Anyone else have a half-baked Etsy shop selling crochet hats for cats? How about that Depop shop to rid yourself of the Y2K baby tees to make some extra cash? The Instagram design account in the hopes of popping up on Dazed’s algorithm – catapulting you into fame from the story they spotlight you in?

Let’s be honest, we all have hopes, dreams and visions for side hustles.

As a creative person looking to make cash on the side, it’s tricky to build a portfolio when you spend every waking moment at your day job. Whether you’re bouncing from meeting to spreadsheets or serving coffees. It’s a HOUSE OF HORRORS when you’re dreaming of writing your book or crocheting cat hats. 

We’re itching to stimulate our creative bones. Colour coding spreadsheets doesn’t count. (Although I do make a banging spreadsheet if anyone ever needs.) 

The hardest part? The execution of any side hustle.  

As someone who feels the unrelenting weight of immediacy and perfection (looking at you fellow creatives) it can be hard to get started. Maybe I’ll ask the tarot cards – maybe I could design my OWN tarot cards and sell them?

I probably won’t make tarot cards, but maybe I could make money from recording audiobooks?! I could probably do that. Unless someone tells me I have a voice for silent movies before I get to it?

But do I want to? A word to the wise (and not-so): have a good think before kicking off that side hustle as to whether you love it enough to invest a lot of time in it. Take the time to relax in the armchair of your talents, but the only way out is through. How will you know your cat hats won’t take off if you don’t try? 

I saw a post that said that as a creative person, it can help your motivation mindset by thinking that your day job (aka your survival job) is the side hustle, and thinking of your side hustle as your “real job”. Remember the luxury of having choices – indulge in that and get excited.

I have noticed a shift from the ‘panic hustle’ culture during our 2020 @BakedbyChristie<3 small business era (no shade to Christie, whoever you are, keep baking girl). Gone is the time of trying to make the most of those days stuck at home and the unnecessary pressure from TikTok to become a successful six-figure tote-bag-business owner at age 21. 

My current side hustles involve writing niche/impactful pieces for fun publications and my own cheeky Substack (‘If Anyone Cares’ coming soon), and graphic design for some funky brands. I taught myself to use Adobe Illustrator + Photoshop, started writing ranty articles about film for a magazine and here we are four years later! I also had a go at designing hoodies. I went as far as ordering samples and hand stitching them with my tiny logo. Suffice to say, they won’t be for sale anytime soon because I ran out of thread, and the will to continue. They were a great experiment nonetheless.

Moral of the story, it takes time to find out which sides of you to hustle, but it’s an opportunity to learn about yourself and develop your skills. It’s also okay to backtrack, abandon projects that didn’t work, and start again. Were those expensive crochet hooks a waste of money? Maybe, but you can sell them.

From your hypothetical clothing brand designer, app founder, radio host, painter, fairy princess and more. xx