My job is great, I really enjoy the challenges thrown at me but a few years ago, I needed more outside of my weekly routine. I stepped out of my comfort zone when I decided to run a side hustle with social media and digital marketing services.
As short time ago, I looked back on why I decided to have a side hustle.
4 Reasons why I have a side hustle
1. FUN
Most of the people I know who started a side business was for money. It was not for me. Fun was the main driver when people started to approach with me with some requests.
This is fun because I can work with different industries on a variety of challenges, meet new people and grow my knowledge.
2. Sharpen my skills
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”
Tony Robbins
I’d add to that and say, “If you do what average people do, you’ll get what average people get.”
My side hustle gives me the chance to dig in and get my hands dirty in areas I don’t do at work. At QUT, I don’t have the chance to build websites (because we have a great IT team for this) or to spend time in Facebook Business Manager and Power Editor to run and test all of our ads.
With my side hustle, I can run Facebook Advertising for clients, develop their content strategies (I think developing the content strategy for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and Triathlon Queensland was really interesting) or build their websites. With my side hustle, I also pushed myself to get more certifications including the Hootsuite Advanced Social Media Strategy.
3. Passion
I do live and breathe social media and content marketing. I’m passionate about crafting social media content. I found my ideal side hustle, the one that I enjoy doing. It started off as nothing more than a passion project and now it evolved into a pocket money maker.
I can honestly say that my side hustle brings me more happiness than grief. I wake up excited (I wake up excited to go to work every day by the way, grateful to work in my passion industry) to do and not something you see as simply another means to an end.
4. Personal brand
I work more on the side to grow my personal brand. I believe in standing sut in my career. A Side Hustle is one way to to that. In fact, I think that when you do a Side Hustle right they can turn into your career.
My side hustle diversion re-energizes me, and began to notice opportunities to create value in my day job as well.