A side hustle is an old concept made popular in recent years by young go-getters who recognized (and still do) that they have passions and dreams of their own that they may not be able to pursue full-time due to various reasons; we need jobs to support ourselves, experience to grow, a way of earning enough money to put food on our tables. Side hustles allow us to still build our dreams without giving up our monetary support systems (such as full-time jobs).

Often, most people stumble into a side-hustle, realizing they can truly succeed at it without having to sacrifice other aspects of their lives. I’m one of those side hustlers, and I’ve developed a few tips and tricks to help you launch a side hustle, perhaps one you’ve been dreaming of getting off the ground.

Understand your strengths

Before you can even consider launching a side hustle, you need to have a solid understanding as to what your strengths are. This is the point at which you may ask yourself,  “What am I good at?”

If you love graphic design and making logos, logo design could be your side hustle. If you enjoy making jewelry and find passion in creating new designs, selling your items online through a platform like Etsy could be your side hustle. Successful hustles begin with a strength you have and something you’re passionate about. If you believe you can provide people with something tangible from that passion, chances are you can launch a side hustle from it.

Build a plan

Once you’ve discovered what your side hustle will be, you need to build a plan which centers around how you’ll launch your side hustle. Most hustles begin through platforms like Etsy and Fiverr, where you can sell many types of products and services, build a portfolio, gather a roster of clients or customers, and gain experience in your niche.

If you already have experience in your niche, and would like to use your side hustle as a way to work for yourself or freelance full-time, try creating a website through a cost-effective CMS platform such as Wix or Squarespace, where you can sell or advertise your services and provide people a way of connecting with you. You should also consider looking into methods – both free and paid – of advertising your goods or services; social media is the perfect place to start, as it offers free advertising. With a plan in place, you can map out what you need to do, and how you’ll do it, to get your side hustle off the ground.

Be both an employee and a boss

Like any entrepreneur, a side hustle requires that you be both an employee and a boss…for yourself. If you are truly dedicated to a successful side hustle, you need to be willing to put in the hours of work to launch it but also run it, which essentially makes you an employee doing the work, and a boss ensuring the work gets done.

When I first started my side hustle as a content creator, I used Asana as well as my synced iPhone and MacBook Calendar to log my hours, create tasks, set reminders, and hold myself accountable. Doing so allowed me to schedule time to work on my side hustle and kept me from experiencing burn out with my full-time job. I highly recommend keeping organized through such software!

Be a social butterfly

These days, networking is a somewhat passe idea, because networking no longer requires us to stand around in conference centers in stuffy suits, shaking hands while awkwardly holding watered-down cocktails. We can network with potential collaborators, customers, and/or clients through the world wide web, which is why I recommend using social media networking and connection platforms to market your side hustle when you’re ready to launch it.

The two platforms I used (and still use) the most to gain exposure for my services are Facebook and Instagram, but I also connect with fellow content creators, join Facebook groups, join coalitions or clubs, and connect with people on LinkedIn.

It sounds like a daunting amount of work, but being social and networking online actually pays off. In fact, you may find your first client through social media; I am, for instance, often contacted by clients who find me through Instagram. Don’t be shy about harnessing the power of social media and using it to your advantage.

For more tips on launching a side-hustle for creatives, check out my article here.

If you’re a creative who sells services as a freelancer, chances are you have experienced many of the normal frustrations and challenges freelancers everywhere go through, especially when changing your business or work practices. Where to find clients, how to advertise, taxes, accounting…it all adds up and can be extremely daunting. There are, however, a few small changes you can make as a creative to make your business more legitimate and improve upon your existing practices. And these tips are coming from someone who has been there, done that, and learned a valuable lesson or two along the way about becoming a legitimate freelancer (that’s me!).

Use Contracts – Seriously

When I first started freelancing, I had only three to four clients and didn’t take the necessity of contracts very seriously. In fact, I considered email correspondence to be the only “legally binding” evidence I needed to show that both myself and a client had agreed upon a scope of work, due dates, and rates.

I also met many other freelance creatives who too forewent the use of contracts. It was only after reading a blog article from a freelancer friend of mine about the importance of contracts that I realized contracts help protect both myself as a freelancer and my clients as customers of my services.

I drafted a contract template, had my lawyer look it over and approve it, and since that day, I have been a faithful user of contracts. The lesson to take away here is that contracts help you as a freelancer because they outline every single detail about your project and ensure you receive compensation for your work.

They should be a necessary component of your freelancing business and do not have to be overwhelming. Consider using Shake to draft a template or sit down with a lawyer to create a contract template that works for you.

Consider Your Rates

Pricing and setting your rates is one of the biggest challenges we go through as freelancers, especially as our rates can and often do change as we gain more experience and exposure. We’re afraid of pricing our services too high and scaring away clients, and pricing them too low to the point where we earn little profit.

One of the easiest ways to determine your initial rates is to begin by doing competitor research. Begin by researching freelancers in your area who offer similar services to yours, and see how they price their own services.

If you’d like to reach clients outside of your locale, research typical rates for your niche. You can also determine what your rates should be by setting a budget and figuring out what you need to make in order to live.

Sounds simple, right? For most freelancers, this is the most difficult aspect of their business. A popular infographic from CreativeLive can help you discover your perfect rate. That said, how you set your rates will determine the type of clientele you bring in and will also attract different projects.

Network, network, network

This is one of the most cliched pieces of advice freelancers receive, and there’s a strong likelihood you’ve heard it before. It is, however, an old adage that consistently rings true.

I’m not recommending you go to a local networking party, schmooze, and pretend to find a fellow freelancer’s jokes funny! But you can network easily through other methods, such as online.

Research coalitions, associations, organizations, or unions that revolve around your creative niche, and join them. Search for networks on LinkedIn run by creatives similar to yourself, or search for pages/groups on Facebook that act as online social “clubs” for creatives.

You may even find an Instagram pod or two that can help you gain exposure and connect you to like-minded freelancers. Networking helps you make connections, and those connections may one day pay off in the form of a lucrative collaboration, much-needed exposure, or new clients.

Clean Up Your Act

A piece of tough-love advice many freelancers receive revolves around being the professionals we’d like to be, and hope clients consider us to be. It’s difficult for fellow freelancers, let alone prospective clients, to take creatives seriously when our social media profiles, digital portfolios, or advertising material is a straight up mess.

You should be aware that many clients will look you up on social media; they will go through your website or online portfolio with a fine-tooth comb; and some may even reach out to past clients you’ve worked with for reference about your work ethic.

It’s important that the professionalism you exude in person is matched by your online profiles, platforms, and website. The same can be said for your physical marketing material, such as business cards. And yes, I do recommend you have business cards.

Find a Good Accountant, or Learn How to Properly be Your Own

If you have the budget to work with an accountant, then keeping track of your freelance finances, revenue, expenses, and the like, will be far more simple than going it alone. However, most creatives who freelance don’t have room in their budget for professional accountancy aid, and have to learn how to keep their business running smoothly on their own.

Aside from learning how to invoice clients or collect compensation, you also have to be aware of how you keep track of completed projects, revenue, and taxes (to name a few responsibilities). Fortunately, there are many helpful tools you can use as applications or online that will help you be the accountant for your business that you can’t afford someone else to be.

You’ll find that knowing how to run your freelancing endeavors from a financial standpoint is extremely helpful come tax time.

Know How to Break Up…with a Client

It’s virtually inevitable that, throughout your freelance career, you’ll be approached, or even end up working with, a nightmare client. That’s not to say the client is a “bad” person; it may simply be that the client is extremely demanding, wastes your time with unproductive tasks, does not understand the work needed to be done, or simply refuses to pay you on time.

Whatever the reason for wanting to break up with a client, you should be prepared regarding how to end a contractor-client relationship and not feel guilt for doing so. There are a few key pieces of advice I can offer that others extended to me which may be helpful when having to break up with a client.

1. Respectively speak with your client regarding your wish to end your working relationship, and provide a reason why. Unlike breaking up with a romantic partner, in this breakup scenario, it’s actually necessary for your professional reputation to provide a reason for the “break up.”

2. Ensure you provide your client with notice, which includes finishing up any/all work both you and your client agreed you would complete when signing a contract together (*yet another reason why contracts are crucial).

3. Provide your client with options regarding how they can move forward with the work; this can include recommending a fellow freelancer, offering to help source a new freelancer or outsource the work to a company, and ensuring you provide the client with all of the work and confidential information you both used for the project.

4. Put the “breakup” in writing; this essentially means you should document the date your working relationship ended, why it ended, and all of the work that was complete. *Your contract template should have a clause in it geared towards a process which takes place should the working relationship end.

When breaking up with a client, your ultimate goal should be to ensure the breakup is as professional as possible, which includes documenting the “breakup” and finishing the work you were contracted and paid to do.

These tips can help you turn your small creative freelancing endeavor into a flourishing business, and working for yourself can be incredibly rewarding. For more advice regarding freelancing legitimacy, check out my article on going legit with your side hustle here.

Regardless of whether we have a growing group of friends, a small inner circle, a strong “tribe” of gal pals, or we prefer the company of one or two, we’re likely to spend a great deal of our time over the past years putting others before ourselves.

Many of us have been raised with strong moral and ethical principles, some of which include treating others as we would hope to be treated and putting the needs and happiness of others before, above, and beyond our own.

Personally, I was raised by parents who instilled in my sibling and I the notion that we should treat all others with kindness and respect; give to those who cannot provide for themselves; help the helpless; support the unsupported; and put others’ needs before our own. Growing up, I believed that putting others before myself made me happier, more fulfilled, and a better person. In many ways, it did.

But in some respects, it made me open to manipulation and allowed others to take advantage of me.

I can distinctly recall each time a close friend or acquaintance has taken advantage of my willingness to put their needs and happiness before my own. I’ve had friendships dissolve due to such issues, and have ended relationships after refusing to be walked over like a doormat.

As I’ve grown older and have learned to recognize when someone is or may be on the verge of taking advantage of my desire to ensure their happiness, I’ve also learned to put my foot down and say, “enough.” In some instances, I’ve had to walk away from people after realizing that I am not the only friend or person they’ve taken advantage of or used as a means to their own ends for being happy.

These learning experiences have taught me valuable lessons regarding what it means to put myself first versus what it actually means to put others before me.

Unsurprisingly, there is a difference between putting others before yourself and putting yourself first, but it’s not the selfish reason you may assume. We may presume, for example, that to put ourselves first means approaching and treating others in an unconcerned manner.

There’s a certain connotation to the idea of not putting others before ourselves; as if, by taking care of ourselves and choosing to not always put the needs of others before our own, we are uncaring, selfish, unconcerned, or narcissistic.

On the contrary, “putting yourself first” is more about caring for yourself and ensuring you are happy and healthy, as opposed to concerning yourself only with other people’s happiness, so that you are better equipped to help them be happy themselves.

I like to think of putting ourselves first as self-care, whereby we take the time to care for our own health and happiness and ensure that we ourselves are able to care for our own needs without sacrificing them for others.

You can think of it as you would the oxygen masks on a plane; typically, staff on an airplane tell passengers that, in the case of an emergency, we should secure our own oxygen masks before helping others with their masks, because if we can’t breathe, we certainly can’t help others breathe!

If putting ourselves first doesn’t mean being unconcerned about others, how, then, do we actually put ourselves first? There are a few ways you can approach 2017 with a more mindful, “me first” attitude that can help ensure your health and happiness without forsaking that of others.

Don’t live to work

Our jobs can often get the better of us, especially if we are freelancers or work in roles which require us to constantly stay connected to work emails, clients, or colleagues. It’s important to create time in your busy work schedule to take care of yourself, whether it’s a weekly massage you can enjoy using employee insurance benefits, or by taking a hike every Sunday morning to breathe fresh air. Your role as an employee (self-employed or otherwise) shouldn’t dominate your life.

Make time for loved ones

Making time for loved ones is especially important if you are involved in a romantic relationship. Making time for, and spending it with, loved ones is crucial in ensuring our relationships with partners, friends, and family members are healthy and flourish.

Keep your health in mind

Stress and anxiety can impact your health just as an illness or condition can; we should make time for ourselves, which allows us to focus on our personal health, even if it means not always being able to put others’ needs above our own.

Fat and the Moon

There are more than a few reasons to love this brand, but suffice it to say their range of natural beauty items includes skin care as well as plant-based makeup, with a focus on natural, foraged ingredients. The brand applies its knowledge of botanicals and their various skin-benefitting properties to craft unique products that help you care for your skin, sans chemicals. Some of their star products include the Pimple Mud, Lavender + Cocoa Dry Shampoo, and Aloe Lotion.

Earth tu Face

This brand is run and crafted by two herbalists in California who truly know their “stuff” when it comes to natural beauty. Their commitment to creating truly natural, safe beauty products shows through their belief that you shouldn’t put anything on your body that you wouldn’t put in your body. They avoid the use of preservatives, synthetics, palm oil, artificial fragrances and so much more. Products you might fall in love with from Earth tu Face include the Skin Stick and Palmarosa + Aloe Face Wash.

CAMP Skincare

Devoted to natural, clean and nourishing ingredients, CAMP Skincare crafts products made with real botanicals and nature-derived ingredients to deliver skin care you can actually feel good about using. Their Dreamcatcher Youth Serum and Matcha Latte Eye Cream will change your skin care game and give you beautiful, glowing skin. It doesn’t hurt that the brand is built on a stellar philosophy of using only the purest ingredients to truly benefit your skin.

Naked Skincare Apothecary

If your love for better beauty has led you down a path of discovering more natural skin care, you can certainly identify with this brand. Each product takes you back to the basics of what natural skin care should be: chemical free and actually good for your skin. My favorite products from this brand are the Herbal Toner and Nourishing Facial Oil; both work wonders on combination skin and help balance stubborn complexions. This is a great brand to start with if you’re just making the switch to natural, ethically-made beauty.

Good4You Plant Makeup 

I like to think of this brand as the backyard naturopath I never had. Each product is carefully crafted using local botanicals and herbs for skin care, beauty and bath items that heal, nourish, rejuvenate and protect your skin. In particular, the makeup products this brand produces focus on utilizing real plant ingredients for healthier, more beautiful makeup, naturally. The variety of toners and balms from Good4You allow you to choose a selection of skin care items that are basically tailored to your skin, which is awesomely convenient (and prettily packaged, to boot).

Harlow Skin Co.

One of my favorite Canadian beauty brands is Harlow Skin Co., a Vancouver-based brand which crafts high-quality, beautiful skin care products that are palm-free (like the other brands on this list) and prettily packaged, too. You’ll love this brand for its seriously luxurious, all natural body butters and facial oils, which are made with rich, hydrating and nourishing ingredients derived from natural botanicals. My recommended product from Harlow is the Bohemian Body Butter, which has the most amazing smell but still moisturizes the skin and provides long-lasting hydration. This brand’s products make beautiful gifts and are a wonderful, ethical addition to those at-home spa days.

Aquarian Soul

This brand, in particular, is quite interesting and may be a great starting off point as well for those of us seeking more natural, ethical beauty. Aquarian Soul’s products are made using crystal-infused, natural ingredients and small-batch processes to ensure each item is made as high quality as possible. There’s the infusion of herbal medicine which is paired with the brand’s use of organic, wildcrafted ingredients which makes this brand pretty unique. I love their Rose Quartz Face Polish, which is perfect for sloughing away dead skin cells for beautifully healthy, renewed skin.

Let us know in the comments below what your favorite ethical beauty brands are or which ones you’re excited to try out. 

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Adventure is worthwhile – Aesop

The opportunity to get out and explore the vast expanse of this beautiful Earth is one people take a hold of every day. For many, the transformative power of travel reaches far beyond a beautiful Instagram photo or a gap-year trip meant to quench your thirst for adventure and spontaneity. But more than that, travel can be difficult. Gathering inspiration, saving, budgeting, deciding when you should finally take advantage of those vacation days you’ve hoarded from work. It’s easy to get caught up in the stress and anxiety of actually booking a plane ticket and marking off the days on the calendar you’ll be out of town, globe-trotting. Fortunately, there are a few simple habits you can adopt which will have you ditching your fear of missing out for the adventure of a lifetime instead.

Find inspiration where you already play – on Instagram

Undoubtedly the most popular social media platform used my wanderlust-ridden millennials and everyone else in between, Instagram boasts a seriously considerable number of travel and adventure accounts which you can follow for daily inspiration. Often, many of these accounts offer information about unique, exotic and historical places anyone can visit if they have the time and a reasonable budget. You may find new destinations and trips to add to your bucket list, but you can also narrow down your search if you already have destinations in mind by using the search and geo-tag features Instagram offers to find posts particular to a specific location or search term. The platform allows you endless opportunity for discovering where you travels could take you, with endless inspiration to boot.

Similarly, you can set up a Pinterest board or join a travel group (or two!) on Facebook to gain more inspiration and connect with individuals who have achieved their travel dreams just as you hope to. Forget sifting through boring travel catalogues; social media does the trick.

Scale back on those frivolous expenditures 

Likely the most common piece of advice you’ll hear from others who have scraped together pennies for pounds when it comes to saving for travel is the age-old adage of “skip the morning coffee.” Though this is a helpful tip – you could, for example, save up to twenty dollars (if not more) each week by making coffee at home as opposed to hitting Starbucks each morning – you should also consider changing your spending habits when it comes to other frivolous expenditures. Try shopping at vintage shops or thrift stores if you’re in need of a new outfit, and use the self-care products and accessories you already own before splurging on unnecessary items.

If you could easily ride a bike to work or walk to a bar nearby to meet friends for drinks, you could save a pretty penny on transportation and fuel costs. You may even consider getting rid of your phone’s monthly data plan, which can be quite pricey, especially for smartphone devices like iPhones.  If you dine out often – something I’m sure many of us like to do regularly – consider scaling it back to once or twice a month, and cook dinner for friends at your place or suggest potluck get-togethers instead. If your friends and family know you’re saving to travel, they’ll likely be more than happy to support your modest entertainment budget.

Get smart about your banking – seriously 

Perhaps the last place you’d look when working on a budget for your future travels, your bank account could be helping – or hindering – your efforts. Take the time to go through your account plans with your bank to see where you could avoid unnecessary overages and bank charges, then sign up for a more simple account plan instead – one that saves you money rather than running up ridiculous fees.

Once you’ve evaluated your banking needs, talk to a representative about setting up automatic pay transfer; most banking institutions allow you to have a certain amount of money automatically put into a savings account whenever you receive direct-deposited funds. When I decided to start saving for my move to Europe five years ago, the first thing I did was set up a travel savings account where $400 of each paycheck was automatically transferred into the account. Not only do you automatically start saving money, but it will help you budget and set money aside as a nest-egg for your travel plans.

Try your hand at a side-hustle 

A side-hustle is an endeavor which helps earn you money on the side whilst you continue to work at your “everyday job,” and you may be surprised at how lucrative a side-hustle could be when it comes to saving extra funds for travel. One of the easiest ways to start a side-hustle is to consider a talent you have, or something you’re good at, and figuring out a way to monetize it. Once you know what you can do or offer, find a platform on which to market and sell your goods or services. I paid for a two week trip to British Columbia out of pocket thanks to my side-hustle as a copywriter on Fiverr, where I was able to make $3,500 in three months without quitting my day job. If you have a product to sell, try creating an Etsy store and sell your goods on the digital marketplace. Yes, it’s extra work; if you’re willing to put the time and effort in, however, a side-hustle can actually pay off, and may just help you pay for that pricey plane ticket or offset last-minute accommodation costs.

Set weekly or monthly budgets for, well, everything

Budgeting may seem complicated at times, but it doesn’t have to be. With an entire world of budgeting apps at your disposal, it’s easy to find a phone or tablet app that can help you create budgets for virtually every aspect of your life, and stick to them. My personal favorite is Mint, which helps you budget, manage your funds and even keeps track of your credit, making budgeting a cinch. With or without an app, however, you may find it helpful to set a specific budget for each area of your life, such as food, entertainment, transportation and disposable income. Formulate budgets using an app, a notebook or advice from an accountant; whatever you have to do, ensure your budgets work for your lifestyle and are set up in such a way that you can save a few extra dollars without being unrealistic.

Harness the power of travel apps to do the work for you

If you’re just as sick as I am of lurking airline websites or hotel platforms for good deals and discounts, peak times for buying cheap plane tickets and travel vouchers, consider downloading an app which will track all of it for you. I use Hopper, which allows you to set a trip or destination, add in the dates or times you’d like to travel there, then tracks the costs for you, notifying you when the best times are to buy a ticket and letting you book your flight in the app. These apps let you rest easy and live your life without worrying about keeping watch of airlines and hotels like an overlord.