In this week’s guest blog post, my good friend Sarah has written a post for the mum’s out there, or those thinking about heading down that path (myself included) in the next year or two. Here’s how she balances a side hustle with being a mother, wife and everything in between…
There’s spaghetti in your hair, someone needs a diaper change, and a blog post you promised a client will be finished today is only halfway done.
You’re probably thinking how are you going to be a good mother, work at your day job and handle a side hustle?
It’s actually pretty simple.
No, you won’t need to stay up at all hours in the night, or work much harder than you already are.
Take me for example. I’ve been working at my side hustle for over two years, and it wasn’t until I gave birth to by bundle of joy that it really began to take off. In fact, within the last year I’ve been able to build this side business to the point where I’m taking my side hustle business full time!
Not too bad for someone with a one year old and a full time job.
So to all the mothers out there: You’ve got an advantage over people who don’t have kids to take care of. Don’t think of your parenting duties as a hinderance to your side hustle. Focus on these five ways motherhood will propel you towards your future success.
5 Ways Motherhood Ensures Your Future Success
#1: Your Natural Tendency to Find Solutions
Baby not sleeping through the night? You’ve probably scoured forums and tried a few ideas from other mothers.
Or maybe you want to give your a kids a healthy dessert option they’ll like? Surely you’ve Googled a few blogs here and there.
As mothers, you’re constantly faced with little challenges that come your way. Instead of giving up, you have stepped up to the plate time and time again to solve them, no matter how insignificant they may seem. And all this practice will come in handy when it comes time to work on your side hustle.
Here are just a small number of challenges you might face when it comes to your side hustle that you’ll easily be able to solve because of your ability to find solutions:
- Finding a consistent schedule
- How to find effective marketing strategies
- Using the right tools so you can maximize your productivity
- Figuring out where your potential clients hangout
Guess what? You can use all of the ways you’ve found solutions to your parenting challenges to deal with these.
Seek out forums, search for relevant resources on the internet — and the ability to ask fellow side hustlers is going to be so easy for you.
#2: Your Curiosity
Having a child in your life allows you to see the world in a new way. It’s so cute how they’re curious about the world, and you get to help them discover all this new stuff around them.
It’s this constant exposure to a child’s curiosity that will help you with your side hustle.
You’ve probably learned that curiosity leads to discovery. Not only that, but looking at something with an open mind and as an opportunity to find something new, will really help you with your side hustle.
Too many people fail at their side hustles because they don’t think of learning a new skill as an opportunity to discover and have fun at the same time. They’re too focused on results and aren’t necessarily as open minded to exploring different avenues.
But you obviously aren’t one of those people…
#3: Your Nurturing Personality
Clients love it when you not only do a good job for them, but when you actively take a genuine interest in their growth.
As mothers, you’ve already had lots of practice at nurturing growth! Being a mother means you provide what your child needs, such as food, shelter and clothing.
Not only that, but you’ve obviously taken an interest in their development as people. As a mother, I constantly think about whether my child is happy, whether or not I’m giving him a wide variety of foods to maximize his nutrition intake, and how I’m helping him with his social development.
Take this skill you’ve already got and apply it to your clients.
Maybe you notice that they could get more newsletter signups if they had a better call to action in their blog posts. Or you write blog posts for them and make suggestions for great images they can use for their Pinterest page.
It’s the little things that make you stand out from the rest.
#4: Your Patience
Remember those times when your newborn would cry and cry, and you couldn’t for the life of you figure out what they needed? Or when you have to teach your toddler time and time again about what things they cannot touch?
Every time something like this happens, you’re really testing your patience. Sure, you may have felt really frustrated during those moments, but instead of yelling (well, most of the time anyway), you took the time to be calm and do whatever it took, and however long it took, to get through those moments.
Working on a side hustle takes a lot of patience. Tech issues will arise. Clients might not pay. Deals you think will work out won’t.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking a side hustle can be successful in a very short amount of time. But then again, you’re already the patient type, right?
#5: Your Need to Prioritize Self-Care
As mothers, you know how important it is to get enough sleep just so you can make it through the day. Or that if you don’t take time for yourself away from your child to relax and recoup, you’ll go nuts.
Self-care is really important when it comes to your side hustle too. It’s easy to work at all hours in it, but you’ll quickly burn out if you do. Not only that, but you might come to resent it, and give up altogether.
But obviously you know that taking time out for yourself is important, so taking a break at least once a week from your side hustle will make you that much more productive.
No More Excuses
Don’t think that just because you’re a mother that you can’t be successful at your side hustle. Take advantage of all the skills you’ve got and crush it!
Sarah Li Cain is the founder of High Fiving Dollars, where she teaches you that loving your money is the key to improving every facet of your life, including a successful side hustle. Download her free e-course on how you can have a better relationship with your money in 5 simple steps. You can also connect with her on Twitter at @slicain.
Sarah Li Cain
High Fiving Dollars
