Jean Kang, 32, generates around $20,000 a month with her company.
Courtesy of Jean Kang
Jean Kang never ever assumed she would certainly be a business owner. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, she had actually constantly pictured herself helping a large technology business.
“I grew up watching a lot of ‘Shark Tank’ [and] thought it was always fascinating. I never thought that it could be me though,” Kang informed Make It.
Having observed the surge of Silicon Valley from her very own yard, she strove to land her very first technology task. “I felt like I was in a bubble, that’s all I knew [and] I wanted to be part of this cool kids club,” she claimed.
After finishing from college in 2014, Kang took place to begin a decade-long profession in innovation– yet points really did not go as prepared.
Kang’s company profession at some point led her to beginning her very own company, which has actually provided her flexibility from a 9 to 5 and currently generates around $20,000 a month, according to papers seen byMake It
Starting business
Kang’s profession in innovation had not been a direct one. From 2014 to 2024, she was discharged two times, operated at 6 various business and throughout numerous features such as sales, procedures and approach.
Then in 2020, she landed her very first program supervisor duty and understood that she had an actual flair for it, so she zeroed in on those abilities. Two years later on, Kang saw that individuals started connecting to her with ask for mentorship and concerns regarding her duty.
“I noticed a need in the market… I wanted to help people who were aspiring program managers pivot into this career path,” she claimed.
“Then, I decided to [announce] with one post: ‘Hey, I’m launching a coaching business, if you… want to land a program manager job, I’m open for a session [and] you can book a call with me,” claimed Kang.
After she made that first ConnectedIn message in October of 2022, Kang began producing profession web content on the job-focused social media sites system and mentoring customers on-line– and hence, herside hustle “Path to PM” was born. By the end of 2023, she says she brought in a total of about $30,000 in revenue and was able to help 10 clients land jobs.
“I was very shocked that I could supplement my take home pay from my tech job, [adding] another $30,000 completely by myself,” said Kang. “That was such a foreign thought that blew my mind.”
From side hustle to main hustle
During this time, Kang was working an additional 15 to 20 hours a week on her business on top of her full-time corporate job.
It wasn’t until the beginning of 2024, that she began to experience burnout. “[I was] doing two jobs full-time because I had a nine to five, and then I had a five to nine — literally just did not have breaks, my vacations were nonexistent,” Kang said. “It was really hard for me to be able to pull the trigger because I have this good paying job. [If] I can do both, why not just do both for as long as I can.”
This is also when she began asking herself: “If I can do this much using just a few hours I have outside of work daily and on my weekends, how much could I bring in [if I doubled down on this]?”
Ultimately, the stars aligned for Kang when at the beginning of 2024, the startup she was working for reportedly offered its employees an opportunity to voluntarily leave the company in exchange for three-months pay.
After examining her finances and talking it over with her husband, Kang decided that this was her chance to bet on herself.
“I didn’t want to wait… to hit a certain revenue target [or] for things to be in the perfect condition for me to do it. I would just rather do it now and figure things out,” she said.
Since quitting her corporate job in February, Kang is on track to replace the $180,000 annual salary that she made from her previous role. Over the span of about eight months, she has brought in about $160,000, according to documents seen by Make It.
Today, Kang has expanded her business by finding new methods to monetize such as getting brand deals on her content and receiving royalties from her LinkedIn Learning course. She has built a following of about 100,000 on the platform through her content creation.
She has also scaled her business by shifting from doing mostly one-on-one coaching to running 5-week group programs.
4 tips to build a thriving side hustle
Here are the biggest tips Kang shared:
- Identify a need that you are equipped to help solve.
- Create a minimum viable product (MVP) rooted in what would help fill that need.
- Consistently iterate and scale the product or service so you can trade less time for more money.
- Be disciplined and focus on execution.
Rather than building a product that you want to build, you are more likely to find success by building something that the world needs, says Kang.
In addition to considering the problem space, aspiring entrepreneurs should take a hard look at themselves to figure out what they are uniquely positioned to help solve. It is this combination that can help set someone up for success in starting their business.
After this, you can create a minimum viable product (MVP) of some sort, which for Kang, was one-on-one coaching. It can be something “very simple,” said Kang.
“I ship things out even when it’s not perfect,” she said. “I’m very focused on the execution… I know what I need to do and how to get it done. Not only how to get it done, but I just get it done.”
Kang focused on execution without worrying about perfection. Over time, she has been able to iterate, perfect and scale her business accordingly.
Today, she spends about 35 to 45 hours a week working on her business. “I work the same amount of hours [as I was] in corporate, but this time I actually have my evenings and my weekends free,” she said.
“I feel really energized… and now I have freedom,” said Kang. “I’ve learned a lot and I’m continuing to reinvest in myself, and serve as a walking example of when you do things for you and when you’re intentional about it, things work,” said Kang.
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