Finally Diving Into My Side Hustle Project
I knew that whatever I wanted to do, I had to have a website first. Consequently, I went to do just that and after several sessions of wanting to throw my laptop across the room, I finally published it. It looked wonky but it was mine and it was full of possibilities. Everyone talks about how easy it is to start a website, and that couldn’t be further from the truth for someone like me that is not very tech-oriented. But I managed to get it done by being very persistent.
Rounding Up The Team
Having a full time job I knew that I couldn’t do this alone. I knew that I needed help. Now I realize that this is not within everybody’s possibilities but I am blessed to have a supportive family.
I asked my sister if she could help me. She is a housewife and wasn’t ready to jump into the workforce but she could help part-time with social media and such. I advised her that I could pay her a symbolic amount for her time and she agreed! My lovely sister really took a leap of faith and she has been working on this with me since the beginning.
It turned out that she is so great at video editing and took on a video editor role. (I will share my YouTube journey in a later post, stay tuned for that!)
Why A Virtual Assistant Is Important
I was lucky enough to have my sister to help out. Someone I really trust and know can do a good job but for those of you that are out there trying to do everything on your own, consider hiring a virtual assistant. They can help with tasks that are repetitive such as organizing your email inbox or simple social media posts. In my case, I write the copy for everything but I don’t always have time to sit in front of Canva and design visuals.
There are assistants you can find on Fiverr and there is a world of virtual assistants that you can find in Facebook groups. A lot of these assistants specialize in a particular thing that can be the function in your business that you are looking for. Some may specialize in social media, others in organizing your digital files, and the list goes on. Even early on in your endeavor, investing in a little bit of help, can free up your time.
Choosing My Streams Of Income
Everyone warns against spreading yourself too thin. They say that if you focus on too much at the same time, you will not be successful at one of those and your path to success may be delayed. Well, it’s as if I didn’t hear these words from anyone. (My husband also told me so…)
I felt invincible, like I could do it all. I am a highly organized person. With proper planning, time-blocking, and time management I could do everything! Well, yeah that couldn’t have been further from the truth. There are a few things that I would have done differently but this is how it began:
1. The Sara’s Planner Blog And Pinterest
Now that my website was up and running, I decided to start posting weekly. Then, when I saw how long it took me to write one blog post, I decided that maybe posting every two weeks was the way to go…
I was getting used to the WordPress interface and it took me almost a whole day to understand how to get my post published. After two months, when I got the hang of it, I realized that posting weekly was not too bad since I became faster at writing and started getting a little extra help from AI software.
Upon my endless research rabbit holes. I realized that having a blog was essentially synonymous with Pinterest marketing. The two are an essential part of each other so I also dove into a Pinterest strategy.
My Goal for the Blog: To be accepted into an ad network within 12 months of starting my blog. I started the blog in July 2022 will I be accepted into an ad network in July 2023? Let’s find out!
2. YouTube
YouTube was not something I wanted to do at first, I thought that it was impossible to break through in YouTube with all the competition out there. I also felt it was not within my bandwidth but I also saw that blogs were more successful when paired up with their YouTube counterparts.
If you watch a video, you are more likely to trust that person and that was so true! (I had more people sign up for my newsletter and started generating more website traffic by linking my blog post to a successful video).
Before delving into this project, I thought that YouTube creators were essentially lucky or magnetic and people followed them because of how charismatic they are. But there is so much strategy that goes behind it that you can achieve success by implementing key things in your YouTube channel.
My Goal for YouTube: To be monetized within 8 months of posting weekly videos. I started posting regular videos in November 2022. This would mean that my goal is to be monetized by June-July 2023.
3. Bookkeeping
I went to school for Accounting and Finance in Mexico so it was a bit of a challenge for me to find an Accounting related job in the U.S. Therefore, I decided to start my own bookkeeping business!
Since I was having so much success working with my sister, I really wanted to start a project with my husband. We signed up for a bookkeeping coaching program that turned out to be incredible!
Now, at this point, although I was seeing the potential in my Sara’s Planner brand, I knew that making money off it wasn’t immediate. It was going to take time so I needed another way to make money sooner if I wanted to leave my full-time job.
This is where I began spreading myself too thin and couldn’t focus on anything in my bookkeeping business because I was so invested in Sara’s Planner. However, I continue trying to make it work since I already made the investment. I have a lot of help from my husband on this end.
If you want to see what I have so far, feel free to take a look at my website for walletkeeping.com.
My Goal for my bookkeeping business: To be able to replace my monthly full-time income by June 2023. I will definitely keep you posted and share all of the resources that help me achieve this.
4. Affiliate Marketing
This is the rage in the passive income world. Grabbing links for products you already buy and posting them on your blog or your YouTube videos. Therefore, I decided to give it a try. I started with Amazon affiliates. Their commission rates are pretty low but it is a great start if you want to dip your feet into affiliate marketing.
Something I found out was how conscientious I had to be about all the rules. You have to paste disclaimers, you can’t use your links just anywhere, and so forth. To be accepted into the program, you have to make 3 sales in the first 90 days. I sincerely thought I wouldn’t make it but I did! This was due to a very well-performing YouTube video where I added an affiliate link.
My Goal for affiliate marketing: I don’t have a clear goal as of yet. Now that I am in the Amazon Associates program, I will continue sharing my links. And I will look into different affiliates I can apply to.
5. The Pep Talky Coaching Program
This is something that I never in a million years thought I would do. “Who, me? Coach other people? There is nothing I can do that can help others.” This was my internal monologue. But my friend who is an Instagram creator reached out to me for help on organizing her finances. We sat down and I gave her ideas to organize her follower database, look into ways to monetize, and I taught her how to use a project management tool to organize her inventory and business processes.
Then she expressed that what I taught her was so valuable. I had helped her more than I could know. This is when I realized that I had valuable skills that I could share with other people like her. People who are very talented and creative but don’t necessarily view their venture as a business. I felt like I had a Jerry Maguire moment, a moment of enlightenment and purpose.
Pep Talky is definitely in its infancy. I don’t quite know where I am taking it or how I will market it but for now, I am laying the groundwork to make it a very helpful coaching resource and network. My goal is for it to be a place where online business owners get together to share resources and grow.
Other Projects In The Pipeline
Ultimately, despite all the sound advice, I am a person that cannot stay still. There are other things that I am working on but have not been started or that I have not worked on enough to designate a “stream of income” badge to it. These are a few other projects I am working on:
- I will open an Etsy store hopefully at the end of January 2023. I will be selling lovely planner clipart created by another talented sister of mine. She and I are working on this project together.
- I am working on creating a digital course where I teach people how to use online tools to organize their online business.
- My newsletter is something I have wanted to launch since last year but I am working on tweaking it to ensure that I am able to provide value in each newsletter broadcast.
- A designated YouTube channel for my bookkeeping business. I simply don’t have the bandwidth to do this just now as I have my full-time job. But this is something I am really excited about and a project I am launching once I am able to dedicate more time to it.
Ok, That’s Great But Have I Made Money Yet?
Currently, I am 6 months into my side hustle project. Since my goal is volume, I brought another team member on, my cousin who helps design Canva visuals. Again, I pay her and my sister a symbolic amount with the hopes that we will make more money. They are risking this as much as I am but we are working to grow!
If anything, I have only lost money as of now. Between my sister’s and cousin’s fees, monthly subscriptions for digital tools, and website and domain fees, I have been spending more than I am earning. This is why I am not ready to leave my full-time job. I need to invest in my project first.
However, I am more than confident that this is just an investment and that we will reap the rewards. We just have to be strategic, diligent, and persistent. As of January 2023, I have made $20 USD off of Google Adsense and $10 off of Amazon Affiliates. I have also made $50 off of Erin Condren referral credits that I can use to buy in the Erin Condren store.
