58: How to Start a Side Hustle as a Nurse

Thinking about starting a side hustle as a nurse?
In this episode, I talk about what it really looks like to build something outside of bedside while still working in nursing.

We cover:
 • Why nurses are uniquely positioned to start side hustles
 • How to figure out what you actually want to build
 • What the beginning of a side hustle really looks like (hint: not overnight success)
 • My personal story of starting a business while working as a nurse
 • How side hustles can give you more flexibility, creativity, and career options

Over the past few years, I’ve met so many nurses who started businesses, passion projects, or extra income streams without quitting their jobs.

If you’ve ever felt like you want more freedom in your career but still want the stability of nursing, this episode will show you what’s possible.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, hey, welcome to Life After Nursing School. I'm your host, Caroline Dana, aka Nurse Coach Caroline. And I'm here to help you, the new nurse, thrive in your career. As a former nurse recruiter, nurse manager, and now your personal new nurse career coach, I'm obsessed with making sure you don't just survive your first couple of years at the bedside. I want you to absolutely rock them. From the challenges to the triumphs, I'll be right here with you, giving you the real world advice and support that you need to shine. Whether you're in nursing school getting ready for life after, or you're already out there in nurse life feeling overwhelmed or even questioning your confidence, I've got your back. I'll be sharing tips, tricks, resources, and strategies that are just for you. We'll dive into everything from landing that dream nursing job to slaying imposter syndrome, and most importantly, how to keep that spark alive and stay the vibrant and amazing nurse that you are. So if you're ready to tackle the things nursing school did not cover, like how to build a career, trust yourself, and keep your passion strong, then get comfortable because we are about to dive in and make nurse life the best life. Today I want to talk about what it's actually like to build a side hustle as a nurse. Because I've done it and I'm still doing it. And honestly, it's not as unrealistic as people think. Since starting my business, I've met so many nurses on social media who have branched out into entrepreneurship, and most of them did it while still working traditional nursing jobs. And I really think that's one of the best parts of our profession is that we have income stability and we often have unique schedules that are actually very conducive to side quests like side hustles or even starting a business. My guess is that if you're listening to this episode, you are probably in one of two camps, okay? You either have been seriously thinking about starting a side hustle or business of your own, or you have actually zero interest in entrepreneurship, but you hit play anyway. If you're in camp one, I hope this episode helps you see that it is possible to be a nurse and also an entrepreneur. If you're in camp two, thank you for being here. Maybe you were meant to hit play on this episode today for whatever reason. I personally never in a million years thought I would end up in the path of entrepreneurship. And who knows, you might be like me and find yourself down this road someday too. Or maybe this just opens up your mind to other possibilities that you didn't even realize were there. Either way, I am so glad that you're here today. So, what is a side hustle anyway? For the purpose of this episode, a side hustle is any work, project, or business that you do outside of your primary nursing job that allows you to earn money, develop new skills, or create more freedom in your career. For nurses, a side hustle can be a way to explore other interests, reduce burnout, increase income, or open the door to new opportunities without giving up the stability of a nursing paycheck. Side hustles usually happen in your off hours and they don't interfere with your nursing role. They're meant to complement your life, not replace it or take away from it. Let's also spend a moment talking about what a side hustle is not, okay? A side hustle is not quitting your job tomorrow, it's not making six figures right away, it's not having everything figured out, it's not working 24-7. And it's not risking your financial stability. A side hustle is something that you build slowly while your nursing career supports you. If you fail, and you probably will a few times, your life isn't turned upside down. Think of a side hustle as a passion project or even an experiment. Here are some examples of side hustles that are very common for nurses per Diem or PRN work, teaching or tutoring nursing students, being a clinical instructor, being a content creator, a coach of some sort, selling digital products, selling handmade products online, some type of consulting, health and or fitness coaching. I actually have a friend who sells ketones and another friend who sells workout plans and fitness coaching. Aesthetic nursing is also a great side hustle, starting a podcast or building a brand. And I also want to add here that a side hustle doesn't have to turn into a business, but sometimes it does. Sometimes a side hustle isn't just about money. Sometimes it's about feeling creative again, feeling challenged again, or feeling like there's more for you than just working bedside shifts. And a lot of nurses start side hustles not because they hate nursing, but because they want more options. I know for me, my side hustle started because I had lost passion in the work that I was doing. I started my business while working as a travel nurse recruiter remotely. And as you know, I love all things recruitment, talking with candidates, working on resumes, coaching people on interview skills. I loved that part of the job. But over time, I started feeling like I was meant for more. And I couldn't fully explain what that feeling really was or why I felt the way I felt. So as time went on in my role as a travel nurse recruiter, I started to feel more and more pressure to be sales focused as a recruiter. The travel nurse agency I was working for is very sales driven, and I was often encouraged to push nurses towards assignments that weren't exactly the type they wanted. The part of that job left me feeling really unfulfilled. I almost felt like I was forced to prioritize sales over the best interests for the travel nurses that I was working with. So I created an outlet for myself. And that outlet was social media. I started posting online more about travel nursing at the time and helping travel nurses understand their contracts and negotiate pay. And I realized I loved helping nurses and empowering nurses to make the most well-informed decision for their career. And of course, over time, that morphed into my true expertise, which is coaching new grad nurses. So I know from experience that side hustles often start out as one thing, but they evolve into something else. And that is honestly where the magic happens. If you allow your side hustle to evolve to fit your zone of genius, that's when your confidence grows and you start to really enjoy your side hustle. And yes, building a side hustle can be challenging, but the point is for it to add to your life, whether that is adding income, adding passion, adding creativity, or all three. So now that we've talked about what a true side hustle actually looks like, let me tell you why nurses make the best side hustlers. Seriously, if you look at the skill set that nurses have, it almost feels like we were built for this. First of all, we have access to unique work schedules. Days, evenings, nights, weekends only, per diem work, part-time, full-time, 12-hour shifts. There are not a lot of careers where you can work three days a week and still have a stable income. And that leaves a lot of space for hustling or working on a passion project, if you'd rather call it that. Another thing I've noticed about nurses is that we are multi-passionate people. So many of us have hidden talents, hobbies, or interests that are completely opposite of bedside nursing. I know nurses who crochet, who are beekeepers, gardeners, bodybuilders, artists, people who make clothing, people who bake, people who run marathons. The list goes on and on. Even though we often identify really strongly with being a nurse, underneath that is usually a very creative, curious, multi-passionate person. And side hustles give you the space to explore that part of yourself. Nurses are also very used to learning new things fast. No two patients are the same, no two shifts are the same, and we are constantly having to pivot. We take a step back, we reassess, and then we leap forward. That's literally what we do all day long. And I can tell you from experience, as someone who started a side hustle and turned it into a business, the learning curve is wild. You are constantly figuring things out as you go, but nurses are actually really comfortable in this space, even if we don't realize it. And on that same note, the pressure of running a business honestly does not compare to the pressure of taking care of a really sick patient or having a heavy assignment or giving a high-risk medication. We know what real stress feels like. We know what it feels like when the stakes are truly high. So when you're building something on the side and the only livelihood on the line is your own, we can handle that. Another reason nurses do really well with side hustles is communication. We talk to all kinds of people in all kinds of situations every single shift. We can read a room, we can pick up on nonverbal cues, and we can sense when something feels off. Our emotional intelligence is high and we learn to trust our gut. And once you know what that feeling feels like, you can tap into your intuition in all other areas of your life too, in your career, in your business, in side hustles, and in all the little side quests that you decide to go on. Now we all know that nursing is also all about problem solving. We are constantly asking ourselves, how do I fix this hypotension? Who do I need at the bedside right now? How do I explain this to a patient so they actually understand? What's the safest way to do this with this confused patient, right? We never go into a room without a plan. We're always thinking strategically. We're trying different approaches, we're adjusting as we go. And honestly, building a side hustle is the exact same thing. You try something, it doesn't work. You pivot, you try again, and it's all about problem solving. Another big one nurses have a strong work ethic. You cannot be lazy and be a nurse. Nursing school alone takes a lot of time, energy, and commitment. And once you're working, the job itself is physically and emotionally demanding. It is not easy work. And the truth is, long-term entrepreneurship isn't easy either. Side hustles aren't easy either. It's a lot of repetition, a lot of learning, a lot of failing, and getting back up and trying again. You need resilience, you need consistency, you need patience, and nurses already have those traits because we've been using them our entire careers. And lastly, nurses are not strangers to imposter syndrome. Every time you start a new role in nursing, there's that phase where you feel like, do I actually know what I'm doing? Am I supposed to be here? Everyone else seems more confident than me. We've all felt that. And the exact same thing happens when you start a side hustle. You feel like a fraud at first. You feel like you don't know enough. You feel like somebody's going to figure out that you're just making it up as you go. But the truth is, that feeling usually means that you're growing. We've survived that feeling in nursing and we can survive it in business too. And honestly, that's why I think nurses make some of the best side hustlers out there. If you can take care of five patients or more, talk to families, deal with doctors, and chart all at the same time, you can build a business. All right, I'll get off my soapbox about how nurses make the best side hustlers and entrepreneurs. And now I want to shift the conversation to actually starting a side hustle. At this point, I've been in business for about two full years. I am definitely not claiming to be an expert, but I did start. And honestly, that's the hardest part. So I want to share some advice if you've been thinking about starting a side hustle of your own. First, I want you to take time to figure out what you actually want to build. And a really good way to figure out what you want to build is to figure out why you want to build it in the first place. Ask yourself, why am I interested in this side quest? Is it because you want joy outside of nursing? Is it because you want extra income? And if it's extra income, what is the income for? Are you saving for something particular or are you hoping to pay off your student loans? Maybe you're getting ready to buy a house. Maybe it's going to just give you some room to breathe financially. That level of clarity starts to point you towards your why. For a lot of nurses, the why is freedom and flexibility. I know for me that was huge. I wanted to be present with my kids. I wanted control over my schedule, and I wanted the ability to build something that could grow with my life. And I'm telling you, I am not working any less hours than I was full-time, but I'm working those hours on my terms. For some people, the why might be scaling back bedside hours. For others, it might be leaving bedside completely. For some, it's just having something that feels like yours. Your why matters because your why is what keeps you going when the motivation is gone. And motivation will go away at times. Once you understand your why, you usually start to get a better idea of what it is you want to build. And I also want to say not everyone wants to build a business, and that is okay. A creative outlet looks different than entrepreneurship. A passion project looks different than a small business. And a side hustle can be any of those things. Now, figuring out what you want to build sounds simple, but honestly, it's very easy to think that you want to build something that you actually don't want to build. Okay, let me just share some stories with you. I remember when I first knew that I wanted to support nurses in some way, I started brainstorming all kinds of ideas. One idea I had was to create themed gift boxes. And really I came up with this idea because as a nurse manager and then becoming a travel nurse recruiter, every nurses week I struggled to find a gift for the nurses that worked with me, right? And I wanted to give them something cool and special, but also somewhat affordable, right? Because I was personally fronting the bill. So I thought, hmm, gift like themed gift boxes would be really cool. I could make a specific one for med surge nurses, and then another one for ICU nurses, and then another one for ER nurses. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is so cool. I went pretty far down that road. And then I realized I would have to buy all of these products, probably from overseas, store them in my house, buy packaging, ship everything myself, and I didn't even know if the idea would even sell. My husband was the one who talked through this with me and was like, are you sure this is what you want to be doing? And then I realized, no, it probably doesn't make the most sense. So then I had another idea. I was going to buy a Cricut machine and I was going to make stickers to sell. I know, sounds ridiculous. Just bear with me. I don't even know why I thought this was a good idea. I'm actually not a crafty person at all. Like I don't scrapbook, I don't really doodle. I don't, I'm not, I don't do cutesy things, okay? But I convinced myself that this was the move. So I bought a$300 Cricut machine from Michael's and it literally collected dust in my house for like close to a year. And my husband said, Let me get this straight. You want to spend all this time making stickers to sell them for a couple dollars. And the more we talked it through, the more I realized my business model made no sense. If I was someone that already loved to craft and loved making stickers and was always at Michael's, right, and did that sort of thing for fun, then sure that could have worked. But that wasn't who I was. I was trying to force an idea that didn't match my strengths. So I went back to the drawing board and I started leaning into what I was actually good at. And that was teaching, coaching, talking, explaining things, empowering nurses. And I realized there was a huge need for support in the new grad nurse job market. And that's when my business really started to take shape. So my advice here is to lean into what you're good at. Lean into what you enjoy. Figure out what your zone of genius is. Don't chase a dream that doesn't actually align with who you are, because you might end up building something that you don't even like. Pay attention to what comes naturally to you. Is it talking on camera? Is it writing? Is it design, organizing, teaching, leadership, storytelling, helping people? Those clues matter more than you think. And lastly, if your goal is to make money from your side hustle, you need to get clear on who you help. Because when you know exactly who you help, your messaging gets easier, your content gets easier, your website gets easier, selling gets easier. The moment I got clear that I helped nursing students and new grad nurses navigate the job market, everything clicked. Clarity makes business so much simpler. All right, so what is it actually like to build a side hustle? Now, this can look a little different depending on your industry and what you're creating. But if you're starting from scratch, this is what it has looked like for me and honestly for a lot of people I've talked to along the way. Okay, if you're anything like me, you probably have this vision of overnight success. You see the value and what you are doing and what you are offering, and you're really excited about it, and you know it could help people. So you think, how could anyone else not see this too, right? Well, wrong. Business is usually slow at first. It takes time to establish credibility in the marketplace. And what that really means is that you have to prove that you can actually deliver what it says that you can deliver. These first few reps are the hardest to get. You might offer services for free in the beginning just to get honest feedback. You might have a friend or a family member be your first customer. You might feel like you're talking to a wall for a while. But if you take feedback seriously, if you capture testimonials, if you keep showing up and promoting what you do, you slowly start to build momentum. And I want to be honest here. You will probably have periods where you doubt yourself. I know I have had those periods myself. You might feel cringy posting online. Listen, I have so many posts I look back on and going, what was I thinking posting that? You might compare yourself to other people who seem more successful than you. You might have days where you feel really excited and days where you think, what the heck am I even doing? This is all part of the process. Every time we do something uncomfortable, we are stretching our capacity. We are building the ability to handle more visibility, more responsibility, and more growth. I'm gonna repeat that. We are building the ability to handle more visibility, more responsibility, and more growth. When I first started, I struggled so much to show up online. I felt like my content was awkward, I felt like nobody cared, and honestly, I felt kind of embarrassed at times. But I don't regret it for a second. Because if I hadn't spent the first year consistently showing up online, I probably never would have started this podcast. When I started my podcast, it didn't feel that uncomfortable to me because I had already put in the reps on social media. I had stretched my comfort zone, I had built my tolerance for being visible. And of course, that is something that I am still working on. Another thing I want to talk about is money. So far in my business, I have put every dollar I have made back into my business. I remember at the end of my first year, I gave all of my numbers to my CPA, right? My revenue, my expenses, everything. And I gave those numbers to my CPA, and I was so disappointed that I hadn't actually made a profit. And he said, Oh, no problem. He goes, This is exactly what successful businesses do in the first couple of years. They reinvest in themselves, they grow, they think of it as an investment, not a failure. And honestly, that made me feel so much better. I didn't realize that was the business norm, but it makes sense. You're building something. Now, if you're not trying to build a full-on business, don't worry. You don't have to put all your money back into your side hustle. I just knew that I wanted my side hustle to grow. So I treated it like something I was investing in long term. Another thing to consider is that not everyone will understand what you're doing. People might not understand your side quest. They might not see your vision, they might not get why you're putting time into something that isn't guaranteed. And that's okay. When I first started, I didn't tell a lot of people what I was working on. Not because I was ashamed, but because I felt vulnerable. I didn't want other people's skepticism to make me doubt myself. Sometimes when something is new, it's okay to keep it close to your heart for a while. Protect it, build confidence in it. And then when you feel solid, you can stand tall even if other people don't understand. And honestly, starting a side hustle requires a little bit of delusion in the beginning. You have to believe that you're onto something before there's proof. You have to believe that you're building something great before anyone else sees it. So stay a little delulu in the beginning. Limit the chances of someone talking you out of something that could actually change your life or add color to your life or bring passion and joy back into your life. Another real part of building a side hustle is that there is a lot of work up front. I work out my business almost every single day. There is so much to learn. I listen to podcasts, I watch YouTube videos, I read, I use ChatGPT, I ask questions, I hire help when I can, lean into your resources. We have so much available to us now, and a lot of it is free. But you also have to understand, even if you are an expert in the service that you provide, you are probably a beginner in business. And that is okay. They say nursing is a lifelong learning career. And I swear the same is true for business and side hustles. You're always learning, you're always adjusting, you're always growing. And honestly, that's part of what makes it exciting. Okay, now I want to talk about what I honestly think is the best part about building a side hustle as a nurse. This is something we don't talk about enough. We have a safety net. Nursing gives us something that most entrepreneurs don't have, and that is a stable income. We can work our shifts, get our paycheck, pay our bills, and build something on the side without the pressure of needing it to work immediately. We don't have to rush. We don't have to quit our jobs tomorrow. We don't have to make six figures in six months. We don't need investors. We can grow slowly, and that is actually such an advantage. A lot of people who start businesses don't have that stability. They're all in from day one, and that comes with a lot of stress and a lot of risk. As nurses, we can take our time, we can test our ideas, we can pivot, we can learn as we go. And the flexibility in nursing makes this even more possible. We can go per DM later on if we want to. We can scale back our hours and go part-time later if we want to. We can slowly drop our hours as our side hustle maybe grows and takes off. We can change schedules. We can work weekends only if that works better for our life. There are not a lot of careers where you can manipulate your schedule to better serve your passion project on the side or life outside of nursing. One of my favorite ways to think about this is that nursing gives you a safety net. Most entrepreneurs don't have. You don't have to burn your life down to start something new. You can build something new while standing on something stable. And honestly, that's really, really powerful. Okay, I want to spend a few minutes talking to the nurse who feels like they want more, but they feel guilty for even thinking that. It is completely normal to feel like you want something outside of nursing. It doesn't mean that you picked the wrong career. It doesn't mean you're ungrateful. It doesn't mean that you failed. You can love nursing and want something more. You're allowed to evolve, you're allowed to grow, and you're allowed to want a different schedule, a different lifestyle, a different kind of challenge. You don't have to stay where you started. And you don't need permission to try something new. Sometimes that idea for a side hustle keeps coming back for a reason. Sometimes that little voice in your head that says, I think I could do something else too, is there because you're meant to explore it. Not everyone will feel that pull, but if you do, it's okay to listen to it. You don't have to have the whole plan figured out. You just need to be willing to take the first step. So if starting a side hustle has been on your mind, I just want to leave you with this. You don't have to quit your nursing job tomorrow. You don't have to know exactly where it's going to lead you. You don't have to have the perfect idea. You just have to start. One idea can change your life. One decision can open doors that you didn't even know existed. One small step can lead you in a completely different direction. Your nursing career can be your foundation and your stability, not a limiting factor in your life. And life after nursing school doesn't have to look like one path. It can look like bedside and a business. It can look like part-time and a passion project. It can look like stability and creativity at the same time. You're allowed to build a career that fits your life, not the other way around. If you have a side hustle or even just an idea for one, I would love to hear about it. You can comment on the show or you can reach out to me in social media. I'm at NurseCoach Caroline across all platforms, and I would be thrilled to hear what you're working on. And as always, my friend, I have one hand for me and the other for you. Signing off. Well, that's it for today's episode of Life After Nursing School. I hope you feel more confident and ready to tackle the challenges that come with starting your nursing career. Remember, the first year or two might not be easy, but with the right mindset, you can overcome anything. If you found value in today's episode, I'd love for you to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a future episode. Also, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps so much in reaching other new nurses like you. Thanks for listening, and remember, you've got this. Take care and see you next time.