I got a special blog post for you guys today. It’s the first guest post on the Self Employed Movement! Josh over at Family Faith Finance is new to the scene and I wanted to help a new blogger however I could. Feel free to check out his blog and learn more about his journey through life. Take it away Josh!

How would you like to work whenever you wanted and still make enough money to live comfortably? Crazy thought, right? Let me assure you that it is possible, and that in fact, I’m not crazy to say that.

I took some time to put my thoughts down below because I know how important it is for some people who want to work for themselves; after all, that might be why you read the Self Employed Movement in the first place. I mean imagine being your own boss…You have no one to answer to and you can choose to work whenever you want. How cool would that be?!

While you may want to simply drop your day job and open up your own business, do not jump with both feet ahead of you – at least, not yet. You should make sure that you are financially sound before you make that leap – trust me.

Below, I will talk a bit about how you can use side hustles to set yourself up financially to be able to expand on your dream of becoming self-employed.

My Side Hustles and How They Put Me in a Financially Free Position

Side hustles – what are they? I define a side hustle as a quick job or a job that you don’t have to commit to every day, usually in addition to a typical work load. For example, if I am skilled in crafting dog houses, but work in IT every day, then my side hustle could be to design and build dog houses on the weekends or evenings.

A side hustle can help you become financially free, allowing you to eventually pursue your dream of complete self-employment and find happiness. If you are like me and have children, then you know you have others counting on you and simply tossing aside your career to jump into a business is definitely not a good idea. You must take it slow and make sure that you will float and not sink when you do eventually take that leap of faith.

I have some side hustles that I partake in regularly, and these side hustles allow me to make additional money. One of my side hustles is selling baked goods at local community events. I love to bake, and it allows my children to get involved. We make it a family thing. We make all types of treats from lemon bars down to apple pie cookies (my wife is the mastermind behind these. I’m drooling just thinking about them.) Anyways, back to the point – I make some money selling my baked treats.

My second side hustle is freelancing in IT. This takes up about four days of my time each month. Since my profession is in IT, I know a lot about it, and there are always individuals and companies that can use additional help. I offer house calls, and I use a third-party platform that allows me to connect with others who need my services all over the world which is pretty convenient.

Another side hustle that I use occasionally is mowing lawns. I don’t do this much lately, but I used to do it a bunch when I was working on paying down some of my debt. I would charge $20 per yard, and just 5 of them was a quick $100.

Lastly, I do sell some items on eBay to help supplement my income, but I do not fully rely on this – it is only a “sometimes” thing.

With all of my side hustles, I am able to bring in a nice extra chunk of change per month, and this has allowed me to start a college savings account for each of my children and we can easily afford to splurge on things that we truly enjoy.

What to Do Next

If you want to open your own business and be self-employed, my best advice to you is to choose something that you love to do. From there, create a side hustle using your skills to save up money to become financially free in the future which will allow yourself to pursue your self-employment dream in earnest. If you jump into a business right away, you may quickly fail because it takes a lot of time, energy, and money to start one.

I do suggest that you make sure you have at least six months of your bills saved up by the time that you want to switch to self-employment. I was successful with side hustles and I believe that you can be too. So give it a try and let me know what you think.

Happy side hustling!