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11 Things I’d Rather Do than Side Hustle

Side hustles. Where to begin? If you’ve been a long-time reader, you know that side hustling is my thing. I’ve been freelancing for four years (but recently stopped freelancing for something else) and I’ve been blogging for almost two years. My blog is finally bringing in a consistent income (you can check out my latest income report here!) with very little work, so I’m a happy camper!

So, yes, I like side hustling. It’s allowed my family and I to save money, travel, not be on such a tight budget, and even move across the country. I’ll probably side hustle for the rest of my life, if I’m being honest.

But, let’s take a look at my life in the last four years, just real quick:

Quit my FT job to be a SAHM mom
Immediately started freelancing
Had another daughter 16 months later
Took on a freelance editing job 1 month before she was born
Moved across the country
Continued freelancing with two toddlers at home with me
Started this blog (want to start your own? Here’s my tutorial on starting a profitable blog)
Moved from an apartment to a rental house
Started working full-time
Moved from our rental to our new home we purchased
Got pregnant with our third baby (another girl!)
Finally backed off freelancing…

Haha, so, life’s been busy. I’m sure your story looks similar. The past four years have been the best years of my life, and a lot of that IS thanks to side hustling. However, this year I’ve really made an effort to slow down. Life is so short, and I’m not near as focused on making as much money as possible anymore.

In light of my new period of slowing down, I thought it’d be fun to list 11 things I’d rather do than side hustle! Ready? Let’s go.

Why I Quit Freelancing (and What I’m Doing Instead!)

Long-time readers know that I’ve been a freelance writer for roughly four years now. I started freelance writing when I had my first baby, who is now four years old! Freelancing allowed me to stay at home with her and provide some side money for my family. My husband’s income at the time paid all of our bills, but it didn’t leave any extra for savings, vacations, or fun! That’s where my freelancing income came in.

My first month of freelancing, I made $300ish. Within seven months, I was clearly $1,000. By the time my second daughter was born (just 16 months after my first), I was making close to $3,000 per month while at home with my toddler and newborn baby. I was busy, but I managed. I loved what I did and thoroughly enjoyed being at home with my girls.

Fast forward another year, and we packed up and moved from Arizona to North Carolina. We sold our house and my husband quit his job. Because I was still freelancing, we were confident we would be fine for at least a year if it took my husband a while to find work. It was around that time (Sept 2014) that I started this blog, too 🙂

In July of 2015, I accepted a full-time position very similar to what I was doing as a freelancer (financial editing and writing). By that point, I was a little bit burnt out from freelancing, to be honest. I missed the perks that came with full-time employment: office comradery, coworkers, coffee breaks, oh and you know health benefits, a matching 401K plan and PTO 🙂 I also wasn’t quite sure the direction I wanted to head with freelancing. Do I take on more work even though my kids are little and I’m already strapped for time? Do I try to sub out my work to other writers? Or do I just throw in the towel?

Why I Quit Freelancing

I didn’t throw in the towel immediately. In fact, about a month after accepting my full-time position, I got the crazy idea to take on more clients and try to increase my freelancing income while working full-time. This worked for a few months, until finally I got sick of being so busy, to say the least. I hadn’t had a “day off” in pretty much the entire four years I had been freelancing. Sure, I could have set specific work hours, but with two little kids, nap time and early mornings was what worked best for me. Considering that’s only 15 hours in any given week, I would work during nap time on the weekends, too. It’s no wonder I got burnt out!

I made the decision around December of 2015 to quit freelancing altogether. I’m still working full-time and wanted to enjoy my family, my city and my life a little bit more. Since we no longer “needed” my money for savings (my husband and I both have full-time jobs), it was harder to stay motivated. Plus, I wanted to go a different direction…

What I’m Doing Instead!

While I’ve had a ton of amazing clients throughout my freelancing career, I didn’t want to be working for clients my entire life. Instead, I eventually want to work fully for myself. I’m sure you know, but instead of freelancing I am focusing my energy on blogging 🙂

With blogging, I completely set my own schedule. If I don’t want to post one week, I don’t have to. If my kids are sick or I’m having a super busy week at work, blogging is the first thing to go (rather than my family and free time).

Likewise, if I am feeling extra creative or wanting to take in some extra cash, I amp up my blogging. Right now, my blog is not my full-time job, so I have the ability to do exactly as I please. (If my blog were my full-time job, it would be treated with a bit more seriousness!! Eventually 😉 )

My goal over the next few years is to slowly grow my blog and my business to get to the point where both my husband and I can quit our full-time jobs. It may seem like a pipe dream, but I truly believe that we will eventually meet this goal.

For now, I’m blogging because I love it and it’s extremely flexible. Like I said, if I’m not able to blog for a week (or even a month), I don’t; and I don’t stress about it.

If you have big dreams for your family too, I highly recommend jumping on this blogging bandwagon. It can be intimidating at first, and you WILL have to work hard at it (15 hours per week minimum) at the beginning in order to get some good, quality posts under your belt, connect with others, build a following, and just learn the ins and outs of blogging. That being said, starting this blog and committing to it for a solid year was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Last month, I made almost $600 from blogging (and I didn’t even write any posts!!). This month, I’m set to take in closer to $1,000! That’s crazy; considering I now spend just 15 minutes or so per week on my blog (a little bit more if I write a post!).

Are you thinking of starting a blog? If so, what’s stopping you from doing it? Do you have any questions about blogging or freelancing for me? I’m always happy to help!

How to Make Money Online

Are you wondering how to make money online? If so, you’re at the right place. I’ve been making money online now for four years! I first got started freelance writing when my first daughter was born and have been doing it ever since. I don’t think a month has gone by that I haven’t made money online.

Right now, I make my money by blogging, which I’ll show you below how you can do that, too.

This post is for those of you who want to change your life. Whether you need a couple hundred extra each month or you want to quit your full-time job so you can stay home with your kids, you have to get started.

This guide will show you exactly how.

Six Figure Business Ideas: How to Start a Six Figure Business

Are you ready to start a six figure business? Do you dream of one day working for yourself and bringing in more than enough income to support your entire family? If so, now’s your chance. Don’t wait any longer; instead, let 2016 be the year you decided to make a change. Below are top six figure business ideas that you can do from home.

Six Figure Business Ideas

I’m first going to share my two favorite ways of making money: freelance writing and blogging. I don’t make six figures (yet), but I also don’t work full-time on my side hustles. They’re merely a fun hobby of mine that just so happen to bring in a few hundred to a few thousand extra dollars each month. You can view all of my income reports here.

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing can be an incredibly lucrative career. I started out making $25 per post and now make almost $300 per post. That adds up big time. I can spend just a few hours per week writing and make well over $1,000 per month on my efforts. Holly Johnson, who blogs at Club Thrifty with her husband, will invoice more than $225,000 this year in freelance writing. She recently created a course to help those that want to become a freelancer called Earn More Writing. Her course is packed full of information on how to get started freelancing, where to find jobs, how to raise your rates, and more!

Blogging

This is where I plan on building my own six-figure business. I love, love, love blogging. I started this blog in 2014 and am now making over $2,000 per month blogging. Growing a blog and earning a full-time income from it takes serious time, but it can be extremely lucrative for those that work hard and keep at. If you love writing, I highly encourage you to start your own blog. If you do so through my Bluehost link, you’ll receive an exclusive discount, a free domain name, and I’ll give you a copy of my book – The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging – for free!

Have an idea for a blog name?! You can check available domain names here:

And, if you’re not sure how to make money blogging, I created a very specific course on how you can make money as a web hosting affiliate. I use and love Bluehost, so that’s what I recommend to readers looking to start a blog. When they make a purchase, I get a kickback at no extra cost to them.

My course – How to Make Money as a Web Hosting Affiliate – will show you exactly how you can make thousands per month helping other people start a blog! It’s super fun and has been very lucrative for my family and I.

Publishing

Nowadays, you can write and self-publish your own books on platforms like Amazon Kindle or Gumroad. I used Gumroad for my book, but have heard wonderful things about Amazon Kindle. Writing and uploading is the easy part; it’s the marketing and promoting of your book(s) that will take time. However, if you’re a good author and you know how to market yourself, you could easily make six figures per year from book sales.

Don’t believe you can really make that much self-publishing your books? Check out this story in Forbes featuring a writer who made $450,000 from Amazon publishing in one year.

Buy, Refurbish, Sell

Do you love garage sale-ing, shopping for antiques or fixing up older appliances/furniture and making it like new? If so, why not start a business doing what you love? An old boss of mine made $800 per month re-selling items she found at garage sales. She spent roughly 15-20 hours per month finding old items and then listing them on eBay for a profit. By scaling the business and investing more time into it, one could reach the six-figure income level in no time.

The same goes for refurbishing furniture. I repainted a dresser I bought off of Craigslist for $15 and could have sold it for $200. I’ve also repainted our $100 Craigslist kitchen table and am about to start on a heavy-duty dresser for my daughter’s room that we got for free. Between Craigslist and Goodwill, there are gobs of stuff people are looking to get rid of for little to no money. Make it your job to fancy it up and sell it for a profit!

Make Money Doing What You Love

We all have different passions and hobbies. If you want to make big money, you have to figure out a way to leverage your talents so you can earn a six-figure income. My husband, for example, works in construction. He loves fixing up houses and making them custom. There are many routes that he could go – he could flip properties, manage his own rental properties, be a licensed contractor and hire subcontractors to do the labor, start a blog on renovating homes and make money via advertising and affiliates, or a combination of the above.

Or, perhaps you like doing a bunch of different things but don’t want to be tied down to one field. You could freelance write and bring in $2,500 per month, create and sell items on Etsy for $1,000 a month, run your own blog for $3,000 a month, manage rentals for $1,000 a month, walk your neighbors dog during the day for $500 a month, and refurbish furniture for $1,500 per month. Before you know it, you’re making six figures a year by doing what you love. (I know all of this would require a decent amount of time on your part and that everyone’s circumstances vary; these are merely ideas.)

Do you run a six figure business? If not, what type of business would you start?!

10 Ways to Stay Social if You Work From Home

I worked from home for three years before getting my full-time job this past summer. One of my favorite parts of having a full-time office job is the socialization. I have two toddlers, so it’s really nice spending some time with adults every day. Working in an office made me realize just how important it is to keep up your social skills even when you work from home. While I did a pretty decent job with this during the time that I worked solely from home, I would make a few changes if I ever did solely work from home again.

Even though I love alone time and could spend all day completely by myself, I will admit that I feel happier when I have at least some socialization through out the day (and I’m not talking about with my kids). If you work from home or are looking to make some new friends, here are 10 ways to help you stay social.

How Freelancers Can Make $10,000 a Month

Ever since announcing my goal on the blog to make $10,000 a month within one year, I’ve had quite a few people email me asking how exactly this was possible. If you’re new to freelancing and blogging, it might be hard to imagine. However, I’ve been doing this for over three years and have seen MANY people make $10K per month consistently. It is completely, 100% possible, you just have to know how to hustle 🙂

I have not yet hit $10K per month (hence the goal), so I wanted to bring in somebody who has. Keep reading to see how you can learn from one of the pros and be on your way to $10K per month!

How to Survive Working from Home and the Holidays

I think it’s safe to say the holidays are officially here. It’s the middle of November – Thanksgiving is just two weeks away and Christmas is six weeks away.

While the holidays are supposed to be a time of relaxing and spending time with family and friends, for us who work at home, it’s a slightly different story. Kids are home from school on winter break, daycares are closed and the stores are packed. Yet, when you work from home, your work doesn’t stop at all. As a freelancer, if I don’t write, I don’t make money.

Here’s my guide on how to survive working from home and the holidays.

Confessions of a Work-from-Home Mama

I started my journey into motherhood and working from home at exactly the same time. Three years later, I’ve added another baby to the mix and more to my plate when it comes to working from home. While working from home is what many believe to be the best of both worlds, all is not what meets the eye.

These are my confessions of a work-from-home mama.

How to Be a Freelance Writer

Do you want to be a freelance writer?! I have been freelancing for more than four years as a side gig and consistently make over $1,000 per month. You can see my income reports here! I have FT job, two toddler little girls, another girl on the way, a husband and a big house I take care of. I love my life and love having extra spending money each month!

There are many ways to get your foot in the door when it comes to freelancing. I first recommend you start your own blog to develop contacts, guest post and use your blog as writing samples for when you apply for freelance writing positions or work for a content mill (like Demand Media) to get your feet wet. Content mills usually will hire inexperienced writers because they typically pay less than most other clients, so it’s a good place to start and gain experience. You can pitch article ideas to print and online magazines. You can search websites like oDesk or Elance and so on and so forth.

Side Hustles for Moms: The BEST Job for Stay-at-Home Moms

Are you a stay-at-home mom looking to make some extra money each month? While that’s great, what if I told you you could actually make thousands each month by doing something that you love. It might even get to the point where your husband could quit his job and stay at home, too. That is eventually my goal, and I just know I’m going to get there!

If you’ve researched work-from-home jobs and side hustles for moms before, you’ve probably found a variety of jobs you could do from home. But, realistically, how long could you keep some of those jobs up for? Phone jobs, for example, are very popular work-at-home jobs. But do you really want to talk on the phone all day? I don’t know about you, but that does not sound fun. Plus, one of the biggest advantages of working from home is setting your own hours. With many jobs, you can’t do that. If you have to be available M-F from 8-5, you may as well be in an office.

So then what are the ultimate side hustles for moms?!