These days we all have a hustle and sometimes one just isn’t enough! Working a 9-5 can be so demanding and let’s be honest does it really end at 5?
This week on the blog I asked three amazing young women how they balance their 9-5’s and their side hustles.
What is your day job & What is your side hustle?
Tireni
I was going to say my 9-5 and then I realised it’s more like 8-6 on a very good day lol…anyway, I work as a Junior Associate at a law firm in Lagos. Aside from this, I run a home bakery and I am a Visual Artist which includes photography, creative videography and social mdia content creating and managing.
Eme
Hi! My name is Eme and during the week I’m a trainee lawyer based in Nigeria. After hours and over the weekend, I’m a social media manager for about 3 clients.
Bukiie
My day job is as an accountant working in professional services, my side hustle is a personal finance platform- Save Spend Invest that teaches millennial how to achieve financial freedom, saving better, spending well and investing wisely.
How long have you been working for?
Bukiie
Three and a half years
Tireni
I literally started work at the beginning of this year (2020)
Eme
I’ve been working in my day job for about three months now ( I am very fresh to the corporate world). I’ve been working on my side hustle for about 6 months.
Did you start your Side Hustle before your job?
Eme
Yes. I started social media managing about 3 months before getting into my legal role.
Bukiie
Nope, started 6 months after!
Tireni
Yeah, my side hustles had been developing before I started work.
Why did you start your side hustle?
Tireni
For quite a few reasons actually:
To fuel my passion, stay sane and be happy. My day job is very different from my side hustles which are much more creative. Fuelling my creative side often helps me stay sane, not get overwhelmed by the corporate world and to feel energised in life generally
To make money, of course.
To push myself our of my comfort zone and force myself to evolve, learn new skills and put them to use to help others and make them happy.
Because I have a list of what I call “impossible dreams” that God has given me and I believe these side hustles are an act of obedience and faith in God and his promises for me.
Eme
Honestly, it kind of fell into my lap. I’ve always been into social media and being creative, and a couple of my friends noticed that. So, they would recommend me to manage business social media pages for their aunties, mums, cousins you name it. It happened a few times but I never really acted on it until quite recently.
There was a three month gap between being called to the Nigerian Bar and starting my new job as a lawyer and I really needed something to do. I love immersing myself in projects and this didn’t hurt because it was a project that filled my pockets. So, I decided to take it seriously and 3 months later I’m gaining a steady income from something that really just happened by chance.
Bukiie
I started it for me really. To teach myself about personal finance and then once I got confident in my knowledge and realised there was a demand for it, I started sharing that too.
What is your biggest challenge with having a side hustle?
Bukiie
Doing everything myself ,because I don’t have a team so it’s hard to juggle all the ideas and execution with a full time job.
Tireni
TIME & MOTIVATION
As I hinted above, I work long hours. When I come home I often don’t have time or I’m too tired to start doing anything. But I’ve mostly gotten round that by planning and prepping in advance rather than waiting fot hte rush.
In relation to motivation, I mean it in the sent that most businesses aren’t booming when they start. When you see what you’re left with at the end of the month or when you decide not to ‘pay’ yourself but rather reinvest the money in your business, it’s like… is this really worth the stress? when will I be rolling in it?
My two tips
- Trust the journey, even if it never hits you will still have learnt so much about yourself and business.
- Don’t shortchange yourself, just because it’s a side hustle doesn’t mean you should be making ‘side’ money. If you’re doing it and people are coming to you, that means you’re good.
I always used to shortchange myself thinking this isn’t a real job but if you think like that you’ll give up. What you’ll even likely come to realise is that you’re just as good if not better than the people who do it full time and you don’t have to cheapen yourself to find clients.
They’ll come eventually. Now I have people who have seen work I’ve done and are scared of my prices – if only they knew I was practically doing it for free then. Treat it like is your only source of income because if it’s a side hustle your time is even more precious.
Eme
My biggest challenge right now is time management. So far I haven’t let any of my clients down- but juggling social media management with law is definitely not easy because both are extremely time consuming. I’ve had to give up many weekends and many hours of sleep. I’m currently working on being more organised so I’m not sacrificing self-care for work output.
What do you love the most about having a side hustle?
Eme
I honestly don’t think I can pick one thing because there’s so much I love about it. Like I said, I love immersing myself in projects. Having a side hustle makes me feel motivated- Like i’m doing something for me. I definitely respect 9-5’s but having this side hustle makes me feel like i’m building something for myself, which is really exciting.
Also, I love the fact that I’m learning new skills and improving myself. Social media managing lets me use a lot of the creative juices I don’t get to use while working in law. I’m learning about algorithms, photography, graphic design and just the mechanics of marketing in general. It’s really given me the opportunity to grow my skill set.
Bukiie
I love that it allows me to fulfil a passion and part of purpose. I like the reward of helping people do better with their money whether it’s helping them achieve saving targets or clear their debt.
Tireni
I’m constantly pushing the limits I’ve set for myself for what I am capable of achieving and I’m learning very practical life lessons from my experiences. I also like that I am in complete control.
I’m not always super confident in areas where I don’t know everything but not having anyone in charge of me means I have to take the lead and step up instead of aside. I’m learning to use my voice more, say how I feel and what I really think and that is seeping into my day job & how I approach that too.
Where do you see your side hustle in 2 years?
Tireni
Honestly, I don’t know and that doesn’t really bother me. I have visions and plans but every time I make those, God laughs. My expectations are always exceeded and so I try not to put timeline on things and just trust that God’s timing is the best.
Eme
This is really exciting to think about. I see myself having exponentially grown the business in terms of clients as well as man power. I see myself probably making way more from my side hustle than my main job.
Bukiie
Hopefully grown to about a team of 5-10 people, helping over 1000 young people work towards financial freedom.
How can we reach you/ learn more about your business(es) ?
Bukiie
All things me- @bukiiesmart
All things SaveSpendInvest – @savespendinvest on Instagram, we also have a podcast called The SaveSpendInvest Podcast.
Tireni
I thought you’d never ask! Lol. My Instagram’s are:
- @drizzlebakehouse
- @tozacreative ,
- personal is @tirenns
Eme
I don’t have a business website or Instagram page just yet ( mostly because I’m not taking on any new clients at the moment) But I’m working on growing the team and taking on new clients in the (very) near future. In the mean time you can reach me on my personal Instagram @emeukpong any updates will be announced there!
Thank you for sharing ladies!
Do you have a side-hustle? Let me know how you find balance, in the comments.
Arismusings 