spent time perfecting this every week, even when I was working full-time managing projects and programs. I did this on the commute, in my lunch break, and any second when the work pace was lulled and quiet.
If you spend time working on your digital presence, you will establish trust and credibility with future clients and it will be easier for you to land new and repeat business once youâve developed this relationship built on trust.
Share your expertise regularly, via blogs, a LinkedIn or Substack newsletter, short-form content and posts, engaging authentically with others in your field, and strategically building your network.
These tasks are relatively easy to perform while working full-time, and you can gain client enquiries this way as well, before even officially calling yourself a business.
Starting a business doesnât need to require full-time commitment upfront. As a busy professional, what matters most is spending time building strategic relationships, establishing authority and credibility in your niche, and taking on small projects in your available time so you can build a portfolio and set yourself up to go fully on board when the time is right.
This is how you build a $100,000 while working a full-time busy schedule.
Your resume is your personal brand asset
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If you enjoyed this article, check out Turn These 3 ChatGPT Prompts Into Passive Income In Hours.
