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Ok, so I am busy. Very busy in fact and I seldom stop work until late into the evening because of work calls on strange time zones. So how did I find time to build a side hustle?
Lets face it side hustles are not all they are cracked up to be. At the end of the day when you want to flop on the sofa you still have to cook dinner, get homework done and organise bed time. Is there really time in the day for a side hustle.
The process has taken years. This is not the 3 month ‘build a side hustle and make money ‘this has been worked on for years as the family and work priorities shifted.
So I began by reading everything I could get my hands on. I have always loved reading so this was not a chore. Entrepreneurship, Medium articles, Property Investment, Stock market trading, online business. I gave myself a target of 1 hour a day of reading. With a 1.5 hour commute this was an easy target. Along the way I made notes, invested badly and dreamed of running my own business. I dabbled and set up websites, started a book and read and read and read.
So here are the lessons I learned that has made this journey remarkable.
I did not quit my job and move onto ‘full time side hustle’. I started by hiring in someone to clean my house. Crazy start but that gave me 4 hours a week to work on my side hustle. I needed to make sure it could generate the money that I was paying for cleaning and ironing but that aside I hated doing the ironing so this felt like a win win.
I needed to be able to do it or not do it at any stage. I did not have the life that allowed me to spend 3 hours consistently every day on a side hustle. I needed something I could pick up and put down. I started with day trading. Big Mistake! Yes I did make some but I lost some too. I was definitely down more than I was up but what I did learn through this was invaluable. I stopped day trading.
I started my kids with their own pensions (they are 5 and 10). I smile as I want them one day to look back and remember how there parents started this early – I had learnt about compounding and having seen my parents with no retirement I wanted to be sure my children would be able to retire easily. Not a side-hustle but something I am glad I learnt about during my day-trading days.
I also learnt to invest regularly. I moved money on a monthly basis into an index tracker. Just seeing the small amounts go out every month gave me increased control. I try to increase the target saving every year. When I earn a little more I invest a little more.
I love Property! Love love love!! My husband doesn’t. But again I did not have time for major commitments so I persuaded him to buy a studio apartment to invest in. It’s small and we have found the most tax efficient way to invest. It’s a new build so we don’t need to think about repairs for the next 10 years and it followed my 3 basic premises(which I learnt from reading). In choosing a place to buy a property it needed to be a:
1. Growing town,
2. University town and
3. Large hospital.
I wanted to get capital gains and income accrual. I needed a town/city that had a variety of professionals that would rent a home. I preferred professionals however the university meant that if the worst came to the worst I could convert any purchase into student accommodation.
There are many ways to make more money on property than this but it meant my goal of not needing to spend too much time on any one investment was working. Several years later we still have fantastic renters and the property remains a great investment. I could have bought a fixer upper, taken it from commercial to residential but for now I am happy with the choices I have made and the ease with which this investment is developing.
We have continued this cycle and my only wish is that I had started this earlier. If I had been taught this as child I would have made sure to start this investment much earlier and could probably be retired today. So now I am teaching my children how to do this. We have 3 rental properties now, I hope they will have 10 by my age.
It’s impossible to keep up a side hustle if you do not enjoy it. I found this with a drop shipping business. I had been looking at what I thought would sell best but it was not something that I would buy. I could not get passionate about it. Really did not want to spend time on it and it failed spectacularly.
However it taught me how to start a drop shipping business and now I am teaching my sons how to do it. They have all the enthusiasm that comes with being a teenager and wanting to earn money! But importantly they are learning how to run a business (with a mum in tow!).
If I had done that it would have been over years ago. Sometimes I would fail and disappear under the bedclothes for a few days but always I would find a new way to start again.
Every failure is a learning experience to build something you are proud of. Every rejection letter, every failed launch teaches you something. Be open to the learning as this will allow your next venture to have a greater chance of success.
When I started I had never heard of drop shipping, or Etsy, or Medium and I had heard of but did not really understand crypto currency, dividend investing and flipping. But slowly I learnt and developed skills in each of these areas.
This learning is not simply about making money. It helps me in the wider context of life. I am lucky as I love learning and now I am learning about Web 3.0. Staying current is important if your side hustle is going to become profitable.
But mostly I learnt that I am more than my 9–5 job. That while I am lucky to be doing something I enjoy that there is an untapped world out there waiting for me. Now I have several business which each produce a small income, they are not passive yet but will be in future. I have learnt skills that will develop my businesses further and will also make me more employable and importantly I am developing sons who will be able to build businesses in future and not rely on others for a monthly pay check – well that is unless they want to….
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