How to Make More Money With A Side Business

side hustle term. So we're gonna just take out side business and this is what this episode focuses on. I sold something on Facebook market Place for ten dollars. It's a side hustle, right, I mean, and and reselling we'll talk about can be a side business. But I think I want to, like, I want to take out the you know, the driving for Uber Postmates, or you know, walking dogs for Rover, Like those are side hustles, but those aren't side businesses. Those you're just a contractor for

somebody else's business. So we're talking about kind of starting your own little side business, becoming like a part time entrepreneur, and those things are worthwhile. This is just a particular person who is interested and maybe starting their own business with that focus. So that's how we're approaching this episode. But first, this episode is brought to all of us by Wicked Smart. You all know this one. If you're listening to this podcast, you are very familiar with this sponsor.

It's not just Smart, it's Wicked Smart reminding us that we can be very shrewd with all of our resources and decision making. Speaking of Wicked Smart, it's a super good idea to keep your money you've been saving, like that emergency fund you're sinking fund your holiday money in a high old savings account like the one offered at c I T Bank. Currently they're at two point one five a p Y Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash Wicked Smart Just kidding Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash

c I T slash Wicked Smart. Won't take you anywhere, but you can try it. Slash c I T get yourself a high old savings account. Yes, two point one five is really good, especially without the hoops to jump

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want this to be something you keep. So I think it does require at least a hundred dollars to open up a minimum start um, but then you can like drain it to fifty or twenty five if if something goes wrong and they don't penalize you for it. So, but hopefully you won't train it down to that um, but you can so forgol Friends podcast dot Com, slash c I T. It's great if you are interested in small time entrepreneurship or even big time entrepreneurship, we don't

cover that on this show. We're we're more like basic level. I just stopped myself because I always say something else after basic. But there are several other episodes that you can queue up to listen to after this that are really good. So episode one seventy Your Guide Too Simple

Solo Preneurship with Laura Adams. So Laura Adams is a business and finance expert, and she kind of debunked some of the myths and fears people have about taxes and bank accounts and all this logistical stuff when starting a side business. So that's episode one seventy and then episode two forty two, which we just recently did Frugal side Hustles, Digital Products with Ellie talks money and so this is the frugal side hustles thing is something we are going

to be doing periodically. So every other month we're going to feature a new frugal side hustle, and Digital Products with Ellie was just our first one. We're going to have another one next month on freelance writing, which is how I was able to leave my full time job. So I am very excited about showcasings. Some of these side businesses or side hustles that can grow to the point where you can make them a full business, but you don't have to quit your job in order to

be successful with them. So those are those are some great ones, and then we've got more good ones to come. But yeah, let's stop wasting time. Let's get into the episode. Do It Today is about what mindset shifts do we need to make and what strategies can we use UM to make more money outside the workplace UM, but not selling your soul to an app. So that's where that's the headspace I want you to be in UM. And speaking of headspace, our first article UM is from hack

the entrepreneur dot com. It's called Entrepreneurial Mindset how to Think like an Entrepreneur and it's really foundational. I have found in my entrepreneurial journey actually having the accurate mindset. What do you think, Joe? Yeah, I think that this article is a really good foundation for what we need to be aimed at if we want to take the

next step in our side hustle side business journey. And of course mindset is where it begins thoughts of whether or not I can do this absolutely sets the trajectory for whether or not we are going to take the next step in that direction. So mindset is a big part of this and we hope to encourage you in this process and also give you a couple of tools from this article on what you can do even related to your thought processes to help you feel confident too

and prepared to do this. Yeah, and I want to reiterate like over and over throughout this episode that you do not have to be like a living in your mom's basement or in Silicon Valley or something. You don't have to be the next startup CEO. You don't have to be great at selling or be the stereotypical entrepreneur that you think of. You can have like a low impact side business that you do on the weekends or you do some in the mornings, and you can commit to it as much or as little time as your

life requires um and still have a side business. So that is kind of something we want to reiterate throughout the episode. And I do want to say at the start of this episode, we're not going to be giving all a whole list of ideas of what you can

do for a business. We are hoping to water and give a little bit sunlight to possibly ideas that are already stirring inside of you wherever your skill set already is, if you've had that and I like what this article describes, so I will absolutely direct people to this article because we're not going to go through it in its entirety.

Talks about that I that feeling in the pit of your stomach that a lot of us have sometimes of there's more I could be doing, or I'm not utilizing this aspect of my skill set, or I really have a desire to teach people how to such and such or solve this problem for so and so, And that's what we're talking about. So when you've got the rumblings of that idea, this is the episode to help you water that idea. A couple of examples and as I mentioned this of maybe some things that that we've done.

First of all, this podcast is one of those. This is this is a side business for us. Yeah right, Uh, so you know you can try to start a podcast. As we've talked about in previous episodes, it is not the most lucrative for at least the first two years, low impact, that's for sure. My husband and I have also DJ that's a weekend thing, so it didn't pull us from our regular daytime jobs. Uh. And that was our own business that that we had. We also did

some bartending on the side. That was our own business that we would show up to weddings and bartend b y oh events. Uh what about for you, Jen, any examples of side businesses. Yeah, we rented out our guest room on Airbnb. Uh, so we were able to control the pricing and who was there. Um. I My very first one was a T shirt company. I designed t shirts um, and then publishing on Amazon. And really my

entire business is just a collection of smaller businesses. So it's and they make up one full of on income. So I feel like this is all I'm doing. It's just all under your name and your social starting number. It's great. Yeah, well not my employee I D number. Yeah, And we'll talk about more of this in our lightning ground. But I wanted to say that from the start that we're gonna we are watering and providing sunlight to you. Yes, okay, let's go. Let's go to the first one. There's a

five on here. Yeah, so five five mindset things that are going to be able to help us prepare to do this whole startup business thing. And the first one is decisiveness. Holy smokes, couldn't agree more. I but I don't know that I would have fully put this towards But I'm discovering more and more how important it is to be decisive. I think even just financially and as

we are on this frugal journey. It is a really important skill and muscle to develop in ourselves, the ability to say yes or no to something, to know what we want in the future. A decisiveness. And so they say that your ability to make a decision could make or break your future successes, even in a small business, because you will be making decisions constantly. So this is even if you are good at making decisions, it's still something that we can regularly be intentional about improving our

decisiveness and quick decision making skills. They give an example here of practicing this in daily life, even just when ordering lunch, like do you want a sandwich or a salad? Just decide, just pick something, look over the menu wants and order that thing and confidently. And as you continue to do that and practice that, you will become better and better at making decisions on things that might be a little bit more important than whether or not you

eat a sandwich or a salad. Yeah, and that leads into the second one, which is confidence. So I feel like I have been um practicing at this since day one. Um so, And the first question that is on here is like, how do you act company when confidently when you don't know what you're doing. That's like the entrepreneur like imposter syndrome. Um just everybody goes through that. I don't know one entrepreneur that hasn't felt like they don't

know what they're doing. And if you do know what you're doing, you just don't know enough to know that you don't know what you're doing, um and there, and their solution is pretend you know what you're doing. You literally have to fake it till you make it. Like, obviously you shouldn't be in a field you know nothing about. But if you are in a field that you are fairly knowledgeable about, you kind of you kind of know

what you're doing. In essence, then even when you feel like you don't know what you're doing, you just have to force it. You have to pretend because the truth is is you probably know a little bit more than what you're giving yourself credit for. Imposter syndrome is so real. But I love what Amy Porterfield from online Marketing made easy. She says, you just have to have a ten percent edge.

So you just have to have ten percent more knowledge than your client, or ten percent more um like opportunities or assets or whatever than your customer. Ten percent ahead of whoever you're serving um. And sometimes I found that to be even better than somebody who's leaps and bounds like expertise. Because the richer you are, the bigger you are, the more successful you are, the more out of touch you are, like a table that are far yeah, that

are far behind you. And so I think it's better, and I think more people should be starting businesses with products or certain is that are closer to and more in touch with your ideal customer. We were not podcasters are, but we started a podcast. I had no I'm a writer, I had no desire to talk. Yeah, and you all listened, and so we kept going and here we are, thank you. And and when when you need more confidence, just put on some lipstick. That's when I did to comb your hair.

It's so true. You can. If your hair is not curly, can you comb your hair? That's a side tangent. Third on this list is accountability, and what this is referring to is holding yourself accountable and taking on responsibility, which really we all should be doing just as adults. Welcome to adulthood, but recognizing that everything that we do or that happens at work when we are starting our own business, whether small or large, you are responsible for everything that

happens in your business. You are responsible whether it moves forward or falls flat. You are responsible. And that's not to to be a fear, that's not to induce fear in this process, but to help us to be to recognize where the onus is to be able to pick up that responsibility, because it's going to be helpful as far as mindset goes in being able to move forward

with the business that you're starting. Yeah, I get a lot of emails, um and direct messages from people who really have a lot of things that are in circumstances that are legitimately unfortunate. Um. But I've also seen a lot of stories, and I'm sure we all have, because it's the stories of people who are in very unfortunate circumstances and come out of them and are successful. Those are the ones you hear all about and so and I know those people personally, and so I can't believe

that people can't come out of their unfortunate circumstances. Um. I've seen too many people, and sometimes I like belittle my own circumstances. But I'm learning more and more that like the circumstances I came out of them are also legitimate. So to to be somebody who has overcome things and then to also see people that have come overcome even bigger things, like you have to believe that, like your

I love this quote. Your circumstances may not be your fault, but they are your responsibility, and so to overcome them. I think it's also empowering too. While it's scary in some way, it's also empowering to know you do have control. And so where we feel like like the locus of control is inside of us. You've talked about that a lot.

Favorite is my favorite concept. Yeah, then we are able to move forward in in health towards greater opportunities, and we have an ability to when we feel as though we actually are able to influence our surroundings and make changes within our immediate circumstances, we fare better and your

business is likely to fare better. Yeah, for sure. Um. The fourth one I think is the most important one on the list, um, and it's resilience because as an entrepreneur, as a human being, you'll make mistakes and you'll fail, and you'll have things, Um, you'll have products or whatever that you think are going to go great, that you've mark at research, that you're just really confident in, and then they just fall flat and you don't know why.

Like you will do everything right and everything will go wrong. Uh, and but you'll have as many times where you do nothing right and every and everything goes right. So in the time, but we always remember the times that go wrong right. We never remember the times we get lucky or the times we really succeed. We always remember the times where everything went wrong. And so you have to develop resilience to move past those things and uh, devalue

them to the level they actually exist at. And resilience is something that we can build. I know sometimes we talk about resilience as something people are just born with. Of some people thrive and other people don't yet given the same circumstances, and we think it might just be innate or you're born with it. But the reality the

is is that resilience can be built upon. We can grow our resilience factors inside of ourselves, and some of that has to do with picking ourselves back up after a failure and continuing to move forward to allow ourselves room for failure and not allow it to completely derail us, to remind ourselves of our strengths, to engage in self care practices, and also all of the other three things

that we've just mentioned before this resilience piece. So there are ways to engage in this and and build upon it inside of ourselves. It's not as if you're just born with it. If I don't have it, well, oh well absolutely. And number five, the last on this list is humility. I like how they describe it. Humility is freedom from pride or arrogance, and it is a necessary characteristic of entrepreneurship or starting our own businesses again, even

if very small. It's the ability to be able to be coachable and to learn, and to be able to fail and learn from those mistakes and do something different next time. UM engaging others in the process and asking them to speak into the situation and not imagining that we know everything or exactly how something should be done. And this humility is going to be a major component

in seeing success in your business. Yeah, So those are the mindset shifts to go through, and in general, I think even if you don't want to start a side business, they are important characteristics to have. But especially UM, if you want to do something entrepreneurial, even if it's small, because I can name all of these every times I've needed all of these things in mine, um, and sometimes the humility has been forced, but um yeah, it's they're

definitely all necessary. Uh So, where where do we even go from here? I'll tell you where we go. Uh So we're going to entrepreneur dot com. Perfect, yes, so. Uh funny thing is that entrepreneur dot com actually has the number one result for make more money, um, since that's what I googled because it's the title of the show. But I didn't go with that article because that one was exactly like what I described at the beginning of

the show. But in the article they had a link to this one UM called how to make a Fortune with a hundred dollars, And I thought was just a really interesting piece and it like gave some interesting concepts. But I think if you're not in like engulfed in entrepreneurship or not, haven't started a business, like you wouldn't even think I didn't think this way, but um, just like tips from six different really super wealthy entrepreneurs on how they would make a fortune with a hundred dollars yeah,

and so they don't necessarily build upon each other. They're all from various individuals providing their insight on what they would do. And so the first one, uh comes from a gentleman named Gary. I'm not even gonna try to pronounce it, thank you, uh and he he says to

buy and flip. So and this is so true. They mentioned even the poorest of us most likely has anywhere between five hundred to maybe five grand worth of stuff sitting around in our closets, in our garages, unwanted toys, jackets, shoes, tools, you name it, and being able to uh sell them but also buy online and then flip those things. So he's saying that we can figure out what these items are worth, purchase them at a lower amount at your yard sales or Craigslist or eBay, and then flip it

uh at the same places eBay, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace. And Travis does this. Yes, Travis does flipping. He finds a lot of things for free and like on Facebook marketplace around the side of the road and then he'll clean it up and he'll sell it on Facebook marketplace. Um. And we try to make it our goal to pay Hey for daycare with the money he makes from flipping UH. And we don't make it all the time, but a lot of the time we do make it. So that's

really fun. But I know that people can make a lot of money flipping UH, like clothing, especially shoes and outerwear. If you follow teach to Thrift on Instagram, she does that and she's super successful. But start with the stuff in your house. You can start with the stuff in your house and UH and just use it as a launch pad. So the second one is from ty Lopez UM and he says sell or service. So the best business is to start when you have a hundred dollars

or less. Are either sales or service businesses because all you need is your phone and the Internet, so it can be consulting or selling cars, or life insurance, he says, even vacuum cleaners door to door. I don't know if I would do that one, he says, because these fields hone the skills that will be valuable to you when you have more capital, so you learn how to persuade, negotiate, overcome fear, and handle rejection. So a lot of these

starter businesses are really learning opportunities to UM. If you have aspirations to one day leave your job and work for yourself. Yeah. I like this idea of not having much overhead, even if you are considering, well, what could be a business that I could start? Definitely one that doesn't require you to buy a brick and mortar building. Absolutely.

Next on this list is test before you invest. So if you do have this an idea for a small business that you can start, this suggestion talks about you to lizing a hundred dollars that you might have to be able to test your idea or try to generate leads. So they mentioned buying twenty five dollar Facebook ads and seeing what kind of results you get, whether you get a positive or negative response, and if the idea falls flat, then maybe tweak it, or if the momentum is really good,

then keep going with it. So if you're uncertain if you've got a good idea or not, this could be a really good way to test the idea and have a low investment point on it before you turn it into something larger. Yeah, this is super popular in online business is because you can do a conversion ad on Facebook for as little as five dollars a day, So putting something up um that states your idea going to like a web page or landing page or something simple, and if people click on it it, uh, then you

know it's popular. And if they don't click on it, you know they don't want it or it's not a popular idea. So it's very easy. You don't have to know a lot about Facebook ads um to really test the service or the product that you want to serve um, whether it's online or locally. You can really target ads um to two very specific people on Facebook, so it's good to see if your target market would be interested in it. And the next one is from Chris Plow.

I don't know if that's how you say his name. Uh. Utilize your expertise and so I love this one. Uh. He says the simplest way to bootstrap is to identify, share, consult or teach, and then scale. So we found when we were paying off debt, it was these side hustles that utilized the expertise we already had. So for me, it was acupuncture and I did acupuncture on the side

at a rehab center. For Travis it was he's an aircraft mechanic, so there are forms that you fill out after you fix something that only a mechanic can fill out, and so he would while other mechanics were, you know, fixing stuff, he would fill out their forms and sign them for them. Um, so he made money doing that. So it was the things that used our expertise that got us the highest, like buck high spang for a buck,

I guess most money per hour. But yeah, so utilize take inventory of your skills, um, the unique positions you're in, certifications, anything that you know, and see how you can capitalize on it. Yeah, even outside of your regular day to day job, it could be something that you turn into a side business because of your area of expertise. The fifth one on this list is from Steve Griggs and

reminds us to not forget service. They talk about given the FedEx speed and the Ritz Carlton service and how even the way that we approach a small business on the side and going above and beyond for those that you're providing services or um products too, can be really helpful in even getting referrals and future jobs. That this because of doing a job so well, you might even be able to drum up more business with a zero

marketing budget. If you are going above and beyond going the extra mile for the people that you are serving, and it doesn't cost you necessarily to be kind, maybe emotionally depending on the client, but that even if there's a ton of other people out there doing your idea, there could still be room for you to do that thing, and you still might have an edge on others doing it if you are simply kind, you do good service, you're efficient, and and that gives you that that edge

that just might be able to make the business work. Yeah. Another side to the service coin is that a lot of people struggle to raise their prices or to just price them at a point that's viable. They don't think that their time is worth that or that their service

is worth that. And so adding more service or more features or more bonuses that make your service or product more appealing or quote unquote worth more but don't necessarily saily take more of your time can help you charge more and more for things UM help you validated internally because most of the time increasing our prices as an internal struggle, not external UM. But it can help you

to add more service UM to justify price increases. So like a digital product or even a physical product that you can give um something that you can give over and over for free, that isn't giving more and more of your time. And last on the list is from Roy McDonald. He says it's never about the money. You could start over six thousand businesses with a hundred dollars UM. But he's like, I've I've taken whole blocks of apartments with a hundred dollar option and traded them and I

was like, I don't know what that means, UM. But it's never about the money. It's about how good the idea is UM. And he says it's also about partners if you have those, but it's mainly about your deep knowledge and understanding of the marketplace. UH that will accelerate your business and your business venture. So it's your job to articulate the vision of the business to people so they buy it. And so your your money or your time is better spent in marketing your product or service

your business UM than actually in the business. And so you need to be able to articulate why it's important and UH do your market research and all of that. And I like his focus on getting the right people around you in that process that whether or not they even turn into a business partner. Even getting consulting or ideas and opinions from the right people who are able to speak into those aspects can be invaluable to the beginnings of this thing. Yeah, you know what other beginnings

are invaluable. It's the bill of the week, that's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bills Buffalo bills, Bill Clint, this is the bill of the week. Hi guys, this is Emily from ACA, New York and I'm calling with my bill of the week.

And my bill of the week is light bulbs. So we decided that we were going to switch to LED light bulbs to help save on our electric bill um and since we're no spend challenge, I was like going to buy them right away. So I was price checking and seeing how much they would be a different places and found that the cheapest was probably gonna be about

twenty bucks for a twelve pack. But today we got an email from our electric companies that they have a sale on light bulbs and they were six dollars for a twelve pack instead of like twenty bucks. So we bought two twelve packs of light bulbs today and I was just so excited that I had to call and tell you guys that how much we saved on light bulbs.

And then we're going to be saving so much on our electric bill switching all of our light bulbs because we have like a million light bulbs to switch over. All right, Thanks guys, love the podcast. That's so fun. I love it that people think of us now when they do stuff like this. Any little money savings are like small bill? Is it just I just gotta call you and tell you, And I am equally excited with you that you got a deal on something you'd already

been looking for. I think that's what always stands out to me is when you're patient for something and it's something that you need, and then and then it comes along that there is a deal on that exact thing that you need, it just feels like the stars aligned you know. That's the best part. It's like it comes before you buy it and not after. Yes, that's a blessing. Yeah, And the double whammy that not only did you save money,

on the light bulbs. But now it's going to save you money long term on every single electric bill that you get from here on out. Well done, Emily, and while done on your no spend challenge, we just glossed over that one. Yes, she's being patient because she's on a no spend ch owl and there's so many people

on no spend October right now, it's so good. Well, if you want to submit your bill of the week, please, if you save money on something you think of us, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and leave us a bill and we will listen to it and love it. Now it's time for this is the moment you've been waiting for. We won't talk about our side business ventures, yes, because this is all we do, and we don't talk about it a lot, but even together

we don't talk about it a lot. But we're always coming up with new ways to make money that in itself is our our hobbies. Yeah, yeah, how we started our side business ventures. I don't even remember what my first side business was. Honestly, I feel like I've had so many and not all of them have have done gone anywhere, right, Like obviously, because I'm not doing like twenty different things. Most of the time, I did have like plants on the side of the road at one point,

trying to make money off of that. Just like any time I see something that I'm like, this could make money, like, I just go for it. And maybe that's part of the decisiveness thing. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's always fun at least exactly so. But the first one that's coming to mind is, as I mentioned earlier, Eric, my husband, and I had a DJing business and it was just something that we did on the side, and really it started because we already had the music equipment.

Eric does music recording and has toured in the past, and I don't know, he just has a collection and we would get people asking if they could borrow our speakers at different points or he would utilize that them like his equipment at concerts, small concerts in the area, and I don't know. We might have been asked by a couple at one point if we would DJ their wedding or we saw that they're either one. Something happened here, something happened where we saw that, oh, we've got equipment

and people want this service. At an affordable rate. We already have other businesses and work that we're doing, so this could be something that we do on the side. It could be lucrative for us and still affordable for other people. And there's really no upfront startup cost because we already had the equipment. So that was It's an example of something that we had on hand, a skill that we had in our back pockets, that we figured out,

how can we make money off of this? We we don't say we don't do it anymore, although literally a week and a half ago we did d J a wedding and I don't know, we just can't get out of it. Um. Yeah, it was for good friends and we were so pleased to do it. But I would say for a couple of years we would do a handful of weddings and it brought in some real decent cash for hanging out with people on the weekends and playing music with equipment we already had. For sure, hopefully

there were open bars at these weddings. Um. So my first side business was the T shirt business, and that one taught me so much about business. Um it went, it went up really really fast and crashed even faster. Well done right. So I was designing T shirts. I heard about UM merch by Amazon from the side Hustle show, great podcast if you want side business ideas. So I was listening to the podcast and I was like, I

could design T shirts. UM. I used Canva, which was which is free UM, and then just uploaded them to a site that would remove the background because I wouldn't even pay Canava to get transparent backgrounds. Did it all for free. UM. It only took my time and they started to sell. UM. But I towed too close to the line of copyright infringement where it wasn't copyright infringement but it was intellectual property UM. And other people were doing it, and so I was like, if they're getting

away with it, I can UM. But my problem was that my shirt got very successful and it got up like sold very well, and so UM somebody else reported it and that's what happened. That was happens a lot in when people get something that's really successful. I've seen. I mean, it's happened to me with my book too. And I got really successful. UM. Somebody flagged some broken links and got my book taken down for a few days, and then magically there was another no Spend Challenge book

up on Amazon. So that's that just happens. That's business people intentionally sad attage you. UM. And part of it was my fault for towing the line too close. And uh so I was taking off of Amazon, UM, and that was I got back onto Amazon, but um without that shirt. And I had some other very popular shirts. One was even more popular than that, and it was not copyright infringement. And then somebody went and trademarked the phrase and then reported my shirt and took it down.

So yeah, so that was It was totally fine when I took put it up and then people trademarked it. So I learned so much about business from that UM and I'm so thankful it provided some money to help us pay off our debt faster. UM. But I no longer sell T shirts and I actually have one of If you google how to start a T shirt business, like, you'll find my article. But I no longer do it cause I knew when to give up. Like I had

already been kind of wanting to do other things. I tried to outsource the shirt design and I just I picked designs that were I picked a designer that just did not jive. Um, And so I spent all this money and nobody bought a single one of your designs. Um. So I think you're making a good point though in this example, to dot your eyes and cross your te s that, yes, while we are providing water and sunlight to all of your ideas, we I also want to highlight here to make sure that you know what you're

getting yourself into. I've got a good amount of friends actually who have some side businesses selling baked goods or food pre prepared, which is awesome and they're doing very well with it. But if that is it's an example

of a route that you could take. But to make sure that you know is required of you regarding the type of kitchen that you're cooking in, and you know, providing items that are gluten free or what you know, whatever you're getting into, that you're aware of the liability, that you have insurance, that you know how to handle taxes, and of course there are others to help with this. You don't have to be an expert on all of

these things. That's part of the team approach that we talked about in one of our articles earlier, and getting the right people around you, um and and it doesn't have to be overwhelmingly complicated. I just want to mention that caveat that it's worth doing some research as far as what will this require of me and what are the risks as I enter into this? Right? Yeah, you don't have to start with insurance or you know, a

business account or getting an LLC. Like, you don't need any of those things to have a side business like those are once you start, you know, making money and want to take yourself to the X level. But you should always be uh you should know, do trademark searches, copyright searches when like you're naming things, um, and just be aware of like common sense actually yes and ask people about that. Yes, if you don't have it, ask uh,

so most lucrative side businesses and what made it so? Honestly, I know that we joke about this podcast and how little money it's it has made us, so maybe this is indicative of how little my previous side hustles have made.

But honestly, we are getting to the point where, thank you so much to our listeners and the support that that we received through that and through sponsorships, we are beginning to make money off of this podcast, and I think partly because of the longevity that we've had with it, um it, it is becoming lucrative. And I think because of the income to time ratio that's happening. We don't put a ton of time into the podcast and yet make some money off of it. So I think in

that way that's what's making it the most lucrative. I'm not spending an entire saturday doing this like I did when I d J. It's we made a decent amount of money, but I think percentage wise, this is probably more lucrative. For sure, Yeah, it is certain. We we thank you for supporting our sponsors and buying the workbook. All this stuff helps us be able to do the podcast longer. Now for me, my most lucrative one is

self publishing. So my book The No Spend Challenge Guide UM brings in around a thousand dollars a month, and then I have two other books that UM bringing much less but still UM some money. So that's I mean great. And the only thing I can attribute it to it was it was a little bit of doing everything right UM.

So I really used self publishing school their their content and Chandler Bolt's book, UM, and just did everything that they said and then a little bit of luck to um getting picked up by the algorithm in the right place at the right time. Because I did the same exact things for my other books and they're not nearly as successful. Um, but just getting it, you know, making your own luck, almost being in the place to being in the right place to get lucky. Um. Because that's

kind of how business works, right. UM. It's a it's a lot of work and a little luck um. But without the work, you don't get the luck. Jill, how's that DJing career going? Yes, we I don't think have dj since that podcast came out. I think we've officially sunsetted that side business and we've moved on to other things. I would say in the last two years, I've not really engaged in too many various things to bring in money.

I've really focused in on what's currently right in front of me and what's currently in my hands and seen a lot of growth and progress with that, which I'm so grateful for. I don't think I could have gotten to this point without the past and kind of the things that I learned in trying new and different things,

seeing what works what doesn't. And finally, now in my mid thirties old mid thirties, I'm feeling more are more established, more confident in my skill set the things that I have grown up to this point that have really been a focus for me. So I'm I'm glad for that. And I would say this podcast is my side hustle. M I know, this is a side hustle that has grown to my full time hustle, my full time business. Look at us as I know, Yeah, and it's I

did not anticipated. It's so funny because I've kind of come to this point now where in business, I think it's really great to throw spaghetti against the wall to see what works early on. Really give yourself a year too to throw the spaghetti. And after you've done that, you have to you have to simplify, and you have to hone in on the thing that's working and double down on it and hopefully spaghetti like eventually got to

eat it. Yeah. But like if you are doing too many things for too long, which I did, I think I was doing when we recorded this episode, you will exhaust yourself. You will burn out, and you will quit. And I was at the burnout stage a year and a half ago, and somebody had to really challenge me to simplify, and I'm so glad that I did because

it's changed everything for me. And so I think that's one of the we see these quote unquote serial entrepreneurs that just do like they're doing a new business every six months. Uh and or they're they're just doing too many things in their business and it is exhausting. So I think it doesn't have to be that way if you've seen poor examples of entrepreneurship, or maybe don't compare yourself to the people on social media either, because I

I know their backstory. I know a lot of their backstories, and they're not. You don't want to compare yourself, You don't you. I want to take the same path they are taking. Take your own path, and that will be the right path for you. Good wicked, smart Jen, Thank you, thank you, ah, thanks so much for listening. Guys. I hope you got as much out of this a second

time around as we did. Many of you know that we have a private community where we support people in doing their side businesses, and we also do monthly challenges and offer accountability groups, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. Um, this is more just congratulating Judith for being the o G. She says, I have been tracking every expense since last March. It seems there's always an unexpected expense, such as a repair, and you just have to have the money put aside

for it. I watched my gas and food expenses go up monthly, and I've already consolidated trips. Can't save much more on gas, eating more meatless meals and this one. You using aquafaba, the liquid that comes in cans of chickpeas in place of eggs whenever possible. This has helped

my budget. See you you are the o G. She Yeah, she is the o G. But also to say, like it doesn't matter how long you've been doing this, you need a miscellaneous fund or some kind of slush fund, because literally every month there is an unexpected expense that doesn't go away. No matter how good you get, even if you're as good as Judith, even if you're using aqua faba in place of eggs, you still need a miscellaneous fund. Yeah, which is big in the in the

vegan vegetarian world. I can say It's not a shock to me, but I've never For the ten years I was vegetarian and I never never tried it. So congrats to to thank you for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club and see what challenge we have coming up next. See you all next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian Jen. I have both a frugal fail and a frugal win, but I'm only

going to share one with you. Which do you want? I want to hear your wins. I want to hear your successes. Which one's funnier? I want to hear which every one's funnier. Neither one's funny win. A celebratory of fail is disappointing. You don't live my life, Jill. Okay, give me the wind. Let's celebrate. Okay, I did tell this to you already, but here we are for all of our listeners. I was so pleased last Friday Frugal Friends Friday, mind you no less, I do love this one.

And I had gotten this flyer in the mail for the Internet provider that we already have their mistake. I guess offering very low internet to new customers. Well, we were already a customer, but it came in my mailbox, so I had put it on my desk, kind of one of those things life admin. Hopefully I'll get to it. Well, Friday afternoon, I was tired. I was exhausted. Weary might be a good word to describe how I felt. And I'm thinking, I do not feel like calling. How much

am I really going to save? It's okay, the amount that we pay right now for internet is still very reasonable. I don't feel like calling. But then I'm like, hmm, I wonder if I could make this change online look online. And then I just get to this point where they're like, give us a call. You're already a customer, And for some reason the barrier was lifted, and I'm like, all right,

I'll give him a call. So I do, and I talk with this lovely person on the other end, and I say to them, hey, I know I'm already a customer, but I got this flyer offering the same speed of Internet that I currently have for twenty dollars less than what I'm currently paying. Is there anything that can be done to get me closer to this advertised rate. Sure enough,

certainly we can do that. And as this person is working on getting me onto this new plan, I also noticed this small print on the flyer saying that when you sign up for that level of internet speed, you get a hundred dollar Visa gift card. So then I say to this person, I don't mean to be greedy, but can I also get that one hundred dollar gift card that's being advertised? And there was a slight pause on the other end of the phontain. They're just like, uh, yeah, yeah,

I can do that for you. So sure enough, after fifteen minutes, this is record speed. I kid you not, it was only a fifteen minute phone call. I am now paying twenty dollars less on my internet and I'm going to get a one hundred dollar Visa gift card in the mail after three months of paying my bill

on time, just in time for the holidays. I love this story because it just is a perfect example of you don't know if you don't ask, and hey, if you're on the phone for a half hour and they're giving you the run around and you don't want to be on the phone anymore, hang up, Hey, it's fine at least you tried like fifteen minutes. It really was once on he was once on the phone for like six hours. Stamina with a cell phone company that shall

not be named. No, no, he has then anymore. I don't know what has a lot of stamina he's got that I could never um. But you know, I felt Mary. I didn't want to call, but after that, I was jazzed for the whole weekend. You really renews a month. I'm saving on internet like it's astronomical. That's so great. I'm so proud of you. I tell you I sail next time. Okay, I can't wait. Okay Bye,