Who Should Consider Starting a Side Hustle?
…and the beginnings of Wallflower Boutique!
In this post, we’ll take a look at who might want to consider starting a Side Hustle and how we got started with Wallflower Boutique.
First, though, I’ll give you a glimpse into my week. I’m blogging from University of Michigan. Go Blue! As a Recruiter at Microsoft, I was lucky enough to get aligned to Michigan interns this summer. They’re an amazingly intelligent and fun crew. I enjoyed getting to know them and I’m even more excited to welcome them back for full-time work after their graduation.
Back-to-school is one of the busiest times for University Recruiting. Honestly, the feeling at this time of year is akin to the craziness of a holiday season party schedule mixed with the excitement of the first day of school. On this particular trip, my favorite event was hosting Office Hours. We get a few private minutes with each student to discuss their career goals and their resumes leading up to their career fair. ‘Career Counselor’ wasn’t in my job description but it has ended up as the favorite part of my role.
In between the schedule of events at Michigan, I’ve been able to squeeze in a few minutes to dive deeper into a question I get asked often: “Do you think I should start something on the side, too?”
Should you consider a Side Hustle?
I think almost anyone has the ability to start a side hustle, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to spend your time doing after work. I developed the below checklist for those of you wondering, “How do I know if a side hustle is for me?”
Are you always thinking of new ideas?
Do you often think of an idea for a new product or service that people like? For me, ideas come up at totally random times, and it happens all of the time. I’m talking like once a day. 99.9% of my ideas are absolutely terrible, but I try to embrace the process of creativity. Even if the idea is truly bad, I try to get as far as I can with the idea in my head to practice the thought process for when a good idea does come along.
Do you want to learn a new skill?
I am naturally curious about developing skills that relate to running a business. I’m that person who clicks on links that say things like, “How to build your company’s brand” and reads HBR for fun.
Do you think about how to monetize random activities?
When I either come up with a new idea or see something that I think is a good idea, I find myself wondering how I would make money by taking the idea to market. I often find myself strategizing on the business model that would result in the most profit for the potential business.
Do you dream about financial stability?
A huge motivator for me is financial stability. I like to supplement my full-time income to achieve greater comfort in both the short and long term. Financial goals will look different for everyone. Very few side hustles are a “get rich quick” scheme, but they do provide additional funds to help you meet your fiscal goals.
Do you have an action-oriented mentality?
I both love writing a to-do list and crossing things off a to-do list. I know there are more of you out there who do the same. #StillWritingInAPaperPlanner
Are you okay with being (very) busy?
I am busy from 6:30am to about 10pm each day. People ask what I do for fun, and I’m going to start saying that I like working on side businesses. I used to be bothered that I didn’t have a more “fun” answer, but this is just what I like to think about in my spare time.
Does the thought of running multiple aspects of a business excite you?
I love the idea that I might get to operate almost every aspect of a business. It is rare in life to completely own the strategy for something and this is a good way to do it!
Starting a side hustle is low in risk but high in reward. If you find yourself identifying with the above answers I think the side hustle life could be calling you, too! Get excited! I’d love to help you get started. This is my passion. We’ll walk through how to get started in the next few posts and cover ‘advanced’ topics in later posts.
The Very Beginnings of Wallflower Boutique
Let’s use Wallflower Boutique as an example for the above checklist. This is an A+ example of how my mind works.
Are you always thinking of new ideas?
The Wallflower Team dreamed up the company while we were crafting for Kim’s wedding. Kim found a picture of a wall of flowers as a photo backdrop and wanted one for her own wedding. As we were crafting it, we just kept saying, “This is SO cool. Maybe we can make more of these for other people!” We iterated on the idea. “Maybe we can make a collegiate line? Maybe we can make a baby shower line? What if we rented them for people who don’t want to make their own?”
Do you want to learn a new skill?
After we came up with the idea, I thought about how I could learn to market a handmade craft, which I’ve never done before. I knew I’d also learn how to make an operation that required a lot of manual effort more efficient.
Do you think about how to monetize random activities?
The monetization aspect excited me immediately. Not only could we rent the floral photo backdrops, but we could also sell them if people/organizations/businesses wanted to use them for multiple events. We could design customized floral walls for a fee. We could work with local influencers to help us spread the word on our new venture.
Do you dream about financial stability?
For side hustles like these, I like to set financial goals, which we will talk about more later. My outlandish goal for this project was money toward a new vehicle! While I love my white ’06 Jetta named “Lily”, I’ve got my sights set on a car with seat warmers and a USB plug-in. I have to set outlandish goals for motivation purposes.
Do you have an action-oriented mentality?
Once we decided that a floral photo backdrop would be a good idea, we went to work deciding on the name, drafting the logo, obtaining/setting up a website and determining prices. All within a week.
Are you okay with being (very) busy?
We decided that the Wallflower Boutique would take daily dedication to social media and hours upon hours of time once we got orders for more flower walls. Did this bother me? Not at all!
Does the thought of running multiple aspects of a business excite you?
For Wallflower Boutique, everything from marketing the product to learning accounting for the creation of a physical product was something that sounded fun to me.
Let me know if you enjoyed today’s post! Can’t wait to share more and hopefully move potential side hustlers toward their goals.
Talk soon. XO,
Chelsey
