Does the "80-20" rule work for you? 🤔

Hello there,

This December, I’ve been slowing down a bit as a creator—taking time to reflect on my year and mentally preparing for the next one.

That’s one of the perks of being self-employed—you get to decide when to hustle and when to pause. 🛋️✨

This week, I sat down to crunch the numbers and see how my income stacked up across different streams:

• Client work 💼

• Writing on Medium ✍️

• Ebook sales 📚

• My newsletter 📨

• My website 🌐

And let me tell you, I was shocked by the results. 😲

My client business only outperformed my side hustles by 10-15%

Why is that such a big deal?

Because I’ve only been dedicating about 20% of my weekly time to my side hustles, and yet the income nearly matched what I earned from client work!

The classic 80-20 rule (hello, Pareto 👋) hit me hard: I wasn’t probably focusing on the right things enough in 2024.

On one hand, it’s a little disappointing, but on the other, it’s incredibly eye-opening. Building a client business takes time—closing a single deal can take 5-6 months (been there, done that this year!).

If you’ve worked with clients, I bet you can relate, right?

But on the flip side, side hustles can be so much quicker. 🚀

One email, one article, or one mention of a product can bring in a sale almost instantly.

It’s not your traditional “business,” but it sure can grow into a solid income stream.

Curious about how it all worked out for me? In my new ebook, I’ve shared my behind-the-scenes income from side hustles, including:

💰 4 years of monthly earnings on Medium (broken down by month!)
💡 My average monthly income from Medium writing since 2020
📈 2024 revenue from my website with 6K monthly organic traffic
📚 Top three ebook earnings from Gumroad (and what made them successful)
...and so much more!

Want to monetize your newsletter?

Here’s how I achieved it this year with all the challenges and quite a small email list.

This strategy works for super-busy content creators.

This is a friend link, so you can read my Medium article without a subscription.

What I’m currently working on 

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve decided to take it easy this December.

It’s my time to reflect on where my business stands, set priorities for the upcoming year,

Aaaand just relax a bit!

This week, I’ve finished an article about SEO and Medium for the beehiiv blog. I’m super excited to share it with you once it’s live.

I enjoy working with the beehiiv team, and I hope this partnership only grows stronger in the coming year. 🤝

I also finished up all my November projects for Fiverr, a freelance marketplace. We’re now chatting about how we can continue working together.

On top of that, I’m diving into a new book—”A Company of One” by Paul Jarvis.

Oh, and did you hear that Bitcoin hit $100k?

Big congrats to all the crypto enthusiasts out there! 🎉

That’s it for today! 😇 

Have a great weekend!

Victoria

P.S. I’ve compiled a list of creator tools with exclusive deals that help me grow my online business. Curious? Take a look here!