Start a blog to build an online presence and a business, they said. This can help you get established as a writer, or help lead you to a new career, they said. Starting an online passion project is touted by many to be the ultimate dream: a chance to take your life and your time in your own hands.

While people can say that starting an online business and seeing it become successful is a dream come true, especially with mainstream media catching on and with thousands of ‘inspiring’ articles telling you to do the same, many people just don’t see the dark side of starting an online business.

Spoiler alert: it sucks sometimes.

The Dark Side of Starting A Business with a Full Time Job

I tried starting this small blog business of ours as a means of clawing myself out of the cubicle life. Let’s all face it: having a full time job sucks (at least for most people).

With a cubicle full time job, you are expected to come in to work day in and day out, clock 8 hours (or more) of so-called work, sitting in front of a computer, typing away at a keyboard. Your time is not yours because you sold it for money, you have to deal with office politics (the worst), and you have all these ideas in your head that you can’t even action on at the moment because it has to take a back seat to your ‘day job’.

After you clock in your hours, you go home, eat dinner, and decompress for a few minutes before you try and do your side hustles or work on your online business. You put a set deadline: OK, from 7pm to 9pm, I’ll work on this article. From 9pm onwards, I’ll do research, and I’ll be in bed by 11pm to get up the next morning to go back to work.

Planning can be different then reality

Even though you have set that schedule up for yourself, put it to paper and committed to it, certain things pop up.

Your 6pm dinner will have to be pushed back another hour and a half because you are still at work until 7pm and by the time you get home, there is no dinner because you ate all the leftovers for lunch. Whoops.

You spend an extra 40 minutes making dinner (and lunch/dinner for the next day), and plop down to eat it while watching a TV show or movie. Nothing like an hour of winding down.

And then you realize that the dishwasher is full and needs to be run, and so you do that, and take the trash out for good measure.

You even decide to vacuum and clean up, you never know when the next AirBnB guest will arrive, and after all, a guest is extra money in your pocket, helping to pay off your mortgage.

When you get to your room, the laundry needs to be done, so you go and do that too.

Before you know it, it’s 10:30pm and it’s only then that you start turning on your computer and trying to work. Your brain is just exhausted and refuses to do anything productive. You look at the stats of your website and get disappointed and dejected and end up going on social media just to pass the time and before you know it, it’s time to go to sleep.

Building a Business Can Suck

I’m sure a few people can relate to what I just said above, and a few might say I am a lazy bastard who just can’t be productive enough nor can I handle my time well.

Before you all start judging, not everyone has the same situation as I just outlined above. That came from my personal situation where I have a soul sucking job that takes up a lot of my brain power.

My lunch breaks are my respite

Despite my situation above, I can safely say that I never do any desk lunches. I would say that lunch breaks are my respite where it allows me to run errands, eat in peace, and maybe get a chance to blog on my phone or read books. But an hour and 15 minutes may not be enough, which is why you need that time after work to complete certain tasks.

Of course, household chores are not an everyday occurrence

You don’t need to vacuum everyday, nor run the dishwasher, or even do the laundry. You don’t even have to run errands everyday too, which is where your spare time comes in.

This spare time can then be used to spending more time with your family or your friends. After all, you are trying to start your business so you don’t have to go to work and you can just spend more time with your family. Remember: you are doing all of this for them!

This is the time when you can focus on your other side hustles: in our case, our Airbnb and our rental property. That spare time after work is enough to chat with guests, answer questions, clean up, and organize your calendar.

It’s a good time to look at your side hustle’s finances – pay additional to your mortgage, reassess your profit and loss, anything.

Maybe you spend the extra time emailing potential clients, trying to get their requirements in the hope that they will sign on to be an actual client and you end up with a few more pennies in your pocket.

If you’re a travel hacker, you use that time to catch up with travel news, updates on the credit card space, and plan your next trip using points and miles. Regardless if people say that travel hacking is easy, it does take a lot of time and organization sometimes, especially if you want your trip to be as close to free as possible.

At the end of the day, it is hard work

A lot of people advise that if you want to start your own online business, be prepared to work… A lot. Spend a lot of hours trying to build that business and learning new things.

But the truth is, you may be able to launch and build your business from the ground, only to end up not being the success that you wanted. And you know what? That’s perfectly fine.

You can be a small time blogger who generates enough revenue to pay for the website expenses, and that’s fine. You can use your online business to help you find clients. Think of it as your writing portfolio to send out to the world.

You may have been at it for a few years and still not broken through the big time, and again, that’s OK. Life happens. You don’t have to take time out of your life and what you love doing to slave away on your business all the freaking time.

What Matters Most

You are more than free to do whatever you want, but just accept the fact that your business may not skyrocket as fast as you want it to, and that’s OK.

What matters the most is that you are slowly learning your way around the online business. You are growing more as a person because of the knowledge that you are accumulating. You are connecting more with like-minded people who are trying to find a way to get their time back.

You are inviting more thoughts in your life. Your brain is actually working even during your free time, and isn’t that great?

Opportunities Abound

So you may be busy with life and other things in general, and your business may not be progressing the way you planned it to be or you are just tired and want to rest.

Remember that there are opportunities abound even if you are not progressing the way you want. And you know what? Sometimes taking your sweet time is still better than not doing anything at all.

Keep at your online business and remember – it’s not how fast you go, but how you stick to it and watch your little baby grow up.

And remember, all these hurdles makes you stronger as a person – so even if you feel like giving up, know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Related Posts:

The Cubicle Dwellers Manifesto

You Are More Than Your Job

Four Years On Our Path to Financial Freedom

Nonconforming Financial Independence

The Happiness Fund