Balancing a “side business” and a full-time job
Now I know this isn’t my typical “home décor/interior styling tips” blog post but it’s something that I wanted to share my thoughts on since I know there are a lot of other people out there who, like me, are figuring out how to balance a side business/passion with a full-time job.
As you may (or may not) know, I started House to Home Design Co. as a “side gig,” more so as a passion and place for me to share our experiences with updating our home and design/styling tips. When I started receiving interest on my personal social media accounts on this type of content I figured, hey why not continuing sharing more of this with others who are interested. Well not only am I glad that I took that leap of faith and did this, but especially thankful for the support along the way from you all. It’s not easy taking that first step to creating something where you aren’t sure if you are going to have one follower or thousands of followers. But I realized it’s not about the number of followers, it’s who you’re followers are. As long as I could inspire one person out there, that’s all I cared about.
As I was reading a book by Rachel Hollis, one of my favorite entrepreneurs and authors, she inspired me in the sense that if you are truly passionate about something you will make it happen. She says, “Stop waiting for someday; someday is a myth. Don’t wait to have time; start planning to make the time.” And that’s where I am currently at with what I call my “little side thing,” (trying to get out of calling it that) which has continued to blossom over the past year. Have I had to turn down opportunities with this due to limited time? Of course. Has that been hard to do? Of course. While we can make time for the things we are truly passionate about, it’s important to make sure there is balance because if not, success will be limited. That balance can be spending time with family, having a spa day and some “me time,” taking an hour out of the day to disconnect from social media and scrolling through the endless number of posts, etc. I’ll admit I haven’t done a great job with this. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the online world, especially when you are trying to make a dent in Instagram land amongst the millions of posts and reach the people you want to reach. But it all comes back to balance and making sure not to lose yourself along the way.
You’ll see a common theme of “balance” mentioned throughout this post. Balance in personal life, balance between a full-time job and a side business. To make time for this there is some sacrifice involved, and that will be different for everyone. For me it does include working late nights and weekends. At the end of the day we have to do what makes us happy, and if doing our “side gig” makes us happy let’s do it and make time for it. Because if not now, then when?
