books: Clever Girl Finance: Ditch Debt, Save Money and Build Real Wealth or Learn How Investing Works, Grow Your Money. Maybe you’ve taken one (or a few) of the free Clever Girl Finance online courses. Or perhaps a friend or even an online algorithm recommended this book to you.
However you got here, you are here now, reading this book—most likely because pursuing your passions and increasing your income through a side hustle is something you’ve wanted to do for a while.
You see countless people doing exactly this every single day. You see them promoting their businesses and sharing behind-the-scenes photos on social media, you’ve admired their products and/or services, you’ve listened to their interviews on your favorite podcasts, you’ve watched videos of them online, and somewhere in the back of your mind, you’ve yearned to do your own thing…just like them.
You’ve imagined what it would be like for you to be on the other side, running your own side hustle. And not just any kind of random side hustle: an incredibly successful one that in turn gives you the opportunity to build your dream business, increase your income, and ultimately afford the life you desire and on your own terms.
But perhaps you’ve hesitated. After all, you’ve heard that starting, running, and growing a business is incredibly hard. It could be that you’ve even tried in the past, but things didn’t quite turn out how you’d imagined. Maybe you feel like there’s so much you don’t know and are overwhelmed by the thought of trying to figure it all out on your own and making too many mistakes along the way. Or it could simply be that you are afraid to go at this alone.
Well, not to worry. I’ve written this book specifically for women like you, to guide, encourage, and motivate you on this journey to building an amazing business. Like I said, you are not here by accident. In this book, I’ll show you just what it takes to build, run, and grow an incredibly successful side hustle—because you have what it takes.
I’ll be sharing the key insights from my experiences as a multi-side-hustle business owner and now a full-time entrepreneur. I’ll let you in on the mistakes I made along the way and the many lessons I learned that have led me to where I am today: the founder and CEO of one of the largest personal finance platforms for women, a business I started as a simple side hustle.
I’ll be challenging you to ditch any fears holding you back from following your passion, showing you exactly how to lay out the right plans (and financials) that work best for you, and guiding you step-by-step as you build a business your customers and clients will rave about and one that you’ll love running as well.
As with my previous books, I’ll be bringing some of my amazing entrepreneur friends along on this journey with us to also share their unique experiences building their own incredibly successful side hustles that span across a wide variety of industries and niches.
At the end of this book, you’ll walk away with a renewed mindset, a solid blueprint for your business, and a wealth of insight and motivation not just to start your business, but to take it to the next level.
Because—WHY NOT YOU?
So, buckle up, girlfriend, it’s going to be an exciting ride. Let’s go!
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
I’ve written this book to help you craft the ideal blueprint for building a successful side hustle. As with any good blueprint, the idea is to reference it as necessary while you lay your foundations and build your business. There are several ways in which you’ll be able to leverage the content in this book, but here are a few recommendations to help you make the most of it:
You can read through this book all at once and then circle back to work on the action steps, or you can read it a section at a time and implement what you learn as you go along.
As you read, take your time. Take notes, highlight, and bookmark the areas you’d like to revisit that stand out to you the most based on the stage you’re at with building your business.
Plan to work through the action steps at the end of each section to help you craft your strategies and fine-tune your blueprint.
Once you are done reading the book, review your notes, highlights, and bookmarks.
Keep things organized by creating a Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel workbook where you can create tabs for each of the different spreadsheets suggested through the book, depending on what’s relevant to you.
Keep this book as a reference as you work on your business. There might be areas you are focused on immediately and areas you’ll need to come back to later as you make progress.
Ultimately, I want you to gain as much as possible from this book to help you achieve your business and income goals!
CHAPTER 1 Getting Prepared to Win
Fact: You have what it takes to build an incredibly successful business.
#CLEVERGIRLSKNOW
CHALLENGING THE FEAR THAT HOLDS YOU BACK
So, before we dive into all things side hustles and business, let’s start at the very beginning. Let’s start with you and what could potentially be holding you back: your fear. Yup, that tiny little four-letter word is a pretty big deal because it can negatively impact your ability to pursue your goals in a major way. And more specifically to our topic at hand, fear can impact your ability to start and grow a successful side hustle.
When it comes to starting or growing a side hustle, fear is real and worry is its best friend. Did you nod your head? It’s probably because you’ve felt one or more of several different fears that come with this journey. I have personally felt all kinds of fears and had all kinds of worries on my business journey.
For instance, there’s the fear of the unknown and not knowing enough: “I have no idea how any of this works or how I will pull it off.”
There’s the fear of failure: “What if I start this thing and it doesn’t work out?”
There’s the fear of risk: “This is going to take too much time, money, and resources.”
There’s the fear that you are incapable (aka imposter syndrome): “Who am I to think I can do this?”
There’s also the fear of change: “Just thinking about starting a side hustle and the road ahead makes me nervous!”
And these are just to name a few. Add in worrying about where you are going to find the time and worrying about what other people will think, and you have the perfect formula to do…nothing. Absolutely nothing. And this is where so many incredible business ideas die and get buried.
Fear is a major reason why so many people don’t pursue their dreams or they give up too quickly. Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary1 as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger,” fear can actually prevent you from pursuing incredible opportunities, because if you don’t have a handle on it, it can cloud your judgment.
Keep in mind, though, the goal is not to do away with fear completely. There are many
