Tips for Managing Your Full-Time Job While Growing Your Side Hustle - with Special Guest Laurie Ernest-Jones - #014

Show Notes

A side hustle is a great way to build new skills, earn extra income, work with clients you love and do work you are passionate about. But - having a side business also means learning how to balance your time and priorities. Nola and Lori talk to guest Laurie Ernest-Jones, Founder and CEO of Conceptual Communications, about the tools, tips and time-management skills she developed over the two-year period of working her day job while balancing a growing side hustle.  ​

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Sticky Brand Lab
Exciting possibilities are in the works. Come have a listen!
In This Episode You’ll Learn

• Free and low cost resources for managing your time and tasks
• Why it’s so important to plan ahead and explicitly schedule your time in order to be successful 
• The importance of developing a schedule that allows you to be productive and fits your work style
• How being organized can increase your productivity and profitability

Think the only way to balance your full-time job and your side hustle is to work on either one of them in big blocks of time? Think again! By carefully planning your schedule and seeking out small pockets of time, you may find that you’re able to accomplish more throughout the day. That was just one of the many tips and technology Lori and Nola learned about productivity and increasing profitability from their interview guest and successful entrepreneur, Laurie Ernest-Jones.
(7:02.10) How do you decide what's most important to work on?
(7:25.15) The single most important tool you must have in order to run a successful side hustle. 
(9:15.92) This tip can help you organize your to-do list and check off more tasks.
(13:07.91) This tool will help you avoid trading time for dollars.
(22:32.57) This is how you can determine when it’s the right time to outsource.

Resources
This episode was supported by: Be-YOU-nique

Transcript

Lori: [00:00:00] Working a day job while building or growing your side hustle at the same time can be chaotic, especially if you're caring for your family, carving out time for friends, striving to exercise. Or just trying to keep every other aspect of your life afloat.

And if you are like us, your to-do list probably has a to-do list of its own. What is the key to managing it all? We've got one word for you: Organization. And that's our topic for today's podcast episode. Tune in for the tips, tools, and resources that will help you not only organize your business, but quite possibly help you bring in more income so you can reach your business and financial goals faster.

Nola: [00:00:49] How do you balance your time between what you have to do and what you want to do? How do you decide what's most important to work on? How do you make the most of the time you have so you can be productive, running and growing your side business? These are just a few of the questions. Lori, Ernest Jones, founder and CEO of Conceptual Communications and our guest today will be addressing.

Hello and welcome aspiring side hustlers, Nola, and Lori here with an unbelievably valuable episode of Sticky Brand Lab. But before we help you take that much needed step into getting organized, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. That way, you'll never miss out on any of our weekly helpful, informative, and always interesting podcasts. Now let's get this productive show started.

Lori: [00:01:41] Trying to run a side business while working a full-time job has its challenges, to say the least.

And the biggest challenge is finding time. But the rewards of doing so can help you create more balance in your life so you can gain more flexibility to earn money on the side. Laurie's agency, Conceptual Communications was named the 2018 Agency of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Lauderdale chapter.

As public communications experts, Conceptual Communications provides public relations, marketing, social media, and crisis communications to cities, counties, nonprofits, and companies throughout Broward County, Florida.

You may remember her from episode three, where Laurie shared the story of how she started her side hustle, and the point at which she made the leap of faith and turned it into a thriving and successful company. The truth is undeniable. Being organized will seriously increase your productivity. Speaking from experience and lessons learned, Laurie is here today to share her tips, tricks, and technology for getting and staying organized.
Welcome Laurie. Thanks for being here today.

Laurie M: [00:02:51] Thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Lori: [00:02:54] We're excited that you're here and for our audience members who haven't heard your episode three, a we'd love for you to share a little bit about  how you got your side hustle started and , how you grew it into the agency that it is today.

Laurie M: [00:03:10] My business actually started through my volunteer efforts. I was serving on a local nonprofit board and I was helping the organization with some marketing and public relations. . And the executive director at the time got a $5,000 grant and she came to me and said, Hey, you're doing such a great job.  Would you mind if I paid you through this grant to do some of the things you're doing for the whole nonprofit? So I said, sure, that sounds good. And then shortly after I started doing that,  a kitchen design company asked me if I could help them with some marketing stuff.

So  at that point I felt obligated to go to my boss and say, you know, hey, I want to do some kind of moonlighting on the side, you know, in the marketing world. I think it'll help me in my job because I'll get to explore with things like not on the city's time. And he was open to that. He said, fine. You just can't do any work for any other city. And, don't do it on in your day job. So it grew and grew. I did it for two years before I actually quit my full-time job and I was working every lunch hour and nighttime and weekends, and I just ran out of bandwidth to be honestly. I was actually doing pretty well financially cause I had, you know, a foot in each boat at the time. So I was able to save a lot of money and I just really grew to love it. And it came time where I didn't really dislike my job. I liked my job. I just liked consulting and growing the business more. Um, and that was ultimately the decision. And then I just got a client that was, you know, pretty big at the time. And I had to make a decision at that point. So I, I jumped ship into the world of entrepreneurship.

Lori: [00:04:55] One of the things that Nola and I loved about your story is it was a business of service,  right from the beginning.  Your example  of giving back as part of being,  with a nonprofit and in your community, we loved that.  You weren't thinking I'm going to start a side hustle, but your, your Starbucks story made us chuckle.

Laurie M: [00:05:20] That was my first awakening because I didn't have enough time on my lunch break to literally go into Starbucks and order something and sit down and get connected to their wifi. So I would just bring my own lunch, sit in my car, partially, eat it and just steal their wifi. And then just go back to work so, you know, it got crazy. Really that the last six months all I did was work and I knew I had to you know, get better organized. Really quit the full-time job and, uh, and just devote my time to, to the side hustle. Yup.

Nola: [00:05:58] Going off on lunch hours reminds me of when I was consulting on the side and had a full-time job. And I was at an office building that had a space on the sixth floor that you could rent by the hour.   They had started this package deal for people who had businesses so that they would collect your mail and, and give you a mailing address and then would also rent, um, space. So there were times where I would  rent a meeting room, I would run upstairs during my lunch break, either have a video conference or meet a client or meet a sales representative, and then try to wrap up the meeting before, before the hour was up. Then I'd run back downstairs and  pick up my work where it left off. And it got really crazy.

Laurie M: [00:06:43] Yeah, it's just not sustainable. You know, it's, you're one person and, that's where some of the organizational tools that I put in place early on have truly been a savior to me. Um, in growing the business like efficiently.

Nola: [00:06:58] So why don't we dive into that first question. How do you decide what's most important to work on?

Laurie M: [00:07:06] In public relations you're constantly dictated by deadlines, right. A media outlet calls, and they're like, we need this interview at 2:00 PM today, and then my amazing PR manager jumps on that and makes that happen. But that oftentimes changes things, right? So all the more need to, be organized . So this is my first piece of advice for people starting to grow their business.  You need some sort of project management software from day one. Even if it's just you and you have no employees yet. I started with a Google doc  I started with Trello after Google docs. , and now my company actually uses Teamwork.  It is so important to managing deadlines because, if you're just you, you come in, you set up your day for the day, you click on something and if you've set up tasks for yourself, you know exactly what you have to do for that day. What to do, because there's a lot of moving pieces when it's just you, your cook, bottle washer, server all in one. So you have to stay organized with your task list. I can't say enough about that. I know it could seem time consuming. Like I'm spending more time entering the tasks, but when the, you know, what hits the fan and you have everything in there, that's not about that one client as your business starts to grow. It's so helpful because , you don't forget things, especially when there's a lot of moving pieces.

Lori: [00:08:31] It beats the post-it notes that I started with.'

Laurie M: [00:08:34] Yeah, it does.'

Lori: [00:08:34] Before there was software you'd had no choice. Right? How would you do it?

And then you started using color coordinated posted notes.

Do you have any advice for if you're creating your own system,  how do you even organize that part?

Laurie M: [00:09:00] I started organizing by subject matter. So I would put like, you know, in my business it's okay what media release has have to get written? What web updates have to get done? What email marketing campaigns have to go out.

So I started organizing it at the beginning like that. And I quickly learned it's easier to do it by client. So within a couple months I shifted the whole system around and I said, okay, what do I need to get done for client A, for client B for client. C, and then prioritize each client by deadline. Now teamwork's iteration number three, prioritize is by right it's by day. So you can sort your list based on  what is in my queue for today? And it does it also by client for you, but it's a software, so it makes it all nice. But it does prioritize by like what's today. What's tomorrow. What's for this week.

Lori: [00:09:58] When you organized your to-do lists. And when you first started out, did you, did you keep everything, so your day job and your side hustle, all of the tasks in the same system, or did you divide them out? Did you color code them?

​Laurie M: [00:10:15] Two different systems completely. I had, you know, literally a desktop. This is, you know, several years ago.

Lori: [00:10:23] ago?

Laurie M: [00:10:23] Yeah. So, you know, my full-time job had its own document management system. And then I had my own organizational system and my own personal laptop for my side hustle. So that made it really easy. I was literally on two different systems.
And then within the Google doc, I mean, it really was just based on, priority by type of work that had to get accomplished for each day. I mean, I spent a lot of time organizing on the weekends now looking back.

Lori: [00:10:54] That makes a whole lot of sense. I was wondering if you commingled

Laurie M: [00:10:58] Sunday was a big day. And that's, and that, again goes back to, you know, the beginning, you know, that's not sustainable for me. I have other interests in. Things I enjoy to do in life. I love my job, but I also love other things and it was just, you know, I didn't have a very good balance at the end.
​
Lori: [00:11:26] When we come back, Laurie's going to share her tips, tools, and technology for staying on top of things in your business while working a full-time job.

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Nola: [00:12:09] 
Welcome back to Sticky Brand Lab where the focus is on getting it done. So, you know, which small steps lead to the biggest effects for building a solid profitable side business.

I heard this quote from Louie Giglio. Whenever you say yes to something, there is less of you for something else, make sure your yes is worth the less. Laurie, how do you make the most of the time you have so you can be productive, running and growing your side business?

Laurie M: [00:12:37] So for me, it's all about organization. Everyone has a mentor and I was really lucky. My father-in-law grew a business and he parlayed  some really good pieces of advice. And now looking back, I'm like, man, they were all centered on organization. It really helped me have the time to, to grow the business and work with the clients. Right. You can't grow it. If you don't do a good job,  especially at the beginning, every client almost has to be satisfied and become a walking billboard for you.  That's still to this day, how we grow the firms.

 Step one. This was one of the tips  my father-in-law parlayed to me with was having a time sheet system. And what a brilliant thought, because when you're crazy busy, it is so easy even to this day, if I skip my time sheet for like half a day, I'm like, man, I'm not billing for all the time. What have I been doing for these four hours? How could I have missed this? So making sure you're accounting for your time, regardless of your business. Your client might not need a time sheet depending on how you set up your payment system with them, but you yourself should know how much of your time is going to each of your clients. Even if it's day one and you only have one, you should know what that means to you.  So I use a cloud-based system. My firm is still on it to this day. It's called Harvest and, now our invoicing is tied to it. And I have to say, I know a lot of firms spend a lot of money  and time on invoicing each month. And mine takes about a half a day. So time sheet number one from day one.

Lori: [00:14:12] Laurie, you on something so important with that I'm, I'm having this epiphany at the moment. Without the time sheet system that you mentioned, you're trading time for dollars. So if you don't know where your hours are going, then you don't know how you're going to do incremental increases to get paid for what you're doing.

Laurie M: [00:14:35] Exactly. And here's the kicker.  If, and when you grow and you hire your first employee and maybe a second, even if you have a couple of subcontractors that are helping you with some things, you will not know where their time needs to go. Still to this day, I look at Harvest and my teams time on each client and that tells me when I need to hire. How do you know? So everything for me goes back to organization and really this system. Um, this is what drives my business.  I mean, we're talking nominal cost for something that can really keep you organized and on track.

That's great. .So the second tool that I suggest, because this eats a lot of time is get a bookkeeper in place from day one. You know, one of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given is build your business like you're going to sell it, even if you're not planning to do that. But have good books and records in order. Bookkeeping can take a lot of time, and that's a really simple thing to outsource.

Nola: [00:15:38] Is that expensive for, uh, somebody starting out?

Laurie M: [00:15:42] I didn't find it to be .  I found a bookkeeper that had a side hustle, but at the beginning it shouldn't be too much. You know, that's another thing it's like, how much does, does this cost for us? How much time is this going to put in my pocket so that I can grow the business efficiently and service my client? What can I take off my plate? This question I constantly asked myself at the beginning. And yeah, maybe I couldn't afford really at the beginning, but I'm glad I did it. That essentially helped me grow really fast because that was one less thing I had to worry about.

Lori: [00:16:15] It sounds like part of the decision that you made was what to outsource and  where you wanted to put your time.

Laurie M: [00:16:22] Exactly. It is a lot easier on the organizational front to have someone say, your books are updated. Here's the link and go review them and take 20 minutes to do that than to spend three, four hours a month inputting and coding each little account, each little debit, you bought coffee, paper, whatever your expenses are, stamps. I mean, this is something that someone else can do, so you can focus your time on doing what you do best.  You also have to look at what you bill yourself out at, you know, how are you structuring your payment? My billable rate was greater than what I was paying the bookkeeper. So, you know, that's a plus, you know. If I made $10 extra an hour, I'm like, oh, I'm in the positive. This is the right move.

Lori: [00:17:06] That's a great tip, because again, it comes down to trading time for dollars. If you're wanting to grow your business, you have to be accountable to where you're going to spend your time. And if it's doing the books, that's not on client work, that's on the books. That's brilliant. Okay.

Laurie M: [00:17:24] My third piece of advice is , and this was also something that was parlayed on to me, which is, if it's just you or you have a small team. I actually, every day at 11:00 AM my team, we do a team huddle.

You share a win what's standing in your way and what's your focus for the day.  We do it in like 10 minutes . And if it's just you, it's easy cause you just write it down on a piece of paper and it should take all of 30 seconds. But it helps you at least stop and think what's the one thing that has a hard deadline that has to get done today. And we do it at 11 because it gives some time in that morning time for clients to bombard us with emails and things they need so that we can easily prioritize.  So it's a really simple. It costs nothing. It's an really simple tool that I highly recommend.

Nola: [00:18:13] So the questions are what's your win? What's standing in your way? And what's your priority?

Laurie M: [00:18:21] That's right. What's your focus item for today? 

Lori: [00:18:23] How has that changed your business? Cause you said you've been doing it for three years and you've been in business for quite a while. How did it change your business?

Laurie M: [00:18:31] Way more efficient. Our days are, much more focused. And it really just helps I think, better teamwork and flow. And it just helps you to not feel so overwhelmed. Um, taking a five, 10 minutes. Again, it's a small price to pay for organization throughout your day.

Lori: [00:18:52] What I like is that you also brought in a win. You make that part of the, it's almost like a reward. Like a, um, a little piece of chocolate in the day to say this is going all right. I'm doing good.

Laurie M: [00:19:06] Yeah, it's a win from the day before, especially  even if it's just you and one other person, you might know, not know everything that your teammate, you know, that happened in his or her world the day before. So those wins kind of boost you up.

Nola: [00:19:20] I can actually envision doing that as a team of one. Just, just as a way to stay motivated. What was, what was something I accomplished that I feel really good about that that took place yesterday? And then it would just put me in the right frame of mind, like, yeah. I got this. Okay. What am I tackling today? And you know, what's standing in my way, cause I know I can overcome just like I did yesterday. Okay. And this is going to be my focus.

Laurie M: [00:19:51] Of the team members recently, we added a thank you. So now we thank a team member for something that they did to help someone either that morning or the day before and assisting them with their work. So it reminds us that we're all there for each other and you know, that we, we all need each other to be successful in our individual roles.

Lori: [00:20:13] And I suppose if you're a team of one, you could do a gratitude. So the thing that you're grateful for, um, from the day before to help as a motivation as well.

Laurie M: [00:20:24] You know, on the surface level I recommend, I mean, I, it does sound a little kumbaya-ish if you will, but what I have to say, it really does work.

Nola: [00:20:36] Mindset's a big deal.

Laurie M: [00:20:38] It really is. Um, so yeah, highly recommend that that strategy. In 10 years, I've never had a day where I'm like, wow, I have nothing to do today. That is just, if you're going into business. If you're going into business thinking that and you know, I'll put it out there. A lot of people told me when I was going into this and I don't know what business these people are in, but it's like, Oh, when you work for yourself, you can take lunch when you want. It's like, what!? Who are those people I was like, you know.

Lori: [00:21:11] Yeah. If you find them, let me know cause I'd like to interview them too.

Laurie M: [00:21:14] Realistic expectations, right. It's you're going to work hard, but you have to like what you're doing. You have to know what goals you're working to. And being organized helps circle you back to all of that. In fact, me and my number two, we do not sign off for the day without asking each other, is there anything you need? Are you good? Did you get your to do done cause her and I are accountable to each other. So,  I can't say enough about staying organized and how much that I feel that helps me create my own destiny and, and really factors into the firm's success.

Lori: [00:21:50] I like that the accountability partner.

​Laurie M: [00:21:54] Well, that's the thing I can talk about these tools all day, but you got to do them.

Lori: [00:21:58] Did you have a, um, some form of accountability when it was just you and you were getting started?

Laurie M: [00:22:03] I didn't. And I wish looking back, I did. You know, I really just relied on a to-do list. And I feel like, unfortunately I probably miss some of my journey because of that. Um, but it is what it is. You know, all I can do now is hindsight's 2020. Right. You know, hopefully these tips, you know, fall in the hands of someone, who has the opportunity to start putting these things into practice now, early on in their journey.

Lori: [00:22:32] Outsourcing can be really tough, especially if the goal at the beginning is building a business. So how did you determine outsourcing and prioritizing that? Was there any,  prescription that you used for when it, when the time was right, what you would use?  I just wondered , besides your bookkeeper, , what did you outsource? How did you decide when the time was, if you had any insight or recommendations for that?

Laurie M: [00:23:02] For me, it was very calculated. I had my Harvest time sheet. I knew always exactly how much time I was billing and what the rates were. So it was easy for me to use the numbers to make a decision.
 The other thing for me is, I'm so trained in marketing that I could do every piece of the business with the exception of like one piece, which is I needed a graphic designer.

Like I couldn't, you can't do marketing without having graphics involved. So that was a must have, and I think it's important to make a list of the must haves. What can you execute and what do you need help with?  And then you have to determine, okay, how much can I bill this person out at? And how much will they charge me for their service? And that number, you know, the general rule for our business owner - and I followed this principle again, a piece of advice that came from my father-in-law from day one - everything should be a third, a third, a third. So a third of the rate should go to the person to cover their salary or their fee. A third should go to the business to cover your expenses. You have to provide internet. Whatever, you know, expenses the business has. And then a third goes to you as the owner, because a lot of the time you spend as the owner is not billable, right? I don't get to charge out when I have to review the bookkeeper's, you know, monthly report. Or I don't bill out when I'm actually doing invoicing.

So you have to make up for that time in some way, and that comes off things you decide to outsource if they're billable. If they're non-billable, they just become an expense to your company, like the bookkeeper expense. So it's important early on, I think, to make a list: what can I earn dollars on and what can't I? And, you know, you basically have to determine for your business. Do I have enough money coming in from the services I provide to cover these costs that I cannot bill out for? And that was the easy decision for the bookkeeper. Plus it didn't drain my energy. I don't like bookkeeping. I'm a marketing person. So you have to recognize where you want to spend your time because that's what drives your motivational wheel. Right? I don't want to be saddled with bookkeeping. I'd rather outsource that and have the time to service my clients. That's what I love to do.

Lori: [00:25:23] Yeah, energy drainer versus energy driver. That is an important piece. I'm really glad that you pointed that out. Because again, these are little things that when you say them , our audience listening may say, Oh yeah, that makes sense. But it doesn't make sense until somebody points it out.

Laurie M: [00:25:42] Right. And because you're so focused on doing the business, whatever you're doing, web design marketing, making a widget, you know, you're, that is just how we are as entrepreneurs. You're so focused on providing that service, that a lot of these other things fall. But you know, my, I guess my main message here is if you're organized in those other areas, you just have a better chance at succeeding in the long run.

Lori: [00:26:12] What is one at least one accomplishment that you're most proud of to date?

Laurie M: [00:26:17] So in 2018, my firm  won agency of the year by our professional organization, public relations society of America for our chapter in Broward County, Greater Fort Lauderdale. And then most recently we also just won the 2020  Public Relations Society of America award for the bBest Nonprofit Department in 2020 for, um, our work with a local nonprofit ,Legal Aid Services.

Nola: [00:26:44] Congratulations. That's awesome.

Laurie M: [00:26:49] Yeah.

​Lori: [00:26:50] is amazing. From a side hustle to such accolades. Um, wow. That's great.
Is it, is it very, very much is inspiring
So in a slight shift here, uh, for Nola and I, even before we came up with the idea of Sticky Brand Lab, we were meeting to share meals and our driver is food. And  it was during one of our dinners that the idea for Sticky Brand Lab actually came up. And we thought it would be interesting to see what your personal favorite recipe is and how it reflects your own experience and journey for success.

Laurie M: [00:27:33] So I'm going to  go after our family recipe for walnut cresecent cookies and the reason I'm sharing this recipe is because to make the cookies , it takes quite a bit of an effort and the dough is ground nuts and, uh, a bit  rocky, so to speak. But the finished product is so smooth and delicate. And I feel like for my industry with public relations, that really speaks volumes. A lot of the time, the work that goes in is very messy and labor intense, but the product that comes out is so smooth and can be so beneficial and, you know, help a company grow or a city thrive or a non-profit raise funds that are so desperately needed to help those in need. So, you know, I really feel like the Walnut Crescent cookies are spot on,  for the industry that I work in.

Nola: [00:28:24] I love that analogy.

Lori: [00:28:26] I think that's a good comparison to what it's like to start a side hustle and to grow it and to make it a worthwhile.

Nola: [00:28:34] That's so cool.

Lori: [00:28:35] Listeners, if you would like to learn more about Laurie, her PR marketing company, conceptual communications and the services they offer, or to get the recipe sheet provided, visit our website stickybrandlab.com/resource page.

Nola: [00:28:51] That brings us to the end of today's episode. We'd like to thank Laurie Ernest Jones, founder and CEO of Conceptual Communications for being our guest and providing valuable information on  getting and staying organized. Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative episode and remember, action creates results. So tap into your desire by taking 1% action every day. Small steps lead to big effects.
 
Out-take: So, you know, which small steps to lead that.