This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up? Welcome to the program. We have just finished week number 29 of season three, Side Hustle School. This week featured a home haircut invention that goes on to earn $2 million, a handkerchief hustle that also reaches seven figures a year, and a jailhouse medic who starts his own mobile clinic. So let's jump right in today and talk a bit about going from hobby to hustle.
So yesterday I mentioned, when you go from hobby to Cytosil, you might be surprised at how much time you need to spend on tasks that have nothing to do with the hobby itself. The jewelry designer in that story said that designing her products takes about 5% of her hustle time, and the remaining 95% is all about production, promotion, pitching, or working on her business model. I think I may have also mentioned that I sometimes feel like that as a writer. I spend a lot less time actually writing than in doing all the other things associated with writing or with being an author and all the things that come with that. So let's talk about this a bit more because there are a couple of parts to this.
One part is about understanding that when you start any kind of business, based on a hobby or passion at least, let's say, there are almost certainly a bunch of other things you're gonna need to do besides whatever it is you do for the hobby, okay? And you have to come to terms with that if you want this thing to be your side hustle. Just a reminder, it's also okay to keep your hobby just a hobby. If you find it stressful to do all these other things, then just keep your hobby as a hobby. Maybe something else could be your side hustle.
But if this is the thing that you really want to grow, if you're like, "I am passionate about this," about this jewelry, about this writing, about this art, about this, you know, whatever it is, it doesn't necessarily have to just be a creative profession like that. I think there's creativity in all kinds of things. There's creativity in working with spreadsheets or databases or, you know, whatever it is. You have to know that and accept it when you go into it. You have to be okay with understanding that actually I'm probably gonna spend less time, you know, on a specific hobby, whatever that content creation or that creative mode is, because I have to now build this infrastructure around it.
Because I now have to interact with customers, clients, potential customers, prospects, readers, listeners, whatever the group happens to be. And that's just part of how it works. However, it's also true that as your business grows, you can often feel pulled too far in the direction of, quote unquote, all those other things. And you might actually find yourself missing the thing that started this process for you in the first place. So here are a couple of ways that you can approach this dilemma.
Number one, make a list of all the things that you really, really have to do for this business. Like I said, there will be some tasks on the list, perhaps a lot of them. But, you know, once you've made a list of all the things that you really, really have to do, not just that you're thinking of doing that might be good, et cetera, stop doing some of the others. Especially in a creative project, the list of tasks could be endless. So just choosing to prioritize helps a lot.
And maybe actually reserved some of that creative time for you. And then second, speaking of that, carve out creative time based on the priorities that you identify. And don't do anything else during that time. If writing or making, or another form of creating brings you energy, then do that first in whatever block of time you have available to work on your project. Then, and only then, move into all of those other things.
Then you start working on that list. But first you're like, I've got my time that I'm spending for myself. I'm going back to the source of what allowed all this to happen in the first place. Now, number three, last but not least, in yesterday's story, Christina mentioned 95% of her art business time wasn't spent making art. A lot of artists I know might find that ratio constraining.
Okay, and in this case, Christina didn't say she disliked all those other things she does. But still, if 95% of the time you're doing something that you dislike, that's a problem. You don't need a side hustle to deal with that kind of thing. You could have a bad real job and work with that kind of ratio. So a side hustle isn't meant to be a grind or something that you have to do.
It should be something you get to do. If you find yourself in a situation where you're not looking forward to all this stuff, identify your true north, figure out what makes you feel alive. And if you don't have that feeling anymore, you need to make some changes one way or another. All right, coming up in a moment, we've got an audio update. Audio update from a previously featured side hustler.
This one comes from Brittany Finkel, whose story I've been telling across the country recently. She's actually in the "100 Side Hustles" book, has a really fun business renting out wedding accessories for brides who are on a budget, or also for brides who don't want to spend hundreds of dollars, sometimes thousands of dollars on these accessories that are only going to be worn once. So that's coming up right after this message from our sponsor. Really appreciate them allowing us to bring the program to you completely free. [Music]
Hey, this is Brittany Finkel from Portland, Oregon.
And my side hustle is happily ever borrowed, the premier e-boutique that rents wedding accessories to brides for their wedding day. And it was originally featured on episode 184. Since then, we've rented to over 1200 brides and we're right in the middle of our busiest bridal season. Happily Ever Borrowed has had a bunch of awesome press recently. We were featured on a TV segment for MSNBC's "Your Business." And we were quoted in the New York Times, Forbes, and many other fashion and bridal publications.
Since our episode aired, we've hit profitability. And we've also launched our own collection of bridal accessories, which helps us save on our margins and creates unique pieces for our brides. So my advice for other listeners would be to really look at your numbers. We realized that we were spending the majority of our money on inventory and marketing efforts. And with that realization, we were able to look at where we could find savings and that is what prompted us to launch our own designs and come up with some more grassroots marketing campaigns that were less expensive than traditional advertising.
So next step, we're talking to a few companies that can help with order fulfillment for us and potentially even merge our businesses. And this would give me more time to focus on designing new products and finding new customers. So please check us out at happilyeverborrow.com. And if you know of any brides, send them our way. - Awesome, thank you so much, Brittany.
Appreciate that update. 1200 brides, that's fantastic. 1200 brides, well done. And in that update, Brittany is quite modest because she mentioned the business is profitable, but she's really being quite modest because like I said, featured in the book is actually earning a really good income. So good for her.
Love that advice about paying attention to the numbers. It can often lead you to a new direction or strategy or tactic, just like it's doing for her. She explained, and I'll be excited to see what comes next. You can check out her work at happilyeverborrow.com. And like she said, if you know some brides or a bride-to-be, perhaps send them her way.
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Listers, I always love hearing what you're up to as well. You can email me at podcast@sidehustleschool.com. You can call the Hustle Hotline, give us a little voice memo, 8449 Hustle, 8449487853. You can also do that directly from the sidehustleschool.com website. Basically with your computer, you can send a little message using your microphone, et cetera.
Technology these days, it's incredible. But I always love knowing what you're working on and what you're struggling with so that we can craft future episodes, future courses, future workshops, future whatever we come up with in response to what most people are looking for. Now, looking ahead, I've got some great stories, including tomorrow's, which I really love working on, a Star Wars fan who forges his own lightsaber empire. He's actually an appliance repairman who channels the force and learns to make, sell, and repair lightsabers. Never tell him the odds.
That story is coming up along with many others every day this week as we continue to work toward 1,000 episodes. I can't believe it. I know we've got a lot of people out there who've been listening from day one. I mean, I'm so glad you're there. And for anybody who has joined up along the way, I'm so glad you're there as well.
This is a community effort. I never had any vision of going this far with it, I thought I would just do like the first year, which already seemed daunting. But there's just more people out there with interesting projects. So that's why we keep rolling. And my whole motivation is for this to kind of serve as a little synergy between your own ideas and what you're thinking about and perhaps what you're working on.
So that when you hear these stories, you're like, "Oh, that's an interesting way "that they approach that problem." Or, "I never knew you could make money doing that. "I wonder if I can do the same thing "or if I can do something similar "or if I can just apply this same kind of thinking "to the problem that I'm experiencing "or to an opportunity that I have spotted." And it makes me so happy to hear about interactions and when our worlds have kind of collided in some way. And you're like, "I started a project "and this is what's happening." So my goal is to support everyone out there who's trying to start their project, especially if you've been thinking about it for a while but you have struggled in getting it off the ground. You are not alone. There are many, many people in that situation.
And I do believe as you continue to work, you're gonna get out of that hole. All right, so that's our goal. And as I sign off for the week, do wanna say thank you to our producer, Chuck Reed, content manager, Whitney Karinek, community liaison, Jed Chang, Cat Herter, Tina Hart, the official show cat, Libby Gillipo. And let's see who else. Oh, Gretchen Rubin, of course.
Gretchen Rubin is the founder and curator of The Onward Project. It's a collection of podcasts with concrete actionable ideas for how you can make your life happier, healthier, more productive and more creative. Check it out at theonwardproject.com. Her show is called "Happier" with Gretchen Rubin as well as "Happier in Hollywood" and also "Do the Thing" from Melissa Urban. All these shows are free and listener supported.
If you're enjoying it, I'm super grateful for your quick five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Only takes a couple of seconds and it will help other people discover the show. You can also tell your friends about it or even better show them how to subscribe. If you know somebody out there who needs another source of income, send them to us, we'll take care of them. I look forward to hearing about you taking action and I hope you'll join me tomorrow and every day next week for more stories and ideas.
Consider this a 10-minute daily investment in yourself. Episodes go online at 601 a.m. Eastern time. My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
