How to Manage a Full-time Job and Side Hustle
I’m so excited to share some of my knowledge on how to manage a full-time job AND a side HUSTLE. I say hustle not hobby or passion because you want to make money from it! Like I’ve said in all of my blog posts when I give advice or knowledge, I am absolutely not a professional in these topics, but I do have personal experience that I love to share with my readers!
This blog post is very bittersweet because this past week (AKA 3 days ago) – I quit my full-time nanny job to focus 100% on Lizzie’s Bakery! I’m going to miss those sweet girls so much, but happy to focus on growing Lizzie’s Bakery after 2 1/2 years of it being a side job.
So you’re probably reading this while you’re at your full-time job or being a stay-at-home mom or wherever and thinking how you can start making money by doing something you LOVE to do! Don’t get me wrong though – my background is in digital marketing and social media advertising/partnerships and I LOVED doing those jobs, I just didn’t like how I was always on someone else’s schedule. And that might seem very “millennial” of me to say that but, I love doing things on my own time!
I started Lizzie’s Bakery two weeks before getting laid off at my social media job in Utah and while I was still working that 9-5 job, I would be researching and baking at night because I truly loved to do it! It didn’t feel like a chore or a to-do task at all, which made me happy! Once I got laid off, I had more time to practice my baking and decorating skills but once we moved to LA, I had to get a job with a steady income to support us living in one of the most expensive cities in the US! But I had a choice whether to work at a strict 9-5+ job at an advertising agency or work at a start-up company with more flexible hours. I chose the start-up company because I really just wanted to bake!
Since then, we moved to Boston and I took a nanny job because if I was so busy, I could bake at their home and be perfectly fine! But, I worked some long nanny hours and the thought of hauling all of my cake stuff to the other house was daunting so I rarely baked in their home! Anyways – enough with the rambling and long back story – here are some tips/tricks that helped me managed my full-time job and side hustle:
1. PRIORITIZE YOUR TIME!
I can’t stress this enough! If you work a regular 9-5 job, you really need to decide if you are a morning person or night owl because depending on what type of person you are – this will help you prioritize your time! For me, I am 100% a morning person when I have to get things done. If I went to bed at a decent time and I know I have so much to do for baking, I can wake up around 5-6AM and get shizzz done because I know I have to be at work around 9-10. But, also if I’m not busy, I’ll wake up early to work out, meditate, make a good breakfast and just get my day started on the right foot. After I get home from nannying or my past jobs, I am mentally and physically exhausted from the day so I would rather relax knowing that I’ve done most of my side hustle in the morning or during my lunchtime (AKA kids nap time).
To-Do lists
I am obsessed with the “reminders” app on my iPhone. If you don’t have an iPhone – there’s also an app called Evernote that I’ve used in the past that has notes to write down your to-do list! I don’t know if it’s the satisfaction of checking something off once it’s completed or what but I love the feeling! A typical baking day (starting on a Monday) would ideally look like this for me:
Wake up 6:30AM
Mediate and drink lemon water
Bake 6″ vanilla cake (takes about 25-30 minutes so while cake is in the oven, I can do a quick workout)
Workout
Make Breakfast
Bake 8″ chocolate cake
Shower/get ready for work (yes, sometimes I have to schedule a shower in – my husband thinks it’s so weird..)
Nanny 10AM
Cake emails (during kids nap time)
Plan pick up / deliveries for the week
Dinner
Bake 6″ chocolate cake
I realize that maybe I won’t get everything done but when I have this checklist of things I have to do, I’m more organized throughout my day!
2. FIND YOUR SUPPORT SYSTEM
Steven (my husband) mentioned this & I thought it was a great bullet to add in this post! I’ve had an amazing support system from day one. Steven has always been the one to push me to grow Lizzie’s Bakery but only in a way that makes me happy! Because he knows that once I’m unhappy, I’ll always be complaining about why I’m unhappy (like making fondant cakes…) When you have a support system – managing a side hustle is so much easier mentally when you know you have people supporting you 100% of the way!
3. JUST START
I probably should’ve added this as #1 – so many people message me on Instagram asking “where do I start on growing my business” or “How do I start a home bakery?” You really just start baking (or creating) whatever you want and since you do have that full-time job still – reach out to your co-workers and bring in treats for them! Actually don’t reach out – just show up to work with yummy desserts and I promise they will love you. Once you start baking for co-workers, friends, and family, you can get honest feedback from them on if they would buy the stuff that you make! Then you have to be confident in pricing your items – which you can refer back to my blog post on “How to Price Your Cakes.” But honestly, just start – go on Pinterest, find something that looks good to you and just make it! This applies to baking, sewing, calligraphy, anything creative & then share it with everyone around you!!
MAKE YOUR SIDE HUSTLE A PRIORITY
This might be reiterating some things I said in bullet #1 – but if you are truly serious about making money off of your side passion/hobby – you need to take the time out of your busy life to get stuff done to eventually make your side hustle a full-time hustle if that’s what you want as your end goal!
KNOW YOUR END GOAL
I always ask bakers that I meet on Instagram or in-person – “what is your end goal?” or “what do you want to be doing with this 10 years from now?” A lot of bakers have different end goals – they want to win Cake Wars or write a recipe book or have their own storefront bakery! You don’t’ have to know your end goal, but always be thinking about it because life changes and your goals change! When I first started Lizzie’s Bakery, I wanted to have a store-front bakery! Fast forward to about 2-3 years, & instead of owning a store-front bakery, I want a cake design studio where I can just go and make my custom cakes, host cake tastings/cake classes, and have space where I am just doing my thing with custom cakes. But also, I want to be a stay-at-home mom – so baking cakes from home is ideal to me as well! I love having the end goal in my mind all the time (even though it won’t be for a long time) because I always have something to look toward!
I hope this gives you an idea of how to manage a full-time job and a side hustle! My main points to focus on are really just to start whatever you want to do and then prioritize your time to make it happen! It’s hard to do in the beginning, but it will get easier once you get a solid routine down!
If you ever have any questions – email me or DM me on Instagram!
