A couple weekends ago, when I was on my way home from the Pilates training that I decided to quit, I went to my friend Colin’s show. He and his friend started a small band and play cover songs at different bars and events throughout the Fairfield County, CT area. They are called ‘’the Four O’clock” and they are FANTASTIC.
The next morning I woke up at 6 am to go teach my morning exercise classes at the barre/yoga studio,“True Blue Studio”, my sister and I opened a little over a year ago.
On my way back home, I stopped by my cousin’s house to pick up our new apparel for the studio-he just graduated college and opened a screen printing business on the side called “DKatz Design”. He has great quality and is much faster than anything online.
Then, on Sunday I went to my cousin’s art show. She rents out a studio in Hartford CT and every year they sell their most recent works. They primarily focus on paints and drawings, all breathtakingly beautiful. They call themselves “Mount Hook”.
When I stopped to really think about it, all weekend long I was either participating in, or contributing to a side hustle. This didn’t strike me as odd at first because many of my friends and family members have some sort of side hustle. I couldn’t help question whether this was a generational trend rather than a local coincidence, I mean all of those connections in the same state, on the same weekend?!
Once I did more digging, I found out there is some evidence of millennials digging side hustles. Different articles quoted anywhere between 28-68% of millennials have a side hustle.
I’m not sure which percentage is more accurate, but my own experiences and relationships were shouting this phenomenon at me. Articles and studies aside, just in my inner circle of friends and family there are 12-13 of us who have some type of side hustle.
Earlier I mentioned the screen printing business, the band, and the art studio, but some others are bartenders, dog walkers, fitness instructors, bloggers, food critics, and / or coaches on the side. What we are doing varies drastically, but then I started to ask myself why we do it…
Why do we all feel the need to do something on the side? Why can’t we just be happy with our day-to-day jobs?
When I started snooping around there were a few reasons that came up as to why millennials have side gigs: 1) To have a creative outlet, and 2) As a way to get extra cash.
A creative outlet
The creative outlet reason really resonated with me the most because the reason I and many of my friends have our side businesses isn’t just for the money. It’s a way to do something we love-truly a creative outlet. Psychologists today put it perfectly and observed some millennials needing to feel a “spark” and “fulfilled”. They want to do something “impactful”, something that can be their small contribution to the world. Having the side hustle allows them to not only follow and realize that passion, they are able to do so without completely sacrificing their financial stability or 9-5 gig.
Making some extra $$$
Then, there is the second small point of making some extra cash on the side. As we all know, millennials have more debt coming out of college than any other generation-and we aren’t necessarily being paid any higher. Which leads many of us to living at home for a long time or putting off buying houses or any other major assets. Having a side gig offers a little extra cash on the side to help with some of the weekly costs we all have. The Washington Examiner found that 68% of this additional side hustle income is stashed away for weekend dinners, home repairs, retirement or vacation rentals just to name a few, mainly things millennials could not afford otherwise.
Whatever the reasoning is, millennials having a side hustle is absolutely a trend that is taking off. We are working full time jobs and a good amount of us are pursuing something smaller on the side… but we are lazy and entitled brats,right?!
-Emily