Written by
December 9, 2022

How to Convert Your Side-Hustle into a Full-Time Career

The most fulfilling jobs allow you to do what you love. And if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. If you’re passionate about your hobby, whether it’s knitting hats or visual arts, the thought of turning it into a full-time career can be thrilling, especially if you’re burnt out.

With that said, turning your hobby into a worthwhile venture requires a long list of steps and a great remote work-specific resume (if you’re applying as an employee). Even so, it’s still very possible to pursue a high-earning career with your hobby if you plan ahead and take it slow.

What Side-Hustles Can Earn You Money?

Virtually any hobby in any industry could earn you money, but some careers are harder to pursue than others. Take streaming on Twitch, for example. A recent Twitch hack showed that 25% of the top 10,000 highest paid streamed don’t make minimum wage through subscriptions. 

While streaming video games isn’t fruitful, writing, for example, can be if you’re in the right industry. Content writers can make $50,000 or more per year, whereas authors have to write between 1 to 15 books to make the same amount per year, and only if they’re lucky. 

You should also consider hobbies that could lead to other opportunities in your current industry. A journalist could shoot an aerial drone video to improve their articles or news-related media.

Here are a few side-hustles that could be turned into well-paying careers:

  • Illustration and Design
  • Photography or Videography
  • Teaching or Writing Music
  • Cooking or Opening a Restaurant
  • Selling Indoor Plants or Gardening
  • DIY Crafts or Creating Journals
  • Writing Comedy Skits on Youtube
  • Brewing Beer or Coffee
  • Walking Doors or Pet Sitting
  • Visual Arts or Dancing on TikTok

Typically, a person who pursues a hobby as a career will start as a freelancer or remote worker, but that isn’t always the case. For example, you could get hired as a dog sitter for a vets office, as a line cook for a local restaurant, or as a beer brewer in an established craft brewery.

How to Turn Your Side-Hustle Into a Career 

Many fields rely on your hobby of choice; you just need to stay vigilant when applying for work or building your business. 

Here are the 5 steps you should take to turn your hobby into a career.

1. Research Your Career Path and Make a Plan

Spend time researching your hobby, the barrier of entry to each career choice, and average salaries and employment rates. Consider speaking to another career professional for advice about getting into your field. If you’re lucky, your industry may benefit from your chosen hobby. 

If they don’t come up with an exit strategy. If you want to leave your current career in a year, list out a set of tasks that get you there, such as training, building a website, and/or networking. 

2. Iron Out the Details (and Consider Your Options)

After setting up a game plan, be sure to iron out the details. If you want to be a police drone pilot and you’re already an officer, ask yourself who you need to talk to or what certification you’ll need to move into that role. If you aren’t an officer yet, you may want to consider other options.

If becoming a police drone pilot is your dream, nothing should stop you, but it’ll take a long time to get there. However, you can be a drone journalist without a degree and perform a similar role. 

 

Cristina Par is a content specialist with a passion for writing articles that bridge the gap between brands and their audiences. She believes that high-quality content plus the right link-building strategies

Continue Reading

Written by
January 25, 2021

How to Be SMART — Even From a Distance

With the new year here, it’s time to set goals (if you haven’t already) –business, personal, and professional. The act of looking to the future and considering business possibilities is inherently optimistic and exciting. However, you may feel trepidation as you move forward with this process for 2021. This last year may have changed the way you view your business and the opportunities on the horizon. Your team may be larger or smaller, and rather than sitting together in the office, they may be scattered across the town, state, or country.

These changes mean that practical goal setting is even more critical than usual this year. Connecting with your people to discuss the business and plans for the coming year may look different; but, the elemental process is the same. With a few strategies, setting goals for remote employees can be every bit as smooth and successful as it is when you all sit together in the office. After years of working from home and leading a team, here are my best tips for success.

Take the Time to Talk Live

When employees are in the office, the discussion around goals often flows naturally. You see each other in the halls or grab an impromptu lunch, and talk of business, projects, and plans naturally flow.  You can create the same feeling with virtual team members by setting up virtual coffee dates or lunches via video conference to talk broadly about how things are going.

Consider Process Information

Set yourself up for success by considering the process you want to follow to set your team goals. Admittedly, the process discussion is less exciting than discussing the future and potential accomplishments. But, a few minutes of process-related thinking offers a big payoff in the end. 

  • Determine how formal a process to follow. Before you start the goal-setting conversation with your team, decide how you want to proceed after the call. Do you want to see a written action plan, or is a casual decision based on a few conversations the right approach? Past precedent can serve as a guide here but consider if other staffing changes may affect how well your past process works going forward. Be ready to share process information as part of your goal-setting conversations.
  • Establish deadlines for finalizing goals. Ideally, you have a day a week or two out where all goals are plans are completed, and you and your team are all working toward personal and business goals in short order.
  • Consider the progress check-in process. Based on the goals, you may want to check in weekly. In some cases, a monthly or even semi-annual check-in is in order. The important thing here is having a sense of the timeline and sharing it.

Once you’ve settled on the right process, send a general note to all team members that it’s time to start thinking about goals for 2021. Explain that you will be reaching out to them to talk. This step sets the table and lets people start thinking about their goals and prepare for your call. Then, send invitations out a few days before the meetings, so people have time set aside expressly for goal setting.

Collaborate

As you start your calls, keep the conversation light at first, much like you would if you were chatting around the copier. Then, segue into discussing the future and potential goals. To help the conversation flow naturally:

  • Outline the goals you have in mind for the business. Knowing what’s on your mind helps your team think more clearly about how they fit into the business and your goals for the next year. So, don’t be afraid to share what’s on your mind here.
  • Share your initial thoughts on the goals you have in mind for each role/person. Whether the goals are a continuation of prior goals or a fresh way of doing business, sharing some initial thoughts can help set the table for the direction of the discussion. Also, people feel appreciated when it’s clear that you’ve been thinking about them and how they fit into the team. Capitalize on this opportunity by sharing your vision. If you’ve recently completed performance reviews or shared performance feedback, that discussion can catalyze a broader conversation around goals and objectives.
  • Solicit feedback and employee thoughts on goals. Once you’ve shared some ideas, ask your team member what he/she is thinking about in terms of the next year. You may find that some people are hesitant to share their thoughts. You can combat this by pointing out that this is a safe space for brainstorming.

Remember the Basics

The basics of good goal-setting still apply. The long-standing business advice of setting SMART goals applies every bit as much now as it does when you work side-by-side in the office. When thinking about SMART goals for remote teams and employees, set goals that are: 

  • Specific– Be very clear on particular goal elements. Without face-to-face interaction, it’s tough to know if you and your virtual employees are all defining common goal terms like “execute with excellence” and “quick turn around” the same way.
  • Measurable-Know what success looks like in terms of metrics and share the metrics with your team so each member can track accordingly.
  • Actionable-Set goals that a virtual team member can efficiently act on. Take into account any access concerns that the two of you may have discussed—brainstorm ways to overcome any hurdles that appear on the horizon.
  • Relevant-Ensure that the goals you have in place for your virtual team members align with broader organizational goals and that your remote team knows those goals and why they matter. Understanding how specific work actions ladder up to overall goals brings more meaning to your staff’s day-to-day activities.
  • Timely- Specific time frames for success help all team members, but especially remote team members, stay on track. 

I’d love to hear how you set goals and how they lead you to success. Drop me a line to share your stories.

Want More Great Work from Home Tips?

* indicates required


User Type


Continue Reading

Written by
December 26, 2017 0 Comments

5 Tips for Goal Setting in the New Year

We’re coming up on the new year, which means we’re likely being inundated with ways to achieve our resolutions.  This is a perfect time to reflect on how we’re living our lives – personally and professionally – and make any necessary changes.

We all talk about setting goals, but how do we actually achieve them and keep the momentum going well into the new year?

Read along for some best tips and advice for achieving your goals.

Choose a reason

It helps to keep your motivation high when you know why you’re doing something.  If your goal is to make more money, is there a specific item you’re looking to purchase that you can envision?  If you want to make more time in your schedule, will you fill it with more fun with your kids or friends?

Find something inspiring to use to visualize your goals, which will make follow through much easier!

Make it realistic

It will only lower your confidence if your goal is completely unlikely to happen. You can always start small and build from there.

If you’re looking to achieve a certain position in your organization, and you’re quite a few positions away from this, make small goals to keep achieving the next position up.  It’s much more fulfilling to meet and achieve your goals, versus spending a long time without the satisfaction of meeting them.

When your goals are realistic, they also push you to do real things, versus picking a very “out there” goal that you won’t even attempt to truly achieve.

Stretch yourself

While setting realistic goals is very important, you should also stretch yourself a bit.  If your goals are much too easy, you’re really not achieving anything beyond the norm.

Pick a goal that is realistically achievable – but also scares you a bit. A little bit of apprehension can be a great kick start towards action.

Change the timing

Often times, people set goals that can only be achieved in many months or even years.  Pick a few goals and set time limits to keep you going.  You can even break your goals into categories of short term and long term, or by days, weeks, months, and years.

By setting goal dates and setting them incrementally, you stay in the mindset of thinking about them on a regular basis.  Plug these into your calendar for more accountability, reminder, and visual aid.

Create a plan

A famous quote says that “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”  A plan is a very crucial component of a goal!

Start by writing out what you want, then proceed to determining your “why” for your goals, as explained in our first tip.  From here, create your timing – short or long term goals, or by days, weeks, months and years.  Then, you’ll want to put these goals into your calendar and/or schedule.  To really take things up a notch, you can include visualization and meditation practices to truly solidify your process.

Achieving your goals takes work, but it should also be uplifting, fun and inspiring.  Determine what process works best for you, and do your best to stick with it as you achieve your goals in the new year!

Continue Reading

Written by
January 30, 2017 0 Comments

3 Ways to Maintain Your Schedule

As a work from home employee, your schedule is bound to be your biggest asset.  It can be easy to veer off track with all the distractions not present in a traditional workplace.  If you can stick to a schedule, you’ll be more productive, efficient, and able to stay focused on tasks.

We’ve compiled some best tips and practices to ensure that scheduling comes easy in your home based career!

Use a scheduling tool

Scheduling tools are extremely useful and eliminate a lot of the back and forth required to schedule a call or interview.  These tools work by keeping track of your calendar and noting when you’re free.  This way, scheduling a call is as easy as sending over a link, having the other person select a time that works for them, then following through with the meeting.

This also works to keep you on schedule because it forces you to track everything, and also keeps you from losing a lot of time in setting up these appointments.  Some tools that work for this include Calendly, Doodle, and Pick.

Track your time

To stay on schedule and keep moving through your to do list, tracking your time is a must!  Whether you use an Internet based calendar or a basic to do list, this is a crucial practice to begin and enforce daily.

Use some type of to do list with all of your items, including personal items.  This is helpful as a home based employee since some of your time might be used to be with family, friends, and completing any necessary errands and housework.  Of course this isn’t the case for all work from home employees, but it’s part of the benefits of a flexible job.

When you’re able to make time for everything in your schedule, in writing, you’re more likely to do it and more likely to keep pressing forward to get to everything on your list.  Even though these are incredibly helpful, do note that it’s important to make your lists as realistic as possible to prioritize and get what needs to be done.

Limit interruptions

Kids, pets, calls and people at the house – all things that can bring work to a screeching halt.  If you know you’re going into a very important call or interview, set up childcare (or pet care!) ahead of time.  You can also leave notes on your door for mail carriers to simply leave packages, as well as limiting calls to certain times of the day.

Keeping yourself on schedule is all about managing your time and using tools to keep that time flowing productively.  Do your best to schedule your days, manage distractions, and work towards as much efficiency as possible!

Continue Reading

Written by
November 7, 2016 0 Comments

4 Tips to Achieve Ambitious Goals

Achieving goals is a prominent concept in business, life and self-development, and it’s for good reason.  When we set goals, we’re more likely to get where we want to be in life.  Although establishing these goals is a lofty and admirable practice, there are ways we can go about them that will ensure that they’re much more achievable!

Write it out

We often forget things if we don’t write them down.  Think about going to the grocery store without a list – we often end up forgetting several things.  The same can be said for to-do lists and other means of writing down reminders.  First of all, by writing down your goals, you’re more easily able to remember them on a daily basis.  Additionally, writing down your goals makes them that much more real.

Visualization is another large part of goal-setting, so if your goals are time-oriented, purchase a wall or refrigerator calendar so you may see your goal date, daily steps, or time passage appropriately.  When you can actually see something in front of you, it’s a more constant reminder of what you’re trying to achieve.

Every day, every week

Do one thing every day or every week to work towards accomplishing your goals.  It can be as simple as reaching out to someone, making a contact, networking, completing a document, or anything small that will help you on your way to success.

Choose an interval that works best for you.  If you know that daily practice isn’t possible, stick to weekly.  When you keep this momentum going, no matter daily, weekly or monthly, you’re more focused and able to come back to what’s important.

Be realistic

Goals must be realistic to be obtained, and what’s realistic for you may not be the same for your friends, partner, or family members.  You know what you’re able to accomplish, and you also know that goals require you to push a bit.  We feel much more accomplished when we’ve strived for a goal and made it happen, so ensure that “realistic” does not mean “easy.”

With that in mind, set goals that are able to be accomplished in a set amount of time.  By keeping time ambiguous, you’re less likely to commit.  Set a specific goal, with a time frame, that is possible within the scope of your lifestyle and willingness to accomplish it.

Move forward

If you’ve reached a goal, go a step further or establish a new, more bold goal that is similar.  You can also choose another step forward that will complement your prior achievement.  Setting, achieving, and moving on from goals is all part of self-improvement; we can stretch ourselves and work to improve and grow.

Goals don’t need to be scary or unobtainable dreams – they can be a real part of your life that allows you to strive for more and gain a true sense of accomplishment.  Reach for your goals, whether they are personal, business-related, or simply related to improving yourself.

Continue Reading

Written by
January 11, 2016 0 Comments

4 Steps to a Great To-Do List

The to-do list is a much talked about item, and that’s for good reason. Especially when working from home, staying on a schedule and keeping on task is crucial. Rarely is someone going to be managing your every move, which makes a to-do list a priority!

You can create a standard list to get through each day, but creating more of a “system” with your to-do list makes it more likely to stick.  Here are a few best practices for creating to-do lists that work with you.

Coordinate for you

Color coordinating is a great way to organize your list.  You can do this by client, task, priority, and so on. Although it’s useful, color coding isn’t for everyone, but you do need to find some type of system that works for you.

If you’re more visual, color coding is a great idea. If you like to group things by task, a more segmented list might be better for you.  Play around with your lists for a few days at a time to determine the best fit.

Prioritize

Whichever list you choose, prioritizing will be a constant necessity.  For example, do you have a specific task due on Friday? Be sure you aren’t placing that over an email piece due on Wednesday!

You’ll get in the flow of your tasks and priorities as your home based career continues.  You can always modify a list – sometimes it’s helpful to create one on the web via Google Docs or utilize a Word Document so you can change easily.

Repetition is key

Your to-do list isn’t going to be helpful if you use it for one week then quit. Get into the habit of adding every major (or even minor) task to your list. It’s truly an exercise in organization, and organization prevents you from missing items.  

It can take a few weeks to really get in the habit of using your list, but once you do, you will find that you’ll be storing far more information on your page and less in your brain.  This allows you to be more efficient and keep your mind on the tasks you need to complete.

Cross it out

Crossing off your items is half the fun! Not only does it allow you to keep track and feel accomplished, it can be important in billing your clients and employers.

The to-do list keeps track of your work, so be sure you’re giving yourself the credit by acknowledging when it’s done. If something is halfway completed, you can always update and make a note indicating the change.  These small movements in your list give you a sense of achievement throughout the day, and with longer projects, it can keep you feeling positive about your status.

A to-do list is always a must-have, and it can truly work for you in your work from home career.  Create one that works with your personality and work habits, prioritize what’s important, repeat daily, and cross it off – you’re well on your way to to-do list (and productivity) success!

Continue Reading