Your Level of Hustle

Controlling your income isn't something any of us are actually able to do. That's even more true when you enter the world of freelancing. If you've been a professional artist for any amount of time, you already understand some of these hurdles. That can be part of what makes day-jobs more appealing than side-hustles. Day-jobs come with far more regular income. Side-hustles come with freedom. But they also come with a need to deeply understand your cash flow.

To understand your cash flow, create a budget. A realistic budget. Then create one that more accurately reflects the kind of life you want to lead. Both of these numbers are going to be important, and both of these numbers are going to help you understand when you need to hustle hard, hustle less, and when you can relax.

Hustle Hard

In your budgeting, you'll better understand what it is you need to make each week. This is the number that meets all of your financial obligations. The number that gets all of your bills paid. This is the number you have to hit every week to survive. Until you have hit this number for the week, month, and year - you're going to have to hustle hard.

With a creative life, the amount of money you'll need to make from week to week is going to vary based on your income from that creative life. If you've booked a particularly high paying gig later in the year, you may not need to hustle as much in a week where you aren't making that money. But you also might want to in order to build up your savings. That's entirely up to you.

This is the number you want to get into a rhythm of hitting as soon as possible. The sooner you hit this number without worry, the sooner you can work to raise your rates. Raising rates can raise your income and lower your hours. When you do, you're freeing yourself up to spend more time on your creative pursuits.

Hustle Less

Build and find the side-hustles that help you land in the "hustle less" category for much of the year. This is when you are making what you need to make, and are now setting your sights on the money you want to make. You should re-evaluate this number on a regular basis as your life situation changes. You might have new desires, or have new savings goals that can help you in the future. If you start to hit this number with ease, then you definitely want to raise the number (and raise your rates to achieve it). When you are between the need number and the want number, then you need to hustle less.

Hustle less also comes into play when you are working a creative job. Perhaps you are lucky, and your creative gig is covering your base number. If that's the case, you don't have to hustle hard. Unfortunately, though, your contract will eventually come to an end. You’re going to want to maintain your freelance business so that you don’t have to start over once you’re done with your gig. This is a good time to be in hustle less mode. You work to get up to your ideal number, but not over-exerting yourself in terms of number of hours worked.

Regular clients can help you to achieve these numbers with regular planning. It is important to build as many relationships witch clients as possible in order to more fully plan your income.

Relax

Relaxation is the hardest part of the formula. As before, this number will be different for everyone. The guideline that I'll offer is that you have hit your ideal income level for the week.

At the relax point, you no longer have to take any work that you don’t want to for that week. As a word of caution: just because you’ve gotten there this week doesn’t mean you’ve gotten there for next week.

This is when it becomes important to understand your cash flow and budget on a macro level. This can guide your financial needs week to week. Later in the year, you might have a gig that doesn't pay as well. If you have time on your hands, it might be a good moment to work ahead instead of relaxing.

Conclusion

To lead a creative life you really can’t live paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes times are good, and other times they are really lean. You want to build yourself a foundation that allows for those times and you to not really feel it in your lifestyle.

Want to learn more about side-hustles to empower your creative life? Check out my book, A Life in Art: Building Side-Hustles to Empower Your Life as an Artist.

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