I’m no closer to being self-employed than I was when I started this blog about 2 years ago.

I’m probably worse off in my quest to be my own boss than I was then.

It’s extremely frustrating to the point to where I’ve been contemplating quitting this blog. It’s difficult to write about the movement towards self-employment when there is none. I feel like it’s steadily declining.

I think it comes down to a couple of key factors: my job, my supplier, and my lack of having a large project.

I make relatively the same amount of money that I did at my old job that I absolutely despised. That’s not the issue. I’m fulfilled in my work, my co-workers are great, there’s no corporate b.s. to deal with, etc.

The real issue is the amount of hours that I work and the fact that I feel like it’s all I do. My life revolves around my job. Even when I’m not at work, I think about work. I guess that comes with the territory of being the Operations Manager but still, it sucks. There are times that the work can be very mentally and physically exhausting that I have no motivation to do anything when I get home at night. I’m extremely lucky if I get a day off during the week during busy season but that time needs to be spent dealing with things that need to get done around the house that I literally don’t have the time to do any other day. (Not that I’ve done a great job of this lately either.)

That leaves no time, energy, or motivation to work on self-employment projects.

Another frustrating factor in the stalled movement of becoming self-employed, is my supplier for my main hustle. They’re burned out with the business and took on another project so they hardly have any time for the business. It takes them forever to respond to my wholesale orders, it takes forever to get my orders shipped, and their quality has gone down drastically. It seems like I want to do business with them way more than they want to do business with me!

The last I heard from them, (about 2 months ago,) they told me that there are 2 interested parties in buying their business and they’re working on finalizing those details.

I had the opportunity to purchase the business about half a year ago. I was really excited about the possibilities then, but in retrospect, I’m happy that it didn’t go through.

Perhaps the biggest issue I’m facing is the fact that I don’t have anything of magnitude going on on the side hustle front.

My relationship with my supplier for my largest side hustle is almost non-existent and there are major uncertainties if it will improve/continue if there are new owners. I haven’t sold much on eBay and Etsy lately but all the items I have up for sale on these avenues are from this supplier so the future of these stores are in jeopardy as well.

I have some affiliate relationships with BookScouter, Ibotta, and ShopifyВ but they are all pretty insignificant when it comes to bringing in income. In fact, I’ve made less than $100 during the lifetime of these affiliate relationships.

So right now, I don’t have much going on and the future is looking pretty bleak if I keep things going how they are.

Well then it’s a good thing I’m not planning on keeping things how they are!

I have a couple of ideas and it’s time to take action on them. I’ll fill you in as I make some progress.

Until then, keep side hustlin’ my friends!

***

I sell old books using BookScouter. I sell stuff on Etsy and eBay. I used Shopify to run my old online business. I make some money by taking pictures of my grocery receipts with Ibotta. I’m Marc the Shark , this is the Self Employed Movement, and yes, these are affiliate links.