He Turned His Side Hustle Into a Full-Time Business
Marc Andre, the founder of Vital Dollar, worked as an auditor from 2005 to 2008.
“At the end of 2008, I quit my job to dedicate more time to my own business, blogging, which had been a side hustle,” he said. “At the time I left my job, my salary was in the low $40,000s. In 2009, my income increased to over $60,000 and then every year from 2010 to 2018, my income has been over $100,000.”
Why This Worked
“At my old job, I was held back by a lack of opportunities,” said Andre. “I was taking on additional work outside of my job description to try to get more experience and make myself more valuable, but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. I was on a very small team — it was just me and my boss — so there weren’t a lot of advancement opportunities. When my boss was fired, they hired her replacement from outside the company without giving me any consideration. At that point, I knew I needed to do something different if I wanted to significantly increase my income.”
“Changing paths enabled me to more than double my income because I didn’t have to wait for someone else to give me an opportunity to prove myself,” he continued. “I didn’t have a set salary, so I was able to make whatever I could earn. The challenge and unlimited potential motivated me to work hard and improve my skills because I knew I would see the benefits in terms of more money.”
