- ‘Sidepreneur’ Daniella Flores (they/them) has 12 streams of income.
- They say it’s easy to burn out in the pursuit of earning more money, but there are ways to safeguard against it.
- Don’t invest too much time or money, don’t take low rates, and pick a gig that you love.
Side hustle culture can lead enthusiastic creators and small business owners to burnout, says I Like to Dabble blogger Daniella Flores.
Flores, who uses the pronouns they/them, is a “sidepreneur” who currently has 12 streams of income, including freelance writing, consulting services, digital products, affiliate partnerships, and dividends from investments.
They’ve found so much success in the side hustles world that they’re planning to leave their full-time corporate job in IT to focus strictly on their side work and growing consulting business for others who want to start their own side hustles.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. They’ve been through a lot of trial and error when it comes to having side hustles and finding balance in their life. “I’m not for people working so much that they lose themselves,” Flores told Insider. “I’ve unfortunately put myself through that, and worked so much the last two years in particular.”
Flores has been able to create a little more breathing room for themselves while they still hold a full-time job, for the time being. But as they move forward with focusing on their side hustles full time, they’ve learned — with the help of some therapy — how to avoid burnout in five ways.
1. Make sure you’re not working too many hours
When you have side hustles and could spend every waking hour working, it’s important to remember that you need to make room for downtime. Especially since most people with side hustles keep a full-time job — hence the “side” in side-hustle — it’s very easy to work too many hours.
For example, Flores points out to Insider that even if you spend just 20 hours on your side hustle per week, if you work 40 hours per week at your full-time job, that means you’re working 60-hour weeks.
“Side hustles are great and all, but don’t overload all your time and commit yourself to a bunch of side hustles for like extra money just to save to retire early,” Flores said. “I obviously endorse side hustles, but I’m not for people working so much that they lose themselves.”
Flores said that they have to put limits on their own hours dedicated to their side hustles. Because they’re currently busy and working full time, they’re only dedicating about eight hours per week to side jobs, until they can pivot to being self-employed full-time.
2. Remember that a side hustle is work
One thing that can be a big time suck, Flores said, is dealing with the logistical aspects of your side hustle. These endeavors are businesses, after all, and require you to spend time dealing with taxes, registration, and other legal issues.
Flores said that side hustles are still “work,” even if they are meant to provide more passive streams of income to supplement other work that you’re doing. “It’s still something I have to report taxes on; it’s still a business I have to run,” they said. When Flores pivoted from being a W2 employee to having an LLC for I Like to Dabble, their taxes skyrocketed, and they hope to change that by switching to an S Corp.
3. Understand your business expenses beforehand
Flores also said it’s important to remember how much money you’re spending to operate your side hustles.
“Especially if you’re working towards moving away from your job to just do your side hustles, make sure that you have a good grasp on like your expenses every month, your profit, and how much you can actually pay yourself after taxes.” Flores said. “That was something that took me kind of a while to get a good grasp on in the beginning.”
4. Don’t accept rates that are too low, or invest too much
“Another version of toxic side hustling, I would say, would be working for really minimum pay in a bad environment,” Flores said.
They gave some low-paying, time-intensive “gig economy” side hustles as an example. For instance, if you’re considering working for a ride share company but have to use your own car and pay for the maintenance and insurance on that car for a low earning rate, it’s probably not worth your time.
5. Make sure you like your side hustle
Flores said that the most surefire way to ensure you will have a bad, toxic experience with side hustling is to invest your time and energy into a side hustle you don’t actively want to do.
They added that they think people end up doing this because their vision of success for lucrative side hustle would be doesn’t necessarily align with who they actually are and what they have a passion for doing.
“I think the difference between having a side hustle that’s good for you — versus not — is making sure that you enjoy it,” Flores said. “It aligns with the things that you want to do and with your values. You really want to be doing it every day.”
