In case, you want to add to your income or explore a new profession without sacrificing your current employment, you can consider starting a side hustle. However, creating a profitable side hustle is not a cakewalk. Committing to more than one job and doing them successfully requires effort, patience and a lot of energy. But what if you had someone to assist you, write down the do’s and don’ts, and lay out the risk factors? Wouldn’t it make things easy for everyone? Of course. That is exactly what Bernadette Joy has been doing.
Joy earned $279,000 (over Rs 2 crore) last year, or around Rs 19 lakh per month on average, through a money-coaching business called Crush Your Money Goals. Originally, it was a podcast detailing how she and her husband were repaying debt totalling over $300,000 (about Rs 2.5 crore).
Joy, who gets money through coaching, freelancing and planning speaking events, now tells CNBC Make It she only works 20 hours a week. Joy told the outlet that her number one piece of advice for anyone looking to start a side hustle is to focus on making money from a hobby that comes naturally to them.
Joy operated Dressed in Charlotte, North Carolina, which began as a side hustle connecting those who owned bridesmaid gowns with those who wanted to rent them. It enabled her to pay off her college loans, leave her full-time job, recruit staff, and create a shop.
However, as Dressed gained popularity, it became more time-consuming and less gratifying. She closed her store in 2019, three years after opening it. Additionally, she had experienced being her own boss for the first time, and she didn’t want to go back, which she claims caused an “existential midlife crisis.”
Joy would not have started Dressed if she wasn’t passionate about fashion. However, dealing with the complexities of expanding a firm did not come naturally to her, she admits.
She was disheartened when the dresses returned damaged: Many of them returned ripped and soiled after prom season in 2019, she adds. Joy had to purchase the wrecked garments from the owners.
Joy notes that as her interns struggled without supervision, she was forced to work longer hours at her storefront, which was once a dentist’s office turned into a retail space. “I couldn’t see myself in retail working all those hours,” she said.
The tipping point was reached when she went to the FinCon personal finance conference that summer. Even though she wasn’t sure how to start, she realised after hearing the speakers that she wanted to give other people more financial confidence.
While investigating how to start a coaching company, she continued to record her podcast. In March 2020, she opened up enrollment for the first-ever Crush Your Money group coaching programme online. The company started to turn a profit quite rapidly. Additionally, the schedule associated with this specific employment is more flexible.
“I’m incredibly lazy …”
Joy declared on the CNBC Make It event at SXSW, “I don’t want to work all the time.”
“I always try to find the path of least resistance.”
Her key lesson was that you might thrive without appearing unduly busy or booked. Her coaching programme is designed with her less-is-more philosophy in mind. She states that her goal is to alter people’s perspectives on time and money.
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