Side Hustle 101: Event Recap
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We kicked off 2021 with our first workshop event: Side Hustle 101: How to turn your passion into profit!
The theme was chosen as some members of the YWiB TO team and community have recently expressed;
fear of unpredictable job outcomes and prospects in light of COVID
a need for an outlet to help them stay busy during the pandemic
desire to monetize their hidden talents and hobbies
interest in creating other sources of income
This January event was offered in partnership with Women Who Freelance (WWF). We had a blast planning and coordinating this event with their Founder, Lana Karapetyan.
Given Lana’s passion for community building and supporting women freelancers, this partnership was a no-brainer.
Women Who Freelance is “a growing community dedicated to supporting women of diverse skill-sets to confidently build and grow their freelance businesses. [They] are committed to the professional and economic advancement of women through community participation, networking and educational resources.”
Learn more about the exciting WWF community and upcoming events here.
THE EVENT
41 guests joined us virtually to hear two Side Hustle speakers and network with other side-hustle inspired women.
After opening remarks and a brief introduction to YWiB, we got started with our speaker presentations.
Milica Dodic, Founder of Rhymes with Pizza walked us through her presentation entitled ‘The Side Hustle Ebb-and-Flow’, aptly named as her career to date has been a mix of career and entrepreneurship. Milica shared how she made ‘the switch’ to full-time business in 2020, after losing her job due to the pandemic. She saw this lay-off as a chance to reflect, pursue her passion (nails!), address financial anxieties, and turn adversity into opportunity.
Milica Dodic encouraged the audience to contemplate these questions; WHO do you align yourself with? WHAT practices do you put in place? WHERE do you set up shop? WHEN do you make changes? WHY do you continue this? HOW do you stay motivated?
She also shared a ton of great insights for a winning side hustle mindset. Milica ended her presentation with what she calls the ‘6 Cs’, which in her opinion are integral to side hustle success.
Curiosity
Courage
Compassion
Community
Creativity
Contracts!!!
After 5 minutes of Q&A, we separated the audience into breakout rooms for virtual networking. This allowed attendees to meet each other in small groups, and to discuss the event and their side hustle interests and goals. YWiB team members joined in as well, helping to facilitate connections and ensure conversations were flowing.
Our second speaker was Sidra Mahmood, who began by reminding us that some hobbies can just be for our personal enjoyment- not everything needs to be a side hustle.
Sidra Mahmood’s presentation was entitled: e-hustles 101: Getting started with selling online.
Sidra’s presentation outlined her pathway to entrepreneurship, especially over 2020, when she went from market research to business launch with Pashmama.
Sidra gave the audience a comprehensive guide to 3 critical stages of business planning; Ideation, Testing, and Executing. She invited the audience to consider their potential business model, characteristics of their target market, pricing & costs, unique value proposition, and more! She also introduced the audience to The Business Model Canvas, an accessible tool for lean business planning.
Our team really enjoyed how both speakers shared lessons learned and were open and candid about their mistakes and successes. Both Sidra and Milica offered tangible and realistic advice to help our attendees weigh the pros and cons of side hustles and specific business models. The presentations also invited attendees to think about timing, available resources, and how to take risks and feedback as they come.
Read more on entrepreneurship during the pandemic: Jude Kamal on starting and scaling a business during the pandemic
GIVING BACK
A portion of ticket proceeds from this event will be donated to Dress for Success Toronto. You can read more about how Dress For Success empowers women toward economic independence here.