The Economy of You

The Economy of You Plot Summary

Introduction

In today's unpredictable economy, relying solely on a single employer has become increasingly risky. Many of us wake up to the unsettling feeling that our jobs could disappear at any moment. We face pay cuts, benefit reductions, and longer hours, along with the anxiety that accompanies financial instability. This uncertainty has sparked a revolution in how we approach our careers and financial security. What if there was a way to take back control? To create multiple income streams that not only provide financial security but also allow you to pursue your passions and skills? This is exactly what creating your own "economy of you" is all about - developing side pursuits that complement your full-time job, building your own safety net, and discovering talents you may have overlooked. Throughout these pages, you'll meet people who have successfully navigated this path - from cake designers and app developers to yoga instructors and writers - and learn how they transformed their skills into thriving side ventures that provide both income and fulfillment.

Chapter 1: Uncover Your Side-Gig Motivation and Master Plan

The journey to creating a successful side-gig often begins with a powerful motivating factor - something that drives you beyond just earning extra cash. For Chris Furin, it was the impending closure of his father's deli in Georgetown. Working there for twenty-seven years, Chris noticed that while regular sandwiches brought in modest revenue, custom cakes offered a much higher profit margin. "I can make sandwiches for three hours and make $100 or a cake in forty-five minutes and make $300," he explains. This realization became his lifeline when the deli finally closed due to rising costs. Chris used his time in the deli's kitchen to perfect his craft after hours, creating cakes in shapes ranging from Darth Vader to the White House. He prepared methodically for the transition, setting up a website with the help of a freelance designer and his marketing-savvy wife. They capitalized on local press coverage of the deli's closing to announce his new venture. On July 31, 2011, when the deli closed its doors, Chris felt "scared, sad, and happy." He had a database of customers, some equipment, and the determination to succeed. Working from his home kitchen in Rockville, Maryland, Chris converted his garage into an extension of his workspace. This setup saved him $5,000 to $10,000 a month in rent. During one week when I interviewed him, he had sold about $1,800 worth of cakes, with costs amounting to only 10-15% of sales. Some weeks brought in as much as $3,600. While it didn't fully replace his income from the deli initially, it was enough to sustain his business while he worked on growth. The side-gig not only saved Chris from financial disaster but also gave him something perhaps even more valuable - freedom. "I can take on business if I want it, but if I want to take a day off to ride my motorcycle, I can do that, too," he says. This sense of control over his schedule and destiny was something he never had at the deli. To uncover your own side-gig motivation, consider what truly drives you. Is it financial security? The desire for more family time? Creative fulfillment? Your motivation will sustain you through challenges and shape the direction of your venture. Next, develop a master plan that includes testing your idea, researching your market, and taking small, manageable steps forward. Don't worry about perfection - focus on progress. As BJ Fogg, director of Stanford's Persuasive Technology Lab, suggests, breaking goals into smaller ones makes them more manageable and increases your chances of success.

Chapter 2: Manage Your Money and Minimize Start-Up Costs

Creating a sustainable side business requires smart financial management from the very beginning. When Emily Beach, a field hockey coach, had her breakthrough idea for a training stick that would make it easier to teach players how to dribble with their left hands, she immediately focused on protecting her invention. The morning after creating her prototype by chiseling a gap in an old wooden stick, she contacted a patent attorney - who informed her that filing for a patent would cost between $10,000 and $15,000. "At that point, I was like, 'I can't do that,'" Emily recalls. Fortunately, the father of one of her players negotiated with the attorney to reduce the cost to around $8,000. While still a significant investment, Emily recognized it was necessary to protect her intellectual property. Within two years, she had her patent and began selling her invention, the Dribble Dr., at coaching conferences and tournaments. Many successful side-giggers find creative ways to minimize costs while still investing in essentials. Jason Malinak, a full-time accountant, turned his expertise into a lucrative side business by creating digital bookkeeping guides for Etsy sellers. After helping his wife manage the finances for her handmade baby clothes shop, he realized other sellers had the same questions. His solution was to develop user-friendly bookkeeping tools that sellers could purchase as digital downloads. Because his products are digital, Jason's transaction costs are virtually zero. He learned basic design himself and had a tech-savvy friend help format his e-books. This means that all revenue from his 1,100+ sales represents pure profit. "It adds to our financial cushion," Jason says, explaining that he and his wife use the money for home improvements and their children's college fund. Calee Lee, a videographer in her early thirties, kept costs low for her children's book publishing venture by using a royalty-only model to pay writers and illustrators. After noticing the poor quality of children's e-books on her Kindle, she thought, "I can do better than this." She wrote her first story based on a tale she heard during a family vacation to Cyprus about how Queen Helena sent cats to the island to control a snake infestation. Instead of paying illustrators upfront, Calee offered them higher royalty percentages than traditional publishers. She used software she already owned from her videography business to create the e-books, asked lawyer friends to review contracts, and worked from home. For marketing, she organized blog tours for authors instead of paying for advertising. Today, her company, Xist Publishing, has over eighty titles and generates consistent income. Before launching your own side-gig, give yourself a financial assessment. Track where your money is going, create an emergency savings fund, and develop a plan to pay off debt. Consider how much you can realistically invest in your venture without jeopardizing your financial stability. Remember that even small amounts of monthly earnings can add up over time - $200 a month equals $2,400 a year, which if invested at 6% for ten years becomes almost $40,000. Your side-gig might start small, but its financial impact can grow significantly with time and patience.

Chapter 3: Build Your Support Network and Find Your Tribe

When Erica Sara decided to launch her custom engraved jewelry business, she didn't do it alone. As a former Coach merchandiser in New York City, she knew she wanted to create something more personally fulfilling. "I wanted to be able to be my own business. I was tired of working twelve hours a day and not being gratified," she explains. Her breakthrough came when she decided to focus on what she calls "race bling" - jewelry celebrating athletic accomplishment with inspirational mantras. To get started, Erica leveraged the contacts she had already built through her blog where she posted favorite quotes and wrote about her adventures in cheese-making and running races. "I realized that we're really lucky to live in this world today with Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and websites—there's this whole network of people that you can connect with," she says. She began actively connecting with fellow runners online, commenting on their races and building genuine relationships. This social media presence became her business lifeline. "It's really where I generate most of my business," she explains. Her authentic engagement with her online community helped her develop personal connections with customers. "It's very personal and everything is custom. I know my customers and I know when their races are." These relationships extend beyond transactions - customers share their stories about fighting cancer, losing weight, or celebrating anniversaries, which inspires her jewelry designs. Finding your tribe isn't just about marketing - it's about finding the people who will support you through the challenges of building a side business. Maria Sokurashvili discovered this when she launched a mailing list for new moms in Washington, D.C. after feeling isolated with her newborn son in 2000. "Word-of-mouth grew, and people started signing up, and membership started to grow—first to hundreds, then thousands," she says. This community need led Maria and her husband Jeff Steele to create dcurbanmom.com, which eventually grew successful enough to allow Maria to leave her information technology job. When looking for your own support network, consider where your potential community already gathers. Are there online forums, social media groups, or local meetups related to your field? Make authentic connections by contributing value before asking for anything in return. Comment thoughtfully on blogs, answer questions in forums, and share your expertise freely. As Megan Moynihan Callaway, who started her public relations business while dreaming of a more mobile lifestyle, discovered, the internet provides endless resources and connections for side-giggers. To build meaningful connections, ask yourself: How can your current network help you? Would any friends make good business partners? How can you improve your social media presence? Which groups do you want to connect with? And importantly, how do you prefer to connect - in person at networking events or online from your couch? Finding and nurturing relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs isn't just nice to have - it's essential for sustaining your motivation and growing your business over time.

Chapter 4: Create Your Brand and Perfect Your Pitch

When Katy Gathright and her friend Imran Khoja were seniors at Williams College, they transformed a casual conversation during a winter walk into what would become Designed Good, a flash sales website featuring sustainably made products. After winning a campus business competition that provided $15,000 in seed funding, they faced their next challenge: how to build a brand that would attract both customers and ethical product makers. Katy, who had experience as managing editor of the college paper, created the company's blog as the cornerstone of their brand identity. "We didn't plan it, but this whole aspect of storytelling behind the products has been huge. It differentiates us in the marketplace," she explains. Through the blog, Katy shared stories about sustainability, their startup journey, and the ethical products they discovered. This content-based approach rapidly built their community - within weeks of launch, 500 people had signed up to join Designed Good. Their brand identity became clear through this storytelling process: "We want our website to embody a person—an older brother or older sister who has awesome ideas and awesome stuff that you aspire to have, and they have a bit of a socially conscious edge," Katy says. This clear identity helped them attract not just customers but also the right product partners who shared their values. April Bowles Olin, founder of the blog Blacksburg Belle, exemplifies strong personal branding. Through her website, videos, and product descriptions, April projects an image of a creative entrepreneur who genuinely wants to help others succeed in their businesses. This wasn't accidental - she consciously built her brand over time, shifting from an earlier wedding planning blog to focus on helping creative entrepreneurs market themselves. "When I started blogging at BlacksburgBelle.com, I made sure my posts offered useful information to readers—specific tips on how to grow a business," April explains. To grow her audience, she initially focused more on guest posting for other blogs than writing for her own. "I was working my butt off to get featured any place that I could," she says. This strategy paid off - after being featured on popular sites like DesignSponge.com, she gained 300 new newsletter subscribers in a single day. Today, over 5,000 people subscribe to her email newsletter. Perfecting your pitch is equally important for brand building. Peter Davis, who started the community-building website CommonPlace while still in college, takes a highly targeted approach. Rather than waiting for towns to discover his site, he and his team actively reach out to communities they believe would benefit from the platform. "We just pick towns and go in.... We don't want to wait for the mayor to call us," Peter explains. Once they select a town, they send community organizers who spend six weeks distributing flyers, connecting with local groups, and recruiting local teens to interview community leaders. To create your own effective brand, start by clearly defining who you are and what unique value you offer. Consider creating a simple website that explains who you are and what you provide. Your site should answer the question: What makes you different? Then perfect your pitch by personalizing it for each potential client or partner, clearly describing what you offer, and explaining how they'll benefit. Remember that enthusiasm is crucial - as film producer Chris Palmer tells his students, "Pitching is never going to be easy, and if you don't believe in your idea, then trying to get someone else to believe in it is virtually impossible."

Chapter 5: Balance Time Between Full-Time Work and Side-Gig

Finding time to pursue a side business while maintaining a full-time job is perhaps the greatest challenge for most side-giggers. Jessi Baden-Campbell, a professional opera singer who also works full-time as a meeting planner for a consulting firm, demonstrates remarkable creativity in making it work. During her lunch breaks, she descends to the bottom level of a parking garage in downtown Washington, D.C., to rehearse her operatic vocals where the concrete walls provide excellent acoustics and she won't disturb her office colleagues. Jessi's music career brings in significant additional income - about $10,000 a year from a local church choir, $5,000 annually for high holiday performances at a synagogue, plus various wedding and corporate performances that pay up to $500 each. This income helps support her family of four, paying for home improvements and savings for her children's college tuition. However, the demanding schedule comes with challenges. Evening rehearsals for performances like her Capital Fringe Festival opera mean missing family dinners and bedtimes with her two young children. "Sometimes when I get home, I cry," she admits. To make it work, she invited her mother-in-law to live with the family to help with childcare during unexpected performances or late rehearsals. Despite the challenges, Jessi remains committed to her dual career path: "I don't want to become a bitter person who had to give up her art. I'm committed to myself as an artist and I'm also committed to my family." Many successful side-giggers find ways to leverage their day jobs to benefit their side pursuits. Jennifer Teates, a law firm manager in Annapolis, uses her experience working on collections and bankruptcy issues to fuel her writing career for financial publications. "We have lots of people calling in and they don't know basic information—what seems to me like common sense," Jennifer explains. These interactions provide endless material for her articles for Yahoo! Finance, Examiner.com, and Motley Fool. To make time for writing, Jennifer wakes up at 5:30 a.m., two hours before her toddler son, giving her precious uninterrupted time each morning. While she gets only six to seven hours of sleep, she insists it's enough. "I still find time for relaxation in the evenings, starting with family dinner," she says. The additional income provides financial security, and she has no plans to leave her law firm job since it continues to generate ideas for her writing. Time management strategies vary among side-giggers, but several approaches appear consistently. Many wake up early - sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m. - to work before their regular jobs begin. Others make use of lunch breaks, commuting time, or late evenings after children are asleep. Some, like Martin Cody who runs a wine marketing business alongside his medical software sales job, keep two computers on their desk - one for each business - to efficiently switch between tasks. Learning to say "no" is another crucial skill. After burning out from giving too many unpaid talks and workshops to promote my book, I realized I needed to be more selective. The turning point came after spending hours preparing for an unpaid speaking engagement at a local political group, missing time with my daughter, only to sell zero books afterward. I asked myself, "Why am I doing this?" and began declining more invitations to preserve my time and energy for more valuable opportunities. Remember that saying "yes" to everything means saying "no" to what matters most - whether that's family time, self-care, or focusing on the most profitable aspects of your side business. Create clear boundaries, use technology to maximize efficiency, and regularly evaluate which activities genuinely move you toward your goals.

Chapter 6: Overcome Setbacks and Embrace Resilience

Setbacks and failures are inevitable when building a side business, and learning to bounce back is essential for long-term success. Ben Popken, a journalist in his early thirties, experienced this firsthand when he was unexpectedly laid off from Consumerist.com, the site he had spent six years building. Fortunately, Ben had started preparing for this possibility by developing his personal brand and pursuing his second passion, improv comedy, taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. "Anyone, after six years of doing the same job, starts thinking, 'What's my future?' and making preparations," Ben explains. "In the last year, I realized I needed to have something besides Consumerist happening for me. I started up my blog and made sure I had an established presence, so people knew where to find me." This foresight paid off - within minutes of tweeting about his departure from Consumerist, an editor contacted him about freelance work. Ben now manages two distinct but complementary careers: journalism and comedy. On his comedy website, benpopkenisjustkidding.com, he shares humorous observations and videos, while his journalism site, benpopkenwrites.com, showcases his consumer reporting. A typical day begins at 7 a.m. with coffee and writing - either comedy sketches, blog posts, or freelance articles, "whatever seems most important and urgent." He also practices and performs with his improv group, the Thesaurus Ninjas. What initially felt like a devastating career setback ultimately opened new doors. "Getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me," Ben says. It forced him to evaluate where he wanted to go professionally and make conscious decisions rather than coasting along a familiar path. "It was really an unexpected gift," he reflects. Resilience often involves adapting your approach rather than abandoning your goals entirely. When my own workshop for a yoga studio fell flat - I had prepared content for only 45 minutes when the event was scheduled for 90 - I felt utterly deflated. The studio owner publicly pointed out this discrepancy, leaving me embarrassed and questioning my abilities. For days afterward, I wondered if I needed an entirely new direction for my side business. Instead of giving up, I reframed this experience as valuable feedback. I rewrote my workshop template to add more stories and details, ensuring future talks would never run short. I practiced more thoroughly before my next event, focusing on providing concrete strategies attendees could implement immediately. The positive response at subsequent workshops confirmed that one failure didn't define me - it simply showed me where to improve. When facing your own setbacks, remember these resilience strategies: First, turn to your support network for encouragement and perspective. Second, remind yourself that even the most successful people experience failures - from Olympic athletes to bestselling authors. Third, develop a Plan B to ease anxiety about potential negative outcomes. Fourth, discover what helps you feel better after disappointment, whether it's calling a supportive friend or taking time to process your emotions. Fifth, focus on constructive feedback while ignoring unhelpful criticism. And finally, simply keep going - with adjustments as needed. As Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, demonstrated when he pitched his company to over 300 venture capital firms before finding funding, persistence often makes the difference between success and failure. The most resilient side-giggers don't avoid failure - they learn from it and use it to fuel their next steps forward.

Chapter 7: Give Back While Growing Your Financial Security

As side-giggers become more established and financially secure, many discover a natural desire to help others on similar journeys. John Tullock, a community relations manager for Barnes & Noble in his early sixties, first discovered his side income growing and selling native Virginia bluebells and other flowers from his Knoxville, Tennessee garden. Each season, he made around $10,000 in profit, but that wasn't enough - he wanted to share his knowledge with others who might benefit during tough economic times. "I know in the tough economic times we've had, a lot of folks have been looking for ways to make extra money. This is not rocket science, especially with wild flowers. I like the idea of helping people and giving them a little bit of direction," John explains. This motivation led him to create his blog, The New American Homestead, and publish a book, Pay Dirt: How to Make $10,000 a Year from Your Backyard Garden, sharing his hard-earned expertise with aspiring gardeners. This spirit of mutual support appears frequently among successful side-giggers. Joe Cain, founder of sidegig.com, hired a web designer who had just started his own tech support side-business. Jewelry designer Erica Sara worked with Megan Moynihan Callaway, who was building her own public relations business. Alexis Grant, a social media consultant, regularly employs other side-giggers for her projects, noting that "they tend to be go-getters—ambitious people working toward their dreams." Some entrepreneurs incorporate giving back directly into their business models. Martin Cody of Cellar Angels allows customers to select charities to receive a portion of wine sale proceeds. Emily Kaminski created frugalpharmacies.com after discovering significant price variations for her own prescription medications. The site helps people compare drug prices at local pharmacies, potentially saving them hundreds of dollars. When one cancer survivor contacted her about a medication that cost him $109 monthly, Emily helped him cut his costs by more than half. "When you're sick, you don't have time to call around looking," she explains. Mark Wilson, a technology writer in his early thirties, launched Philanthroper.com after realizing how difficult it was to decide where to donate money effectively. The site allows people to give as little as $1 daily to vetted nonprofits, leveraging the power of small contributions across many donors. "I thought about how this model of spending really appeals to people, and how you could reframe it around doing good," Mark explains. While eventually selling the site to focus on his journalism career, Mark created a platform that raised nearly $180,000 for various charities. For others, giving back means creating formal nonprofit organizations. Angele "AJ" Thomas, a program manager at a tech company in Silicon Valley, founded the Infuse Program Foundation after mentoring students at an inner-city high school. She realized these students had less access to the entrepreneurial opportunities available to those whose parents worked in tech companies. "I said, 'We need to democratize the energy of Silicon Valley,'" AJ explains. Her nonprofit now teaches entrepreneurship to students, culminating in pitch sessions to executives who award internships and scholarships. While the financial benefits of side-gigs are significant, many entrepreneurs find that the deepest satisfaction comes from making a positive impact. As Meredith Alexander, founder of the nonprofit Milk + Bookies, which helps children donate books to others, puts it: "We are really excited about the idea of switching these young kids on to how great it feels to give back, and we hope they go out and recreate that for themselves in all different ways." Whether through sharing knowledge, hiring other side-giggers, incorporating charitable components into your business model, or creating a nonprofit, finding ways to give back while growing your financial security creates a virtuous cycle that benefits both you and your community.

Summary

Throughout these pages, we've explored how creating your own "economy of you" provides protection against financial uncertainty while allowing you to pursue work that truly matters. The entrepreneurs featured here didn't just build businesses - they built safety nets, creative outlets, and platforms for making a difference. As Tara Gentile wisely notes, "It's not enough to simply create a product, dream up a service, or make an offer. Your work must be aligned with your very core to realize its financial potential." Your journey starts today with a single step: identify one skill or passion you could potentially monetize. Don't worry about perfection or immediate profits. Instead, focus on creating something of value that serves others while building your financial resilience. Whether your side-gig remains alongside your full-time job or eventually becomes your primary source of income, the act of creating multiple income streams puts you firmly in control of your financial destiny. As you begin, remember that the most successful side-giggers aren't necessarily the most talented or well-connected - they're simply the ones who started and never gave up.

About Author

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Kimberly Palmer

Kimberly Palmer, author of The Economy of You: Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur and Recession-Proof Your Life, was the senior money editor at US News & World Report for nine years. She is an adjunct professor at American University, where she teaches a course on mastering social media. She lives with her family, including two children, in the Washington, D.C., area.

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