Starting a Side Hustle

[00:00:00] Nancy Twine I think that's how a lot of great ideas are born is just from people wanting something that that doesn't exist. And then they have sort of the courage and passion to go out and create it themselves.  

[00:00:13] Jennifer Borget Today, we're diving into a subject that's on the minds of many: side hustles. With the rising cost of living and the pursuit of financial independence, more people are turning their passions into profitable side businesses. But how do you even start a business? How do you balance a full-time job with a side hustle? How do you grow your hustle? And what financial considerations should you keep in mind as you navigate this journey? To help us explore these questions, we're joined by someone who knows firsthand what it takes to launch a side hustle while still working full time. Nancy Twine is the founder and CEO of Briogeo, a clean, high performance haircare brand that has made waves in the beauty industry. Nancy grew Briogeo from a side hustle into a global brand that continues to be an innovator in clean beauty. Today, she's also passionate about coaching and mentoring side hustlers and early-stage founders. Later in this episode, I'll be joined by Erik Zipp, a Certified Financial Planner™ and vice president with the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, who will guide us through some of the financial considerations of starting and growing a side hustle, including important aspects like tax implications and managing your business cash flow. So welcome, Nancy. We're here today to talk about starting and growing a side hustle. To start, can you share a little bit about yourself and your career for our listeners?  

[00:01:38] Nancy Twine Yeah. So I am the founder and CEO of a clean haircare product line called Briogeo that I founded over 10 years ago. It was back in 2013, after leaving almost a decade long career in finance, I left to pursue my passion for clean and natural products, and Briogeo ended up becoming something so much bigger than I could have ever imagined. You know, when I was starting out, I just wanted to do something that I loved and that I was passionate about. And people love the products. We started receiving awards and so much press and, you know, through our partnership with Sephora, I really scaled the business pretty quickly and then took on a private equity partner and then ended up selling the business three years later in 2022.  

[00:02:27] Jennifer Borget Wow. Okay. So you mentioned your story. So for our listeners who aren't familiar with your story, can you just share a little bit about it and why you first started Briogeo?  

[00:02:34] Nancy Twine So I have a very unique family background. My mom was a chemist and a physician, and growing up, we used to make so many of our own beauty and personal care products from scratch at home, using my mom's chemistry background and then just different oils and extracts and butters and other, you know, natural ingredients that we would source from our local health food store. And at a young age, I learned that you could take these very simple and basic ingredients and actually transform them into highly effective beauty products. I ended up losing my mom in my 20s, and I was doing a lot of soul searching to figure out what it was I really wanted to do with my career. And I kept thinking back to those moments of making those clean products, but also seeing where the beauty category was starting to evolve with more consumers really gravitating towards clean and natural beauty becoming a lot more conscious of their hair, skin and body and how the ingredients they put on it can actually impact their health. And so, you know, Briogeo, the idea was really born from, you know, the passion that I had for making products, but also seeing that there was an opportunity in the marketplace.  

[00:03:49] Jennifer Borget Love the story of your family, you know, making these things together in the kitchen. And I'm like, that's taking science to a whole other level, especially when you end up turning that passion into a career. You know, everyone has a passion, or at least we like to all try to find our passion, but it doesn't mean that it's meant to become a business. And I know you speak a lot about whitespace opportunities, so can you kind of explain what that means and how listeners can find that?  

[00:04:17] Nancy Twine I think that's how a lot of great ideas are born is just from people wanting something that that doesn't exist. And then they have sort of the courage and passion to go out and create it themselves.  

[00:04:29] Jennifer Borget That's a great tip, a great thing to think about, you know, something that you're passionate about and you're like, man, this would be this would be a great product. So how do you transform your interests and your passions into like, a concrete business plan? Let's say, you know, you have this idea or you're like, all right, this this is something no one's doing yet. What are the essential steps for our listeners, you know, needing to take in order to turn this idea into something that can be a reality?  

[00:04:58] Nancy Twine You know, the first thing is just really sort of getting your idea on paper. And the more that you can also—especially if it's a brand—sort of visually cultivate sort of what is the essence for the brand? What does it look like? What does it feel like? You know, what is the product and who's your target consumer? The vision piece is really important because as you start to have conversations with people who can maybe help you turn your idea into reality, being able to articulate the details about what it is you want to offer and how it provides value to the consumer is going to be really, really important.  

[00:05:36] Jennifer Borget Sometimes I think that can be the hard part, especially if you're one of the dreamers, you know, that's like: I have these ideas and I'm dreaming. But stopping to slow down and put it down on paper and make a plan can kind of get some of us hung up, I think.  

[00:05:52] Nancy Twine And even, like, you can Google. So there's, you know, really incredible successful founders that have actually put their like pitch decks on the internet. And you can Google like a best in class business plan or pitch deck and you can—I always think that's helpful to see what other people who have been successful sort of what that has looked like. It’s just a great way to kind of get inspiration for like all the things you need to be thinking about.  

[00:06:17] Jennifer Borget Yes. And kind of like a having a template or something that you can go by and kind of swap things out. So you mentioned being on Wall Street and having a full-time job and you were doing that while you were developing Briogeo and in the early stages, right? So how did you balance both roles?  

[00:06:37] Nancy Twine Yeah. I mean, I think it's just a matter of using your time, you know, effectively. And for me, that was, you know, making time in the evenings and on the weekends to just, you know, take little baby steps to, you know, start formulating my idea and my business plan. But I think it all comes down to, you know, even if at some point you get to a point of being able to full time work on your passion project, you have to really budget your time. Especially starting out, you probably don't have a big teams. You have to figure out, okay, well, how can I optimize as much of my time as possible? So really being disciplined around that and scheduling things into your calendar. Also making time for your personal life, too, is important so that you can create that balance to, you know, try to prevent burnout and all of those things. But I think time management is really, really key, especially if you're working a day job while also trying to get a business off the ground.  

[00:07:36] Jennifer Borget And you mentioned helping other people out and Googling things and, you know, finding people who have walked the walk before. How important was it for you when you were starting out—having a support system? Did you have mentors and how did that help you when taking this leap, maybe to full time into your business?  

[00:07:54] Nancy Twine I didn't really have mentors per say, but I had people who were helping me. You know, I had a creative agency that was helping me with my packaging and my design, and they were so helpful to me and sort of thinking through what that can look like. Or maybe I had, you know, a contract manufacturer that was helping me with my formulas. So these weren't mentors, per say, but I had sort of different circles of experts that helped me to sort of navigate the early building blocks to, you know, creating my company, which I think is really important.  

[00:08:26] Jennifer Borget And it sounds like you didn't feel like you needed to take it all on yourself. Like you knew what things you could handle, what maybe you should delegate. And that probably helps with burnout and time management, also.  

[00:08:38] Nancy Twine Even if you have a great idea, it doesn't mean that you can do all parts of it. Like I'm not a graphic designer, so for me to try to like create packaging design would just not have been a great thing. Same thing with, you know, product formulation. I obviously have some background through my mom, but I'm not a chemist. So I needed to really rely on a chemist to help me create stable, efficacious formulas. And I think that's the case for like most founders. You have to depend on people, whether it's your co-founder or your team. That's something that you have to really accept is that you can't do everything, nor should you try to.  

[00:09:14] Jennifer Borget And you bootstrapped Briogeo for years, right? You were kind of self-financing it on your own, is that right? So what advice do you have for people who are who are trying to do this and trying to set up their finances, getting a business going? You know that it seems like it can be really scary.  

[00:09:35] Nancy Twine I mean, it definitely can be. And that's why I really encourage people to, you know, hold on to your day job for as long as you can, because that can also be sort of a self-funding mechanism. And also, you know, making sure that you have enough savings to fall back on when you do take that leap of faith so that you're not, you know, putting yourself under so much pressure and stress to get sales, to be able to just support your existence. And so I think that financial planning piece is really, really, really important.  

[00:10:10] Jennifer Borget I did news reporting. I was freelance writing for a while. And when I was trying to decide if I wanted to jump full time into like freelance and content creation, it was like I had to wait, you know, until I got to a certain point where I felt comfortable doing that. But in the meantime, it was like, this is this is just fine. You know, it's extra money.  

[00:10:29] Nancy Twine Yeah, absolutely.  

[00:10:30] Jennifer Borget When you take that leap, it's definitely, you know, a big step. And then it's like, all right, game time.  

[00:10:36] Nancy Twine Totally.  

[00:10:38] Jennifer Borget So as your brand started gaining traction, your brand, how did you prioritize reinvesting in your business versus like paying yourself? And do you have advice for listeners? I'm kind of trying to figure out how to manage this balance.  

[00:10:52] Nancy Twine I think in the beginning, I think, you know, it's probably unrealistic to think that you were going to, you know, make or pay yourself a salary above sort of what your required means are. And so you obviously have to take care of yourself first and foremost. You have to pay your bills. But, you know, getting real that you may have to make some sacrifices around some of those luxuries that perhaps you had when you weren't running your own company. You may have to make, you know, some sacrifices for several months or even several years while you take, you know, sort of any incremental revenue coming in from your job or the company to reinvest in that growth. But the reinvestment piece is really important because the more that you can reinvest sooner, the higher your chances are of being able to get to scale, you know, over time. It's very similar to that sort of compounding interest. It's like, you know, you want to start investing early and as much as possible, and over time it starts to build upon itself. And so I think that that's a really good parallel to how you think about investing in your business early on.  

[00:12:03] Jennifer Borget We talked about keeping your full-time job as you're getting this going. Did you have a moment where you realized, all right, time, time to take it full time when you realized you were ready to leave your full-time job and then to make Briogeo your full-time job?  

[00:12:19] Nancy Twine There's always that inflection point where you have to ask yourself: am I doing the company's future a disservice by not focusing all of my time on making this as big as it can be? And when you confidently can say yes to that, I think that's oftentimes a really good, you know, sort of metric to define whether or not it's time for you. One of the great things, you know, compared to a few decades ago, the barriers to entry are a lot lower. You don't have to go through ad agencies. You don't have to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars of billboards. There's been sort of a democratization of access to audiences through things like social media and digital marketing. And you see this sometimes, too, like on Instagram, you'll see, you know, people that maybe had like a small, you know, hair salon or maybe were selling candles and they just tapped into like the right strategies on Instagram or TikTok. And they kept at it over a period of time, and they actually built their own audience that they can actually market to and have really scaled businesses that way. And so I really recommend for, you know, any founder who's in the consumer space, you have to invest in a social media strategy, an organic strategy. You just...you have to. But then you also have to figure out what sort of paid strategies are going to make most sense for you. Is that investing in influencers? Is it investing in social media advertising? Is it taking out, you know, a billboard or coming up with some sort of referral program? You have to have sort of your roadmap for where you're going to invest your time, money and energy into sort of cultivating those strategies so that you can build demand for your product in those retailers.  

[00:14:17] Jennifer Borget And there are so many options today, like for marketing, like you're saying that's completely different. And I think it makes it a lot easier for new companies to, like you were saying, tap into that. You know, it's like, hey, jump on some social media TikTok trends and who knows, you could go viral. Now, I want to know what kind of misconceptions do you think there are or maybe that you had with turning a side hustle into a full-time business and what yeah, what misconceptions do you think are out there? I don't know if you had any because it seemed like you were pretty, like ready to jump in and go. But do you think there are others out there?  

[00:14:52] Nancy Twine I think, you know, building the right team around you is harder than people think. You know, finding people who match your values, who have the right expertise that you can afford. You know, there are so many things that go into building a really solid team. It's not easy. And you have to be very, very thoughtful about who you let into your company. The other sort of misconception, some things just take time, and you do see certain brands at scale so quickly. Oftentimes it's because they got, you know, lucky with a marketing strategy or they had a lot of investments. They were able to pour money into things. But things just take time. They just do. And you have to just be consistent and you have to stay with it. And I find, you know, the people that don't have sort of that advantage of, you know, having a lot of funding or being an influencer with a million-follower audience or, you know, any of those head starts. It's all about quality and consistency over time. I think both of those things—quality and consistency—is what helps you get to that next thing.  

[00:16:02] Jennifer Borget Thank you so much, Nancy, for sharing your wisdom with us. I'm like pumped up now. I don't know when I'm going to start, but, you know, I'm ready. It was great speaking with Nancy and learning more about her journey, building her side hustle into a global brand. One point she made that really resonated with me was about barriers to entry. Social media has revolutionized and democratized access to audiences and allows side hustlers to do their own grassroots marketing. Now I want to know more about the financial considerations of a side hustle. So I spoke with Erik Zipp. Erik is a certified financial planning professional and is vice president of strategy for the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. So for a listener out there who's feeling inspired and wants to maybe start a side hustle, what are the initial first, first steps that they need to take?  

[00:16:52] Erik Zipp I think there's a few that come to mind, and I think the most important is coming up with a plan for the cash flow. The side hustle might be driving extra expenses and thinking through the sequencing of that, is there going to be a major expense upfront that you're going to need to think through how to cover? Or is it more ongoing expenses? And then the fun side of that is thinking through the cash coming into your wallet because of the side hustle. And so really coming up with a plan around the cash flow. And one side of the cash flow that a lot of times isn't thought about and overlooked is the tax situation and the implications of on the tax side. Second would be the legal ramifications. Making sure that you have the right legal structure in place. A lot of times that could be just as easy as setting up like an LLC, so it doesn't have to be a major lift. And then finally, it would be and probably most importantly, thinking through how it impacts your personal financial situation. Are you going to have to dip into a savings or emergency fund to be able to cover this upfront expense? Are you going to be able to fast track some of your goals that you've put off in the past? But now you're able to really jumpstart—our NM advisors are really able to help you sort through balancing all of those things when you're first thinking of jumping in.  

[00:18:09] Jennifer Borget So you mentioned tax implications. Now that sounds a little bit scary. What are some of them with having a side hustle?  

[00:18:16] Erik Zipp The biggest implication to start off with is that you're likely moving from being an employee of a company where the company is handling a lot of the tax withholding and making sure that the IRS gets their fair share of what you're taking home and you're moving into a world where you are the employer. You're the owner, and you're responsible—responsible for planning out all of your tax payments that could be paying quarterly. But at a minimum, knowing what you're getting into when you launch the side hustle.  

[00:18:48] Jennifer Borget All right. So this is something you kind of got to plan for, initially, maybe you have never had to plan for this before, but now you've got to think about it, whether that's maybe setting money aside or something like that.  

[00:18:58] Erik Zipp Yes. I think in a best-case scenario, you're pulling in a lot of extra cash flow and you might be spending on things that you weren't able to spend it on before. And then tax season comes around and you have an unexpected bill that you have to come up with gas that you don't have to pay for.  

[00:19:12] Jennifer Borget You're like, whoops, wasn't counting on that. Okay. So that's good. That's a good tip to remember that. Now a side hustlers start to bring in this extra income. How can a listener make smart financial decisions about what to do with that money? You were just talking about, you know, it's like, yes, I'm making all this extra cash. I can blow it. But it maybe, you know, wasn't a W-2 job. And should they be...can they spend some of that? Should they be saving it? All of it? You know, how should you work through that?  

[00:19:39] Erik Zipp And so many people are thinking through that right now. Northwestern Mutual, we had a planning and progress study just last year, and it found that 40 percent of working age people surveyed are looking to kick off a side gig in the coming year. So this is a very common question that our advisors are getting. And there's really three options when it comes down to it. And it doesn't have to be all or nothing on any three of them. So the first is really taking it as extra income and making sure that you're able to make ends meet in a way that you weren't able to before. So everyone can be tighter on a budget in this environment, and this allows a little extra flexibility and your day-to-day cash flow. The second: making sure you can save and invest for not only the long term, but short and mid-term. Maybe your car has just been needing a lot of repairs and you're able to swap into a newer, newer car. Maybe you're able to jumpstart retirement in the long term and coming up with an investment game plan for that extra cash income again. And then finally, people might find that their side hustle is getting a lot of traction, and they want to scale it up to something huge. And you can look at investing right back into the business. So, again, you can balance all three of those. It doesn't have to be one of the three but coming up with a real plan for how you manage those options that you have.  

[00:21:00] Jennifer Borget And that sounds like a best-case scenario ever, like sweet. Okay, this is no longer a side hustle. Maybe this is now my new full-time thing, especially if it's something they're passionate about. That's got to be really exciting. So from a financial expert perspective, what should someone consider before maybe making that move from taking their side hustle to their primary source of income?  

[00:21:22] Erik Zipp You know, starting with developing a plan for what you want the side hustle to be, what kind of a business do you want to build with that side hustle? So that's really the kicking it off. And then second, making sure that you have the right amount of cash flow to sustain your lifestyle. You don't want to decide, “I'm going to quit my full-time corporate job and start the side hustle” and then realize, wait a minute, this isn't going to work at all. So making sure that the cash flow needs are taken care of, other things are you're probably losing some of the benefits that you had being an employee, health insurance, disability insurance, structured vacation. All of those are now going to be resting on you and thinking of where you become full time, it could require scaling that makes you hire additional talents and employees. And all of a sudden, now you're the employer and you might not be spending as much time doing what you really love and could end up spending time managing people and understanding that's what you're getting into when you when you turn it into your full-time gig. That's where our Northwestern Mutual advisors are really digging in with clients on a day-to-day basis to balance those decisions.  

[00:22:34] Jennifer Borget And that's so nice having someone who maybe can take this unbiased look at what you're dealing with. You know, it's like because when you're in the middle of it, you're like, but I love this so much. Sometimes it can be hard to see it as clearly.  

[00:22:48] Erik Zipp Yeah. So you're, you're focused on the exciting things, and you might be just missing some things under the surface that if you call them out early enough, you can plan appropriately for they don't become issues long term.  

[00:23:00] Jennifer Borget That makes sense. So how important is establishing and maintaining business credit for a side hustle?  

[00:23:06] Erik Zipp Yeah. As you start scaling the business and getting the business name in the entity out there and a history of financial transactions and business credit, it opens doors for you long term. Like the SBA program—Small Business Administration—allows you to get access to loan programs if you have built up that credit over time. So it's important just to start building the credibility of your business entity and not just have it be you yourself.  

[00:23:35] Jennifer Borget Okay. So for someone who is considering starting a side hustle and this can range from anything, right? Like if you're helping bring groceries where people are walking dogs or, you know, launching a whole business or something, what financial advice would you give to someone who's considering this and maybe is in their early stages of managing one.  

[00:23:54] Erik Zipp To start charting out a plan. It doesn't have to be a super complicated plan for how this is going to play out over ten years, but start writing out and working with someone to develop the basics of what a plan could look like and start stress testing it. What if this doesn't take off? What is the performs the way I think it is? What if it really takes off and sort through some of the decisions that you anticipate making early on, because then as you go down the path of the side hustle, it just becomes a much more smooth ride to success.  

[00:24:25] Jennifer Borget Having a plan, I feel like that's a common, common piece of advice we're hearing over and over again. And for some of us who can sometimes struggle with long term plans, I think that's really good to remember. So thank you. Thank you for joining me for this episode of A Better Way to Money. Here are my key takeaways from my conversations. First, keep your day job. You don't have to go in all at once. Having a steady income can help fund your side hustle while still keeping your budget on track at the same time. Only you know when the time is right to take your side hustle full time, but there's no need to dive straight in. Next, quality and consistency. Nancy emphasizes that things are not always going to happen on your timeline despite your best efforts. Things take time, and it's all about quality and consistency. The quality of your product and consistency and getting in front of people. And finally, make sure you're managing your cash flow from setting up separate accounts to setting aside money to pay taxes. Make sure you have a plan to manage your side hustle money. Now, if you're interested in more on this topic, be sure to check out our page at NorthwesternMutual.com/podcast. This episode page also includes resources for starting your own side hustle. 

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) owns the CFP® certification mark, the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification mark, and the CFP® certification mark (with plaque design) logo in the United States, which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. 

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM) and its subsidiaries in Milwaukee, WI. 

This is not intended as legal or tax advice. Financial Representatives do not render tax advice. Consult with a tax professional for tax advice that is specific to your situation.