Have you started a side hustle yet?

The side hustle era

Over the past few years, you may have noticed more and more people have taken upon side hustles. All of a sudden, it felt like everyone around me had a little something they were developing after their regular work. Actually, a survey from 2022 showed that 2 in 5 Americans have a side hustle. And 1 in 3 American was planning to start or had started a side hustle in 2022. And up North, 1 in 3 Canadians were pursuing a side hustle as well in 2021. So yes, you are not imagining things: side hustles are becoming more and more the norm. 

On one hand, one of the reason side hustles are blooming is because cost of living keeps increasing (hi, inflation) and people just need the extra cash to make ends meet. Not cool. On top of this, we live in a society with an omnipresent need to be productive all the time. No down time allowed, the hustle and the grind are glorified. Again: not cool. 

On the other hand, when a side hustle is stemming out of someone’s passion, it can be incredible. You would suddenly discover a whole new facet of someone’s life. I found that extremely inspiring. This person is an amazing artist! This other person is just so good with household plants. And this person loves their pet so much they spend time making amazing nutritious food from scratch for them! People truly are amazing and I think this is one beautiful thing coming out of this new era of side hustles. 

So, why a side hustle?

Looking at these driven and inspiring people around you, have you been wondering if you should find yourself a little side gig? Even if you may not need a side hustle, you may want consider starting one for some of the reasons below: 

1. to increase your income (so you get more disposable income, or just reach your financial goals sooner). In 2022, data showed that the average amount made by side hustlers was $12,689 annually in the US in 2022. But remember, the median amount is typically way lower than the average. So in most cases, it is not a lot.
2. to diversify your sources of income
3. to get fulfilled by spending time doing something you enjoy (with an incidental monetary gain.) 
4. to learn and grow out of your comfort zone (from coding to entrepreneurship and pretty much everything in between, you pick)

And you never know if your side hustle can grow enough that it becomes your main hustle! 

I think it is really important to know your “why” (or “why’s”) because hustling is not easy and being able to go back and focus on your reasons to pursue this will help get you where you want to be.

1 – When you want to increase your income

With the inflation still going strong, people may turn to side hustles at least temporarily to increase their income and make ends meet. This is not an ideal scenario to get a side hustle started although an extremely valid reason. 

A lot of people are also focused on increasing their earnings to access more disposable income or reach their financial goals sooner. It sounds strange in retrospective but personally, I think I had not even realized I could be making money by other means than my main job until a few years ago. Then finding out that there are other options out there than working until you are in your sixties opened my eyes. If you had enough money saved, you could reach a state of financial freedom sooner and stop working a conventional job! How amazing. To do that, you had to save a lot of money and/or increase your income. Enter the side hustle.

The easiest business model to make some money with a side hustle is to trade your time for money. Becoming a free-lancer or a driver for example are quick options to implement to increase your income. The amount of money you’ll make is mostly dependent on how much time you’ll have to devote to this so it may not be easy to scale up.

2 – When you want to diversify your sources of income

Not having all your eggs in the same basket, right? Creating multiple sources of income is one of the tactics we can deploy to reach our personal finance goals. (You can read all about these tactics here).

The idea of not being entirely dependent on their day job is very appealing to most people. In my case, I know that my skills and experience are easily transferable and sought after. In spite of that, I am a little anxious when thinking of my family financial situation if one of us was to loose their jobs. So if I was let go for any reason (such as a recession, which has been hanging over our heads like a sword of Damocles for a few months now), I find comfort in knowing that my earning potential is not limited to my main job. With an established side hustle in place, I could continue to pay at least part of my expenses by other means.

Note that when diversifying your sources of income, you’ll probably want to have some of these income streams being passive. One coveted business model of side hustle is to create passive income (46% of people have a side hustle targeting to create some kind of passive income). Affiliate marketing, digital products/online course sales, rental income are all options you can explore as part of a side hustle aiming to create passive income.

3 – When you are looking for fulfilment 

So you have something you like doing? Something you find fulfilling? There might be a way to monetize it. What I like about this approach is that even if you don’t make any money out of it, you would have spent time doing something you like or even love. Far more sustainable than chasing solely the extra money. It may be tricky to find the right balance of enjoying yourself and working for a profit though and I think each individual would have to find what works for them.

4 – When you want to learn and grow out of your comfort zone

“Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong” – Ted Lasso

Developing new skills is one of the non financial reason that 28% of the people with a side hustle have reported has a motivation to start a side hustle. With online courses accessible as they are, you could become a Canva expert, learn how to code in Python or sharpen your marketing skills in no time. Most of the skills you learn this way are also valuable in your regular job, which means better career opportunities there as well.

The interesting case of parents

That brings me to the interesting case of parents. My initial thought, being a parent myself was: “I wish I had started a side hustle before having my children!”. You know, when I had time. Well, interestingly enough, it seems that I am far from being the only parent interested by the potential of a side hustle. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, about 40% of American have a side hustle (2022 data). A survey done in 2021 showed that among the parents of kids under 18, 49% of parents reported having a side hustle. Almost half! 

Having children is actually a driving factor in the development of side hustles. And it does make sense (drum roll, please):

1. Increased income: parents are definitely looking after the incremental income at least as much as other segments of the population. Now we have to think about ensuring a stable financial future for our children, from making sure there is always food on the table no matter what, to being able to help them financially with their studies or their first home for example. 
2. Multiple source of income to alleviate financial anxiety: parents may have more financial anxiety than other segment of the population considering they have dependants to take care of.
3. Fulfilment, anyone? Parents need a creative outlet for themselves, so their identity isn’t entirely absorbed by their role as a parent or by their day gig. Especially when you are a new parent and everything resolves around your child. Obviously, you could just have some kind of hobby going on, no monetary aspects attached. So why go all the way to a side hustle? I think it can be partially explained by the following: if you can turn said hobby into some kind of an incremental income, it helps alleviating the guilt you may feel when spending time on something for you. 

So obviously, parents are going to be number one on the list of people willing to have a side hustle, even if they may also have the most prominent obstacles to deal with.

How to overcome common side hustle hurdles

Finding the time

Are you struggling with finding the time? Did I just talk about parents? Be reassured that no one has enough time. Some people may have more time than other, true enough but this shouldn’t stop the busiest among us to give it a try if they want to. As with everything else, you will have to make the time for it, based on how high this is ranking on your own priorities list. 

Make sure you pick something that you enjoy doing. Turning a hobby into a side hustle will make it much easier to find the time for it. 

Staying motivated

Sometimes you may feel like watching Netflix during whatever little time you have. And there is absolutely no harm in indulging! No judgement there. 

Same than working out: you won’t always have the motivation but you need to be disciplined about it. Knowing your why (and working on something you love!) will help when you are finding yourself at the bottom of that motivation wave.

Another tip that can help is by writing down how much money you are making. You can’t improve on something you don’t measure so by tracking your results, you’ll be able to make better progress and it is really nice to see dollars adding up. Keeping track of your additional income is actually a must especially if you are serious about your side hustle because side hustle income is taxable , no matter how small your side hustle is (so make sure to record your expenses as well).  

All in all, cut yourself some slack if it doesn’t work as well or as fast as you’d like. More than nothing is always a win (#streetparking, IYKYK). Keep going, the motivation will come back up again!

Not believing in yourself

Don’t let others opinions (or what you think people think) prevent you from trying whatever you like. You do you. You have an idea? Something you would like to try out? What is the worst that can happen if you do it? People laughing and criticizing? What a big deal.

Take the time you need to learn how to develop it and remember, there is no failure, only lessons learned. To paraphrase Ted Lasso (again): “Success is not about wins and losses, it is about becoming a better version of yourself.”

So have you started a side hustle yet?

Side hustles are an expression of that “American dream” we’ve all heard of. However, I think it is critical we have reasonable expectations. Social media are flooding us with success story of people who were able to create amazing things but the grind is real. Working on your side hustle tirelessly doesn’t guarantee your success. Side hustle burn outs are real.

So should you have a side hustle? I think it depends on the reason why you would be doing it. Are you willing to hustle temporarily or are you looking for a more sustainable activity? Are you pursuing your own aspirations ? It is okay if you prefer spending your time differently. You don’t need to be productive all the time. It is up to you to find the right balance between hustling and actually living your life. 

If you were wondering if you should be starting a side hustle, please consider this as a sign you should! As long as it makes you happy.