Side Hustles - Find your why

I talk a lot about side hustles - in fact, this post is a re-hash of a talk I gave recently at Perth Laravel Meetup. It's a topic you hear about a lot but usually, you only get to hear the good bits. The success stories.

But I'm not hear to talk about failure either. It's not all doom and gloom. I want to talk about the grey area where things still have value even if the don't make loads of money. It depends on what's important to you.

I started my app to solve a problem, then I turned it into a side hustle with the dream of making money. Growth has been slow, too slow really. But it's still the best project I have ever worked on.

The app made me the coder I am today, by forcing my to adapt over and over. It helped me find work in the industry. And it's a super cool project! It always gives me something to talk about. It makes me wonder - what's my real reason for working on this project?

In my case, it's a number of things. It's a great testing ground for new tools and techniques, it's a great conversation starter, and it still has the potential to make money.

Before embarking on your own side hustle, be honest with yourself about what you'd like to achieve. If you didn't make money, would you still continue? What else is important to you?