The growth of “side hustle” culture and the desire to monetize hobbies
What is the value of a hobby? Ask yourself that question and think about the way you frame your answer. If your first instinct is something along the lines of “it brings happiness or fulfillment” or “it satiates the feeling of ennui in my life,” then you will find yourself met with an exasperated sigh from judgmental on-lookers who believe the true value of a hobby lies in their marketability and revenue-generation capabilities. We have lost sight of what free time means as we have submerged our heads into the green sludge, unable to see the negative consequences of being powered by a desire to generate more money.
In the modern age, with the proliferation of social media, there is a growing number of people who engage in “side hustles.” This colloquial term denotes a secondary (or potentially even tertiary) stream of revenue for the “hustler” typically generated by a hobby or skill this individual possesses. For example, say you were the go-to hair stylist for your neighbourhood as a child, where your neighbours would gleefully line up in the hot sun outside your porch for a fashionable braid. Turning that into a side hustle, you might now offer those services, the very same you offered at no cost to your neighbours, for a fee. You may see this frequently with beauty services, such as nail stylists, barbers, or makeup artists, but they exist just as prevalently within the realm of products. The meteoric rise of platforms such as Etsy exemplifies the idea that if you have a talent, you should be using it to make some extra cash. There are hundreds of thousands of necklaces, rings, articles of clothing, etc. available for purchase on these manufacturer-to-buyer platforms, an overwhelming number of which stems from the creator’s now monetized hobbies. This effectively sums up the “hustle” part of side hustle, but what of the “side” element? Typically, a side hustle is presented as a form of revenue supplementation, not revenue substitution. In that sense, someone with a side hustle will work a full-time or part-time job and proceed with their side hustle in their downtime. Of course, side hustles may end up eclipsing primary occupations and therefore exist as primary revenue streams for the individual. However, if you have free time, you can always start another side hustle and create other sources of revenue. That is the leafless forest of capitalism
Some of the more obvious ways this cultural shift has happened is through the simultaneous flourishing of social media and e-commerce platforms generally. It is more accessible than ever to find ways to monetize a hobby by seeing how successful players in the industry have done it, and replicating their triumphs through a potent social media presence and effective marketing decisions. Seeing successful individuals make money off of a hobby you believe you are equally, if not more skilled at, incentivizes new entrants to try their hand at the side hustle. Through a system of referrals, content creation, and community engagement, those who have a hobby can find avenues where they reap the fruits of their labour through more than the personal satisfaction of doing something well. Comparatively, e-commerce platforms, and especially individual-to-individual marketplaces like Etsy or Ebay, have developed and maintained their foothold in the market. While ages ago at this point, the sentiment when COVID-19 mutated into a world-wide pandemic in early 2020 was that small businesses would suffer on the heels of government-sanctioned closures. This sentiment, while initially borne out of necessity, has largely remained unphased and continues to make community marketplaces such as Etsy popular alternatives for corporate retailers. As such, the desire to buy handmade and small business produced goods has wavered little and provides an impetus for individuals to either start or continue growing their side hustles. With so much food on the table, it is hard not to salivate a little as you consider the monetary value of your hobby.
Less obviously is the cold shade of a looming recession and rising inflation rates, both of which create a financial incentive to maximize revenue, especially in a self-employment context where dismissals and hiring freezes do little to squelch potential profits. In tandem with online marketplaces and production being done at home, these economic factors push those with hobbies to look into ways of monetizing said hobbies before supply and demand slash their prices and client base. Given that most side hustles are luxury goods and services, they are unlikely to enjoy nearly the same success during a recessionary period, so much of the focus is on creating a windfall, rather than a consistent business. Like a squirrel stuffing its cheeks with food for the long winter, economic factors make putting an extra dollar into that rainy day fund just a little bit more attractive. At the same time, things are generally getting more expensive and eclipsing the unequal rise, if any, of income for the average Canadian. Rather than working several jobs, the often easier and more appealing solution is to engage in a side hustle to make ends meet.
Before I delve into why I believe the side hustle culture glamorizes a problematic philosophy, I want to start with the positives of this whole movement. Firstly, there has been an expansion of the types and availability of services and goods that were previously reserved for professionals or those with a plethora of experience in the industry. Rather than paying for a service at a designated location, the price of which partially factors in the overhead costs of maintaining such a location, the process has been streamlined and made more accessible. Just down the hall is someone who can give you a pedicure for half the price of a salon, which is more consumer-friendly and will force places like salons to cut prices. For goods, the selling power is in the perceived quality of the item, where handmade goods are valued more highly. The individuals making these goods are, for lack of a better term, ordinary people who have ordinary lives and do not exist solely to manufacture throw pillows. That human connection, and the understanding of the person behind the item, is very valuable to some shoppers, and justifies paying a higher price; It is a win-win for both parties. Secondly, side hustles can help families fund basic necessities, such as food or shelter, or allow other families to take part in luxuries they previously did not have access to, such as taking vacations. If people are generally happier when they engage in side hustles, especially if they are doing something they love, what is the problem?
Namely, a shift to a side hustle culture signals an erosion of work-life balance values. If your main priority in life is to maximize revenue at the expense of free time, you may find yourself being burnt out more frequently and becoming monotonous in your pursuits. Imagine a hypothetical: you wake up at 7:00 a.m., get ready for your job that starts at 8:30 a.m., and work until 4:30 p.m.. Then, when you get home at 6:00 p.m., you see that you received several orders throughout the course of the day for hand knitted scarves. Perhaps you already had some in stock, but perhaps you do not and thus spend hours of your day just to fulfill those orders. Rinse and repeat that schedule for a week and you find yourself an ouroboros. The red herring in the statement “make money doing what you love” is that the thing you love becomes the thing you despise. Adding constraints, whether time or financial, to any activity makes it a piece of work that must get done and thus takes out the freedom element that so many hobbies have. Your arms are sore? You do not have to dig up the old sewing machine to take part in your hobby, you can postpone it to the next day. Now add a constraint that says you must have five shirts sewn and ready for the weekend, and suddenly your personal feelings and state are largely irrelevant. This breeds dissatisfaction and burn out in the activity you once called your hobby, which consequently has a negative effect on not only the product or service, but also on your personal life. Free time is important, taking breaks is important, and having things you love to do is also important. Money is great, but taking care of your body and mental health is better.
Another issue with the side hustle culture lies in the snobbery that some people have towards hobbies and interests. If you can make money off of your hobby, that is great and you should be proud that you can do something well enough for others to deem it worth paying for, but that may come at the cost of discarding certain hobbies that generate little revenue. For example, playing a sport is a hobby, but generating money off of it, save for the top one percent of practitioners, is challenging for most people. Thus, if you are intent on finding a side hustle, you will be trading your free time playing a sport for something that likely generates more revenue, such as tattooing. Ignoring the obvious health benefits now lost, it places all of your hobbies under a microscopic lens and forces you to create a priority list based on how much time needs to be expended on each hobby versus how much revenue can be generated as a result. Ultimately, you discard hobbies that may have given you happiness and health benefits for hobbies that bring in that sweet stack of money.
There is also a certain hubris that may come with a side hustle, exponentially so when the side hustle ends up being more successful than anticipated. I am reminded of the show Everybody Hates Chris where the father works two to three jobs, while the mother quits her jobs, exclaiming “I do not need this, my man has two jobs!” In the context of side hustles, the creep of side into primary side hustle can be sudden and thus pushes the primary occupation to the wayside. The effort that was once there for the primary occupation has been rerouted for the side hustle, and thus creates inefficiencies at work for the organization and the customers.
Finally, side hustle culture promotes monetizing your hobbies, but not all people are created equally. The harsh reality is that some people are not good enough at their hobbies to monetize them, but do so anyway. You need only look at some people who do tattoo work, yet would not be trusted to colour within the lines on the kid’s menu at a restaurant. This influx of goods and services but those largely unqualified to sell them means that the market is watered down by shoddy products, which hurts the consumer. Ironically, the rise of side hustle culture has resulted in an inverse cultural push where corporations are trusted to produce consistently and therefore consumers do not mind paying a premium for an organization to deliver the service or goods.
At the end of the day, side hustles are nothing new, they just have expanded in terms of their scope and ease-of-access. On one hand, it may be good for the consumers and for people who have side hustles to earn a little extra cash while producing things people want. On the other hand, it points to a larger societal change in attitude towards free time, and may incentivize workplaces to take advantage of that entrepreneurial drive. Whatever your hobbies may be, make sure that they bring you joy first and foremost. If you do decide to engage in a side hustle, be aware of how quickly that smile can turn upside down and make a conscious decision as to whether the money outweighs the emotional, physical, and perhaps even spiritual benefits of doing your hobby, pro bono. And if you do decide to go through with your side hustle, always remember to advertise a sale on your goods or services, people love sales.