By Teresa Dixon Murray
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) In 2017, according to CNN Money, 44 million Americans reported having a side-hustle to either pursue a passion or supplement their income, or both. Below is the story of one woman’s side hustle journey in NE Ohio.
CLEVELAND, Ohio
Brittney Moffatt started writing a blog two years, mostly for herself. It was cathartic. It was relaxing. It served as a sort of diary of her experiences as a young woman in the business world.
The 25-year-old lifelong Clevelander quickly realized that other people really liked what she was writing. Revenue started coming in from subscribers and advertisers.
Fast-forward two years: Moffatt, who by day is a marketing specialist at Lubrizol Corp., now earns thousands of dollars a year from her side-hustle called “According to Brittney.”
In true entrepreneurial fashion, her side venture has a few different tentacles. There’s the blog. There’s the content consulting. And there’s the social media consulting. And of course, there’s the passion.
Moffatt, who has a communications degree from Bowling Green State University, started her blog just before she began working at Lubrizol. Not only did Lubrizol not mind that she had a side venture, “that was part of the reason why they hired me,” she said.
The blog targeted millennial women who were college graduates and ambitious. “It started with just me talking about my own experiences,” she said. Then it turned into tips for others — mostly from her, but also from others.
She promoted her blog on Facebook groups and through networking and it took off as she landed readers and advertisers, such as Dollar Tree and Uber.
Now the blog is geared toward entrepreneurs of all ages. And she’s added in social media services. She created a Facebook group called “Content Marketing for Women Entrepreneurs, Bloggers and Influencers.”
Some of her clients are on retainer; some want just one project.
In early 2018, she started Content Creation Academy, and has attracted paid monthly subscribers.
Moffatt usually spends a few hours on her side hustle every day after work. Her efforts are paying off financially; she has earned about $5,000 in the past year. But she stressed that she’s not doing it for the money; her full-time job at Lubrizol covers her needs and wants.
She also enjoys her day job and says Lubrizol has been supportive of her. But she does have a longer-term goal: to launch an agency. “At some point, I’d like to have a team under my brand,” she said.
Her advice for other entrepreneurs is simple: Hang in there.
“It’s definitely normal to feel like you’re struggling and that it’s hard and not worth it,” she said. “A lot of entrepreneurs feel that way. We just don’t talk about it enough.”
But she reminds herself and others that it takes a special kind of person to be an entrepreneur. “If it was easy, everyone would run a business.”
