When I first embarked on my side hustle journey I kept coming across the question, what is your WHY? I must confess, as straightforward as it may seem, I didn’t quite understand the question. What exactly does what is your WHY mean and how important is it?
I’m here to tell you that it is VERY important and critical that you know, beyond any doubt, exactly what your WHY is.
So…my WHY…
First, to set the scene, I’ve got a full-time job. For what I do it pays well, the people are nice and fortunately for me, my job didn’t suffer as a result of the pandemic. So, what’s the problem? Why do I feel the need to start a side hustle? Here comes the WHY.
Because I want more! No, I don’t want to run the business. I want my own business and I want to do things my way.
Four years ago, I went home for a visit. Home being Trinidad, West Indies. I hung out with family and friends and managed to squeeze in two mini holidays whilst on holiday. The first being a couple of days in Barbados to visit my best friend who I had not seen in many years and the second being a weekend in Tobago (Trinidad’s sister isle). All my friends were doing so well and seemed so happy and I had the best time.
So, what does all this have to do with my WHY? Well, I decided that year that I wanted to go home more often than I did. That was my WHY. As simple as the question was. I thought my WHY needed to be something profound but no, your WHY is whatever reason that is important to you!
At first, it was more of a wish than anything else, but the seed was planted and the more I thought about it, the bigger my desire to change my situation grew. This also happened to coincide with some changes that was occurring at work and I began to think, Ok Neesha, watcha ya gonna do about it?!
I didn’t know I wanted to become a Virtual Assistant. I never actually gave it any thought. Believe it or not my first choice was to train to be a body piercer! To be honest with you, I didn’t think I’d be able to hack sticking needles into people…and then there’s the question of where they would want to get pierced…but let’s not go there.
https://www.digideskva.comI knew I had to get my thinking cap on. Then, I had a eureka moment. Why am I making things harder for myself? I didn’t need to retrain. I just needed to refocus. Do what you already know how to do Neesha. Yes, as simple as that.
I have worked in in admin since I was 18 years old and now being in my forties, I’d like to think that I have a good grasp of what I’m doing. As technology changed over the years, I managed to pick up a few skills along the way, so I guess it was only natural to centre my side hustle around my current skillset. My little VA business was born.
After that, the WHY became so much more important and it feels like it took on a life of its own. Here is how my WHY evolved:
- I want to go home more often than I currently do – not possible with only 25 working days annual leave per year.
- I want to go for as long as I want, whenever I want – most employers allow up to two weeks at any given time (I have pushed it to just over two weeks in the past. What can I say, flights are expensive, so I like to get as much time as possible for the money, besides, I’m going home to family)
- I want financial freedom – as above, flights are expensive and whilst the day job pays well, I can still only just manage to get by. Who wants to just be getting by? And savings? What’s that? I needed to find a way to have an additional income stream. Dreams cost money.
“Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.” Barack Obama
- I want to fit my work around my life and not the other way around – When you live on your own, as I do, you learn to be self-sufficient. It is even harder if you are a single parent. There is no one to pick up the kids, help with the cooking or the cleaning or running errands. It is all on you and when you’re a full time nine to fiver, you either have to take time off to get your personal business done or fit it in around evenings and weekends. At forty-something 😉 I just don’t want to do that anymore. I have found that having worked from home for the past eight months, that I like it and I wouldn’t mind being able to do it on my terms. Yes, there is a difference between working from home as an employee and working from home as your own boss. I’m aiming for the latter.
Whilst not profound, my WHY is strong enough to fuel my passion and that’s what it’s about. What-fuels-your-passion! What makes you want to get up and work at building your dream or a better life for your family? What drives you to want to be more than you are? That’s your WHY!
“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Well, I’ve taken the first step. I’m all set up, I have been building a great network of amazing men and women who are always willing to share the knowledge and I’ve now been working with my first client for nearly four months. I have to say I haven’t been too aggressive at finding additional clients. I still have a full-time job so it’s about finding the right balance and perhaps I just needed to ease myself in. Let’s call it a test of my commitment. Now that I know that I am committed, it is time to take the next step…