Respecting the Hustle - How Having Multiple Jobs Has Grown my Professional Skills

Most days, before I even get to my desk at 9am, I have already worked for 30 minutes to an hour. Formerly, this morning work would have been related to my 9am to 5pm job - I would have answered emails, read the trade news, and started my to do list before I got to my desk. However, when my husband and I bought our new house, we started to think about diversifying our income streams. We wanted to be in a position to aggressively pay down our debt while still going on nice vacations or buying fun new things. We decided to start an AirBnB in the basement of our new house and become a part of the new “gig economy”.

Three years later, the AirBnB has been a critical part of my family’s income flexibility. More importantly, managing and promoting the space has grown my multi-tasking skills. Balancing being available for guests in our space with my work responsibilities has helped me be more efficient. Additionally, it has helped me grow my customer service skills, something that is essential in my advocacy and organizing work.

Having success with the AirBnB also encouraged me to explore other ways that I could use my skills to generate extra income for our family. Becoming a dog walked with Wag! has been both fun and lucrative for me. Helping dogs and owners with obedience issues also made me feel good about my skills as a communicator and encouraged me to keep looking for ways to grow those abilities. It is why I started to blog more and share my work experiences online.

Now, when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is manage our AirBnB property. I try to be sure our guests are well informed about the space and feel like we value their business. Next, I usually have dog walking clients that need my services before the work day beginnings. Spending time walking with an animal in the morning is a great way to start my day and helps me feel more centered and happy.

Learning how to prioritize and balance my commitments to my side gigs has grown my customer service, communication, and multitasking skills. I have become much more efficient with my time and have been inspired to find creative ways to accomplish tasks when I am out of the house and between clients. Overall, having multiple work commitments has helped me make the best use of my time and provided me with more financial resources to support (and sometimes splurge on) my family.

Me on vacation at the Athen's Oraters Bima, a famous place for communicators. We financed this vacation partially from side hustle income.