Thinking About Starting a Business? This Summer Might Be the Perfect Time to Make Your Side Hustle Official

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If you’ve been waiting for “the right time” to grow a business, you’re not alone. Maybe inflation makes you second-guess your finances. Maybe you worry about unpredictable operating costs or giving up the security of a steady paycheck. 

But timing may not matter as much as you think. 

According to a recent WSFS survey of businesses across the Mid-Atlantic, most are meeting or exceeding expectations despite ongoing economic pressures. Rather than waiting for perfect conditions, Philly small businesses are finding customers, managing expenses, and planning for growth. 

For aspiring entrepreneurs, the takeaway isn’t necessarily that starting a business will be easy. It’s that success depends less on timing the economy and more on how to properly become sustainable. 

Permission granted

Local business owner Christa Barfield understands that hesitation better than most. 

“Stop waiting for permission,” says Barfield, founder of FarmerJawn Agriculture, the largest Black produce grower in Pennsylvania. “Make a plan, prove it to yourself first, and everyone else will catch on later.” 

Before FarmerJawn became a growing force in the local food system, it began modestly with tea and honey tastings for friends and family. Then, at the company’s first vending event, a Di Bruno Bros. buyer sampled its hot saffron honey. That introduction eventually led to FarmerJawn’s Viva Leaf Tea honey line landing on the retailer’s shelves. 

“It wasn’t just about getting on a retail shelf,” Barfield says. “It was validation that what we were building had real potential.” 

When passion becomes profit

Validation is often what separates a passion project from a business, says Erika Tapp Duran, Director of Temple University’s Small Business Development Center. 

“You have to love what you do,” Duran says. “But it has to be about making money, not just about loving it. That’s the shift from hobby to business.” 

Making that shift means accepting that customers, not passion alone, will shape the company. A person who enjoys making one product may discover that the market wants another. Someone who loves gardening may find that operating a landscaping business also requires pricing, scheduling, billing and customer service. 

“You have to be willing to meet your customers where they are, take their feedback and make adjustments based on what they’re telling you they want,” Duran says. 

That’s why she encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to test their ideas with prospective customers rather than relying on encouragement from friends and family. Who will buy the product? What problem does it solve? How much are customers willing to pay? And will that price actually cover the cost of providing it? 

A business plan can help answer those questions, but it doesn’t need to be a polished, 20-page document. In fact, notes Duran, Temple’s Small Business Development Center often begins with a one-page plan to help entrepreneurs identify gaps, conflicting assumptions and expenses they may not have considered. 

“When the business plan is in your brain, it’s pretty easy to have inconsistencies,” Duran says. “Actually putting it on paper seems to make a difference.” 

Financing the future

Starting a business is one thing. Building a business that lasts is another. 

That’s why long-term planning is largely helpful for a business’ financial stability. 

“There were seasons when I was popular and poor,” says Barfield. “People knew my name, celebrated the work and cheered for FarmerJawn, but I still had to figure out how to make payroll, steward the land and keep building. Visibility isn’t the same as sustainability.” 

As FarmerJawn expanded, its needs grew to include land, infrastructure, employees and the capacity to serve more people.  

“Determination alone doesn’t buy farmland, build infrastructure or create the capacity needed to feed more people,” she says. “Capital matters.” 

Barfield’s experience underscores a challenge many growing businesses face: eventually, passion and perseverance have to be backed by capital. 

Steven Cunningham, senior vice president and director of Small Business Administration Sales at WSFS, says that’s precisely why entrepreneurs should begin talking to a banking partner before they urgently need financing. 

“It’s never too early,” Cunningham notes. “It’s better to have a proactive conversation with your bank and banking partner.” 

An early conversation may begin with establishing the appropriate business structure, opening a dedicated business account and separating business income and expenses from personal finances. Over time, a banking partner can also help owners think through cash flow, financing, major purchases and the order in which investments should be made. 

“Early conversations are really about your journey,” says Cunningham. “Your financial planning should focus on what your goals are, what your objectives are, and plan for both the short and the long term.” 

Building longevity

Cunningham explains businesses that remain resilient during uncertainty are often the ones concentrating on what they can control: expenses, pricing, technology, marketing and operational efficiency. They establish goals, revisit them regularly and adjust before a problem becomes a crisis. 

Aspiring entrepreneurs don’t have to work through those decisions alone. Working with banking partners like WSFS can help owners understand financial tools and prepare for future lending, while programs like Temple’s Small Business Development Center or the city’s Department of Commerce often provide no-cost consulting and education to help get businesses off the ground.  

“No one builds anything meaningful alone,” says Barfield. 

So, while there may never be a perfectly secure moment to start a business, there are always resources that can help you take the leap.  

To learn more about WSFS’s Small Business Banking resources, visit wsfsbank.com/small-business.

This piece is part of a multi-year editorial series sponsored by WSFS Bank and Bryn Mawr Trust.

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