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How I Turned My Business Into a Side Hustle [Ep 81]

Eight months ago, I was working 20-25 hours a week running my systems consulting business. Today? I’m pulling in the same revenue working just 10-12 hours while juggling a full-time job.

Plot twist: This wasn’t about working smarter or some magical productivity hack. It was about getting brutally honest about what actually moves the needle in my business.

The Uncomfortable Truth About “Busy Work”

Here’s what I realized when I started tracking my time with Toggle. I was doing a lot of things that felt important but weren’t really moving my business forward. When you have all the time in the world (or what feels like it), it’s easy to justify spending hours on tasks that are really just glorified busy work.

The forced constraint of having limited time? It became my greatest asset.

But let me be clear about something upfront: I’m coming at this from a privileged position. I had five and a half years of full-time business experience to draw from, which meant I could make quick decisions about priorities. If you’re newer to business and running it alongside a day job, give yourself permission to pivot as you learn. That’s part of the process.

Priority #1: Streamline Your Sales Systems

The first thing I tackled was my sales system, and honestly, I got lucky here. Eight months earlier, when my partner and I decided to travel for five months, I’d already simplified my offers out of necessity.

Before: Three different service packages with varying deliverables, complex pricing structures, and projects that constantly went over time because scope creep was a nightmare.

After: Two offers. Period.

  1. Systems to Scale Audit – My intro offer that converts really well to done-for-you work
  2. Done-for-you projects – One flat rate per 4-week working period

Here’s how the project pricing works: Instead of saying “this includes a ClickUp build, Dubsado setup, and five automations,” I now say “I think this project will take eight weeks, and I charge $X for every four weeks we work together.”

This model eliminated scope creep completely. The client knows exactly how long we’re working together, I can plan my capacity better, and if we need to extend, we have that conversation with clear boundaries already in place.

The goal with sales became making everything as easy and doable as possible. I don’t have to spend a lot of time selling my offers anymore because they just make sense to people. Either they want it or they don’t – and either way, it’s fine.

Priority #2: Optimize Your Delivery Systems

Even with streamlined offers, I’m still building the actual systems for clients – that’s the most time-consuming part. So I focused on three key areas:

SOPs for Everything I created standard operating procedures for every repeatable task. My assistant can now handle execution work like setting up email sequences while I focus on strategy and client communication. Without her, I honestly don’t think I could manage both the job and the business.

AI Integration I’ve become obsessed with Poppy AI lately. Here’s my process: I create a board for each project, drop in the kickoff call recording, any templates I’m sharing, and client materials. Then I connect everything to Claude (which Poppy integrates with) to help write check-in emails, reminder sequences, or whatever the project needs.

The board learns with me throughout the project, so by the end, I have this comprehensive resource that’s informed by everything we’ve done together. It’s like having a visual map of how I’m utilizing AI, and you can see exactly what information the chat is using.

Ruthless Delegation My whole goal with delivery was maintaining a high standard while working faster. I’m still communicating with clients daily and checking in regularly, but I’m only focusing on the things that truly need my attention.

Click here to watch my full walkthrough of how I use Poppy Ai.

Also, you can also use my affiliate code: SYSTEMSWITHSAM for $25 off!

The Mental Health Moves That Changed Everything

Beyond the operational changes, I made some decisions that were purely about protecting my sanity:

Waitlists on Everything I removed all the “book now” buttons and put waitlists on both my audit and done-for-you services. I also removed the free consultation call from my bio. No one can just grab my calendar anymore, and this single change made me feel completely in control of my capacity.

The Great Unfollow I unsubscribed from probably half the business newsletters I was getting and unfollowed a bunch of accounts in the online business space. The constant “you have to do THIS to be successful” noise was creating FOMO that I just didn’t need while navigating this transition.

I’m naturally a FOMO-prone person anyway, so stepping back from all that online business marketing has been incredibly refreshing. I’m on Instagram way less and honestly not posting much content right now besides podcast episodes.

Your Quick Wins to Implement This Week

Start Time Tracking If you’re not already tracking your time, start this week. I use Toggle and have for years – it’s the only way I know exactly where my 10-12 hours are going each week. Your time is your most valuable asset, especially when you’re juggling multiple priorities.

Audit Your Offers Look at what you’re selling and ask: How many different ways am I packaging essentially the same service? Can I simplify this? The goal is clarity for both you and your clients.

Identify Your Busy Work What are you doing that feels important but isn’t actually moving your business forward? For me, it was a lot of “why not” tasks that I justified because I had the time.

What’s Next (And Why I’m Still Figuring It Out)

My next priority is getting back to marketing and content creation. I took a step back from posting during this transition because it felt weird to create content without addressing this huge life change. But now that I’m talking about it openly, I’m excited to share more about what I’m learning.

The beautiful thing about this whole process? I’m still figuring it out as I go. I made these decisions based on five and a half years of experience, but I’m still going to pivot and adjust based on what happens next. And that’s exactly what makes this real and applicable to your situation too.

Want to try Poppy AI?

Click here for my full walkthrough of my current favorite tool Poppy Ai!

  • Affiliate code: SYSTEMSWITHSAM for $25 off!

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