What it means to have a side hustle in 2022
I’m well beyond the honey-moon stage of building a brand. Those days of sparkly imagination and little responsibility (and little inventory) are long gone. When I began taking this vision to reality back in 2017, the side hustle was still a “sexy” thing that you strived toward.
Meanwhile I was working two other jobs, so it felt like play when I finally got to craft and create this brand with paper and colored pencils. Fast forward to 2022, post-pandemic-fear-driven-societal-meltdown, when I have a full time job that is more lucrative than anything I’ve ever done, and still manage to grow Northcast, well, on the side.
If you’re anything like me or the majority of small business owners, you have more responsibility than you know what to do with. You either rent or own an apartment or home, maybe both. You either have a full time job, or two part time jobs in order to pay the bills and fund your dreams. You likely have kids, or want to have kids soon. By the time you get home from work you’re so tired and exhausted at the thought of the cleaning or upkeep that needs to be done. But you have a side hustle to stack into the mix too.
I think it’s still sexy - the though of growing this business/brand and devoting the spare energy I have left to it. During the work day, I may have 1 or 10 really good ideas for a product, description, advertisement, blog post or photoshoot. Maybe I get to even execute on a couple of those ideas. These are what keeps the dream alive; and of course making a sale online will contribute to that as well!
Nowadays we have to navigate around social media through what’s real and not real. It’s tough to be responsible for you content in today’s world. On one hand, I see so many successful creators who live behind a mask or façade of false reality; but people love to see it. Creating false posts are just not appealing to me; I don’t want to fake any part of this process or hustle.
How do you decipher what is real and what isn’t real now?
I’ll also mention e-commerce - it’s constantly changing! SEO and keywords are no longer enough. Finding your niche audience and building your clientele is a total roll of the dice; at least for a beginner like me.
Something I love about this side hustle is that when ideas come to me, or when I make a sale, or when I need to make a post, I can do it all from my mobile. Canva is my favorite app for creating content.
In 2022 having a side hustle is like the guiding light at the end of the tunnel. If I didn’t have this light to keep working toward, I think the pressures and insanity of this world would drive me crazy. Thank goodness for my full time job, but thank extra goodness for my side hustle.
If you’re out there pursuing something you’re passionate about, I’m so darn proud of you. It takes an incredible amount of energy to stay motivated now that attention spans have shrunk. Keep going - keep chasing that dream. I’m right with you.
My blog posts don’t always have a traditional story layout. A proper beginning, middle and end.
But when I have an idea or expression, I try to start writing. Then I may get distracted and ramble. So thanks for reading this far.
Much Love