Day Jobs and Side Hustles


An important conversation with a friend today who's been giving his business 1000 percent and finds himself needing some steady income. This isn't an uncommon experience for solopreneurs, freelancers, and artistic creatives. Many of us find times in our lives when we need to just line up a steady income to cover our basic needs until our businesses can get to the point where they are doing that for us consistently.

I don't encourage people to just take any kind of day job. It's tempting to take whatever we can get, working an hourly gig for a low wage. This can be dangerous for a business owner for several reasons. Low-wage work requires you to work more hours and takes you away from your first work priority, your own business. I know a lot of people who have done this and have not only experienced burnout, they've lacked the energy and enthusiasm that their own business requires after they've spent their best hours in the day job.

I share a few thoughts and exercises in the video, but I want to mention one of them here. Start by making a list of every marketable skill you have. Over the years, I've learned how to do a lot of things and many of those could be offered to other people and businesses for a premium price. I can put together a quiz lead magnet in a couple of days and charge enough money from that to live for a couple of months. I can also do some podcast editing or video editing or course building and charge a much higher rate than I would be paid for doing phone work or gig work. Make that list and see which of your skills you can offer and get paid top dollar for.

There are a few other ideas in the video, but I mostly want to say that needing to find some dependable income doesn't mean your business is failing. There have been many times in m life when having the day job or side hustle gave me enough relief from my desperation that I could actually focus on my business without the added stress of needing it to grow faster than it could.

Keep the faith and do whatever it is you need to do. 

#dayjob #sidehustle #gigeconomy