My Journey From a Side Hustler to a Solopreneur
Here are a series of events of the past 2 years.
Around this time two years ago is when I started side hustling.
And at the time of typing this, I just got back from a 5-day long holiday at the beach with my girlfriends and work was taken care of with no intervention during my downtime.
Same thing during my month-long holiday two months ago when I didn’t have to worry about anything.
This may sound flowery, but this change has happened with a lot of work and moreover a lot of things not working out.
So here’s an honest account of my journey since then. I know the present-day scenario sounds beautiful, but I’ll be selling you a fake dream if I don’t tell you what actually happened behind the scenes.
I hope you can use my failures to circumvent mistakes and steal my wins by using my strategies.
I’ve been writing since I was in second grade. So while I wasn’t writing online, I’ve been writing all my life.
Two years ago, I was casually browsing when I was bored at work and I stumbled upon a blog. I couldn't stop reading it!
I realised people can actually make a living out of what they enjoy doing.
Earlier, the only such people I knew were Instagram bloggers who I don’t resonate with one bit. It feels like a facade of showing people that you’re living your best life.
But this was real.
Also, they too resonated with being quiet, minimalistic, and aiming to be wealthy instead of trying too hard to appear rich.
This felt like exactly the life I wanted. So I started writing online. Enrolled in online courses that cost half my monthly paycheck, but I knew it’ll pay me back.
I’d edit articles before work, and write after work.
After a few weeks, I also started browsing on Upwork. I hopped onto YouTube to figure out how to make an attractive cover letter and read blogs about how people get high-paying Upwork gigs.
This is the one thing I see most people who ask me for advice lack — self-studying. You can get everything on the internet from verified sources and learn from others.
My first freelance gig paid me $130 for about 2 hours of work.
And that money tasted yummy.
In the coming months, I freelanced a bit, but also kept writing online.
I wrote online because it was fun. Little did I know I was planting seeds for:
- personal branding
- attracting opportunities
- becoming a better writer
Another thing that most people dismiss today is the power of having your work speak for you. People want to freelance, but they don’t have work that speaks for them.
Picture this — somebody gets in touch with you because they know you’re amazing. They wait for your availability and will pay you what you want.
This is so much better than spending hours applying for gigs.
Now that I’ve hired two people, I got in touch with them because I already knew they’re brilliant at what they do.
Writing online for no money in return may sound pointless and it may not motivate you. But it can and will help you more than anything else in the future.
It’s difficult, which is why not everyone does it. But it helps long term.
Now, I’ve had zero dreams to be my own boss.
I still don’t find it appealing. I feel independent and like to own my time — but being your own boss is romanticised. It has many downsides, such as:
- burnout: when does work end?
- burnout [again]: work has ended, but are you still thinking about work?
- strategising: what’s next? how are we growing our business?
- feedback: what’s good and what can change?
- money #1: how are we making money this month?
- money #2: how can we make more money?
- money #3: could we have made more money?
It’s a mindf#ck.
These are questions you have to ask yourself so many times that they eventually stress you out.
So while I didn’t have to satisfy my ego of being my own boss, I still wanted the simple stuff, like doing what I love and getting paid enough.
And then, I quit my 9–5 after side hustling for 10 months.
And that’s when:
- my high paying client ditch me
- my potential client in the pipeline proposed me to work for peanuts
So everything fell down.
I told you — it isn’t flowery at all. But today, I’m glad it happened because now I know what I don’t want.
“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.” — Thomas A. Edison
So I continued side hustling during my notice period.
I also tried to pick up a few one-time freelance gigs. With this, I was clear about a few things in freelancing:
- I suck at writing blog posts for others
- I don’t enjoy writing for others so much
- I prefer a one-time commitment over an ongoing relationship
So while I didn’t know my direction, I at least knew what I didn’t want to do. This zeroed down one writing path for me — copywriting.
And on the side, I wrote more than ever before.
- 20 articles a month
- 3 times a week on LinkedIn
- started a Twitter account
Writing for others squeezed the joy out of writing.
And I didn’t want to fall out of love with the one thing I loved doing on weekends as a single child and an introvert. My diary and books have been my best friends — I will not let go of what we have for the sake of earning bucks.
Two months after being self-employed, I went in for surgery on both my knees, which left me in bed for a month.
But before that — I got 13 side-hustle-related articles together and rolled out a free ebook.
Over a thousand people downloaded it.
That’s when I knew that even though my mom dislikes how lazy I am, I’m going to use it as an advantage to get things done quickly with the least effort.
After my surgery, I again had a random idea.
I thought — what if I taught people my systems about consistency in writing online?
I’m lazy.
And if I can do it, anybody can.
So I tweeted about this, received 120+ responses and shortlisted 40 folks from 20 countries to get on board to learn with me. Turns out, it worked.
“I didn’t think; I experimented.” — Pablo Picasso
With this, a cohort-based course was born this year and all cohorts got sold out.
This taught me that if I add value to people’s lives and assure them of results, they will pay for it.
Can I scale to a recorded course instead of a cohort-based? Yes. I can also increase the number from 15 to 35 or something.
But the conversations that I have with these people teach me more than anything else. People can share their struggles when they talk 1–1, and these conversations will help me solve future problems.
I’m only 26. I want to focus more on learning instead of ‘scaling’.
Learning in depth now will help me in the future.
No amount of money can buy that.
The last ten months have been about launching digital products.
Not with an intention to make money, as you’d think.
The course or digital products weren’t my ideas. They were both consequences of answering questions I receive most often.
This also made me realise that money finds you when:
- your intention is right
- you solve problems
- you serve people
And don’t underestimate it. People can spot bullshit from far away. Your audience isn’t stupid.
If you’ve read it till here, I’m sure you can sense my energy, which is why you’re sticking by.
Now, I’ve shifted my gears to
- writing for myself
- teaching
- products
And sometimes, I write for others.
I still don’t know what business looks like 6 months later. Or even next month.
“You may not know in your mind where you are going, but you know it by doing.” Nassim Taleb
And while the uncertainty made me anxious earlier, it’s something that doesn’t keep me awake at night anymore.
If you told me two years ago that life will become like this, I’d tell you it's impossible.
I wouldn’t even explore the possibilities, I’d just deny it blatantly.
But one thing led to another, and this happened.
“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” — Tony Robbins
This involved failing many times, using random strategies my head comes up with — some work and some don’t, and having lots of fun along the way.
Too many people worry about having it all sorted.
I still have nothing sorted. I started a YouTube channel 19 days ago and I don’t plan on buying any equipment any time soon.
Aim for progress over perfection.
What’s worked so far and will continue to help me is my motto:
Start now, figure it out later.
Once you start, you open so many possibilities that you cannot read or learn. You discover it for yourself.
Open yourself to magic.
Magic comes to those who work towards it.
And have lots of fun, in that process.