This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What are the criteria to consider when trying to decide your next steps? Should you quit your job, start a new side hustle, scale back, go all in? Well, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. We've got all kinds of folks out there doing all kinds of things.
Today's listener is a baker who also has lots of other responsibilities and she is concerned about burnout. This would be the kind of burnout that is not coming from the oven. Should she go all in? Should she move on? Do something different?
Let's talk about it and let's also talk about how you would make such a decision. Because as I said, people out there are doing all kinds of different things, but you're also in different situations. So what factors do you look at when you're trying to figure out those all important next steps? That's what we're gonna talk about in this episode after this message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi, this is Iver from Houston, Texas.
And I've been listening to the show for about a year and a half now. My side hustle is baking. I'm a home baker and I specialize in custom cakes, cupcakes and good old fashioned cookies. My question is, how do you know when it's time to go all in and move on? It's been a struggle for me for the last five years of trying to grow my baking business while working, being a mom and being a wife.
Is the struggle an indicator? I have so many ideas I wanna pursue, but I don't want a burnout. I can't wait to hear from you, Chris. Thanks so much. [Music]
Iver, thank you so much for the call.
Thank you for listening in Houston, Texas. We actually talked about this question on my YouTube channel recently. If you're not watching, it's youtube.com/chrisguillebeau. One of those days is when we looked at Iver's question and I'm not doing daily now, but I am still doing at least weekly. So go check it out, youtube.com/chrisguillebeau.
All right, here's the thing. Burnout is not necessarily an indicator that it's time to go all in. So you might actually find yourself even more stressed out if the business isn't economically viable. And now all of a sudden, instead of it being a side thing, it's something that you're depending on. Remember that one of the benefits of a side hustle is that you can take small risks without depending on the outcome to be immediately favorable.
Like if it doesn't work right away, that's okay. You have time to tweak, to adjust, even to change to something totally different. So I think generally speaking, the time to go all in is when your side hustle is becoming a real business, it's showing signs of growth. You can count on some sustainable income from it for the next six months. And you also believe that if you put more time and effort into it, it will do even better.
So in Iver's case, it sounds like she's not sure about that. I don't know that she has to necessarily abandon the project, but if you are feeling burned out about something, maybe it's good to take a pause. And once again, having it as a side hustle will allow you to take a pause because if you were depending on it, of course, then you wouldn't be able to. Whatever you do, you wanna make sure you avoid a situation where something that began as a fun thing, where you had lots of energy behind it, and you're like, oh, this is creative, it's different, turns into something that actually produces anxiety or stress. So if you aren't sure, sometimes having more time to put into the project isn't necessarily a blessing.
You might actually need to do something different. Those are my thoughts about that for Iver and anybody else in that situation. Listeners, thank you for being out there, wherever you are in the world. If you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We are featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects, maybe even as they change and transform and adapt them, because that's good too.
All good things, much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
from the Onward Project.
