Hello, everyone and welcome to Hirewell’s Talent Insights most recent episode, we’re calling it, “Managing Your Side Hustle”. We’re so happy you’re here. I’m Emily Goor from the Hirewell team, I have my colleague Leah Dugan here with me. How are you doing Leah?
I’m doing great.
Well, I guess we should start with, what’s a side hustle?
I mean, some people might be watching like, well, why do I even care about side hustles? What is that?
Sure. So it’s any kind of ancillary or additional job that you do or gig that you do aside from your main role, your main position, right?
Outside of that 9 to 5.
Exactly. And there can be a lot of reasons why people choose to do a side hustle? I myself have had about a million and a half side hustles over the year.
Tell us, we have all the time in the world. What’s your experience with side hustles? What have you done?
I’ve done bartending on the side, nannying on the side, wellness coaching, yoga instructing, book keeping, content creation, website administration, like almost nearly you name it and I’ve probably done a little bit of it.
Okay. So you’re the pro. I am going to endorse you on LinkedIn for side hustling. Is that a thing?
I think that’s a skill on there. Sure.
Wow. I’m impressed. I guess I am a more junior side hustler then if you will. I’ve had one side hustle I’ve also, you know, can relate to you.
I’ve taught yoga and you know just group fitness classes on the side and have even grown the yoga stuff into my own side hustle business. So yeah, that’s what qualifies us to be here talking about how to manage your side hustle. So what would you say, I mean, if we’re talking about the do’s and don’ts, pros and cons, let’s start on the positive side.
What would you say is a pro of having a side hustle?
Yeah well, definitely first and foremost, you know, I think one of the main reasons people typically consider a side hustle is that additional income, right? It can be really nice to like, just help bolster your salary, your existing salary, for any kind of reason that you’re looking to do that.
So that’s kind of the first thing that comes to mind for me, for a pro. Also I love the variety. I tend to get bored easily. If my day is cookie cutter, the same thing at every, you know, at nine o’clock I do this – at 10 o’clock I do this – I would probably lose my mind.
So having a variety keeps it fresh for me. It keeps, it actually helps me, oddly enough, when I have a side project to work on it and helps me concentrate better when I am doing my main project as well.
I love that. I can totally relate. I think I agree with you, pro number one is just additional income.
You know, maybe you actually need that income to go toward rent, to go toward life, things like that or sometimes, you know, if I’m doing well with my side hustle, I call it like my play money right? Because we want to have a life too. Although social life is interesting these days in COVID. We don’t have enough time on this episode, but that’ll be another one.
Well, I agree income, and I think another huge pro of having a side hustle is being able to have an outlet for something that you’re passionate about that maybe your – I call it my “job job” right? Recruiting is my “job job”, my nine to five, that maybe your “job job” doesn’t allow you to have fully. So while I’m passionate about recruiting, I love recruiting or else I probably wouldn’t be here.
I think it’s really nice to be able to have a space to fulfill, you know, other things that you’re interested in and other passions, some passion projects, if you will.
For sure. Yeah. I agree with that 100%.
Yeah. So we know a few pros about side hustles, but where there’s good there’s usually another side to that.
So start us off Leah. What would you say is a con or maybe a warning for some folks looking to get a side hustle?
Yeah, for me this is something I have to look out for because I tend to take on a lot of projects again, because I do love that variety, but you really have to watch you know, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin.
Who me? I feel personally attacked right now.
It’s a loving reminder. It’s a loving reminder. Don’t spread yourself too thin but if it’s getting to the point where you don’t have any you time, any family time, obviously we’re not socializing as much anymore, but anytime with your friends, that really, you know, might not be worth it at that point.
Well, obviously I understand where you’re coming from. It’s nice to have, you know, different outlets and different variety, like you mentioned, but of course you want to make sure that you’re, I mean, work-life balance is tough as it is. So if you have two jobs I think that adds to the challenge. So definitely can be something to, you know, make sure that you’re still having time for your family, time for your people, all about that self care again, saying that for myself.
What’s another con that you would warn people against?
Oh gosh. Another one that people don’t always think about, especially if they’re newer to the idea of a side hustle is taxes. Like side hustles can really complicate your taxes really quickly.
Oh my god! W2s W9s, 100s, I don’t even know anymore.
If you’re someone who has a W2 and you’re an employee of an employer and then as soon as you add in a 1099 to that, or you’re, if you’re self-employed, that can not only make your taxes more complicated to do, which may or may not be fine.
Also sometimes by the end of the year, when you look at how much – how your taxes shook out with all those moving parts, sometimes it ends up really not being worth the time and the energy spent doing that additional work because you end up paying for it by the end of the year with the taxes.
So definitely something to look at and probably talk to an accountant about beforehand.
I think that’s huge. It’s not something that a lot of people would think about and I’m in the midst of that, trying to figure out if anybody knows a good accountant, call me.
We’ll talk after. I’ve got one for you.
Thank you. Everyone’s going to be reaching out to you after this episode needing help with their taxes. I think that those are awesome points. I can totally relate with the taxes and with spreading yourself too thin. So I think that those are really good, you know, kind of the cons of side hustling.
I think you kind of just segwayed though, you know, tips talking to an accountant. I’d love to get into kind of tips that we have for folks who are either side hustling right now or considering getting into a side hustle. So tip number one, you know –
Talk to an accountant. If you can.
Talk to people if you have those resources.
Right? I think that people think all the time you have to do all of this on your own when there are tons of resources out there. So tip number one, use the resources that you have that are available to you. Hopefully accountants included.
Or even Google. Do your own research.Well, like what it looks like in your state, state and federal taxes and kind of, you know, if you’re someone that can digest that kind of information by yourself without an expert helping you along the way, you know, just do a little bit of your own research to see if it would be a good thing or a bad thing for you.
Absolutely.
Another tip and this kind of goes along with the self-care and like, you know what we were talking about earlier, just making sure you have a full day off every week, at least one. I know two is like great. And I – you probably haven’t had a day off in like, what is it like five or six weeks or something? How long has it been since you’ve taken it?
Are we counting? I think this is a great tip, a great piece of advice because you know, if you are going to be side hustling, doing something that hopefully you’re passionate about, I guess, is another tip that I have. Like, if you’re going to side hustle you’re already doing a nine to five job right? Which is what makes it a side hustle, right.
Try to do something that you actually enjoy and are passionate about so that when it comes time to log off your “job job” as I call it at five o’clock and switch to your side hustle that, you know, you’re not feeling exhausted and spread too thin. So I think like you mentioned, I think that it’s important to make sure that you have that, that time off.
And I would say another tip in addition to if you are going to side hustle, make sure that it’s something that you enjoy. I’d say another tip would be go for it. You try it, you see how it feels, you see how it works with your schedule. Nothing is permanent. So if it’s not working or you need to scale something back, you need to make changes, nothing’s going to be perfect when you try it the very first time. So it’s all about progress and trying things out. And that is what we have for you all today on Hirewell Talent Insights. This was managing your side hustle. I’m Emily Goor.
I’m Leah Dugan.
And we will see you all next time.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Hirewell YouTube channel so that you do not miss a thing. We will see you next time. Bye!
