Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - How To Make Extra Money with a Side Hustle

Episode Date: November 18, 2023

Originally aired 5.25.21 Nicole gives you three steps to take your woodworking/travel blog/macrame empire from part-time to big-time.

It is time to start thinking about holiday shopping, and I'll let you in on a little secret. Get everyone on your list something special from Justin Wine. Justin is legit my favorite wine to give and to receive. With a rich history of accolades, Justin produces exceptional wines and is proud to be America's number one luxury cabernet. Since 1981, Justin has been producing world-class Bordeaux-style wines from Paso Robles on California's Central Coast. As a pioneer of Paso, Justin Wines are what put Paso Robles on the winemaking map. Justin offers curated gift sets, library wines, magnums, and even custom-etched bottles. You can personalize the gifts with a custom message, icon, or logo. Go to justinwine.com and enter code MONEY20 at checkout for 20% off your order.

Justin offers the perfect holiday gifts for clients, colleagues, family, and friends. If you're looking for a special wine to serve at your holiday table, try Isosceles. That's Justin's flagship Bordeaux-style red blend. Whether you're a first-time wine drinker or a wine aficionado, Justin has a wine for everyone, every occasion, and every celebration. Be sure to check them out at justinwine.com and receive 20% off your order for a limited time. Money rehabbers,

you get it. When you're trying to have it all, you end up doing a lot of juggling. You have to balance your work, your friends, and everything in between. So when it comes to your finances, the last thing you need is more juggling. That's where Bank of America steps in. With Bank of America, you can manage your banking, borrowing, and even investing all in one place. Their digital tools bring everything together under one roof, giving you a clear view of your finances whenever you need it. Plus, with Bank of America's wealth of expert guidance available at any time, you can feel confident that your money is working as hard as you do. So why overcomplicate your money? Keep it simple with Bank of America,

your one-stop shop for everything you need today and the goals you're working toward tomorrow. To get started, visit bofa.com slash newprosmedia. That's b-o-f-a dot com slash n-e-w pros p-r-o-s media. b-o-f-a dot com slash newprosmedia Hey, guys, are you ready for some money rehab? Wall Street has been completely upended by an unlikely player. GameStop. And should I have a 401k? No, I know. You think the whole world revolves around you and your money? Well, it doesn't. I got charged for wasting our time. I will take a check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you

don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin. In episode 29, we heard from my accountant about the perks of starting a side hustle. According to him, everyone should be a small business owner. So were you convinced? Liam was and wanted to get started. Nicole, thanks so much for taking my question. I listened to the episode on the benefits of starting your own business, and I'm totally sold. I want to get started, but I'm not really sure what I want to do for my business. I have a couple hobbies. I've done a lot of graphic design in the past. I'm also – I've been dabbling with carpentry and woodwork, but I'm not sure which idea I should pursue.

The other thing is I have a full-time job, so I don't have a lot of time for a full-blown side hustle, but I'm looking to make a change and I'd love your input on it. Thank you. Yes, Liam. I am sold on the idea of side hustles too. I am actually working on an episode all about streams of income, but the short story is money rehabbers should absolutely have more than one stream of income. If you're playing the side hustle game just for money, more power to you, my friend. But you just want to make sure that you're leveraging a skill that's really marketable, because if it don't make dollars, it don't make cents. That's cents, S-E-N-S-E, of course.

But let's be real, money rehabbers aren't motivated by money alone. With the side hustle, you can supplement your paycheck while also developing the talents that don't necessarily get a lot of play in your 9-to-5. Committing to a side hustle can be the kick in the butt you need to develop a skill that you're really passionate about. So Liam, maybe deciding to start your business pushes you to take an expert-level class on graphic design. Or maybe it gives you the vote of confidence you need to make a little space in your garage for a woodshop.

But before you get too excited about the potential of earning more cash, remember, it's money you have to hustle for. Hence the name Side Hustle. A side hustle doesn't just give, it also takes. You will likely have to give up binge watching on Netflix, at least a little bit. And you will often have to be the last to get to the bar with your friends, and often the first to leave. But while the struggle of the hustle is real, so is the upside, and will potentially lead to more reward than you ever imagined. is the upside and will potentially lead to more reward than you ever imagined. I'm speaking from personal experience here.

When I was a news anchor, I started a production company as my side hustle. While I was doing both jobs, I had to put a lot of other things on the back burner. But if I could go back, I would obviously do it all over again. Working for myself was more rewarding than any job I had ever had before. In fact, after almost 18 months of juggling both jobs, I made my production company, Side Hustle, my full-time hustle and career and never looked back. So let's get started. Whoever said good things happen to people who wait did not have a side hustle, or at least didn't have a successful one. The best way to get started is to quit talking and start doing. Here are the three steps to transform your hobby into a jobby. Step one, list the possibilities. If you're like Liam, you might have more than one hobby that gets

your hustle juices flowing. To help decide which path to take, focus on the hobbies that fit the following criteria. You're really good at it, it's a service or product that fills a void in the market, and you can realistically make money at it. You want your jobby contenders to meet those three criteria, but list everything that meets that criteria. Yes, money rehabbers, it's time to make another list. Do you like dancing? Put it on the list. Do you like talking on the phone? Put it on the list. Are you a beer connoisseur? Put it on the list. Don't hold back. Start with the whole shebang because in these next two steps, we're going to narrow the list down based on payoff potential.

Now that we have your list of hobbies, we can move to step two. Is it worth your time? As you're looking at your list of hobbies, ask yourself, how much time do you have for your side hustle? And can you realistically stick to a self-imposed schedule while also having a full-time hustle? Tackling your side hustle after a busy day at work is going to require a lot of discipline. Look at the list of hobbies you made and now analyze the time you can devote to that hustle.

Remember, your availability might be different for different hobbies because some jobs you can do on your own at night while others have to be client-facing and need to happen during traditional work hours or require transportation that will eat into your available time and week. Now on to step three. What's the ROI? The ROI, or return on investment, is the measurement of how much money you can get back from the money you put down. So as you look over your list of hobbies and the amount of time you can put in, also think about what your initial investment will be

in order to kickstart your business. Will you need equipment? Will you need a training course? Money to establish an LLC or whatever entity you choose? I'll give you an example. I had a client who was once deciding between pursuing a side hustle as a copy editor or as a makeup artist. She had six hours a week for her side hustle, and with the copy editing, she could make $50 an hour, and as a makeup artist, she could

make $80 an hour. But as a makeup artist, she would have to see clients in person, of course, so the six hours she had set aside for her side hustle, she had to shave off some of that time to account for travel and setup. In other words, she lost some potential earning potential. Next, she took a very close look at step three and the ROI. She had just gotten a new computer, so she was all set up for copy editing, but to be a makeup artist, she needed to put down about $500 for makeup, brushes, a new carrying case, all that jazz. She was looking to start making profit quickly, so based on her analysis, copy editing had better

earning potential for her then and there. So Liam, in order to make your jobby decision, I want you to make your list and go through these three steps. Decide how much time you have for your side hustle, what the startup costs are going to be for graphic design and carpentry, and how quickly you'd like to make your initial investment back. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. If you are looking for a jobby, you have to make money. If you're not making money from this thing after a year, my friend, it is a hobby. And by the way, a hobby

is cool. If you want to make cupcakes for your friends and not ever have to worry about sourcing flour or doing accounting or being the janitor because you have to be all the jobs when you start a business, then just call it that. It can be a hobby without being a jobby, but you have to be really real about it. So once you figure out what that is, don't forget to slip into the DMs and tell us about it at Money Rehab Show on Instagram. If you do happen to have a hobby that includes cupcakes, you can also DM us for our address and send them over. I happen to not really like chocolate, actually. So vanilla, please. And thank you. Money Rehab is a production of iHeartMedia. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Our producers are

Morgan Lavoie and Catherine Law. Money Rehab is edited and engineered by Brandon Dickert with help from Josh Fisher. Executive producers are Mangesh Hatikader and Will Pearson. Huge thanks to the OG Money Rehab supervising producer, Michelle Lanz, for her pre-production and development work. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.