Do you have a side project you’re working on?
If so, I want to hear about it.
And I’ll be featuring several of you on my upcoming podcast, The Side Hustle Project.
Want to be interviewed?
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Comment below, telling me 2 things:
1. A little bit about your side hustle and any milestones you’ve hit with it that feel meaningful to you (income goal, building a skill, career advancement, working with your hero, and so on)
2. Why you’re working on it and what motivates you to press on.
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Your side hustle doesn’t need to be earning tons of money in order to get featured—in fact, you can still be in the idea phase.
I want to hear from every one of you that are working on a side project today.
My goal with the upcoming podcast, The Side Hustle Project is to show you what successful entrepreneurs look like before they’ve made it big.
So if you’re ambitious and driven, tell me about your side hustle regardless of what stage you’re in.
This week, I’ll be choosing readers to feature.
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Hurry up and comment below sharing your 2 things!
41 replies to “What’s your side hustle story?”
Hello I received your email and just click to the link and come to reply you.
We have worked on different projects that are basically .Net projects and Web projects and also mobile applications. BUt that were offline projects means that was local market projects of our area. Now we want to grow our self there.
we have worked on different projects you can go there and check out our progress.
This year, I came up with a goal to become a published author. I know I have a knack for writing books, but haven’t came up with a self-published book of my own. That is my side project right now.
I’ve been procrastinating for the last four months and I only came back to writing my book this month. One meaningful milestones that I have is that I was able to write one chapter a day, now, I’ll be writing Chapter 13 out of the 20 chapters of my book.
I was motivated and passionate to do this because I believe that this book could be my stepping stone to creating that business that I’m always dreaming of. That is what pushes me on to continue even those times that I don’t feel any motivation at all.
We had done scrapping projects for our clients, point of sales for our clients and many e-commerce websites for the clients. We had worked with our clients in the desktop applications that are also web based and the clients are able to check there working progress of their business anywhere in the world.
We want to serve our more clients online so we have started the online freelancing work.Ryan Robinson we are expecting much from you and we would like to hear from you soon about some interviews or projects.
Hello Ryan, I took my side hustle (copywriting) full time in February this year. So far, it’s going great!
1. The biggest milestone (that I have been working for 6+ years towards) was leaving my day job. The second milestone (that I am confident I will achieve before the year end) is to get to £10k (US$13k) per month.
2. I have so much freedom and flexibility in my “job” now – so much so, it doesn’t even feel like work a lot of the time! I am doing what I love, helping small to medium business owners get more leads and more sales by increasing their marketing activities, and most importantly clients are LOVING the results I am getting for them. This motivates me more than anything.
– Rick Siderfin
Vortex Content Marketing
I am building a clothing manufacturing company and starting with producing activewear for high school track and field girls. I have always had a passion for helping others and with a background in track myself felt it would be something that I would enjoy! It has been a great undertaking but I truly feel it is worthwhile. The company will provide many opportunities for young girls such as book scholarships for college, meal cards for traveling away track meets, sponsorship programs, health programs, and many other areas of helping young girls continue to stay active and participate with sports. With the obesity rate so high among kids today it is my hope to try and encourage our young to not spend so much time on cell phones and video games but to use their minds and bodies more and become actively involved with their futures and making a difference and making their mark on the world.
Hi Ryan, I’ve been in the parking lot litter removal business since 1981. It’s almost as easy to do as going for a walk! I’ve been making a good living doing it and decided a few years ago to share my success in a book I wrote, Cleanlots. I believe a lot of people are looking for a simple, inexpensive, outdoor service opportunity that they can start on the side and build up to a full time business if they desire. I’m trying to market this book because I know it works.
Hi Ryan, thanks for the opportunity.
I already own my own business; I write marketing content for B2B technology companies. I’m grateful to make a living working for myself, but frankly I’m sick of trading hours for dollars. Vacations — what are those? Retirement — what’s that?
I’m changing my business model so I can support myself instead with speaking, fiction and non-fiction books, and courses. In the next 3-6 months, I want the business books and courses to attract higher paying content clients. In the mid-term, 6-12 months, I want the revenue from speaking, books, and courses to augment and eventually replace my client revenue. In the long-term, heh, passive income and multiple income streams is where it’s at!
Thanks!
Christine
Hey Ryan,
I know we know each other a bit, but wanted to share my story here to be a part of your community.
My side hustle is a little different in that I wasn’t looking for a new way to generate income, but instead find an outlet to express some activism. With everything happening politically in our country right now, I wanted to create something that I felt could have even a small positive impact.
My main job is as a strategy consultant for businesses (http://mapandfire.com), so I wanted to use my skills in that area and digital marketing to fuel this endeavor.
My concept was to create a website that encourage people to get involved with supporting the environment and promoting unity through actions they can take in their own backyard…literally — via gardening. So, having people plant vegetables, flowers, trees, any living thing, and then sharing pictures of that on social media using the hashtag #plantthewall
As I explain on the site, it’s essentially the anti-“Build the Wall” message.
You can read more about it on the site:
http://letsplantthewall.com
When folks use the #plantthewall hashtag on Instagram, I can pull those photos into the site as a curated collection.
My belief is that when people can have a very hands-on engagement with something (in this case, a small piece of the environment) it increases their personal investment in it as a whole.
After about 6 weeks or so, I’ve manage to get 130+ shares of the site and almost 130 images posted from a variety of contributors. It started with family and friends, but over the past few weeks I’ve been getting recurring engagement from strangers as well. The reception of the idea overall has been overwhelmingly positive.
Here’s one of my own recent contributions:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUXR6dChl_R/
It’s been a very fulfilling project for me personally to feel like I’m contributing something positive during a time that’s full of anxiety and tension.
Would welcome feedback and thoughts on it from anyone in your community — and participation is always welcome too!
Thanks!
Clay
Started my side hustle a year ago by myself but quickly realized a friend and former colleague of mine was interested in the same thing. We’re both accountants and view ourselves as entrepreneurial so we moonlight as accountants while maintaining our regular 9-5 job as, you guessed it, accountants.
The main reasons we both wanted to build a business are:
1) Have the flexibility to work our own hours;
2) Be our own bosses;
3) Build something that we both enjoy doing (helping entrepreneurs build their own businesses);
4) Build a different lifestyle than the mundane 9-5 that everyone expects us to do.
It’s been pretty fun thus far and we’ve been taking it quite slow to be honest. Roughly 4 months ago we landed our first corporate client (all clients before that were solopreneurs). We landed this through our mentor who wanted to hand off some of her own clients. This client has generated over $1K per month continually so we are pretty proud of that.
Next on the hit list is to add at least 3 additional corporate clients before the end of September. Lots of networking ahead but we really enjoy the sales and business development aspect to help grow our business.
Hi Ryan, i recently turned 40 and felt challenged to do more. So, i put my passion to play and now building my own online full wedding store. Its coming along great considering my core profession has nothing to do with building websites.
Hey, Ryan!
I’ll gladly share my idea. There is, however, nothing to feature because I haven’t nailed down the details of the project yet. As a matter of fact, I have just started it.
It is about branding, maybe of a different kind. What I want to create is a guided online program that offers the experience of a journey through the brand identity development process but from a different perspective, also exploring wishes and ideals and helping business owners develop a deeper understanding of the motivation behind choosing that particular business idea. The benefits would be to help them create a brand image that better reflects their values and ideals but also to make them feel more inspired and equiped to further developing their business and maybe even to help them develop the mission and vision that stand at the core of their brand more in the direction of serving others.
My side hustle is https://awesomestufftobuy.com/ and I have been slowly building the site over 5ish years. I am shocked and happy that is now makes over $1,000 monthly in recurring revenue. Just shows that if you keep working on something overtime it will most likely pay off if you press through difficult times. I mainly built the site to work on my WordPress skills and I just generally building websites :D.
Hi Ryan ,
I’m writing to you from Nepal. Although a beautiful country, it is highly corrupt. From the very top to the very bottom, corruption is treated as a normal way of life here. This has adversely impacted the economic growth of the country and has led to gross under investments in public infrastructure projects like energy projects to power the country’s economic growth and education to provide adequate and relevant skills to citizens . To begin to bring a change , I decided to partner with IMC worldwide, a U.K based development consultancy firm that help governments meet their larger and long term infrastructures created ire needs . Currently I am working on a waste to energy plant for the capital of Nepal and on a feasibility report to establish a mass transit solution for the country’s capital with a burgeoning population of of 2.7 million. I see a great potential for market growth in this industry and hope to make a larger impact on the country’s economy as well as my own micro economics via this industry . I would love to be part of your podcast and have a real conversation about the unique challenges and opportunities in this sector. Hope you invite me for a session.
My side hustle is freelance writing and video production. I work full-time as a lifestyle reporter for a television station in Bend, Oregon. While I love being in front of the camera, its taken me on adventures like skydiving, driving dune buggys on the Oregon Coast and tasting beer at some of the best breweries in our state, writing is my true passion.
Getting into writing freelance wasn’t easy. Writing relevant pitches and editor will take the time to read takes an enormous amount of time itself. I finally got an in with 1859 Oregon’s Magazine and now I write for that publication, 1889 Washington’s Magazine, Bend Magazine and have been published on POPSUGAR and jillianharris.com as well.
The video production I do on the side of my full-time job is helping me to save up for a future and going full-time freelance. My big turning point was in March when I had the opportunity to go to Guatemala for a media production company. I turned that trip which was free, but not a paid opportunity, into an over $7,000 video project with an International Organization.
Since I started working freelance, I’ve done it all on my own which gave me the opportunity to live and learn…a lot. I’ve gone through a lot of the struggles many entrepreneurs face like realizing quarterly taxes are your friend and contracts are your BFF. I think we often hear “Quit your day job!” “Sink or swim!” But having a full-time job has allowed me to say no to opportunities that don’t exactly fit. Its tough to be creative when all you can think about is bills.
Ryan,
Thank you for asking us this question and giving us your time. You have some amazing followers and I’m amazed at how much people are accomplishing. Great share on this page.
I just launched a polewear company. It is 3 years in the making. I learned about identifying a problem and then working to every aspect of creating a solution/product to eventually building a business around it. The website went live a week ago and I have a few orders from people. Because I was about to give up on this whole idea two months ago and now I have some validation from customers, I’m just happy that I didn’t give up. That’s my biggest accomplishment. I learned plenty and the real work has begun now, post launch.
It started as project to just solve a problem and then it morphed into a big thing as I dug deeper and at some point I realized that I wanted it as a business. The goal is to just have freedom to do what my customers want and not what my boss wants me to do. Listen to the market and not my boss. That’s it. Money is good to have but I can always go and get a job if I want money. But freedom is something I have to really fight for.
That’s it for now.
I want to thank everyone who was on this thread posting his/her business. What an amazing group of people you are.
Thanks Ryan and good luck with your podcast. I know you have many people around you to help but if you need any help with Podcast let me know. I have been podcasting since last year and I’m loving it and so are my listeners.
Aman
Hi Ryan,
Honesty alert – usually I just delete your e-mails but today’s e-mail was intriguing and commendable. This is a great idea and I just wanted to let you know how much we/I – the side hustlers – appreciate it.
I think you might be interested in my side hustle.
I live in the Northwest Territories, Canada…on the same parallel as Alaska. It’s cold, dark and isolated during the winter months. My full-time gig is as an interior designer and my style really lends itself to a Scandinavian look – lots of natural light, wood and the use of local products as much as I can in my designs. Through my design work, I’ve observed a gap in the market in that no one is producing real fur pillows & blankets – lots of faux fur out there but very little real fur. Now, I don’t know if you are aware of what it’s like to live here in the North/Arctic – 32 small communities, mainly traditional Aboriginal/Inuit communities, that have very little economic development happening. A lot of people that live in these communities still live the traditional lifestyle of hunting & trapping animals for food. Otherwise, mining and off-shore oil & gas development are the only other employment opportunities which do not necessarily go hand-in-hand with the traditional lifestyle of our Indigenous peoples.
Through my work – I’m a scientist by training, an interior designer by choice – I have seen the economic and social benefits of supporting the traditional hunting & trapping economy. I have been sourcing fur from these communities and, using a local seamstress, been developing fur pillow and blanket prototypes. My business model is to sell wholesale to high-end interior designers who then sell this product to their high-end clientele. Real fur, when sourced from these Arctic communities versus Chinese fur farms, is socially and environmentally conscious. Real fur will last 100 years if taken care of properly as opposed to faux fur which typically has a 1-2 year lifespan. Real fur biodegrades, faux fur does not. Real fur uses very little chemicals in the tanning process (safe for nurseries – no formaldehyde), faux fur is laden with chemicals. Plus, money received for fur products goes directly into the hands of the hunters & trappers.
I have a great product & a great message; I just need help getting that message out and I would very much appreciate being interviewed by you to gain exposure.
I have attached a few photos of my fur products. Otherwise, you can follow me on Instagram (I’m just getting started!) @henrydesignbuildlive.
Thanks Ryan, much appreciated.
Charlotte
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Charlotte Henry
Owner, Henry Design Build Live | Henry Wild Fur
Hey Ryan!
You know about my project I am working on – For Gluten Sake, but wanted to chime in here. I would absolutely love to be considered to be on your podcast!
1. My sidle hustle “For Gluten Sake” really started off thanks to your class 30 Days to Validate! It helped me hone in on which side hustle I wanted to pursue and niche down to a specific market.
http://forglutensake.com
https://www.instagram.com/forglutensake/
I have celiac disease and it has changed my whole life since being diagnosed. I have a huge love for travel, authentic community, helping others, and of course delicious gluten free food. I am working to combine all my loves into being the best resource possible in the world of gluten free.
Milestones important to me so far:
-have found a huge and supportive community of gluten free friends through my launch
-have over 1K followers on Instagram in 2 months
-have partnered with 3 companies to host giveaways and have 3 more companies in the pipeline
-was a guest on my first podcast this month
-am now being contacted by companies to be a gluten free product reviewer
2. First of all, I am extremely passionate about how going gluten free has changed my WHOLE life.
Much of my why is:
-having a business I am passionate and proud of
-set myself up with passive income streams to provide for my future family
-flexibility and freedom
-push myself to be surrounded by people who also push themselves daily
Thanks, Ryan for all you do!
Carrie
1-I want to become successful youngest business girl ,as my Professional degree is chartered accountant it relates with accounts business and stock exchange that hustle me to establish own business and become successful youngest business girl
2-I am completing my Professional degree currently I will start internship as that is requirement of our degree after complete my degree I will select for excellent job where I save money for establish business once I asked a question to sir that which business never stop and always become sable he replied to me that those business which produce important necessary things relate with daily life always remind stable and success so if I will establish own business I target those things which r relate in daily life .
I hope u will understand
By the thanks for u contribution
Hi Ryan,
This is a great idea. Fun to see all the other comments too.
I started my side hustle in January of 2015 but really kicked it off in April that year.
For about 10 years prior I’d been wanting to do some kind of business consulting on the side and as a “pre-retirement plan”. I enjoyed analytical thinking, brainstorming and problem solving. And having been in the Director of Operations role of a company that went from 5 people and a half million dollars in sales to over 100 employees and 50 contractors and over 15 million dollars in sales, I learned a lot along the way.
Prior to kicking off this side hustle idea I had been in a series of jobs in the telecommunications field (overseeing projects building cell towers for companies like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint) over the last 20+ years.
In April 2015 I set up a WordPress website and blog:
http://www.mikemcritchie.com
I started blogging every day for a few weeks then moved to once or twice a week blog posts (now weekly on Thursdays). I wrote about small business, marketing, jobs, and life (things that intrigued or interested me – including politics and sports).
The blog was fairly unfocused and I revamped the website several times over the last two years.
I got one small business client (someone who I’d worked with in the past who had a startup staffing company). I worked with her monthly for a minimal consulting fee. But that was it.
Over the first year I’d learned a lot about websites and marketing by doing it. But I felt I still didn’t have enough volume of work or enough clients to give me any true feedback on what worked and what didn’t. And wanting to do more small business consulting, I didn’t feel I knew enough yet.
So I decided to start writing resumes for people. I had bought a course about building a resume writing business about 5 years earlier but had never done anything with it. So I took that plus a lot of internet research and my own knowledge (having reviewed hundreds of resumes and hired quite a few people over the years, as well as having been on the receiving end). My discussions with the staffing company owner also gave me additional insights.
I kicked it off and started off with my price at $97. I wanted to prove the concept but didn’t feel justified to charge more than that. I initially got it going by posting a free resume assessment on LinkedIn. From that half the people who responded converted to a resume rewrite for the $97.
Then after doing several I bumped the price to $147. That went well but based on the hourly rate I wanted to be able to get at least $50/hr for my time.
So I increased it again to $197 for a resume rewrite and added another $50 if they wanted me to do a LinkedIn profile update with the resume.
That worked really well and started to get some really good clients who were mid-level managers looking for the next step in their career or potentially changing careers. And my clients got good results and did testimonials for me.
This has been a fun learning process and I’ve helped quite a few people with this side hustle business (27 paid so far with several in process – I do between 2 and 4 a month in the evenings and weekends).
It earned me $6,000 last year and on track for double that this year for a few hours a week working the resumes and about 5-10 hours on the rest of the business (primarily marketing).
I do a weekly blog post. Have done three guest posts. Do HARO responses (Help A Reporter Out). Have been on two podcasts. Wrote my first Kindle book. Have a weekly ezine (Mondays). And do a weekly Telecom Jobs List Email (with job postings from the job sites an one recruiter’s postings).
My email list is just over 100 people. About about 1,600 people connected with on LinkedIn. The biggest challenge for me is growing my list. I see the upside with a solid, large, targeted list. But I struggle with my interests and website focus too wide and my opt in offers not quite generating regular opt ins.
Anyway, that is a long winded way of saying I’m on the journey. See the upside. And am learning a ton along the way and getting better day by day.
Hope this was helpful. Would love to do a podcast with you sometime. I listen to a lot of podcasts on the way to work. I find it is great information and motivation – something all entrepreneurs and side hustlers can benefit from.
Thanks.
Mike