If you’ve ever considered starting business or side hustle while balancing your current full-time job, you’re not alone. In fact, half of Millennials and Gen Zers have a second job or entrepreneurial endeavor. Whether you’re taking on a side hustle to help pay for bills, classes, or to pursue a life-long dream of running your own business, it requires a certain mentality to balance all of the additional responsibilities.

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

One of the best ways to balance your life is to automate as many operational tasks as possible. Whether it’s setting up a digital calendar that tracks both your entrepreneurial and professional items, or finding an online Personal Assistant to handle more operational items (such as research), you’ll need to take a step back and look at the most efficient way to manage your time and where to leverage technology or ask for help, because the most valuable asset you have is time.

The best part is that it doesn’t have to cost you very much! Here are some of the tools every entrepreneur can use to support both their job and side hustle:

Hootsuite

Social Media plays a huge role in many side businesses today and it can be quite time-consuming. Make your life just a little easier by using a social media scheduler such as Hootsuite to automate some of your posts. With any tool you choose, you can pick and change later as you grow. Hootsuite is free for up to 3 profiles and no scheduling limit. It covers all social media tools except Pinterest. You can manage Hootsuite from either a desktop device or via mobile app.

Upwork

If you’ve asked yourself “I need a personal assistant to help me with XYZ!”, there’s a solution for that. Most entrepreneurs don’t have a huge budget, to begin with, but need to outsource items such as researching websites, keywords, or vendors to work with. Upwork is one of the world’s largest networks of freelancers and allows you to find a candidate that fits your budget and needs. Most of all, it allows you to work with individuals who let you focus on what you do best for your business.

G Suite

One of the best tools out there is Google’s collaboration and productivity apps. This includes Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail. If you’ve ever worked with tools such as Microsoft Office, this serves the same purpose but the best part is that it’s free (up to 30GB) and it can all be accessed on the Cloud instead of on your computer, which allows you to access all of your data anywhere in the world.

Trello

One of the best ways to manage your time is creating lists. Trello is a free tool that allows you to create a list based on both long term goals (such as a business goal) and short-term goals (such as a project-based goal). It even allows other people to join your list so that you can collaborate and communicate from any device, whether it is on your laptop or mobile device.

Google Calendar

G Suite was mentioned above, however, Calendar needs to have it’s own section because time management is crucial to balancing your side hustle and professional job. Not only can you access Calendar from any device, but it syncs with all mobile devices.

If you need a little extra encouragement read this article.

Words By Christina Tolosa