The Side-Income Playbook is a practical e-book and toolkit for freelancing or consulting on the side: check your contract, design one clear offer, price it properly, win your first clients ethically and get paid on time, in about five hours a week.
The Side-Income Playbook · Bodhih Pro Kits · 18 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
Check your employment contract and disclose if needed, choose one narrow, packaged offer, set prices from your real hours and costs, start with people who already know your work, and put scope, payment terms and records in writing. The Side-Income Playbook from Bodhih Training gives you the steps and the templates to do each one.
Want the full free guide first? Read How to Start Freelancing While Working Full-Time (Without Burning Out).
Your contract has clauses about outside work, intellectual property and conflicts of interest that you have never really read. One careless side project can turn into an awkward meeting with HR.
So you guess, the client says yes instantly, and you spend weeks wondering how much you left on the table. Dividing your salary by your hours gives a number that is almost always too low.
A quick favour becomes a second version, then a third. Without a written scope, every extra request lands on your evenings and nobody pays for it.
Invoices sit unpaid, reminders feel awkward, and the money you earned is not the money in your account. Meanwhile you are not quite sure what you owe in tax.
Client messages at 11 pm, weekends gone, and your day-job performance slipping. A side business without boundaries does not stay a side business for long.
Imagine a Sunday evening a few months from now. You open your tracker, glance at the dashboard and see three invoices paid, one due on Friday, and a pipeline with two warm proposals in it. Your set-aside is sitting in its own account. The whole review takes fifteen minutes, and then you close the laptop and get on with your evening.
Picture the moment a potential client asks what you charge. Instead of guessing, you already know your floor, because you entered your real hours and costs into the rate calculator. You say your package price calmly, explain what is included, and offer a smaller option if the budget is tight. Notice how different that feels.
As you work through the contract check on the first evening, you will find out exactly what your employer cares about and design your offer to sit comfortably outside it. When the first enquiry arrives, you send a proposal with three options, a statement of work that says what is and is not included, and an invoice with a deposit. The structure does the awkward work for you.
Whether you start with the contract check tonight or the rate calculator tomorrow, each step makes the next one easier. And because the whole system is built for about five hours a week, your side income grows without taking over your job, your weekends or your sleep.
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Rate calculator, quote builder, leads pipeline, invoices with overdue flags, income, expenses, time log, monthly summary and dashboard, pre-filled with realistic sample data.
A short, persuasive proposal with three priced options, included and excluded lists, timeline and next steps.
Pins down deliverables, acceptance criteria, revisions, responsibilities, milestones, payments and a change log.
Plain-language outline of the clauses a small services agreement usually covers, with example wording to adapt and questions to check.
A clean, professional invoice with every detail clients' accounts teams need, plus an invoice checklist.
24 ready-to-adapt emails from first enquiry to onboarding, scope changes, payment reminders, referrals and walking away.
A guided worksheet to turn your skills into one packaged core offer and a smaller door-opener offer.
Score a prospect on six fit factors, spot scam and red-flag patterns, and decide: yes, yes with conditions, or not this time.
A 30-minute worksheet to check your employment contract and policies before you take side work, and decide whether to disclose.
Exact words for quoting, handling price objections, discount requests, friends and family, and raising rates.
A one-page plan for a sustainable five-hour week, with checklists for delivery, growth, admin and review blocks.
36 calendar sessions over 12 weeks (Tue, Thu, Sun) taking you from contract check to first paid client and review. Import into Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar.
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
What a realistic side income looks like, who this kit is for and how the tools fit together.
A 30-minute check of your contract and policies, the four risk questions, and a disclosure script.
Find the overlap of skill, painful problem and reachable buyers, then package one productised service.
Hourly, project and value pricing, and how to find your minimum and recommended rates.
The warm-to-cold ladder, platforms versus direct work, ethical outreach and a lead pipeline.
Discovery questions, proposals with options, statements of work and a friendly change process.
The clauses small services agreements usually cover, with a plain-English look at intellectual property.
Deposits, clean invoices, a calm reminder schedule and what to do when payment is late.
A general overview with UK, US and India examples, a set-aside habit and a 15-minute monthly routine.
A fixed weekly container, communication boundaries and protecting your energy and your job.
Common freelancer scams, bad-fit warning signs and how to say no politely.
How to decide what comes next, with a six-month review.
The arithmetic behind the rate, quote, pipeline and effective hourly rate calculations.
A 12-week launch plan from contract check to first paid client.
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
Chloe's side business nearly ended in its third month. She had two clients, a demanding product launch at work, and a habit of answering client messages at 11 pm in bed. She was tired, short-tempered and, for the first time, doing average work at both jobs. The fix was not more hours. It was fewer, better-planned ones, protected like appointments. Side work expands to fill every gap you give it. The answer is a fixed weekly container: a set number of hours, in set blocks, with a simple routine. For most people with a full-time job, five to eight hours is sustainable. Beyond that, sleep, health, relationships and day-job performance start to pay the bill, and your employer may reasonably notice.
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Charge what others charge, or divide your salary by your hours | A rate calculator built from your real hours, costs and set-aside, plus scripts to hold your price |
| Your employer | Rarely mentioned | A contract check worksheet, four risk questions and a disclosure script |
| Finding clients | Build a website and post everywhere | A warm-to-cold ladder, ethical outreach scripts and a pipeline that flags follow-ups |
| Scope and contracts | A generic contract download | Proposal, statement of work and agreement outline that work together, with plain-English guidance |
| Getting paid | Send an invoice and hope | Deposits, an invoice template, a reminder schedule and an overdue flag in your tracker |
| Time | Hustle harder, work every evening | A five-hour weekly routine and a safety cap that protects your day job |
| Honesty | Income screenshots and big promises | No income claims; realistic examples and clear signposts to official guidance |
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
Download the kit, open the contract check tonight and enter your real numbers into the rate calculator, and notice how much clearer your next client conversation feels. Whether you start with the offer canvas this week or the tracker this weekend, you will be building a side income that fits your life rather than taking it over.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
CVs, interviews and remote jobs worldwide.
Speak and write clearly at work, with AI practice.
250+ AI-graded assessments to measure skills and earn verified credentials.
Individual development plans that start from evidence and stay yours.
Run this topic as a live workshop for your team, in person or online.
Book a vetted coach for career, leadership or communication. Pay per session.
Certification pathways in Applied AI, Workplace English and management.
In many countries you can be employed and run a side business at the same time, but your employment contract, company policies, visa conditions and sector rules may restrict it. The kit includes a contract check worksheet and a disclosure script. This is educational guidance, so check your own documents and ask HR or a qualified employment lawyer if anything is unclear.
Start from your floor: the income you want, the hours you really have, your billable share, your expenses and a tax set-aside. The Freelance Business Tracker turns those into a minimum and a recommended hourly rate, then helps you build package prices. Check that against the value to the client and what similar services cost locally.
Most first clients come from trust: past colleagues, friends in your target industry, referrals and communities where you already help. Chapter 4 gives you a warm-to-cold ladder and message scripts, and the Leads sheet tracks every conversation with a next action and date. Never approach your employer's clients.
Usually, yes, though rules and thresholds vary by country. The e-book gives a general overview with UK, US and India examples and a simple set-aside habit, and points you to official guidance. It is not tax advice, so speak to a qualified accountant about your situation.
Platforms can help you build early reviews when your network is thin, but fees and price pressure are real and their terms may restrict taking clients off-platform. Many side freelancers start on a platform for proof, then shift towards direct work and referrals. Chapter 4 compares both.
The services agreement outline is an educational starting point, not legal advice or a ready-made contract for your country. Use it to set out your standard positions, then have your terms reviewed by a qualified lawyer, especially for higher-value work or anything involving personal data.
Yes. Amounts have no fixed currency symbol, so it works in rupees, pounds, dollars, naira, pesos, dirhams or anything else, and it opens in Excel or Google Sheets with formulas, dropdowns and the dashboard chart intact.
Bodhih's sister platform AssessAll offers assessments in Commercial Terms and Contract Reading, Business and Commercial Acumen, and Consultative Selling and Client Advisory. They give you an evidence-based view of where you are strong and where the kit will help most.
Use Jobulary to plan the skills your side business needs. It builds an individual development plan from your goals and assessment evidence, and it stays yours wherever you work.
Digital kits are non-refundable once downloaded. We will help if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days, if you were charged twice, or if delivery fails.
₹599 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $19 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
