When I started my side hustle first as a web designer and then as basically a web design and marketing teacher, my intention always was to quit my day job.
And I had lofty goals!!! I thought for sure I’d be making enough money to be able to quit by the end of that first year.
And when I say “be able to quit” I mean be making enough money to replace my paycheck and cover my business expenses and taxes. It never occurred to me that I could take a pay cut. That it would be worth making less money in the short term to have more time to potentially grow faster.
Oh, how naive I was!!
One, I had to do a lot more than just make enough money. There was so much I had to learn, and am still learning, about entrepreneurship and running a business.
And that’s just me. That’s my risk tolerance. You might be totally different. You might have a greater risk tolerance. You might not need or want to make as much money. You may have a high risk tolerance and want to make more money. You might not even want to quit your day job at all! We’re all different.
Regardless of whether you want to go from side hustle to self-employed or side hustle to pay off some debt or bank extra money to travel or whatever, you’re probably going to be side hustling for several months, if not a few years!
So in this Pep Talk, I want to break down what it looked like for me to side hustle long term, what was really effective and what I would have done differently and give you 4 tips to help you side hustle long term.
- Get your partner’s buy-in.
- Create a schedule that works for you.
- Get your employer’s buy-in. Make it a win-win.
- Challenge yourself to see how big you can scale your side hustle while still working full time.
So first, a little backstory. My full-time job was running the Marketing, Continuing Education & IT departments for a small non-profit association, and when I started a side hustle doing web design and teaching WordPress to bloggers, entrepreneurs and small business owners who don't know how to code but need to know how to update their website – I had been at the company for about 7 years at that point and I had moved into a position where I was pretty independent and had some flexibility in my schedule, so I was able to spend on average about 20 hours a week on my side hustle outside of my day job.
It sounds like a lot, but if you think about it, 2 hours a day Monday – Friday, plus 5 hours on Saturday morning and 5 hours on Sunday morning – done by Noon both days, that’s not a crazy extra amount of work.
And if I’m being totally honest as I’m saying those numbers out loud… I spent more time than that. I probably spent 2 hours in the morning, an hour during the day and two hours at night during the week so that’s what, 25 hours just during the week, and them from like 8AM to 3PM on weekends? So another 14 hours and now we’re at a second full-time job.
But I had shifted those 40 hours to focus on things that could create passive income for me rather than trading time for money, like Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income says, “Work hard now so you can reap the benefits later.
And what motivated me to start my tech side hustle was freedom and flexibility. I wanted to be in control of my time, my schedule, how much money I could make, and even what I was allowed to wear on a daily basis! I was willing to put that much time in because I had a really strong WHY, and a very clear goal, even if I wasn’t always sure HOW I would accomplish it.
What I didn’t expect is for it to take as long as it did to reach my goal, and I did have to make some mindset shifts to go from thinking I’d be quitting my job at the end of year one to at one point deciding that I’d do both for as long as I possibly could pull it off!
Which leads me to my first tip – Get your partner’s buy-in.
Assuming you have a partner – or someone else you’re accountable to like your parents – you probably have some responsibilities and commitments you’ve made to that person. So if you want to take some of that time away and give it to your side hustle, especially longer term, they gotta see what’s in it for them.
I could find a LOT of benefits to ME for my side hustle. Freedom. Flexibility. Financial Independence. Loving what I do. My day job income gave me the freedom to try things in my side hustle that I couldn't have done so confidently if it were my only source of income. I was able to invest my side hustle earnings back into the business. I grew personally and professionally. Me. Me. Me.
But all my husband saw was me staring at my laptop day-in and day out and saying Sorry, I have a call tonight, I can’t go to dinner. And can you run by the store and get this, I don’t have time. And now because I don’t have time, I need you to pick up the slack.
So what’s in it for him?
A few key things – hiring someone to clean our house every week. Having Blue Apron or Hello Fresh delivered each week so that I’d cook a healthy delicious meal for us after a long day. And paying off our debt was really important to him. My side hustle allowed us to do all of that and more.
Tip Number 2: Create a schedule that works for you.
If you’re going to side hustle long term, I really recommend that you have a solid plan for how you structure your time. When I first started, I had no plan, no schedule and just fit the work in where I could, mostly in the evenings after a long day at work – which was exhausting.
Unless you’re one of those weird night people. Which I am not!
But I knew that I wanted to establish my side hustle so that it could become my full time gig and I was in it for the long haul, so I needed to figure out a better way.
So instead of working late after work, I started getting up earlier and I'd get a couple hours in before my day job. I shifted my day job schedule to start later in the morning. I did side hustle work on weekend mornings, and I would use a vacation day every so often to be able to focus a full day on my side hustle. Instead of doing my side hustle work after a full 8 hour day, I did it first while I was fresh!
I wouldn't call it a work/life balance as much as a work/life blend. There are always pockets of time – checking email while waiting in line. Working in the car on road trips. Working through your to-do list on your lunch break. If there's a light at the end of the tunnel, it's worth the extra hustle to make it happen!
If you love what you do on the side, it doesn't really feel like “work”
Time is time, right? There’s a finite amount of it. It’s important to enjoy how you spend it.
I was watching HARD KNOCKS on HBO recently – and it’s all about the Cleveland Browns football team training camp. I’m from Ohio, my family are Browns fans even though they constantly lose, and my husband is also a huge fan so we start watching this show.
And in one scene, this guy Nassib is nerding out during lunch, writing on the white board saying “If you spend 2 hours a day on Instagram, that’s like spending one month a year, nonstop on Instagram.” And he’s basically saying like, there are better things you can be doing with your time.
So I look at my husband and I’m like, I spend two hours a day on email, does that mean I spend one whole month every single year emailing people?”
And so then we start adding it up. For me, it’s 4 months sleeping. 4.5 months working, one of which is email, and 3.5 months on life.
So if I’m going to spend more than one third of my life doing something in exchange for money, I better freaking enjoy it. When I was side hustling, that looked more like 4 months sleeping, 4 months working, 2 months side hustling and 2 months life!
So having a plan for that time is crucial. Because the extra money you can earn from your side hustle can be life-changing. Those little splurges, like having someone clean my house and having Blue Apron delivered – those might seem like excessive, but to us? Those are things that weigh on my mind! Oh, this house is a mess but I’ve got this deadline. What are we going to make for dinner? Not only is the fridge empty, I don’t want to make another decision today. Blue Apron shows up and decides for me! Oh wait, I told you that stuff was for my husband… Oops.
Tip #3 – Make it a win-win for your employer.
If you are secretly side hustling and sneaking off to take phone calls and secretly doing work on your employer’s dime, that’s not going to last long and then you’ll be self-employed whether you like it or not.
And I wanted the security my day job income, so being sneaky about my side hustle was not in support of that goal.
We also wanted to pay off debt so that when I left the steady paycheck for the unpredictable income of self-employment, I'd have less obligations each month. I wanted the safety net of being able to take risks in my side hustle without affecting my personal income.
And I needed the time to prove it to myself that my side hustle was viable and that it could replace my day job income.
So how does your side hustle benefit your day job? Maybe shifting your schedule actually benefits them. Maybe that trip to that conference will help your company too. Maybe you need to be way more efficient at work to make more time for your side hustle. Maybe the skills you learn make you a better employee. Maybe you’re happier at work.
You don’t need to literally ask for your employer’s blessing unless they have a policy stating that you do, but be the best employee you can be. Take what you’re learning about growing your side hustle to contribute at a higher level at your day job. Be a great employee because when you have a side hustle and a full time job, it's like they are each other's insurance policy – if something happens with one, you've got the other to fall back on. It's a smart thing for anyone to do in any industry!
And Tip #4 – Challenge yourself to see how big you can scale your side hustle while still working full time.
This is going to force you to figure out how you can streamline, automate, systematize and delegate. Definitely go listen to episodes 128 and 129 with Systems and Productivity guru Kerryn Hewson.
This one area where I can really, really improve. What should have happened when I quit my day job is that I should have gotten 45 hours back into my week every week because I had my systems and processes so streamlined that I didn’t have to put more time in. But that was totally not the case, I simply kept working my side hustle at the pace I worked it, and then also filled in all that day job time with tasks too! Still working the same amount.
If I could go back in time and do this differently I would have put less focus on pure hustling for the money, and more focus on streamlining, systematizing and delegating and getting that really refined – and then leaving my job with a plan on NOT filling up that extra time.
But identifying the problem is the first step in fixing it, right? And I definitely don’t have this all figured out, I’m just sharing my experiences and what has and hasn’t worked along the way so that you don’t feel like you’re swimming by yourself out there!!
But I want to know what you think. I wonder what would be different for someone that wasn’t 15 years into their career, if they would even want to side hustle long term, if they’d be okay with the risk, if they had less debt and less obligations if they’d take a bigger risk. Or someone that’s very financially stable and doesn’t need the money from their side hustle, but they just love it. I’ve met people in both camps. So l’d love to hear from you on that!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
