2020 Is the Year I Turn My Side Hustle into a Business [Plus 4 Must-Have Tools for Entrepreneurs]
By: Emily Bezak
Tags: Writer, Business Tools, Small Business Marketing, Side Hustle, Women In Business

2020 Is the Year I Turn My Side Hustle into a Business [Plus 4 Must-Have Tools for Entrepreneurs] Emily Bezak Feb 21, 2020·6 min read

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

Originally published on emilybezak.com

Disclosure: Some of the links in this blog contain affiliate links. This means, if you click the link and decide to make a purchase, I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I recommend these products and services because I use them for my own business.

I love the month of January. Every year, I look forward to buying a crisp, new planner, decluttering my Google Drive folders, and setting goals for the next twelve months. This year, one of my new year’s resolutions is to start a blog. After all, I am a writer and my favorite thing to write is a blog post.

So this should be easy, right?

I’ve spent the first four weeks of 2020 agonizing over what to write for my first blog post. Of course, I can’t possibly write a blog without an offer for my readers or some kind of call-to-action (CTA). Oh, and I should definitely plan an affiliate linking strategy to start monetizing this domain before I even put a single post in draft. And, I should also definitely wait until my new website launches and I have a real brand. Maybe I need to hire my own freelance writer?

UGH.

As a writer and marketer, I am the absolute worst person to market my business and write my blog. It keeps falling off my to-do list month after blog-less month. When I mentioned this problem to my uncle over Christmas, he said I’m like a plumber with clogged pipes. Gross, but true.

So here I am, finally putting a draft together. Let’s talk about what I’ve done in the past few weeks to turn my side hustle as a freelance writer into a real, live business and the powerful tools I’ve added to my daily life to get there.

I named my LLC.

Tool #1: ZenBusiness, an online service to form my business

With tax season in full swing in a few days, I should be getting my finalized paperwork for setting up my LLC from the State of Pennsylvania. I used ZenBusiness to file my LLC. Not only was it easy and quick, but the information that was provided throughout the process also helped me make informed decisions confidently.

Unsurprisingly, it took me a while to settle on a name. I even took to Twitter to ask for advice with only a few suggestions. The more I researched the topic, it became clear to me that I should keep it simple: I named my business Emily Bezak, LLC.

There are a few good reasons for this boring business name:

It was hard enough to change my name when I got married in 2016, so my name is unlikely to change in the near future.

Using my personal name removes the complexity of tying my name back to the brand and vice-versa in marketing efforts.

And, although I love to write, I might find my business focus shift over time. I don’t want to nail myself down in the early stages and have to needlessly form multiple LLCs.

I hired my first employee.

Tool #2: Trello, a free, online tool to manage tasks and projects

This task was even harder than naming my business.

I’ve been a freelance writer and marketing consultant for businesses small and large since I was in college. but I really started seriously building my side hustle over the past two years. And with each passing month, I’ve added more and more assignments, clients — and ultimately, tasks — to my growing to-do lists outside of my full-time job. Emails, coordinating conference calls, proposals, version controlling edits, meeting notes, project and campaign trackers — oh, and of course writing and doing the actual work. On top of that, I’m on the Point Park University Alumni Board of Directors and manage the social media accounts for TEDxPittsburgh.

Whew!

We’re all busy, I know. But over the past few months, I’ve felt like I could only tread water. I had to decide if I wanted to give up and take a break or reevaluate how I conduct business to make sure I could still see my family, sleep, and function on a daily basis. I chose the latter.

After reading multiple articles — and following The Gig Mindset weekly newsletter by Paul Estes — I finally pulled the trigger and reached out to my alma mater to recruit a virtual marketing assistant to help me start filling the holes in the swiss cheese that was my to-do list to take my business to the next level.

Here are a few of the tasks we’ve worked on together so far:

Research for a few future blog posts for my website

Comparing podcast programs for one of my most trendsetting clients

Creating content to start collecting testimonials for rebranding my website

There are many projects and tasks to do each week. And I use Trello, a free project management system, to assign tasks to my team with a due date, task owner, and notes. I have a Board for each client and our own marketing and training, and then I break down each project into a Card with individual tasks. It feels so good moving tasks to the Done Card!

I got organized.

Tool #3: GSuite, the business view of Gmail includes a custom domain

One quiet afternoon in December, my personal inbox went from a handful fo emails flagged for a follow-up to over 100 unread messages in a matter of hours. Of course, these emails weren’t all business-related. But the daily sifting and organizing emails into various folders was not helping me feel more organized.

I was constantly refreshing, deleting, filing, and flagging for follow-ups. I wasn’t getting anywhere.

I use Squarespace for my website, and I was able to add GSuite to my account for only a few bucks a month. My email address now has my professional domain, and my business emails are out of my personal inbox. (Want to chat? Shoot me a message in my new inbox at hello@emilybezak.com.)

Bonus: My assistant can log-in to my business email without seeing my Amazon Prime orders!

I installed a backup editor.

Tool #4: Grammarly, a Chrome plugin that checks grammar and rates tone

Have you ever sent an email draft to your work BFF to double-check how you’re coming across to the recipient? Or play-acted an important meeting to negotiate your workload or salary?

Well, still do those things. To be clear, aside from what I say here, you shouldn’t stop doing that. Your work BFF understands context, timing, and office politics. Plus, work BFFs are the best. There’s also a lot to be said for writing an email in the heat of the moment, saving it as a draft, and walking away.

Speaking of work friends, one of mine pointed me in the direction of the Grammarly Chrome extension that checks spelling, grammar, and rates the tone of your writing. For the record, this blog has been rated as formal, confident, and informative. It has also rated some of the sections of this blog as gloomy and disapproving. At first, I was trying to write away from that tone. But as I developed the story, I realized it’s 100-percent accurate — particularly the parts I wrote about how I haven’t been marketing my business or blogging for myself. So disappointing.

For emails, blog posts, and social media comments, this tool has been a lifesaver.

Final Thoughts

I plan to post regularly about my business, writing, and marketing best practices from myself and a few guest contributors a few times per month. There will also be articles featuring my two English Bulldogs, current events, or living in Pittsburgh! If there are any ideas or topics you’d like covered, please comment below.

I look forward to learning and growing with you. Let’s do this!