Five months ago, I left my job.
Three months later, I got another.
I thought I could do it. I thought I could quit my 9–5 and write full-time. Maybe I still can.
The thing is, I jumped too soon. I wasn’t ready and my brain knew it.
This is gonna go to sh*t. This is gonna go to sh*t. This is gonna go to sh*t…
Now I’m working part-time and my mood has changed. Optimism is back. Scarcity has gone. I don’t feel under pressure to make my side-hustles work. Because of that, they’ll be side-hustles again.
Here’s a formula you can steal:
- Part-time job (three days a week) = paying your bills
- Side-hustles (three days a week) = building scalable income sources
It’s a nice balance. One I recommend to creators.*
Here’s why.
*The Footnotes…
I’m privileged
I’m twenty-something. I’m male. My first language is English. I went to university. I love my girlfriend. My family’s the best. I live in the UK’s happiest town.
I lucked out.
I have a specific set of skills
I’ve worked in SEO for three years. Because of the pandemic, SEO professionals are in high demand.
Companies are throwing themselves online.
And because I have these skills…
I can dictate my terms.
My LinkedIn DMs are full of recruiters.
This gives me leverage.
“Negotiations are won by whoever cares less.” — Naval Ravikant
I spoke with managers and told them what I wanted. My salary expectations. Three days a week. Remote working.
One said yes.
Getting a Part-Time Job
Most companies will want you to work full-time.
The antidote? Develop skills. They’ll give you leverage. You can then use this leverage to dictate what you want.
Note: marketing and sales will always be in demand.
Taste things
Take courses. Build websites. Make stuff happen.
My WordPress blog sealed my first job in SEO.
Be humble
Do be keen. Don’t be a kiss ass.
There’s a fine line.
In any job, ask questions. Take notes. People will see you’re hungry, so they’ll give you more.
LinkedIn is your friend
I landed one job the “traditional” way. Seeing an ad. Sending a CV. Being interviewed.
For the others, recruiters slid into my DMs.
I don’t post much, but I keep my profile up to date. A professional headshot. Engaging sections.
You know the tips.
Part-time is Dreamy
Pressure
You’ll care less about your job when you’re building something on the side. The pressure is off.
You’ll perform better in your job. You’ll give more. You’ll also be more productive in your side-hustle hours.
And you can build things that make you money.
I’m soon to be launching my second course with Zero to Mastery. It’s been an ongoing project for the last five months. Once complete, I’ll have another income stream.
If it doesn’t do well?
No sweat.
I’m not dependent on its success.
“When someone’s doing something for the money, people can sense it, like they sense a desperate lover.”
— Derek Sivers
Paychecks
I’ve seen people compare salaries to crack.
Sure, I see parallels. Paychecks are addictive. You can become dependent. However, the following narrative needs to stop: you’re not a failure if you work for someone else.
Besides, if you’re building passive, scalable income streams, you won’t have one source of income.
You’ll have many.
Package it up
And if you hate the idea of working for someone else…
Try freelancing.
I had no intention of writing for others. However, a business owner reached out on LinkedIn. She’s one of my newsletter subscribers:
We jumped on a call, discussed her needs, and I sent her a proposal.
I hadn’t written one before. However, I’d learned from other writers that this is the way to go. You can charge higher prices when you package things up.
I found a template and copied it. I then put together this ugly-looking Google doc. I figured she wants to work with me for my writing skills — not my designs.
When it came to pricing, I followed this advice by Michael Ellsworth: charge your “happy price”. He recommends gut checks.
For example, my client wanted one blog post per month — 500 to 1000 words. I considered all the steps (writing, research, etc) and asked myself how long this would take.
Next, I considered an hourly rate that would make this worth my time.
Slide up and feel the energetic shift. You want to go from “not worth my time” to “yeah, I’d do that”.
Takeaways
I don’t want to work for a company forever. I want to go self-employed or start my own business.
With my courses and writing, I’m almost there. I’m hopeful my next SEO course will tip the balance.
Until then, this part-time balance has worked well. It could work well for you too:
- Work for a company three days a week — say Tuesdays to Thursdays
- Use Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays for side-hustles
A part-time job can give you an anchor in choppy seas.
Your dreams will thank you.