> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.freedomblogger.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to Start a Side Hustle: Why the First £100 Is Hardest - URL: https://www.freedomblogger.co.uk/how-to-start-a-side-hustle-why-the-first-100-is-hardest/ - Published: 2026-09-27T18:00:12.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-27T18:00:12.000Z - Description: From cutting grass as a teenager to eBay and UW, why the first £100 outside your main job takes more patience than people expect. - Author: Paul Schofield - Tags: Side Hustles Have you ever earned your first bit of money outside your main job and felt more relieved than proud? That was me the first time I cut a neighbour's grass as a teenager. It wasn't much. A few pounds, cash in hand, nothing life-changing. But it was mine. Nobody had paid me a wage for it. I'd found the work, done the work, and been paid for it directly. Looking back now, that was the first time I understood something that's stayed with me ever since: the first pound you earn outside your main income changes how you think about money, long before it changes your bank balance. ### The Side Hustle That Started It All Cutting grass wasn't glamorous. It took the best part of a year before I felt like I'd built anything resembling a proper little round of regular customers. But it taught me patience in a way nothing else could have at that age. Nobody was going to build the customer base for me. I had to knock on doors, turn up on time, and do a decent job often enough that people asked me back rather than trying someone else the following week. From there it was piano lessons. Different skill, same principle: something I could do outside of a normal job, on my own terms, for people willing to pay for it. Neither of those two things made me rich. What they did was quietly teach me that extra income doesn't usually arrive. You build it, slowly, one small commitment at a time. But the side hustle that really tested me, the one I still think about when people ask what the hardest part of building extra income is, was eBay. ### Then Came eBay, and the Hardest Money I Ever Made Buying and selling products on eBay sounds simple until you're actually doing it. Writing listings that don't sound like everyone else's. Taking photos that make a tired-looking item look worth buying. Working out postage, packaging, and the technical side of a platform that wasn't built to be beginner-friendly. None of that was the hardest part, though. The hardest part was returns, and more specifically, the cash flow around them. Money would come in, then go straight back out again, and for a long time I didn't understand my own numbers well enough to know whether I was actually making anything or just moving money around in a stressful circle. There's a particular kind of stress that comes from not knowing your own figures. It's not the big dramatic setback that makes you want to quit. It's the quiet, constant background hum of not being sure if what you're doing is actually working. I remember sitting with a stack of returns one evening, trying to work out whether the last month had genuinely made me anything at all, and realising I simply didn't have the financial literacy yet to answer that question properly. There were weeks I genuinely considered stopping, not because the idea was bad, but because I couldn't see clearly enough underneath it. That's an important distinction, and it's one I'd want any reader to hold onto: **struggling with a side hustle isn't always a sign the side hustle is wrong. Sometimes it's a sign you haven't learned the mechanics of it yet.** ### What UW Changed for Me By the time Utility Warehouse came along, I already understood the graft that side hustles demand. What UW changed for me wasn't the effort required. It was the shape of it. All of the upside of a side hustle, genuinely helpful for people, decent extra income, without the operational hassle that eBay had thrown at me daily. No returns to manage, no stock to photograph, no cash flow puzzle to untangle at 10pm on a Sunday. But even UW had its own version of "hardest." My first attempt at it wasn't held back by the business model. It was held back by the people closest to me saying no. Family, friends, people whose opinion I valued, simply not believing in what I was doing. That knocked my confidence far more than any technical problem eBay ever threw at me. It's one thing to doubt yourself. It's another thing entirely to have that doubt echoed back at you by people you love. The turning point wasn't a big month or a big win. It was one happy customer. One person who genuinely benefited from what I'd shared with them, who thanked me for it, and meant it. That was the moment it stopped feeling like a leap of faith and started feeling like something real, something worth continuing regardless of who around me believed in it yet. ### The Real Reason the First £100 Feels So Hard If there's one wrong assumption that trips people up before they've even started, it's expecting quick wins. Almost every side hustle looks simple from the outside and takes longer than expected from the inside. Social media doesn't help here. It shows the highlight reel, the "I made this much in my first week" posts, without ever showing the months of quiet, unglamorous groundwork that usually came before it. The first £100 is hard because it usually asks for three things most people underestimate: a solid foundation, a side hustle that actually fits you, and patience. Without a clear "why," the graft feels pointless the moment it gets uncomfortable. Without the right fit, even a good side hustle will feel like a chore rather than something you're drawn back to. And without patience, people quit at exactly the point most side hustles start to click, often without realising how close they actually were. ### The Mistakes That Slow Everyone Down Looking back across grass cutting, piano lessons, eBay, and UW, the same handful of mistakes show up again and again, mine included: - **Giving up too soon**, often right before things were about to improve - **Spending too much money chasing quick wins**, instead of building steadily and reinvesting sensibly - **Starting with the wrong side hustle**, particularly ones promising thousands a month with barely any effort involved That last one deserves a proper mention. If it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is, and I've written more about exactly [why most side hustles never make any money](https://www.freedomblogger.co.uk/why-most-side-hustles-never-make-any-money/) if you want the fuller picture. ### What I Wish I'd Known Sooner The biggest lesson from all of this isn't about eBay listings or UW commission structures. It's about people. I wish I'd known earlier that surrounding yourself with like-minded people, people who understand what you're building and why, is one of the most valuable assets you can have. Not everyone close to you will share your belief in what you're doing, and some, even with good intentions, can end up being dream stealers. Not through malice, usually. More often it comes from their own fear or their own experience of something not working out, projected onto you. That's not a reason to stop. It's a reason to be selective about whose opinion you let influence your decisions, and to actively seek out people who are either doing something similar or who simply believe in your ability to figure it out. ### So How Do You Get Your First £100? Start. That's genuinely the honest answer. Don't wait to feel ready or for the idea to feel perfect. Perfect doesn't exist at the start of anything worth doing. If it's your first side hustle, something like selling items on eBay or a vintage clothing platform is a low-risk way to learn the basics of buying, selling, and understanding your own numbers before you scale anything up. Whichever route you choose, give it a proper run. My advice to any friend starting out is to commit to at least a year, unless after three to six months you can honestly say it gives you no passion and doesn't connect to your "why." That single sentence, your why, matters more than people think. Not everyone finds it easy to work out what theirs actually is, and if that's you, you're welcome to email me directly at paul@freedomblogger.co.uk. No pressure, no sales pitch, just happy to help you think it through. If you want a wider list of ideas to start from, I've put together [10 side hustles you can start while working full time](https://www.freedomblogger.co.uk/10-side-hustles-you-can-start-while-working-full-time-from-someone-whos-tried-most-of-them/), based on ones I've genuinely tried myself over the years. ### Before You Go The first £100 is hard because it's asking you to become someone slightly different: someone who starts before they feel ready, who protects their belief from other people's doubt, and who's patient enough to let a good decision actually prove itself over time rather than overnight. Once you've earned it, the second £100 never feels quite as hard again. --- New articles are published every Sunday at 7pm UK time. Subscribe for free and have each one land straight in your inbox. Got a question about this post, or want to share your own story? Get in touch any time at paul@freedomblogger.co.uk.