It’s been a while since my last side hustle update! A few months ago, I shared my paid-for trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I also got to take in the natural wonders of the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Last month, Ian and I enjoyed another paid-for trip, this time to Cancun, Mexico. It was a productive trip; I met people face-to-face, did a lot of work, and only got one hour of pool time my entire six-day trip. 😩
The Side Hustle Overview
As I’ve shared before, Ian and I were hired as a webmaster for a non-profit organization. At the beginning of the year, we took on the work of transferring their site to a new hosting platform, updating a ton of old content, and also working with various people to create new pages. Since then, I’ve begun working on an in-depth taxonomy to improve internal navigation and also SEO. The site has almost 100 individual pages; while I cut out as much noise as I could, the nature of the site makes many pages necessary. It’s been a learning curve managing it all; I’m still finding pages I haven’t yet come across in my 11 months on the job.
How did I get this opportunity, and what were my qualifications? The opportunity fell into my lap. My dad is a part of the organization and recommended me as a candidate at the beginning of 2018 when the previous webmaster abruptly quit. Without anyone else to fill in the role, Ian and I were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. With Ian’s technical experience, and what I’ve picked up through my day job (analytics) and blogging (WordPress), we were deemed to have enough skills to do the work.
Life of a Contractor
While there was a little nepotism at play in receiving the contract for 2018, Ian and I had to compete for renewal for 2019. This time around, there were other candidates for the society to consider. Lucky for us, Ian and I got another one-year contract! Getting the news was a great way to end our trip and gave our work for the year more value.
Since I lost my job a month ago, I’ve been extremely thankful to have this side hustle. The work is only a few hours a month, but we bill $100/hr – that’s helping me extend the life of my emergency fund. With this side income stream, I don’t have to worry about finding another job during the holidays.
Self-Employment Requires Discipline
While the work isn’t difficult, managing myself has been. For some reason, I thought that unemployment meant I would have an abundance of time to focus on my own projects (like this side hustle). That’s not been the case. Ian doesn’t allow me to sleep in, but that doesn’t mean I start my mornings off with productive work. Most days, I don’t do anything that earns me money before noon. If anything, I was more productive when I had more things competing for my time. Honestly, I’m not really surprised; I was always the kid in school that did her projects the night before they were due. 😇
In related side hustle news, I’m in the final stages of taking on a second part-time contracting position that will last the next three months. While I’m still working through the paperwork, I’m getting a much higher hourly rate and putting in more hours a week, so I’m hoping to replace the income I’m otherwise missing out on with unemployment. Huzzah! This is buying me a lot of freedom, and I’m taking the search for full-time work extremely slowly as a result.
I’m not allowed to share the full details of this position until after it’s concluded, but when it’s over, I’ll be sure to share numbers. This past month has taught me, more than anything else, that I constantly undersell myself (and also that some companies are very loose with their money). It’s been quite an educational experience. I’ve always considered myself to be someone who sticks close to the rulebook. The fact that I’m working as a non-full-time worker, providing quotes, and actually getting money that I ask for is not just enlightening, it’s also motivating. While the work I’m doing part-time isn’t more enjoyable or more rewarding than my field of interest, the additional control over my work is freeing. And, I know that at the very least I’ll be doing this through 2019—who knows what will happen beyond then!