822: Smart Money Moves to Turn Your Side Hustle Into a Six-Figure Business

0:00Imagine this. It's 30 days from now and your podcast is live. Your voice is out in the world and you're building an audience that chooses to tune in every week. That's not just possible. It's waiting for you inside of the podcast lab and enrollment is officially open at teachmetopodcast.com. This is my step-by-step program that walks you through how to plan, produce, publish, promote, and profit from your show, even if you're starting from scratch. Whether you've got a big brand, a small business, or just a powerful story to tell, your podcast could become the most impactful part of your week and your most scalable content channel yet.

0:39So if you've been waiting for a sign, this is it. Go to teachmetopodcast.com to enroll in the podcast lab today. You can get started for as little as$39 today. Let's make your podcast dream real at teachmetopodcast.com. That's teachmetopodcast.com.

1:02Introducing your new Dell PC powered by the Intel Core Ultra Processor. It helps you handle a lot, even when your holiday to-do list gets to be a lot. Because it's built with an all-day battery, plus powerful AI features that help you do it all with ease, from editing images, to drafting emails, to summarizing large documents, to multitasking. So you can organize your holiday shopping and make custom holiday decor and search for great holiday deals and respond to holiday requests and customer questions and customers requesting custom things and plan the perfect holiday dinner for vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and Uncle Mike's carnivore diet.

1:39Luckily, you can get a PC that helps you do it all faster so you can get it all done. That's the power of a Dell PC with Intel Inside, backed by Dell's price match guarantee. Get yours today at dell.com slash deals. Terms and conditions apply. See dell.com for details.

2:01When you can get really good at prioritizing tasks and setting boundaries between your work and your side hustle, that can help you avoid burnout. Because when I look back at that younger version of me who is doing all the things all at the same time, I am shocked that I didn't burn out sooner. I'm Jenna Kutcher. your host of the Goal Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town, Minnesota with my family.

2:36Here we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered.

3:16This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Have you ever dreamt of turning that side hustle into your full-time gig or even scaling it to a six-figure business or beyond? Well, today's episode is all about making those dreams a reality. I'm going to dive into the smart money moves that helped me bootstrap my business from the ground up and how you can use those same strategies to grow yours. Whether you're just starting out or you're in the thick of growing your side hustle, these practical tips and strategies that I'm about to share with you can help you manage your time, prioritize your spending, and make savvy financial moves to propel your business forward.

3:52Are you ready? Let's dive on in. With smaller budgets, shorter timelines, and sky-high expectations, growth is feeling really painful right now. But HubSpot is here to help. They just announced more than 150 major product updates that'll make impossible business growth feel impossibly easy. Like Breeze, HubSpot's suite of new AI tools that will help you say goodbye to busy work and hello to better work. There's Breeze Co-Pilot, a sidekick to assist with all your tasks and boost productivity. Breeze Agents to automate manual, time-consuming work and add expertise. And Breeze Intelligence to give you the richest, most comprehensive picture of your prospects, so you know which are most likely to become loyal customers.

4:36They've also reimagined their marketing and content hubs with new ways to create breakthrough content, updated features to generate better leads, and lots more to uplevel your marketing and your revenue forecast. Get ready for growth without the growing pains. Visit hubspot.com slash spotlight to see them all and demo for yourself. That's hubspot.com slash spotlight. Let me first take you way back in time to the very beginning of my business. It looked nothing like it looks today. When I think back to that stage of my life, it was a really pivotal stage. And I often wonder how the heck did I fit everything in?

5:14Let me kind of paint the picture for you. So I was 22 years old. I was newly in a corporate gig. I had been in my gig for a couple of years. I was planning a wedding. I was paying student loans. I was commuting an hour to work each way. I was training for a full marathon. Like when I look back at those early days, I must have been like the Energizer Bunny because I sure as heck don't think I could do all of those things at the same time. And yet somehow I did. And what's really interesting is that I had this determination to figure out something different. Because while my corporate gig sounded really impressive, and by many means it was, I recognized very early on that I didn't want someone else to plan my life out for me.

5:59And it was so interesting because I never necessarily went into entrepreneurship thinking I'm going to be a photographer for the rest of my life. But my camera was kind of the vehicle that helped me get out of the corporate world and into entrepreneurship. And I loved photography. In fact, I still love photography. I recently just did some photos for one of my family members and like it just ignited that artistic spark in me. And I'm like, still got it. I love it. But it's really interesting to think about even the finances around all of the moves that I was making from funding our wedding to paying off student loans to living off of a corporate salary to starting this business.

6:39And what's interesting is that I bootstrapped my business through and through. I never had an investor. I never took out any loans. I didn't come from any other entrepreneurs. I was a first-generation entrepreneur figuring it out fresh out of college, fresh with debt, and somehow I made it work. And so today, as we're talking through the money moves, I'm not only going to share some of the things that I did that I really attribute to my success and think, man, that 22, 23-year-old version of me was really smart. But I'm also going to share some things that I would do now because obviously the landscape has changed over the last decade.

7:15So first, let's talk about bootstrapping. So bootstrapping involves starting and growing a business using personal finances and revenue from the business itself without relying on extra funding. And a lot of times when you hear about bootstrap businesses, they are now these multi-million dollar companies that get sold to investors, but they were bootstrapped. Now, according to Harvard Business Review, bootstrap companies are often more resilient and adaptable because they learn to operate lean and efficiently. And this is 100 % what I did. So when I was first starting my photography business, I used my nine to five job and I use that security that it gave me in order to help fund the photography business.

7:56Now the startups to start a photography business aren't super huge, but you still need to buy a camera, lenses. I needed to get insurance. Like there was a lot of different things that you don't necessarily think of. A lot of times you think you go home, buy a camera and a lens and you're good to go. But there were a lot of different expenses. And so what I was doing is I was living off of a very tight budget, which I'm going to talk about in just a little bit. But my budget was allocating for a few hundred extra dollars per month. And essentially, I was putting that right into my business. And then any money I was making from shooting photos went directly back into the business.

8:35So I was not paying myself. I was leveraging that money to help fund whatever I needed next, whether it was a website or a logo or a URL, all of those little things can add up. And so having a job, whether it's a nine to five or any other type of job can give you a financial cushion and it can significantly reduce the pressure on somebody who's in the early stages of business. So if you are someone listening to this episode and you have a side hustle, or you're thinking about starting one, or you want to start a business, but right now you're working in a job, even if you don't love it, just understand that it is not only possible, but sometimes it is really beneficial to leverage what you're currently doing and using that knowledge and that income to help you get to where you want to go.

9:24A survey by Small Business Trends found that 62 % of entrepreneurs started their businesses while working full-time. 62%. This allowed them to manage financial risks more effectively. And here's kind of a fun fact. According to Gus 2021 Women Entrepreneur Report, women are more likely to bootstrap their businesses with 60 % of women entrepreneurs relying on personal savings to start their ventures. It was super interesting. I was actually on a Zoom call with a bunch of women last night, and it was a mindset call. And I was just kind of tuning in like a fly on the wall. And there are so many money mindset beliefs that women hold, and I think everybody holds them, but especially women around their worthiness, the ability to invest in themselves and their dreams, the ability to believe that they are smart investors and that they'll make their investments worth it.

10:20And so I think it's really interesting because not only are women kind of up against this masculine business world, but we're also kind of up against a lot of the lies we've maybe been believing about our worth and if we're actually worth investing in our dreams. So when we think about bootstrapping, and if you are going to leverage an existing job to help you start your business, one of the most important factors that we have to bring into this equation is time management. Effective time management is absolutely crucial for balancing a side hustle with a full-time job. When you can get really good at prioritizing tasks and setting boundaries between your work and your side hustle, that can help you avoid burnout.

11:03Because when I look back at that younger version of me who is doing all the things all at the same time, I am shocked that I didn't burn out sooner. And so you want to make sure that the time that you're spending on your business or your side hustle is time spent on things that actually move the bottom line or give you a real result. And for me, this was something that I had to learn the hard way is it is so easy to get sucked into what is sexy, what is shiny, what looks impressive. But we want to make sure that especially if you're juggling extra duties, whether you are a parent or you have a nine to five or you're juggling an extra career, you want to make sure that anytime you are pouring into your business, it is time that is actually leading to a real tangible result.

11:51So don't get caught up in the game of spending your time on things that look impressive. Spend your time on things that actually give you a direct result. Okay. The next thing we want to focus on is prioritizing needs versus wants. I will never forget an interview that I did years and years ago where my guest said, are you a real business or are you focused on trying to look like a business? And there is a huge distinction here. Again, what I was just talking about is that so often as entrepreneurs, especially early entrepreneurs, we want everything to look perfect, right? We want the perfect website, the perfect social media feed, the perfect logo, all of these things.

12:32They're all amazing, but they likely aren't actually helping you be a real business at the very beginning. A real business at the very beginning is having an offer and selling it and getting money in exchange for it. And so a lot of times when we are starting out, especially if you are wired like I am with these perfectionistic tendencies and with this eye for design and detail, then we can get really caught up in the way things look and forget that like, hey, I actually need to do real transactions to be a real business and not just to look like one. And so when we talk about prioritizing needs versus wants, we have to get really clear on what is an essential and what is a luxury.

13:13Distinguishing between nice to haves and need to haves. That can help allocate resources more efficiently. Research from Forbes suggests that startups should focus on essential investments that directly contribute to revenue generation and business growth, avoiding unnecessary expenditures on non-essential items. And so you have to get really clear on what you actually need, what is a need to have and not a nice to have in order to run a profitable business. And then you've got to focus more on being the business instead of looking like one. According to SCORE, 30 % of small business owners struggle to identify essential expenses, which can lead to financial strain.

13:55And I would argue that this is where a lot of people get things wrong, where they are again, focusing on the wrong items and not actually doing the things that are required for them to bring in a profit, to bring in revenue and to be an actual business. So at the very beginning of my photography career, I was just on Facebook. I didn't have a website. I started a free WordPress blog and I started sharing my work there. What I was focused on is like, how can I book a shoot and get paid for the shoot while I then build everything out behind the scenes? And so I think that nowadays we have this tendency to wait to launch the business until everything is perfect.

14:36But I think that is a fatal flaw of entrepreneurs these days. I think you've got to get out there and do the thing. I think you've got to have an offer that people are willing to pay for and to fulfill that offer and to learn while you are on the job. And then again, leveraging the income you're bringing in to help build out those other pieces of your business. It does not need to be done or perfect in order for it to be effective. And so getting super clear on your needs and your wants. And I would say like sitting down and making a list, like your early investments should be essential tools, software, and professional services that can support your core operations, whatever they are.

15:18So when you're thinking about early investments, you want to think of what is truly essential. Like I couldn't have been a photographer without a camera, right? Like that is essential for me to do the job. But did I need a whole lineup of lenses? No, that would have been a nice to have, but it wasn't a need to have. And so I slowly built out my gear collection as the money came in and as time allowed. So again, just getting really clear on understanding what your essentials are and making sure that what you are investing back into your business is going towards things that will help you to scale and help you to perform better as an entrepreneur.

15:58This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money. Okay, I remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey, clients would literally mail me checks and then I would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them. It took me literal years to make things go digital. And I am ashamed to admit I still have a filing cabinet with paper contracts because I'm way too afraid to throw them away. But that's the beauty of growth, right? You learn what systems serve you and which ones hold you back. Mercury is one of those systems that just works.

16:31Where traditional banking websites and apps are clunky and hard to use, Mercury is meticulously designed to make doing just about anything with your money feel effortless. And the best part is, it flexes to fit all types of businesses. Ready to see what powerful banking can do for your business? Visit mercury.com to apply in minutes. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. For important details, check the show notes. You know, I only share stuff I'm genuinely obsessed with. And so when I kept seeing Bolin Branch sheets all over Instagram, I was like, okay, are these actually worth the hype?

17:09Drew and I have been using their sheets and duvets for over a year now. And honestly, our bedroom feels like a completely different space. The moment you touch these sheets, you'll get it they're incredibly soft to start but they literally get softer every time you wash them they're made from 100 organic cotton so they're super durable and they're breathable which is perfect for piling on cozy layers without turning into a furnace at 2 a.m this is hands down the best bedding i've slept on and i'm so genuinely excited for you to try it start building your sanctuary of comfort this fall with bowl and branch for a limited time get 20 off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bowlandbranch.com slash gold digger.

17:49That's bowlandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com slash gold digger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. The next thing we should talk about, and this is something that I like want to hug my 22 year old self for is getting professional advice. So when I was just starting out, we lived in this tiny village in Wisconsin. It was 1 ,200 people for the population. And there was this little brick building on Main Street, which was an accountant's place. And I remember walking on in and setting up an appointment. And this was before I'd even earned a single dollar as a photographer. I knew that I was going in that direction and I knew that I wanted to start a business.

18:33And I am really thankful that I kind of went backwards and saw the accountants before the business started going so that I had professional advice and I knew I was setting things up right from the jump. And here's a funny thing. I will never forget. I had gone on to legal zoom to like set up an LLC and then I set it up incorrectly and then the accountants had to redo it anyways. And so it was just a reminder from the very beginning of like, get the professionals in first. It's going to save you time, money, energy, and frustration. there's a study by zero that found that 90 % of small business owners who worked with an accountant felt more confident about their financial decisions 90 % so if you are someone who is entering into entrepreneurship or maybe you have a side hustle that is starting to provide results for you getting in that professional advice and getting someone to help you with the financial side of your business can be one of the best things you do and what I have personally found when it comes to financial advice and getting the right advisors in my life and in my business is that they save me money.

19:38So a lot of times people get so focused on how much is it going to cost. But if you hire the right accountants, they know ways to help you save money, to help you hedge your bets, to help you make sure your taxes are correct. And even just the peace of mind, I think is so powerful because a lot of us didn't go to school for this, right? We didn't learn tax law. We don't understand all the liabilities. We don't understand all that. And so getting some extra help in early can be one of the best things you can do. And I highly, highly recommend it. Engaging an accountant before you make significant revenue helps set up proper financial systems and understand your obligations, especially when it comes to taxes.

20:20The American Institute of CPA notes that early accounting advice can prevent costly mistakes and ensure compliance with tax laws. This is where I was like, dang it. I totally went on legal zoom myself, set it up wrong, had to change everything over. And so you want to make sure that you are doing things right from the jump beyond just taxes. Accountants can help you with things like budgeting, financial forecasting, setting up accounting software. All of this can really help when it comes to long-term financial health and growth. So I could not recommend it more. In just a few minutes, I'm going to share something that I think changed my life, especially if you are an entrepreneur where you have busy seasons and slow seasons.

21:01This was something I did right. So stay tuned for that. So the next thing that I want to talk about is investing in learning. So taking on mentors, whether they are free or paid mentors and investing in learning from people who have gone before you. This is probably the fastest way to accelerate your business success. Just last night, just last night, I bought and was taking an online course. So like even over a decade into entrepreneurship, I am still valuing education and learning from other people who have figured things out faster or better than I know so that I can keep on learning. Entrepreneurs who are consistently investing in education and mentorship are way more likely to achieve their business goals and experience faster growth.

21:45So if you are someone who you're like, I want to hit the ground running. I want to make sure this is a success. I don't want to waste time and money and energy. I don't have time, money, and energy to waste. Then investing in learning can be one of the best things you can do. And again, when we look at the ways that we focus on looking like a business, again, the visual things, or we look at ways that we can invest in being an actual business, I would argue that investing and learning from people who are already doing what you want to do or who have already achieved what you are going out to achieve is the fastest way to fast track your success.

22:23And so there are so many different ways you can learn. And again, this doesn't all have to be paid. You listening to this very podcast is you investing your time into learning. I actually did an entire podcast about all the different levels of mentorship that you can take on from free in terms of podcasts to books, to online courses, to masterminds, to retreats. And so I'll link that episode up for you, but go listen to it. If you're like, I need a mentor or I need extra help in my life and my business, but I don't necessarily know where to go. I will link that one up for you because I just think it's really, really powerful.

23:00And it's interesting because I remember my early days as an entrepreneur. I will never forget, you know, some of the first online courses that I took and just feeling like, oh my gosh, can I really do this? Is this the right investment? What's going to happen? How do I make sure that this was a good investment? And money was tight. I was not rolling in the dough. Again, I was paying for a wedding, paying off student loans, living off of my salary. Drew and I weren't living together. There's just so many aspects happening. And so whenever I invested in something like an online course, I set out to make sure that I was going to be that person's top success story.

23:39I was going to follow every single thing they said. And so I was just a really, really good student. And then as my business started to scale, that's when I started to make more significant investments in things like masterminds. And it's so interesting because when I look at my career and maybe the different places where I was able to jump up into the next level of my business or entrepreneurship, those were the times where I made more significant investments. And then me, the determined investor set out to make sure like this is a worthy investment and I'm about to show the world what I'm going to do with this.

24:17And so not only do you need to consider investing in learning, but you also have to make sure that you're willing to do the work that it's going to take to get the results. And I think that oftentimes we see people who are like, you know, I bought an online course and I didn't do anything with it. Like that's not the course creator's fault. That is you needing to sit down and take it seriously. And so sometimes I found that when the investment hurts a little, where I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I just did that. That is where I am dead set and determined to make sure that it's worth it.

24:51And so for me, I almost play this game of like, all right, I'm laying some money down. I will make sure that I am a wise investor. And the only way I can do that and control that is through the effort that I'm going to put in in order to get the results. And so over the years, I've literally done every type of mentorship from free podcasts, to reading the books, to joining the online courses, to coaching, to masterminds, to, you know, to fostering just like beautiful relationships with my peers. Like it has just been the best way to learn, to scale and to grow sustainably. And so investing in learning.

25:25And again, I'll link up that podcast episode for you that talks about all the different levels of learning and how you can take on mentors, whether free or paid, no matter what stage of business you're in. So obviously, I'm giving you tons of examples from when I first became an entrepreneur, but we all know that that was over a decade ago. So what are some new strategies for modern entrepreneurs? If I were just starting today, and this is a question I get asked all of the time. So here are a few things that I would prioritize. In fact, here are four things that I would do if I were starting a business or working on scaling my side hustle that have to do with money.

26:04So first, utilizing tools and platforms. So I was a very slow adopter of utilizing different tools to help me run my business better. I, in fact, when I just moved into our new house, I still have filing cabinets with my paper signed contracts from my wedding photography days. It took me a long time to buy HoneyBook so that I could do contracts and invoicing on the internet. And so in recent years, there's tools that we use all the time. We use Canva every single day, an amazing free tool for new entrepreneurs. We use Monday, which is our project management site. If you want to check out how we use it.