I love side-hustling. It is mind-blowing to discover how many ways there are to make money. It’s a bit addicting. And, after I took the leap and kicked my old job to the curb, side-hustles were key to me being able to live. As a personal finance blogger and podcaster, the call to make money in every way possible is hard to ignore. Until recently. And, I thought I would share why I’m breaking up with side-hustles. And, why it has been a surprisingly difficult decision. Side-hustles rock…until they become a distraction.
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Related Post: Financial PTSD
Self-Employed vs. Entrepreneur
When I quit my job at the end of 2014 I had a vague semblance of a plan. Quit my job so I wouldn’t die of a heart attack. Then, focus enough to spackle together enough money each month to live. I wanted flexibility, and to be honest, as few responsibilities as possible.
I quit my job and and left two days later on a flight that would land me in Hawaii, then Australia. What I didn’t count on was that after the initial challenge of self-employment, I would settle into a pattern of tentatively dipping my toe into different projects and tasks. As a result, I experienced some wins and a ridiculous amount of failure. Like-a ridiculous amount of failures.
Failing constantly was a very intense and emotional experience for a person who had just left an emotionally draining and intense job. Each time I failed I would ask myself the following questions:
- Why am I doing this to myself?
- Was this what I quit my job for?
- What the hell am I trying to do?
In fact, it would take several years before I would have the answers to these questions. And, I would soon discover that I wasn’t the only person who asked themselves these types of questions.
The difference between being self-employed vs. an entrepreneur in the digital space. In fact, recently I was interviewing a friend for my podcast and we talked about how important it is to recognize the difference.
Self-Employed
- When most people take “the leap” they will most likely end up being self-employed. This is great because there’s a ridiculous amount of work to be done for other people growing their own businesses. Work includes:
- Virtual Assistant services
- Pinterest Assistant services
- Digital/Graphics Services
- ***There are a number of other services***The above were the first to come to mind.
Basically, you are manage a number of tasks for other entrepreneurs. Your revenue is directly connected to projects that other entrepreneurs have developed and that you actively seek out and complete. Also, you may rely on side-hustles as an additional way to bring in income. I should mention that many people exist in the “in-between” between self-employment and entrepreneurship for awhile. I’ve existed in that in-between stage for quite awhile.
Entrepreneurship
Again, I’m talking about in the digital space-NOT, bricks and mortar businesses. Entrepreneurs in the the digital space have several things in common.
- They begin focusing on and developing income streams that don’t rely on client based work. Usually, the goal is to grow these income streams to the point that they can remove working actively with clients and side-hustling (which is time consuming). Income streams include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
- Ad revenue
- Affiliate income
- Digital product sales
- Sponsorships
- Email campaigns-leveraging the income streams above
- Webinars
- Leveraging Facebook groups and communities for income
- Collaborations
- Launches
- Event creation (virtual and in-person)
Currently, I now consider myself an entrepreneur. It is a big shift from the past couple of years when I was all over the place. And, when you shift to entrepreneurship, there is a huge shift in focus because you’re constantly focusing on growing income in the was that make the most sense for you.
Self-Care First
When I broke up with my old job I was emotionally and physically broken down. My state of mind was a mess, I was physically unwell, and it would take almost two years to feel like “myself” again. Two freaking years. Every time I experienced failure (and that was often) I would doubt everything about myself.
It took time to rebuild the following:
- Resilience-By the end of my old job, I wasn’t as resilient as I used to be.
- Risk tolerance-Even though it was a big risk to quit my job, I was afraid to take certain risks. In fact, quitting my job was ultimately about not having a heart attack at work. I was very aware of the fact that my body was sending me signals that I was NOT doing well.
Those two things were huge and I didn’t realize I was missing those two components until I regained them. For two years I unwittingly focused on self-care.
I focused on:
- Getting rest-I commuted for 10 years and worked with a wonderful but high-needs population. Physically and emotionally I was just done.
- Health and wellness-Emotional eating had taken its toll and I worked hard to manage it.
- Learning-The idea of growing a digital business was both intimidating and exhilarating. I read constantly, took online courses, attended conferences, and participated in a Mastermind group.
- Building Confidence-I’m confident by nature, but, I’m human. And, when you’ve had as many knocks as I’ve had…it takes a minute to get your mind right.
I’m glad that I focused on self-care because transitioning to entrepreneurship takes…ahem…balls. It’s a frightening and incredible thing. And, I’ve realized that you’re ready when you’re ready.
I’m Ready
But, I’m only because I’ve failed at the following:
- Building a community
- Email list building
- Affiliate sales
- Digital conference
- Coaching
- Blog growth
- Podcasting
And, a lot of other things. The thing about these failures is that I’ve tried. By the way, I’ve succeed at the following-just not in the way that I initially planned.
- Building a community-I’m growing my Facebook group “The Unapologetically Money Hungry” with a specific focus on helping members connect with digital thought leaders. I’ve also grown the Colorado FinCon group (we need to meet this year) and supported some niche groups that I’m involved in.
- Email list building-Weirdly enough, my Colorado email list grows very easily. You didn’t know I had a blog about Colorado, did you? It took me awhile to figure out the right way to grow my Michelle is Money Hungry email list. But, I do have a list that grows. Fortunately, you can apply the same rationale and protocol to every list.
- Affiliate sales-While I haven’t made sustained, daily affiliate earnings from 2014-2017. I’ve made affiliate income. And, at different times I’ve made large amounts unexpectedly. Currently, I’m getting more and more affiliate notifications and was notified today that I was on the Elite Blog Academy leaderboard for affiliate sales. I expect this to change, but, given how many affiliates that course has-I’m pretty freaking THRILLED!! Curious about EBA? Click on the link for more info.
- Digital conference-My Mastermind group and I put together a digital conference at the beginning of 2017. It was a ridiculous amount of work. We did a fantastic job…but, made very little money. BUT, we put together a conference which is more than what most people have done. And, we all know what NOT to do if we ever create another conference together.
- Coaching-I’ve helped a ridiculous number of people get results (make money) on projects that they’re working on. I consider this a “win.” However, I haven’t successfully switched over to paying clients. I plan on making that switch soon.
- Blog growth-For awhile my blog has been stuck on a plateau. It has been very annoying. Now, it’s growing and I’m very pleased with how things are going in 2018 so far.
- Podcasting-I absolutely love podcasting. But, it has been challenging figuring out the best release dates, and approach to creating a kick butt podcast.
With each failure I experienced small successes. And, then they got bigger. Now, I’m focusing on amplifying that success.
Bye Bye Side-Hustles
It pains me to admit that I’ve been afraid to let go of the side-hustles. My thought was…what would I do without them? Especially since they’ve been a part of my life for YEARS. Seriously, YEARS. But, they’ve become very time consuming and incredibly inefficient. I find myself resenting the time that it takes to complete a hustle. Knowing that I could be:
- Freelance writing-I love to write but sometimes it makes me crazy if I have a hard to work with client. I’ve learned to cut those clients lose FAST. And, as my friend Amanda Abella pointed out, freelance writing is great way to get paid to learn something new AND attract publicity. I plan on strategically growing my freelance writing client for the short-term. And, getting over myself. As my revenue streams change I will decrease the writing.
- Focusing on Affiliate Marketing-I LOVE affiliate marketing. My goal has always been to grow my affiliate income. I just needed to learn “all the things.” It’s very addictive, but, it takes focused work. Now that I’ve figured out a strategy that seems to be working-I’m going to work my tail off to amplify the results.
- Working on Developing Events-One of my biggest tasks at my old job was running events. I really miss doing this and am excited to focus on growing this revenue stream in my business.
There are several things that I’m focusing on but, this blog post is long enough already LOL!
Knowing When To Move On
Intuition plays very heavily in my life. And, for the past several months I’ve had a nagging feeling that I have to let several things go.
Don’t ignore your intuition!
And, for those of you who follow me, or know me, there has been a lot of behind the scenes letting go of stuff. Such as the following:
- Conferences-This year it was important for me to stay close to home. I made the very difficult choice to stop attending out of state of conferences and conferences in general. The only conference-like event I plan on attending is Denver Start Up Week. That’s it. Fortunately, it’s an incredible event and it’s free. I also have the opportunity to help with he organizing committee.
- Travel-Heavy sigh. There is nothing better than the excitement of planning and going on a trip to an amazing, new place. This year I plan on going on a couple of local road trips and that’s it.
- Sleep-Seriously, from now until the end of October, I plan on embracing the Miracle Morning again. I love the extra time to get stuff done. But, I do miss sleep. Fortunately, I’m a napper LOL!
I’m very excited to make this transition and feel like the “internship” phase of entrepreneurship is done.
When did you break up with your side-hustle?
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I think their definitely comes a time where you have to assess if something in your life is working or not. I actually get a lot of request for videos stuff, but people don’t realize the time that goes in so their budget comes in pretty far under what it’s worth to actually do it. Time is too precious to me and as much as I’d love to help people out, I have to pass on those projects. Time is just as valuable as money!
It is no longer working for me and you’re 100% right about the time. I keep looking at the time and it’s starting to hurt my bottom line. In fact, I think time is just as valuable as money. And, I have to prioritize what makes the most sense for me to focus on.
I’ve never seen self-employment and entrepreneurship split up like that. I’m working more towards entrepreneurship. I feel you 100% on the freelance writing. I think it’s time to get rid of it all the way. I’ve gotten referrals from friends of ours and none of the transactions have gone smoothly. I take that as a sign.
I’m really focusing on growing revenue streams that aren’t dependent on “assignments” or “projects.” I absolutely love affiliate income and it’s starting to come together. But, I will have to temporarily ramp up the writing and the let it go after the affiliate income grows.