4 Strategies to Transition from Your 9-5 to Full-Time Photography
I have worked really hard to be able to say that my side hustles are now my full time job. Photography was always something I knew I was going to do for a living. But I’m not gonna lie, it was a struggle to get here. Every free chance I had, I was working on my business while working a full time 9-5 job, being a mother, and a wife.
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Trust me I know it’s not easy. And it can definitely be disheartening when you can feel it in the depths of your soul that you are meant for more than just that monotonous, boring daily grind. You feel like you are never going to get to where you want to be.
Take those feelings and use them as motivation. That’s exactly what I did. Be consistent, and KEEP GOING.
“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful” -Eric Thomas
In the meantime, while you are juggling a full time job and your photography side hustle, keep these four things in mind:
Have a solid plan in place
Even the best plans can go wrong. How much more if you don’t plan at all? You’re going to find it extremely hard to succeed!
For best results, you should ideally have a short-term goal and a long-term goal. For your short-term goals, you can plan out your week or your month. Then for long-term goals, think about where you want your side hustle to be in 3 years or 5 years. Do you think you’ll be leaving your job by then? If yes, then make it into one of your long-term goals.
Write these things down! It’s great to daydream about where you will be in 5 years from now, but you need to visually see what your goals are.
It’s all about time management
Let’s face it – having a side hustle along with a full-time job may leave you tired at the end of the day. But if you’re looking to make both jobs work, then know that it’s very much possible. You just need to know how to manage your time.
For example, if you work from 9am to 5pm, you can factor in time before or after your shift to work on your side hustle. Say, you can work from 5:30pm to 10:30pm on your side job. And then on weekends, you can work on your side business the whole day if you like.
Of course if you are a parent, that can prove to be tough to work around. Work when you CAN. Are you able to get up about an hour more than normal in the mornings? Are the kids in bed at a decent time that you can get an hour or two of work in before you go to bed? If you have a significant other, can they help out? Or a family friend or baby sitter? Sit down and work out a schedule that would work best for everyone. Do not overwhelm yourself with trying to make it all work out. That can lead to burn out fast! Absolutely we want our side hustles to take off and make the moola! But don’t miss out on time with family and friends because of it.
Make sure you are communicating with your significant other about your goals and what it’s going to take for you to get to where you want to be. They can’t read your mind and they don’t think about it the way you do. You need to let them know that you might need some help from time to time.
Also, are you self sabotaging? What I mean is, are you wasting time on things that are not productice? I absolutely do get sucked into TikTok binges, scrolling on Facebook, etc. I’ll take a break from working and then next thing I know, it’s been 30 minutes! Whoops! It happens! You just have to have the self control to tell yourself to knock that crap off! It’s not productive! Set a timer if you need to, to keep yourself on track!
Learn to make sacrifices
Whether you like it or not, you will be making sacrifices. You may need to cut down on some of your favorite things to do on your days off. If your weekends have been dedicated to Netflix-binges or partying with friends, you might want to reconsider what you are doing with your free time. While you don’t need to transform into a total bore, and work your life away, you may need to seriously cut back on the fun stuff, and you know, focus on adulting and working on your photography business. However, you do need to set a limit and stick to it. Do not ever let your hustle take away from your kids, family and friends. Again, communicate with the important people in your life what your goals are and what you are planning to do to accomplish those goals so everyone is on the same page to help support you.
Save your additional income
You’re free to do whatever you want with your extra money (within reason because you do still need to pay the taxes on it. Ugh.) However, if you want to feel like you’re actually accomplishing something, then it’s best to save up income from your side hustle.
It’s ok to want to reward yourself, but write down a limit on that as well. Too many times my thought process went the wrong way with rewards.
“I made an extra $500 this week, I can go ahead and get Starbucks today!”….and then it ends up being everyday and then I just spent like $40 bucks on coffee and then I wonder where my money went!
Saving your extra income is another visual way that you can see your progress and create more motivation!
When you want something bad enough, you will do what it takes to get it. Keep going, even when you feel like giving up. I promise you, it will be worth it! I never thought I would be sitting here at MY desk in MY home writing these articles, but I’m here! And as cliche as it sounds, I really do owe it to hard work and determination!!
9/11/24 Personal update:
I went back through and read this article, and I felt I needed to add a bit to it. I wrote this initially 5 ish years ago. I want to tell you something very personal. I strongly remember the days in my full time (7:30 - 4:00) job. I remember how each and every day started getting harder and harder to go in and be there. It became so unbareable that I was depressed. I would wake up so pissed off. It took me 20 minutes to drive there and on the days that I wasn’t holding back tears every mile closer I got to the building, I was thinking about all the things I needed to get done in my business.
I will admit, that I did spend a lot of company time on my side hustle. I worked alone a lot so it was easy for me to get away with it. I had been with that employer for over 20 years. So it wan’t a matter of needing to find another job. I used to take pride in that career. I did what I had to do to move up the ladder there. But ultimatly I grew up there and I knew it was time to move on. I had hit a wall and I was beyond burnt out. I get sad just thinking about the way I felt back then.
Before my father passed away I had talked to him a little about how I was feeling. He was very old school and kept telling me, “You should be thankful you have a job.” On the inside I kept telling myself (because he wouldn’t understand), that just having a job isn’t enough. I wanted more. I knew I deserved more. I wanted a job that I was happy to have. That I could live and breath with.
My husband also didn’t quite understand either. Eventually he came around when he realized how depressed I was. We worked together to make this work. It IS NOT EASY. I, we, still have some bad days. But the good outweigh the bad and that is what matters.
I wanted to update this article because I know that there are others out there that think and feel the same way I did. And with today’s economy, it’s even harder. I did feel alone for a long time. And I had no one to talk to about it. If you feel this way, please, by all means, reach out. I have been there. hello@photographymarketingshop.com. My “door” is always open.
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