How to Turn a Side Hustle Into a 6-Figure Business

• Vix Reitano turned her marketing side hustle into a full-time business in six weeks.
• She leveraged her network to land annual contracts and book $100,000 in revenue last year.
• She shares her tips for scaling a side hustle, finding clients, and choosing opportunities.

Vix Reitano was on her journalism and public-relations career path when she decided to start a side hustle. At the time, she was working for a marketing agency. But a freelance consulting opportunity, combined with her toxic corporate work environment and unsustainable workload, motivated her to build a business that could stand on its own.

She began Agency 6B in her free time, during nights, and on weekends, and she took on tasks like writing clients’ emails, building websites, and crafting marketing strategies. After six weeks, she had accumulated five annual contracts amounting to more than $100,000 in fees and quit her corporate career.

Officially founded in August 2015, Agency 6B booked more than $400,000 in sales last year, according to documents verified by Insider. She attributed that to her unwavering ability to turn brand messaging into consumer action.

Reitano, 34, spoke with Insider about her experience scaling a side hustle into a full-time business, leveraging a network, and crafting an effective leadership style.

Leverage your network

Before launching Agency 6B, Reitano spent more than five years working in print journalism, TV production, and advertising. Each experience widened her professional network, which she tapped when she launched her business.

She created a process, which she follows regularly today, of breaking down her contacts into three groups:

1. People who can hire you 

These people should be your primary target and should receive one-on-one communication. Tell them what you’re doing, and ask whether they need any of your services, she said.

2. People who know people who can hire you 

Send general information and announcements about your new venture to this group via mass emails or other forms of one-to-many communication. Though they might not need your services, ask them to connect you with someone in their network who does, Reitano said.

3. People who can promote you on social media or within their circles

This group includes any audience or following you have, on social media or otherwise, as well as past clients and peers. It will help increase your legitimacy as a business owner with testimonies and public support. Additionally, if you want any feedback on initiatives or projects, test them with this community, she said. 

Make space for opportunities 

Once Reitano had a comfortable influx of clients, it was time to prioritize jobs that would help her advance the company, both in finances and in project type, she said. That meant saying no to certain opportunities to make room for those more exciting to her. 

As soon as she quit her job, she started turning down email tasks and one-off projects that she initially used to build her business. Instead, she prioritized jobs that were part of her full-service package — including production and marketing. 

“I said no to some of the initial contracts that I had taken so that I could bring in the ones that I knew were closer to what I wanted,” Reitano said.

She also switched her rates to value-based pricing, which charged clients based on the scale and influence of the project, rather than an hourly rate, she said. 

While she originally focused on annual contracts, she has since readjusted to six-month contracts to give her and her clients more flexibility with the changing economic environment.

Find a leadership style that enables growth

Reitano has cultivated a

mindfulness

practice that helps her grow professionally and personally. Her main focuses are advocating for other women, helping them build confidence and clarity, and encouraging them to make the changes in life and at work that make them the most comfortable. 

Founding a business on these values has allowed her to build an efficient team and prepare for opportunities, Reitano said. In the coming months, she plans to continue growing the company’s portfolio with intellectual-property content, software-as-a-service offerings, and production-studio availability, along with marketing services.

“I want to step up to the table and put my elbows aside so that everybody else has some space,” she said. “It’s not just about me, and that’s really how you scale — you look for other people, other pieces of the puzzle.”