Should You Start A Side Hustle?

4/30/2019

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear this?

Instagram scam? Making some extra money on the side?

It's such a broad term and over the past year, the term "side hustle" has been getting more and popular, almost creating a falsification that this is what you need to make you rich.

In reality, that is not at all what a side hustle is, you don't get rich from a side hustle, sure you can supplement some income, but this is not going to be "how to get rich."

Rather, a side hustle can help you start experiencing more of life through finding more fulfilling things to do outside of your job, or even increasing your income so that you have more money to experience life.

If you have been following MMNTM for a while now, you know that my goal is to bring you resources, strategies, knowledge and insights to help you start experiencing this great life we have. Whether that is just being happier on a day to day basis or it is finding that extra money for traveling or more date nights.

I am here to clear up the air about side hustles and how they are not just some pyramid schemes that you see people from your high school doing for a few months before they realize that they don't make any money and move onto the next one. A side hustle can actually bring a lot of meaning into your life, so consider one and keep reading to find out more.

image: https://current.com/blog/teenswhohustle/

What is A Side Hustle?

"I think I heard some guy online talk about it once?"

You probably see a Facebook or Instagram ad every once in a while about "starting a side hustle to get rich" or you even get messages from people in high school about "this side hustle that is making them money," which is usually some kind of health or nutrition product.

This leaves us with a skewed perception about what a side hustle actually is and ultimately a lot of people discount it as a scam because that is all they have been exposed to.

In reality, a side hustle can help increase your happiness and fulfillment in life outside of your job as well as increase your income.

For most Americans, no longer is a job enough to make them feel happy. Usually jobs are very repetitive and after a handful of years you can just feel burnt out and depressed. Just think about it, all you do is drive to work every day to sit at a desk for 8 hours, doing something you probably don't enjoy as much as you did when you started and then sit in traffic all the way home. All in order to pay your bills and be able to survive until that next month, sound familiar?

That is where a side hustle comes in, and no I am not saying quit your job because that is what is paying your bills at the moment. We all have that extra time in our day, whether it is in the morning or more likely in the afternoon/ evening, that we could be using to work on what we really enjoy.

Take up a side hustle during this time and it doesn't have to be just starting a business, it can be something as simple as starting a social media account to help people in an area of your expertise, just to add some meaning into your life even if you are not going to get paid.

When you start doing this meaningful work, or even work on the side to increase your income, you can increase your happiness and decrease your stress of day to day life as you are enjoying it more.

Different Types of Side Hustles

Some side hustles are just ways people to find more meaning in life.

Of course, there are side hustles that make money and side hustles that don't make money and both are good depending on your goals, which you are going to have to define.

Are you looking to increase your income and take some stress out of your life, so you don't have to worry as much about paying bills? Or even just so you can travel more because maybe that is what you are passionate about?

Then take up a side hustle with more of a business mentality and maybe hone in on one of the skills that you currently have and start a small side business around that, where you can do projects on the side. This is made very possible with the app Fiverr as it allows you to do freelance work on the side and earn an income based around your passions and skills.

Even if you don't know what skills you have or you are not sure where you wat to start, there are side hustles that anyone can take on to start earning some extra money as well, I'll talk about those later.

Now, let's say that your 9-5 job just is not making you happy at all anymore and you almost dread going there, this is where that next category of side hustle comes into play, the passion project.

This includes doing something in your free time to help others or even do what you have always wanted to do, like start a podcast or blog around your favorite area of interest, and add some meaning into your life. This gives you things to look forward to during the day as you get to work on what you really love when you get home from your job, or even partially at your job when work is slow (I won't tell your boss don't worry).

These "passion projects" have the potential to earn money as well, it just is not the sole reason that you are looking to start a side hustle like it might be if you are trying to pay the bills and don't care as much about meaningful work at this point in your life.

Do You Need A Side Hustle or Just A Hobby?

Not everyone needs a side hustle in their free time...

All of that being said, a side hustle is not for everyone.

Some people don't want to take on that extra work, while they may like the idea of a side hustle, when it comes to actually doing the work they just can't find the motivation to get it done, whether it be a passion project or a side income.

That is where you might want to consider taking up a hobby instead, anything from playing golf to playing the guitar to gardening. Find something that interests you and dive all into learning to master that one thing in your free time. This will give you that feeling that you are growing and improving, like you would a side hustle, but not as much of a feeling of "work" if you are not looking for that.

Some people are totally fine at their jobs and with their income and happiness and are just looking for something to fill their free time, that is fun and entertaining to them. For these people I might consider a hobby if the extra work is not really what you are looking for and would rather have it feel more like "play."

Side Hustles To Increase Your Income

You can definitely supplement your income with a side hustle.

Alright, so you have moved onto this next section, so I am assuming you are curious about starting a side hustle and not just a hobby. That's awesome, so let's get started with a list of somethings you can do to increase your income, if that is the side hustle you are really looking for.

Reselling/ Flipping
Freelancing
Yard Work
Car Detailing
A Business Based Around Your Skills
Tutoring/ Teaching

This is just a quick list as there are probably an infinite amount of side hustles out there. If you are looking for a more specific one, shoot me a direct message on Instagram and I can help you find one (click here to visit the Instagram page).

Let me touch on some of the bigger ones here, starting with flipping as I have been doing this for the past four years in high school and into college. This is essentially finding items at lower prices than you know they sell for and flipping them online or locally for a profit, the nice thing about this compared to other side hustles is that you really don't need any extra skills to start, just a car and a cell phone. If you are interested in learning more I wrote a whole blog post on it here >>

Or made a step by step guide for you as well, here >>

Now onto the other types of income related side hustles, the ones based around a skill, whether that be building a business around it or doing freelance work around it. If you are looking to build a business, anywhere from a yard care business or small patio construction business to an online business, you are going to want to find out what skills you have and what you are looking to do with them. Are you interested in teaching them, or maybe actually practicing them as you can do side work for other businesses in a business to business line of work.

But, if you really aren't looking into building and marketing a business, you might want to look into freelancing, where you can use websites to find people that are looking for your skills and do projects for them on the side. Websites such as Fiverr and Freelancer.com are great for doing just that.

Get Started Making Money With That First Side Hustle

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Side Hustles for Meaningful Work

For those whose job isn't cutting it anymore.

Let's say you are doing just fine with the income that you have and are more focused on meaningful work, that could have the potential to grow into income. That is where the next category of side hustle comes into play, when you are just looking for more fulfillment or happiness than you are finding in your job or hobbies.

Usually this is around helping other people, whether it be with something in their business or life, or just helping themselves get better at their hobbies, such as golf. The list of possibilities is essentially limitless because it is all based around what is meaningful to you in your life.

When you find work that is meaningful, or at least a topic that you truly want to help others with, there are some options on how to get started doing that.

Start a Podcast
Start a Blog
Make Social Media Videos or Posts Around that Topic
Create A Facebook Group
Give One on One Advice or Training In Person or Online
and Much More..

How to Experience More of Life With A Side Hustle

Travel, find meaning and much more.

There are so many ways a side hustle can help you start living life to your fullest potential, starting with the most obvious, giving our lives meaning and purpose.

When you start doing work you truly care about, you bring a new meaning into your life which gives you new found happiness and clarity about the future. It can also make you less stressed and enjoy more of this beautiful life as you start to see the people you are helping grow as well.

Even if you are looking fro a side income, that extra money can help you experience more in your dating life as you can go on more dates or dates that you wouldn't have been able to afford in the past. It can also help you travel more as you have more money that you can use to experience the world, which is actually pretty cheap if you do it right (I wrote a post on it here if you are interested).

All of this is possible when you start using the extra time we have to do some meaningful work that brings us happiness, or even increases our income. Watching Netflix is not bringing us long term happiness and is costing us money, also it is wasting the limited time that you have as we all have a "life countdown" whether you like to accept that or not. Is that really how you want to be spending your time?

Why You Need to Be Experiencing More of Life

If not through a side hustle, find a hobby or passion.

It is not enough to just go to work and be sad for 40 years at your job while you wait to finally retire and be happy because likely you still won't be happy as you regret what you spent your time on, plus the beach isn't as cool after a few months.

Why not realize now how many amazing things there are out there and start experiencing them because we really never know when our end is going to come. You would have been working your whole life for retirement but what if you die a year before you are supposed to retire, then you never had the chance to really live life.

Especially for us in our 20's right now, we have a ton of extra time and relatively few responsibilities. Time to start trying things out and even if we fail we can learn and add that to our life story, come away from everything with a story and new skills.

Oh and also, time to stop spending all of your money, and more, on cars and things that you really don't enjoy but you buy because you think they will impress other people, which nobody really cares. Take inventory of your life and start spending on experiences.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, I hope you were able to find something of value. If you have determined that you are looking for a side hustle, I put together a guide on an easy one to start that would be of value to you and you can download that for FREE.
Click here to download that guide for free >>

I hope you have a great rest of your day,
Taylor

P.S. if you are looking for more ways to experience life other than side hustles, I have a newsletter where I send a few strategies, resources and tools a week for ways to experience more health, happiness, income, etc in life.

Click here to subscribe to that >>

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