More hustle, less hassle.
After challenging herself to find new income streams — and earning $36,000 so far this year in extra work on top of her salary — one moonlighting TikToker is opening the books in hopes of helping her followers get rich quicker, The Sun reported.
Helena, who goes by @startabusinesswithme, started out by explaining that unlike so many entrepreneurial types on the popular social media channel, she wasn’t going to be bragging about her success that day — but rather share some of her more significant stumbles and disappointments along the way to her goal of earning an extra $121,000 per year, on top of her full-time job.
The Post has reached out to Helena for further details.
Here, a look at the gigs the hard worker doesn’t recommend wasting a lot of time on — even if some of them, she admitted, are a good way to get your feet wet, particularly for those with limited experience raising extra revenue outside of traditional employment.
“I’m immediately going to contradict myself,” she said before sharing her mixed experience with eBay,
While the popular reseller site helped Helena earn a bit of “initial startup capital,” she found the endeavor a waste of time long-term, as it’s hard to scale up when you’re starting from zero.
“It’s definitely not going to make me [$121,000] in 12 months,” she said.
Helena didn’t recommend the popular side hustle, which allows people to sell their own custom-printed or designed products.
“The main problem I had with this business model was the cash flow,” she explained. “I wanted it to be good. I wanted it to work out but I think if you’re starting from zero print on demand is really really difficult,” she added.
She said creators have to buy the products before they can sell them so it isn’t the best idea if someone doesn’t have a safety net.
“When you make a sale you need to pay for the product in advance before you actually get the cash in from customers,” she explained.
Taking it a step further, Helena delved into dreaming up actual products — and realized once again that if you’re looking to make money, you’d better have plenty on hand to start with.
“So you do need a buffer of cash available to you so you can pay for your interim entry before you actually receive the money for your sale,” she said.
She tried developing products for kids that will unfortunately never see the light of day.
She said she made a “ton of mistakes” and wasted money and time researching the products. She also wondered if she’d need to find a warehouse.
“This is too much hassle for what I am trying to do and it wasn’t worth it to pursue for me.”
Helena also isn’t a fan of selling items on Etsy.
She said while many people were able to create scalable businesses on Etsy she wasn’t able to put in the necessary time and energy to make a go of selling the digital projects she’d had in mind.
She also wasn’t happy with the percentage Etsy takes from seller’s products.
The final no-no on Helena’s list — doing surveys and user testing for dough. She made some money but nowhere close to what she was looking to accrue.
“I’ve made decent amounts of money from survey and user testing over the last nine months but it’s just not scalable, and it’s not going to get me anywhere close to the targets I’ve set myself.”
The two side hustles she has yet to try are Amazon and Dropshipping.
“To me the world of Amazon is just a minefield,” she said. Similarly to some of the other side hustles she doesn’t like, she said it takes up a lot of time and money upfront.
She said both Amazon and Dropshipping have a reputation for being “scammy.”
Helena suggested those looking to make serious dough should try to monetize their skill set and create a consultancy business — selling expertise and know-how that you’ve already accrued can be a much easier way to earn than trying to dream up something new.
Several commenters on her TikTok account thanked her for her insights and shared similar stories.
“Love the authenticity of this ????????” someone wrote.
“You’re talking so much sense… Everything CAN work when you give it your entire all. It’s an amazing reminder! You’re gold. As always. Thank you ????????????,” said another.
“Etsy store for a year, Pinterest with 100k monthly views, ZERO SALES ????????,” said a third.