Do you have a side gig?
Did you miss me? I hope not. You have more important things to think about than this newsletter. Give me a second while I dust off my keyboard.
Welcome back! I know it's been a while, but I promise I'm not abandoning you. I still want to keep this newsletter going, and I've heard a lot of positive feedback about it, which gives me the motivation to keep it going!
Things around here are still busy. Even though we've settled into our new house, I started my own business a couple months ago.
"Started my own business" sounds like a lot, but it's really not. I started a side gig as a handyman where I work some weeknights and weekends. But in order to be legally legit, I needed to create an LLC and file for a business license. Thus, technically, I'm now a small business owner.
It's been fun! I'm slowly building a client base and making some extra cash. Turns out, handypeople are in demand. Who knew?
If you're on Facebook, feel free to give my business page a like and a follow—I frequently post pics and videos on the projects I'm working on for clients, and I sometimes post about my own projects.
Now that my shameless plug is out of the way, my main point is to talk about side gigs and why you should have one.
We all have extra skills that we may or may not being using in our full-time job. Maybe you work as an accountant, but you're also a kick-ass graphic designer. Or you're a project manager by day, but you also enjoy voiceover acting. Or maybe you just have a passion for board games and want to design and sell your very own board game? (That's also something I've been working on and is in limbo right now. Long story..)
Whatever it is, your full-time job shouldn't keep you from doing other things you're passionate about. Maybe your full-time job actually is something you're passionate about, but I'll go out on a limb and say that—for most folks—it's not.
And of course, there's the extra income. It's just plain nice to bring in some extra cash doing what you're passionate about. But more importantly, it's great to have something to fall back on if your full-time job goes sideways. It's not fun to talk about, but layoffs are all the rage now, and I'm a huge fan of not putting all my eggs in one basket. I feel secure at my full-time job, but if something were to happen, I'd still have some income rolling in from my side gig.
I like to say that my side gig isn't putting food on my table, but rather it's putting food on the table at the restaurant we're eating at on vacation. But I have to keep in mind that at any time, it could turn into a putting-food-on-my-table situation.
If you do decide to start a side gig, there's one rule I recommend you follow: Work for yourself and not someone else. I.e, your side gig should be you as an owner/operator or independent contractor, not as an employee working at an existing company. Why?
If you want to work as an employee, just stick to your full-time job.
A side gig is all about doing what you want, how you want, when you want. You don't have that freedom as an employee.
If you're thinking about starting a side gig, or you already have one, I'd love to hear about it! I'm always admirable of people who follow their passion and want to work for themselves.
Thanks for reading! You can catch up on some older newsletter issues if you’re a new subscriber, and feel free to follow me on Instagram for my off-hours shenanigans.