Your business is a business...not a side hustle

I've been going about this all wrong. I've been treating Four Brothers Publications as a side hustle and not the business that it truly is. I didn't go through the hassle of creating an LLC for vanity's sake. I wanted an official name associated with everything that I publish as going through traditional means for publication was a tedious process that led to more rejections than I could count.

However, during this process I was validated by two literary agents that read the first few chapters of one of my projects while I was shopping the manuscript and they both wanted to see the entire manuscript. I did not expect to receive a response so quickly and the manuscript was not completed. My mistake.

Lessons learned.

I know that I can write. God knows I've been doing it since I was 11 years old and professionally for the past 15 years. I have an excellent graphics artist and editor as contractors to make my LLC a success.

But the realization settled over me like a wet blanket that I've been treating Four Brothers like a side hustle instead of a business...not because I wanted to but because a full time job always took precedence. Now it is in the forefront as opposed to the back burner because I see the potential of my company.

I can write, publish, edit and distribute my own books easily now. I'm still learning and will continue to learn because anyone in this industry knows that this is the way you grow...that the industry is fluid and ever changing.

Four Brothers isn't what I want to be when I grow up. I'm grown up and Four Brothers isn't my side hustle. It's a presence that burns within me as strongly as the words on the pages that I create.

Your business can start as a side hustle but if it remains a side hustle, you will never see what you truly want and deserve to see. You just have to have enough faith in yourself to take that proverbial leap and see what the world has to offer you.

You will be amazed!

~ J.L. Whitehead