Unless you are completely satisfied with all aspects of your work, your personal life and your finances, you should always be looking for new opportunities that might help you to achieve your goals.

Maybe you’re like Dawn, who is a pharmacist by day and has a full-time job that involves weekend shifts. On top of that, Dawn has a two-hour commute.

Creating a secondary income for someone like Dawn is very difficult. She barely has time to herself, and on top of her other responsibilities, she also is taking college classes at night.

Maybe you’re sick of your job and want a change of pace. Maybe you want to make a few extra bucks on the side. For Dawn, it was a desire to break free from the mundane.

When I first met Dawn, she was interested in generating extra income on the side using an MTM business model. She joined our course, The Side Hustle Fast Track for Pharmacists, went through all of the lessons and still had her heart set on creating a MTM business.

Although MTM businesses are a valid model for any pharmacist to pursue as their side income, they do have their innate problems, including time commitment, calls out to patients and documenting.

With Dawn’s busy schedule, it would have been nearly impossible for her to make any sort of money by calling patients at 8:30 p.m.

Feeling Stuck

Dawn was stuck. She felt that she couldn’t move forward with any of her ideas, and pursuing something such as an MTM business was daunting and overwhelming to her.

She was doing everything she could to get ahead with her finances, such as budgeting, making smart decisions and cutting living expenses, but she still wasn’t making any progress toward building a side business—or creating freedom in her life.

That’s when Dawn and I started talking.

Finding a Passion

After thinking through all of the hurdles that she would have to overcome in order to start an MTM business, Dawn decided to try to find a new side hustle idea.

I started our coaching sessions by asking dawn questions about what she really loved doing and who she would most like to work with.

Like many pharmacists, she defined herself as the typical Type A personality (maybe you recognize this trait in yourself).

Dawn loves details—and all pharmacists know that the devil is in the details.

I came to find out that Dawn really enjoyed the detail-oriented work involved in writing and editing.

What Are You Doing for Free?

A question I love to ask pharmacists who don’t have a side hustle yet is, “Are you doing anything for anyone for free?”

As pharmacists, we tend to dismiss our side hustle ideas by telling ourselves negative things such as, “No one would ever pay me for that.”

We tend to believe that because we aren’t a professional outside of pharmacy, our service isn’t of enough value to charge actual money. So, we don’t even consider helping people with non-pharmacy related issues as an option for a secondary income.

When I asked Dawn what she was doing for free for others, she told me that she was editing foreign exchange students’ papers at her night school. She was doing this for free and had been doing so for many months.

I stopped the coaching session right there.

I said, “Dawn, you have your side hustle.”

Although Dawn was a little timid at first, I challenged her to charge the next student a fee for reviewing his or her paper.

Impostor Syndrome

When someone becomes an entrepreneur, at one time or another they always wonder if they are really worth what they are being paid.

This is completely normal.

You can blame your parents, your upbringing, your school, bullying, or self-doubt, but sooner or later nearly every entrepreneur asks themselves, “Is my service really worth this amount?”

I was no exception when I got started as an entrepreneur.

I remember sweating on a phone call asking a potential client to pay $37 a month for my consulting services. Now, I laugh about it.

I was undercharging so much because I put so much pressure on myself to get this person to just say yes to my services.

Dawn took me up on my challenge and charged the next student a fee. The student paid her immediately, and within a few weeks she had her client list filled.

As of this writing, she is editing 2-3 papers per week and charging $45 for each review.

You might be saying to yourself, “Well, I could make that much money or more if I went and got a second job as a pharmacist.”

That may be true, but do you really want to go work for another pharmacy and go through the process of interviewing?

In this job market and economy, becoming an entrepreneur is actually a safer bet than getting another job.

Hard to believe? Well, here’s why.

When you are an entrepreneur, you rely on multiple people to pay you for your services. So, if you lose one contract, you still have other clients that will continue to pay you. But when you only work for one person, losing that one contract would put you in financial peril.

If you are ready to take the leap like Dawn did and get your side hustle started, I encourage you to check out my course, The Side Hustle Fast Track for Pharmacists.

Or, if you want to start a side-hustle, and have questions, feel free to book a call with me!

The course includes three modules with a total of 60 lessons to walk you through the process of unleashing your inner entrepreneur. If you sign up using this link before July 1, you will receive two free individual coaching sessions with me.

With the right tools, it is very easy for pharmacists to get on the path to financial freedom by taking their already-developed skills, expertise and passion and turning it into a secondary income. Visit my website, www.thehappypharmd.com, to learn more about how pharmacists can create the life they want.