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Back to (business) basics

On this week, seven years ago, I established my business and made things official.

I had been dabbling in side hustling and testing ideas for two years prior. A client here, a client there. But when I submitted the paperwork to actually have a business, something shifted. I began taking myself and my work more seriously. My writing got better, my sales calls got better, and I began playing the long game that has taken me to where my business and personal brand are today.

My perspective as a personal finance journalist is that a business would probably supplement your income and fuel your lifestyle design much faster than other strategies. A report from Bankrate last month noted that 56% of Americans are “financially stressed,” and 4 in 10 Americans have a side hustle now, according to a Harris poll last year commissioned by Zapier.

Your business also doesn't have to be the same thing all the time. My LLC's revenue sources have ebbed and flowed over the years, and it's fine. If you haven't officially formed your business, but aspire to make money online in some way, I can't think of a better set of actions to take now to start 2024 off strong.

Here's a post on some of the operational basics to have in place when setting up your business.

🔗 Business Basics Check-In

Hot Links

🔗 “Writing While Expecting to Die.” Inside the correspondence with a group of Gazan journalism students whose fellowship kicked off last month. (Mondoweiss)

🔗 What's Killing the Jump Scare? (The Washington Post -- friend link)

🔗 Strava’s bumpy road to monetisation. Medium still has its gems. (UX Collective - Medium)

🔗 Michigan State: ‘Sorry For Putting H!tler On Our Jumbotron.‘ Moral of the story: Don't ever rely on internet quizzes. (Defector)

🔗 Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste on Burnout and His Second Act as a Therapist. (GQ)

🔗 You Know It Can't Be Good When FTX and Dark Money Are Featured in the Same Article. (Esquire)

🔗 8 lead generation ideas you can use to grow your email list. (Copyhackers)

🔗 How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age. (NPR)

🔗 Sunday Firesides: Go 3 Feet Further. Art of Manliness is one of the best blogger-media publications hybrids in the biz. (Art of Manliness blog)

🔗 Cameo to the Moon, and Back. (The New York Times -- friend link)

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Cheering you on,

—Nick