Do you have a side hustle?

I've always had a side hustle as long as I can remember working.

Right now my side hustles are computer fixit guy and mystery shopper. I make a tidy sum of extra money that I spend on extra stuff. I'm probably going to find another side hustle soon...

 

I've been working on it. I've got some time this summer to get those things up and running. Teachers are often willing to pay for curriculum; while I'm not willing to buy curriculum, I'm very willing to sell. I'm also working on some learning materials for seniors looking to write application essays and study for the AP test. That bit was a kind of side hustle for me this year, but I gave away my services for free to my students, 'cause I'm a sucker like that.

In the past, I've made some extra scratch regularly flipping textbooks. I'm planning on selling some of my books this summer. We'll see what happens.

 

Thanks now all I can think of is ralphie smelling like tranny fluid. XD

 

I used to be a full-time managing editor, and my side hustle was editing freelance.

Now my side hustle is a full hustle. I suppose I need a new side hustle.

It would probably have to take shape from doing something I enjoy. I wouldn't be too keen on finding something that felt too much like work.

 

I could make money doing freelance work. Lots of people in my industry do. At the moment I'm choosing to instead invest that time and energy into advancing my career. My goal is to get myself to a point where I don't need a side hustle. We'll see how it goes.

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who is also currently a co-worker. He's working with us on our current Big Project, but he expects to leave after it's complete. You want to talk about hustle, this guy's got fingers in every pie. He's leaving because his own projects are getting too big to be part-time endeavours.

I admire that, but I also realized a long time ago that it's not what I want out of life. When you do that kind of independent work you end up needing to handle all aspects of the business. It's a lot of time and energy invested into things that I don't especially want to deal with. If I work within a small team I can avoid the crap that I don't want to handle and still make a respectable living while doing/building cool stuff.

I respect business owners. I don't want to be one. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

 

The biggest issue I have with being a business owner is that my income is directly proportionate to the time I put into it. It can be much better when you have a business model that can be leveraged instead.

It's the difference between a lot of service-based work (billing for time, e.g., editing) vs. product-based business (selling many units of something, e.g., books, music, apps, etc.).

If I ever get into a side hustle, it will be based on a leveraging aspect.

 

I totally forgot! I don't think of my real estate investing as a side hustle, but it really is. There's some upfront work and some work here and there. I find it rewarding and challenging at the same time.

I'm hoping to be able to teach people how to do this, not via late night infomercial TV seminar shill, but honest roll up the shoulders, "Do as I do, and we can do it together..."