Why a side hustle does more than top up your income

A missed corsage. An Uber across town. And what a small business of your own gives you besides the money.

When the promise is yours

I was at work in the city when my son called from home. Someone was at the door to collect a corsage. Did I know where it was?

I didn't, because I hadn't made it. I'd missed the order entirely.

A refund wasn't an option. A boy can't go to a formal without a corsage for his date. I jumped in an Uber, raced home, made it, and delivered it to him at "pres" (if you know, you know).

That kind of moment doesn't happen in corporate work. There's distance built in between you and a broken promise. If something's late or a service is poor, you're not usually the one telling the customer. There's a team for that, a process, someone whose job it is. You're a step or two removed.

When the business is yours, there's no one to escalate to.

You learn quickly what it costs the customer when you don't get it right. Not in NPS points or churn metrics. In the actual moment. The girl whose flowers wilted before the photos. The mum who'd been planning the night for weeks. The day that didn't go the way it was meant to.

After that, you sit differently in the corporate meeting. The slide isn't abstract. There's a person at the end of it, and you know what disappointing them feels like, because you've done it.

My eldest got the camellias

The kids weren't fans of Coosage at first. They actually found it slightly embarrassing.

My eldest son was the unwilling beta tester. I sent him to his school formal wearing a buttonhole I'd made out of white camellias from the garden, because we had a garden full of them and it seemed thrifty.

I now know that white camellias turn brown about three hours into a hot night. Not my finest hour, and not his.

I've since figured out which flowers look as good at the end of the formal as they did at the start. He has not entirely forgiven me. But he is proud now. They all are.

Somewhere along the way, "you're wasting your time" turned into "guess what my mum's business did this week."

What it actually gives you

A side hustle is sold to most people as a top up. A bit of extra money for the family holiday or a luxury you usually wouldn't splurge on.

The money is real, but it's the smallest thing it gives you.

What it actually gives you, while everything else in your life is fine:

A real sense of the customer promise, and what it costs when you don't keep it. Which makes you better at any job where the customer is further away.

Something to bring to dinner. A story, a problem, a small win. Not just the day's emails.

A separate identity. You're not only your role at work. There's another thing you also are.

A different posture in your own life. You know you can build something and sell it. That sits in you, quietly, and changes how you walk into rooms.

Start it anyway

I started Coosage because I love flowers. I kept Coosage going because of what it gave me back, well beyond the money.

I built Picklo because most people have a thing they could do. They just don't start, because the admin and the logistics look harder than the making.

If you've been thinking about it, the income is a fine reason. But it's probably only one of many.