Work Life

[Host] Welcome to Money Talk, the podcast series that helps you manage your money—and improve your financial well-being! Today we’re talking with Kimberly Palmer, blogger at bykimberlypalmer.com and author of two personal finance books. In her most recent book, The Economy of You, Kimberly shares the stories of 100 people who gained financial security by starting a side business. In today’s episode, she talks about what you can do to launch a side hustle of your own.

Here’s the podcast. Enjoy!

[Host] Welcome to Money Talk, Kimberly! We’re talking about side hustles today, so first off, can you explain what they are?

[Kimberly Palmer] A side hustle is anything you do on the side, outside your full-time job, to bring in extra income. So it’s usually about creating more financial security for yourself, adding to your overall income level and it’s also often about finding satisfaction because you are exploring something on the side, often something creative, that you enjoy doing and that also brings in money.

[Host] Cool. And you have some personal experience with this, right?

[Palmer] Yes! I launched my Etsy shop of money planners about three years ago when I felt like I needed to earn more money and I wanted to supplement my income. I had this idea to create basically workbooks that help people meet certain life or money goals, starting with my baby planner to help people prepare financially for having kids and it was just a lot of fun for me to create these products. I worked with an illustrator to make them look pretty and then I launched my business, Palmer’s Planners, and it does help me financially and also creatively. I just find it really fun to work on.

[Host] So what made you decide to start an Etsy shop in the first place?

[Palmer] Well I basically realized that there is no such thing as job security for anybody. Especially for me. I work in journalism where you know, it’s known as being an unstable industry and I knew I needed another way of earning money and so that’s what motivated me to start looking for a way to earn money and then I’m just a fan of Etsy. I love shopping on their site. I buy jewelry and scarves, and then when I was browsing the shop one day I realized you know, I could be a seller too. I could actually make something and sell it.

[Host] So if you’re somebody who is thinking about giving a side hustle a try, where should you start?

[Palmer] Well I think one of the best places to start, especially if you’re still brainstorming about what you might want to do, is to browse some of these ecommerce websites. So of course, as I mentioned, Etsy is one. But there’s also others like Fiverr, if you’re into services like coaching; Elance; Freelance; all of these ecommerce sites are set up really for side hustlers, for people who want to launch a freelance business or something on the side. And you can see what other people are doing to make money and it could inspire you.

So for example on Elance right now there’s huge demand for people willing to write wedding speeches for other people which is kind of a quirky thing you might never have thought of on your own. So if you just take some time to browse these sites, it can give you an idea and you can also think about what you enjoy doing and your hobbies. Like maybe you’ve always done something like voice coaching and you could start selling your voice online to companies and small businesses who need someone’s voice on their videos for example. Or if you’re really good at social media—Twitter and Facebook—you could become a social media consultant. So really I mean the possibilities are just endless.

[Host] Yeah and then once you’ve got an idea about what you want to do, what’s the next step to putting your business in motion?

[Palmer] Well you have to describe what you have to offer and get the word out about it. So the easiest way to start is to use one of these ecommerce websites to create a page for yourself, a profile page for your business. Describe that service, what you have to offer people and start looking for customers. And you can do that of course by social media; you could send a tweet about your new services to share with all your friends on Facebook, on LinkedIn, and that way you can start to build up your customer base.

[Host] People always say, “It takes money to make money.” Do you think that’s true of side hustles too?

[Palmer] I actually don’t, not in this case. Because it’s so easy now to launch a side business, you can do it for literally nothing. These ecommerce websites, they of course do charge you a fee, you share a portion of your revenue with them, but there’s not really any upfront costs. It does of course depend on your business. For example if you want to hire an illustrator to create your e-book cover, you’ll have to pay a small fee for that. Or if you really want your own website you of course have to pay fees associated with that, but all of those are relatively small costs to get started. And because of this really powerful ecommerce infrastructure that exists now with these websites that are designed to help freelancers, it’s pretty easy. So you can get set up for really little money and also in little time as well.

[Host] If you’re new at selling your own services or products, how do you decide how much to charge?

[Palmer] That is definitely a big question and a lot of people make a mistake here. It’s easy to undercharge. So while you do want to get a sense of what other people are charging for similar products, you don’t want to undersell yourself. So you really want to think about your time that’s going into it, the value that you’re offering to people and you don’t want to make the mistake of selling yourself short.

[Host] Once you get your side hustle going, how can you measure its success?

[Palmer] There are really two main things to ask yourself. So first you want to make sure that you’re earning money because our whole purpose in going into a side hustle was to increase financial security. So you want to check on that, make sure you’re earning some money so if your products or services aren’t selling, ask yourself how you could tweak them to make sure that they are.

And then secondly, and I think in a lot of ways this is even more important, you want to make sure that you’re finding your side hustle really satisfying. Is it fulfilling the creativity that you want to pursue, is it helping you professionally. Maybe you’re picking up extra skills that can then add to your career and you can bring back to your day job. So you definitely want to make sure that you’re finding satisfaction in your side hustle because you’re, of course, pouring so much of your time and energy into it.

[Host] That’s our show, thanks for listening! Subscribe to the SunTrust Personal Banking channel on iTunes or download the app on Google Play for more Money Talk podcasts with tips to help you get organized, make a plan and stay on track to a bright financial future.