Sept. 3, 2019 "Finding success and satisfaction with a side hustle": Today I found this article by Carola Vyhnak in the Star Metro:
At his first auction as a 14-year-old, Isaac Northcott quite literally got hooked on antiques and collectibles.
Five years later, wrought iron hooks are among the upcycled home decor items the Oshawa university student makes and sells in his side business called Green Turtle Salvage.
With 10 to 15 hours a week spent on sourcing materials and creating everything from tree-branch coasters to refinished beam benches, Northcott earns anywhere from $100 to $1,200 weekly in sales online and at a farmers market.
The money goes toward his education, savings and investments so he can eventually buy his own place to live and work, says the 19-year-old self-taught entrepreneur.
Northcott is among the 22 per cent of Canadians who have turned a creative hobby into a side hustle.
Boosting income is the prime motivation but doing something they enjoy is also a big incentive, according to new research by Vistaprint, an online provider of marketing products and services to small businesses.
The study of almost 2,000 full-time workers revealed that average sideline earnings amount to $1,285 a month, mostly commonly in the IT, financial and creative fields.
Side businesses can be started at any age or stage — Vistaprint’s survey revealed that 70 per cent of those 55 and older have done so or aspire to. And most millennials expect it to be the norm in the future.
“Canada’s side business economy is booming, as employees increasingly look for financial, professional and personal fulfilment that may not be present in their main job,” says Simon Braier, Vistaprint’s customer strategy and insights director.
More than one-third of survey participants said they’d like their side business to become their primary pursuit if it generated enough income.
Northcott, who’s in his second year of a four-year program in finance at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), aims to turn his part-time gig into a full-time career.
“You have to have good margins to make it worthwhile,” observes the young businessman who’s learned how to adapt to varied and changing markets.
With an initial investment of $2,000 to $3,000 for materials, he produced a sizable inventory that ranges from vintage licence plates for $10, and coat and key hooks mounted on salvaged barn boards for $30 to $80, to refinished-beam benches for $175 to $350. He also makes planters from reclaimed tire rims, live-edge benches and coffee tables, and does custom orders.
Northcott sells his pieces on Instagram and Facebook as well as Brooklin Vintage Decor, a Whitby antique store where he learned how to refinish furniture and still has a part-time job. He also works for an auction house.
Making home furnishings and accessories from reclaimed and repurposed materials allows him “to express my creativity,” says Northcott, whose business name is a nod to the environment and a favourite animal.
Trial and error have taught him what sells and what doesn’t, says the craftsman, who responds by sometimes dismantling and recreating pieces.
According to “proud grandma” Linda Fockler, Northcott’s entrepreneurial spirit and artistic talent surfaced as a kid selling homemade greeting cards through a local store.
“He was born that way — he’s been a businessman forever!” she says on a recent visit to the Cobourg farmers market where Northcott appeared every Saturday for three months.
It’s that kind of dedication that will help a side business succeed, according to Braier.
“If you genuinely have a passion for something, you will be able to make some money at it, in theory.”
But taking the plunge can be thwarted by time and money constraints or aversion to risk. The typical side hustler spends 14 hours per week working on their venture, but one-quarter of those polled devote more than 20 hours a week, usually during evenings and weekends.
Braier warns about the downside: potential for fatigue, work overload and interference with family and social life. But he advises picking something you truly enjoy, then taking a realistic look at how much time you can spend on it.
It’s important to set long-term goals; saving the down payment for a house, for example, he says. Success also involves focusing on tasks that generate revenue, networking with other side business owners, and using social media to promote your products or services.
Dec. 3, 2019 "Is 'hustle culture' a health detriment?": Today I found this article by
Tara Deschamps in the Star Metro:
When Avery Francis thinks about the last three years of her life, she has plenty to celebrate.
The Toronto-based entrepreneur, after all, founded three successful companies — equitable hiring system developer Bloom, women’s workshop organizer Sunday Showers and tech education company Bridge School — in that timespan.
But they have come with a cost.
Francis often finds herself working until 3 a.m., and struggling to find time to keep up with friends she notices she is slowly drifting from. She jokes she’s packed on “the founder’s 15” due to eating out at meetings, late at night when she finally gets home and in her car as she commutes to the office.
“This is what it takes. I don’t think I could even run one of the businesses without having such strained hours,” she says. “There’s a lot to balance. A lot of sleepless nights and terrible sleeping patterns.”
Francis’ experience places her in a growing group of entrepreneurs, founders, and workers feeling the emotional and physical toll of being employed by the tech and startup industries, where long hours, skipping occasions with family and friends and being available on weekends and evenings is the norm.
Avery Francis believes “hustle culture” has been perpetuated by a the fetishization of overworking yourself and prioritizing the office above all else.
That culture has been perpetuated by a generation inundated with “hustle” culture — the fetishization of overworking yourself and prioritizing the office above all else. It often downplays the medical, emotional, physical and mental risks that such rigour comes with.
Tech companies ranging from the heavyweights like Google, Facebook and Apple to startups haven’t helped matters. Their leaders live by the “move fast and break things” mantra and often preach about staying hungry and “obsessing” over how their companies and products can be improved.
Take Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as an example. There are easier places to work than his company, “but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week,” he tweeted last year.
“A lot of founders and CEOS will write long stories of their journey to success and it will just be like I did 80 hours a week for like six years straight, and I lost all my friends and my marriage failed and all this stuff,” says Francis.
“They’re basically helping to perpetuate this whole concept that you have to hustle.”
Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey wakes up at 5 a.m., meditates twice daily, only eats one meal a day and walks five miles to work — a trek he told “Tools of Titans” author Tim Ferriss he makes without checking emails or texting.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly wakes at 3:45 a.m., sifting through about 800 emails and hitting the gym, before making it to his desk.
“I don’t know how those people have the time to do that,” Francis says. “I don’t have time to meditate or go to the gym for two hours a day.”
Their offices — often sprinkled with fully-stocked kitchens, nap pods, showers, mini putt courses, foosball tables, gyms and swanky lounges — don’t help matters either. They can send the message that “basically you’re going to live here,” she adds.
Stefan Kollenberg at diversity and inclusion software company Crescendo, doesn’t completely agree. In some cases, he says, those amenities are meant to make employees’ lives easier and reward them for their work, not keep them living at work.
But he does believe hustle culture has a dangerous side because he encountered it in a previous job, when he was working roughly 12-hour days five or six days a week for four months. Eventually, he became less interested in the work and quit.
“Where it gets really toxic is when you’re not taking care of yourself and you’re working all these long hours,” he says. “I wouldn’t agree it is toxic everywhere, but I think that when it’s not managed properly, it is toxic.”
His words echoed those of Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of social media platform Reddit and venture capital firm Initialized Capital, who recently opened up about how it triggered depression.
“This idea that unless you are suffering, grinding, working every hour of every day, you’re not working hard enough … this is one of the most toxic, dangerous things in tech right now,” Ohanian said at Web Summit, one of Europe’s largest tech conferences.
Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons is credited with raising the reputation of the Oslo Philharmonic through recordings and international tours during a 23-year tenure as music director.
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/starmetro-vancouver/20191203/281698321612381
