If you’re reading this and you do not own a small business, don’t be fooled! Running a business – small, freelance or otherwise is NOT as fun as normally advertised.

Social media, marketing ‘gurus’ and pyramid marketing schemes have made a fortune out of selling entrepreneurship as ‘fun’ and ‘exciting’. The truth is, it is usually everything else – except fun and exciting. When starting, you are only bound to learn way too much on the go and run into very difficult and frustrating situations. However, sticking with it is what separates successful small business owners from unsuccessful ones.

You will discover very quickly that the journey into entrepreneurship is not a sprint but a gruelling marathon. It is a fine line between passion and duty. Call it a passionate duty, or a dutiful passion.

Anyway, I will share with you why I decided to start a small online business (side hustle).

Well, I was broke. Simple.

My main job could not keep up with my personal responsibilities, Dublin’s rent prices and other costs. Now, after more than 2 years of freelancing, I’m a little less broke. So that’s progress :).

You see, I realised later in my work life, that I was not going to be financially stable if I went along with my career like I did. It was a great gig, but I had stagnated professionally, and I needed MORE money. Only thing is, I did not need money just for the sake of money, because money in itself does not make me a happy man. Unfortunately, money affects almost everything that makes me happy.

• What I really wanted was just some money left in my account after every major and minor monthly expense. The money I could either save or invest.
• At 26, I was getting tired of moving into shared rooms. I wanted to be able to afford the rent for my own room and God-willing my own home someday.
• I also have juniors I want to look after, and I wanted to be in a good financial position to be able to sponsor them.
• And today, I still have dreams of starting my own family at some point. But starting a family in Ireland today, and being financially stable is like having your cake and eating it. Basically, it’s too much to ask. And my stubborn nature means I refuse to start a family I’m not able to take care of – despite the fact that raising a family is a team effort.

So what did you do?

Well I sat down with myself one day, and I wrote down a list of things I had going well for me. And things I really wanted to change. Funny enough, I realised the most important thing going well for me was my vitality and incredibly good health. And I had taken that for granted for so long. Procrastination and a lack of ambition had slowly become second nature. And it was time to change all that. So I figured I’ll start an online business or small business here in Ireland.

I then decided to test the marketable skills/hobbies I had at the time. They were cooking, writing and drawing. After trying all the above, writing finally won. Let me identify the factors that helped me choose copywriting as the best online business idea for me :

• Convenience and flexibility. In today’s digital age, all I need to have is a laptop and internet connection to work from anywhere in the world. I loved working in restaurants, but the hours were very unholy and inflexible.
• No real need for a physical office (unless this small business grows large enough to need a huge scale).
• A lot less expensive to invest in, learn and set up, compared to graphic design and cooking.
• And having my ‘side hustle’ registered as a company in Ireland, means I pay only 12.5% on any profits I may earn. In 2021, the average EU company tax is 20%.

So there you have it.

I started publishing various blog posts and stories as a hobby in 2017 and watched free Youtube videos on writing. I also found some cheap SEO & copywriting courses, practised and had my first freelance gig in late 2019. I have since grown my client base slowly and studied more since then. Hell, I even bought another course this month!

Come 2022, and I am still on track on my 5-year journey. This journey has been slow and is still gruelling sometimes, but my personal financial situation and confidence is at a much better level today than it was a few years ago. I have since been able to meet my family obligations quite comfortably and even been able to afford a small flat in Dublin’s city centre – despite the disgraceful rent prices here. That alone is more than enough to get me going because I truly believe that the best for me is yet to come.

What is your story?