When does it make sense to go all in on your blog and online business?
I have to admit, I’m getting ready to jump the gun a little. I’ve got a plan to move into this being my primary income source in October. It’s August and I’m wondering about diving in earlier than that.
Right now, I do food delivery gigs full time (you’d be amazed at how well they pay) to pay the bills, and this is my side hustle. At some point I’m going to make the transition to where blogging is my primary income and the gig work becomes the side hustle.
The question is, when???
Balancing between paying the bills and building income potential.
The reason that I’ve been looking at October for a transition is that that’s when the first real payment for my EntreCourier blog hits the bank.
I’ve had a hundred here, a twenty there, which is all very encouraging. However, that’s not enough to pay the bills.
Everything changed with adding advertising to my site. And it’s happened in a much bigger way than I would have anticipated. I wrote more about my surprise at exactly HOW well it’s gone here. But the first full month’s worth of payment hits the bank in October. The pay from that is enough that it just about meets the minimum monthly need. With that, I could scale back on the delivery and focus more time on the online work.
And maybe it’s the anticipation of that. It’s only 2 months away. So much of me wants to start now.
Patience, right?
I gotta tell you, patience gets a lot harder when you’re getting so close.
Getting a chance to give it a try
Here’s part of what’s driving this whole conversation I’m having with myself.
(I have a lot of those, you know?)
This weekend I went out for my usual round of deliveries. After about an hour and a half, it was time to bring it home. I was feeling the arthritis in my left knee starting to flare up and I didn’t want to make it worse.
Granted, I’d been abusing the poor thing this past week already. We’ve been doing some remodeling work in the basement, putting down laminate flooring. Arthritis and a lot of getting up and down, kneeling don’t go together well. It had already flared up once, and seemed to have gotten back to normal.
Six deliveries in and I could tell it was getting mad at me.
Okay, time to shut it down, and maybe do so for a few days. Fortunately we’re in a situation where I can do that.
And this is a good time to pour some full time energy into the online work.
And that’s when the wheels start spinning.
If I can do this for a week… can I do it for longer? I realized, I could actually make that switch right now, and things would be tight but not impossible. So what if I….?!?!
I think my challenge has to do with some of my goals. Would making the shift now slow the ability to meet those goals, or would it actually speed it up?
My new carrot on a stick
So I’ll let you in on that goal.
It’s in the banner picture on the home page. I have that there for this very reason – it’s a reminder of where I want to be.
Lake City, Colorado is one of those last unspoiled mountain communities. My wife and I are in love with the community. We would love to own property there.
Once upon a time we thought, that wouldn’t make sense. There’s too much that requires we be in Denver. Like a lot of people, however, my wife’s work is getting more and more remote (and could remain that way).
And if I can be full time with the website, that can happen anywhere.
So that may not be such a distant dream any longer.
But the question is, what does it take to get there?
More income, less debt.
If we sold our home in Denver, we could do it right now. If we wanted to do that and keep our home here, we’re close. We figure maybe six months to a year away.
If I double down on earning income, that could happen sooner.
And that’s one of the reasons I’m seriously asking myself, which is the better way to do that?
My current income is always going to be so much for so much work.
The online business has the larger upside. Much much larger.
Do I pour the bulk of my time into something that there’s at least a known quantity to it? I know how much I can expect to make, and I have the flexibility to do as little or as much as I want or need. And now I know that when my advertising revenue starts hitting the bank account, that provides a substantial boost to the monthly income.
I gotta say, there’s a part of me that says yeah, but….
I could pour the extra time instead into building revenue streams in my online business, and the potential for increase in THAT work will probably pay off even more in the long run.
Probably.
How much stock do you put in probably?
So maybe a little injury isn’t a bad thing?
Normally if I have to sit out, I get antsy.
It’s not about the money. I put money aside for paid time off. That comes in handy if I’m forced to sit out a few days. Fortunately that hasn’t happened much at all.
I just am not comfortable sitting around.
But there’s this piece where I tell myself, okay, here’s your chance to get a taste of it. Use this time well, my friend.
Maybe that gives me an idea of exactly where I need to go.
What will I end up doing?
I don’t know. I have a hunch.
My guess is, it will be somewhere in between. Maybe I go fulltime on both? Are there other things I’m doing that I could be putting into the website? Maybe for a couple of months I go all in on that during my spare time.
The floor’s almost done downstairs, so I might just have some time.