Making Time for Self Improvement

by Mr. 4HWD on July 1, 2014 5 Comments

Whether you’re a full-time entrepreneur or part-time side hustler, chances are you lead a busy life.

Between work (all kinds of it), family, hobbies, a social life, and just a little time to relax every now and then, it can be hard to pack everything you need into a day when there’s only 24 hours available.

But it is important that we try to make room for one more task in our hectic schedules. Business owners and those who have established side gigs need to make time for self improvement. [Read more…]

Why You Should Keep Your Day Job AND Hustle on the Side

by Mr. 4HWD on June 10, 2014 3 Comments

Entrepreneurship offers a lot of advantages. Personal freedom, fulfillment, and satisfaction are some of the biggest benefits of working for yourself.

But you’re also missing out on a few perks that make life just a little easier if you quit your job as an employee and strike out on your own. Think higher taxes, more expensive healthcare, and other financial hangups that happen to the self-employed (like having a hard time securing a loan because you don’t have three years of regular pay stubs to show you can reasonably repay money borrowed).

While some situations (and people) argue that it’s worth the trade-off, the reality is working for yourself is tough. It’s even harder if you’re not married or have no partner to help you handle expenses when your income can fluctuate from month to month.

But there is another way. Why not have the best of both worlds and run a side business while you keep your day job? [Read more…]

Will You Choose the Unlimited Upside?

by Mr. 4HWD on May 27, 2014 12 Comments

When you go to work for someone else, you’re taking a pretty big gamble. It may seem counter-intuitive, given that being an employee means receiving a reliable paycheck on a regular basis.

But if that paycheck is your only source of income, you could lose 100% of your earnings at any time for reasons far outside your control.

We’ve already seen it happen to hundreds of thousands of skilled, talented workers who believed they had a high amount of job security when the Great Recession hit. Companies had to shed costs – and that started with laying off employees or even shutting down entire departments.

As an employee, you’re at the mercy of what someone else wants for their business. Sure, you can work hard, make yourself a valuable asset, and become a cog in the machine that would be extremely hard to replace.

But at the end of the day, your boss — or the higher-ups in the company, or those that run the business — may decide that it’s best for future growth to downsize, outsource, or reorganize.

So it’s a gamble when you’re working for someone else without any other income sources. Because you can be fired or laid off at any time, your downside is unlimited. 100% of your income is always at risk.

How can employees fix this problem? [Read more…]

How Entrepreneurship Can Help Beat Job-Related Blues

by Mr. 4HWD on May 20, 2014 5 Comments

Coming down with a case of the Mondays happens to everyone from time to time. After all, it’s not exactly fun to leave our carefree weekend behind and face yet another tough work week. Even with the best jobs, it’s only natural we feel a little down about having to head in to the office every once in a while.

But what happens when an occasional case of the Mondays turns into something chronic? What do you do when those periods of feeling low on Monday morning turn into something way worse – like dreading going into work before Monday? When you start feeling anxious, worried, or stressed sometime on Sunday about having to return to your job on Monday, it’s time to make a serious change.

The solution might be entrepreneurship in some form or fashion. You don’t necessarily have to dive headlong into running your own startup; even part-time entrepreneurship can help you beat those job-related blues. [Read more…]

3 Ways to Develop a Support System

by Mr. 4HWD on May 6, 2014 8 Comments

When you’re working hard to develop a side hustle or business, or trying to make the leap from employment to entrepreneurship, you’re going to need a few shoulders to lean on from time to time. Managing a full-time job working for someone else while establishing your own side gigs is exhausting, and everyone needs a little help along the way.

It’s not just that starting up your own venture takes lots of time and energy – it’s a long, hard process full of emotional ups and downs too. There’s a whole lot that you have to put into it, and that doesn’t stop and start at just the actual work you’re doing.

Entrepreneurs and side hustlers often need to tackle new skills, deal with a wide variety of people (some who are more pleasant than others), manage tedious back-end tasks, keep themselves organized by implementing new systems and processes to help manage the crazy amount of stuff happening, and so on.

Especially when you’re doing something you’ve never done before, you need some kind of support system. While many people turn to a significant other, parents, or very close friends, not everyone has that built-in network available.

Maybe you’re not ready to tell all your friends about your efforts. Maybe you’re not married or in a serious relationship. Maybe your family thinks you’re nuts for working on your side hustle or business, and has told you it’s not realistic or feasible.

If, for whatever reason, you don’t have a traditional support system in place – or the support system you wanted to rely on is less than encouraging – here are three ways you can build your own group of supportive individuals who will be more than happy to help you along every step of the way as you increase your income or build a business. [Read more…]

Sacrifice Only if You’re Growing

by Mr. 4HWD on April 15, 2014 6 Comments

When I see people working late or working overtime I get depressed. It’s one thing if you’re young and you’re full of energy, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. But it’s another thing when you’re older, overworked and been doing it for 20-30 years. Even though I don’t work more than 40 hours a week at my day job, when I get home I spend at least 2 to 3 hours every single night working on my side hustles. In a way, I’m just like those people at work except I’m working overtime for myself instead of some faceless corporate entity.

I’ll be honest, I have a very chill day job. That’s probably part of the reason why I can work another few hours when I get home. There aren’t many high paying jobs where you can come in late, leave early and play basketball at lunch but that’s exactly what I do. And even though that may seem like a good thing, I have to constantly remind myself of my ultimate goal. Working for myself and owning my own business(es) is something I want sooner rather than later. But when you’re fortunate enough to have a job you enjoy it’s easy to get complacent.

Hobby & Business Collide

When I first started working online, it was more of a hobby than anything else. I liked personal finance so I started writing about it. It wasn’t until I started making some decent money that I began to treat it like a business. Now everything I do online is a business to me: my websites, my freelance writing, etc. Even though I still enjoy the writing, I’ve taken a much more proactive approach when it comes to advertising, internet marketing and basically just figuring out how to make money from sitting on my couch. [Read more…]

Day Jobs Are Easy Compared to Entrepreneurship

by Mr. 4HWD on February 11, 2014 6 Comments

A lot of the stories I read these days about young entrepreneurs make it seem like they have some pretty awesome lives. Especially now that we’re in the age of the start-up, every month or so there’s some new kid with an app that’s valued at a billion dollars(re: Snapchat). That seems like a lot of money for only a little bit of work but that experience is pretty atypical compared to most other entrepreneurs. The media tends to glorify a lot of successful individuals and dangle that lifestyle within our reach because people want to believe that could be them. The millionaire entrepreneur profiles we constantly see on TV and radio are popular because they give us hope.

We all like to think that with enough hard work that could be us some day on the other side of the camera. But once you realize that a billion dollar valuation for your dick-pic app probably isn’t in the cards, the true burden of entrepreneurship will start to sink in. It’s not that you don’t stand a chance at success when you’re on your own but it is much more difficult than working a day job for someone else.

I don’t consider myself an expert in either field(day job or entrepreneurship) but I have done both and I’m doing both currently. So I think it’s fair to say I have some experience and knowledge when it comes to comparing entrepreneurship to working a day job. [Read more…]

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Hobby & Business Collide

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