Yes, I get it. Not everyone is having a fantastic year. Some of us may just have been laid off. This is a very different experience than those who decided to resign, those who wanted a change in their hectic salaried jobs, and those who just want to try a different path.

Yet, whatever the reason you find yourself out of work now, the fact is that you are now quite possibly staring at a screen wondering what next steps to take. I know, you may be scrolling YouTube shorts and browsing through FB comments to appear busy, but subconsciously you are worried about what comes next.

And yes, if you were fired, especially in a very unpleasant way, you probably feel horrible, worried, and angry. I know the feeling. I’ve been there. Most people have been fired at some point in their lives; we’ve all been there.

But here’s another truth about that experience: you can use that anger, that fight-or-flight lizard-brain reaction, as momentum for what to do now, and that is what this article is about, regardless of how you got here.

First things first

There are thousands of books, articles, and videos about the steps you need to take after leaving a steady job. These were created by psychologists, labor specialists, and financial experts. This article is not telling you to ignore those! They are full of important things you will need to do, whether you wish to jump back into the labor force or carve a different path.

You still need to look at your finances, trim expenses, and consider whatever or any severance package you received. Updating resumes, creating Linked-In/Monster/Indeed profiles, and planning some retraining may also be in order. So do that as well.

But all these things take time, patience, and work. They may require help from others who won’t be able to help right away. They also may cost you money that you may not have right now. Even if you already have interviews lined up, when will these be? In a few days? Weeks? When will you hear the decision? This will all take time and therein lies the problem.

Time will allow doubts, fears, and procrastination to plant their seeds. Even for the best prepared, most hire-able, and skilled young, unattached, and highly mobile of us, those feelings will still creep in as time passes, bills pile up, and due dates come and pass by. Don’t let that happen.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do all the important things that experts tell you to do. You most certainly should, but there is also something you can do right now. Something that is simple, isn’t going to cost you a month’s rent, and that you can literally do in under an hour. You have bills to pay, and your ability to earn an income stopped yesterday!

So, let’s do something about that!

Changing your mindset

What was it about the job you just left that you enjoyed the most, that you were best at, and that you wouldn’t mind doing more of? If it wasn’t something you did at work, what is the hobby or activity that you are most excited about, exceptionally good at, can talk for hours about, and gave your life meaning when your job didn’t?

Write that thing down right here:

This is now going to be your new side-hustle.

Notice that I called it a side-hustle. This is because it is not going to be your main source of income. While any side-hustle can become profitable with enough work, we don’t want to think of it as your main source of income right now. You will continue to rely on your severance, unemployment, pension, partner’s income and savings as your main source of income.

If you don’t have any severance, unemployment, pension, partner’s income, or savings, then you need to consider that this side-hustle will not be enough. Continue looking for a well-paying job in addition to working on this side-hustle.

Now, let’s consider the side-hustle that you wrote down. It should be something you like to do and that you are very good at. If it is, great. We will use that as a place to start. Before we proceed, however, there is one more thought process we need to tackle.

Are you an expert at it? Are you better than everyone else at it? If yes, then we are in very good shape, but if you’re not, then this is just a starting point. After we get started, you will need to continue to improve your expertise in this area. You will need to read, study, and possibly take classes to become the absolute best at it.

Consider an example. Say that your previous job as an accountant wasn’t very satisfying but you loved creating PowerPoint presentations. If so, then that is going to be your side-hustle. The problem is that there are lots of other people who are also good at it, so you’ll eventually need to become an expert at it, better than all the rest.

This is because you will be building on it, and as the saying goes, you cannot build something on an unstable foundation. So even though we are going to proceed from here, you need to be prepared to continue to expand your knowledge and truly become an expert-of-one over time. It doesn’t need to happen now, but you need to set your mind to it.

Getting Paid

Back in the old days before the internet was everywhere, one of the first things people did when they started a service business is that they purchased a listing in the yellow pages (Gen-X reference). For those who don’t remember that far back, this was a really big book with phone numbers and addresses of all the local businesses. That listing was the way people would connect to your business.

Once they found you, you would meet up somewhere, maybe over coffee, agree on a price for the services offered, work out a payment method, and then the work would start. Communications were typically by phone and you would typically meet up a few more times along the way, and then one final time when the job was done.

Today, those Yellow Pages are called Google. The coffee shop to meet is a website, communications are via email (which also allows for contract sending), and the payment method is via a credit card or a payment service like VenMo, Paypal, ApplePay, etc. So much better, right?

Well, integrating all these into a big website requires more expense. Even if we knew how to do all that ourselves, it would require time, lots of it, and that is one commodity we don’t have. We need something faster.

So, what if we could go back to the simplicity of the old days using the tech of today? What if we could just have someone reach out to us and maybe buy us a cup of coffee to discuss the details of the transaction. What if we could do that at the speed of today’s tech but without the complexity. Is there such a solution?

Yes. There is just such a service that allows people online to not only buy you a coffee, but also pay you for the time that you are spending with them. As a matter of fact, it’s even called Buy Me a Coffee. More importantly, it’s easy and free to set up. They do take a small percentage of whatever you charge your clients, but that’s after we already know we are getting paid.

Well, then, buy me a coffee!

So what is Buy Me a Coffee? Simply put, it is a webpage where people can see what you do and pay you for it. So, following the example above, if you have decided to be a PowerPoint expert, you can showcase your expertise with things like PowerPoint examples, downloads, and links to video clips. If people like what they see, they can pay you right then & there with a credit card. Simple and easy.

Setting up Buy Me a Coffee, is also very simple. You can learn to do it in about 15 minutes. Here is a quick video from one of their employees that shows you how. Alternately, you can go to their YouTube channel for additional tutorials, but honestly, it’s very simple to set up.

By the way, I should mention that I’m not receiving any commissions from Buy Me a Coffee. I just like their simple, convenient approach that allows just about anyone to get started right away.

There are many other solutions out there like Ko-Fi, Patreon, CoinDrop, MintMe and others, that all offer some variation on the theme; but in my opinion Buy Me a Coffee is more intuitive, simpler to set up, more capable, and sounds exactly like what it is. That last point is important because you don’t want to confuse or frustrate anyone trying to pay you for your services. Buy Me a Coffee just sounds friendlier.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s a voluntary system. People pay you only if they feel you deserve it, kind of like a tip. There is absolutely no pressure to sign up for anything, subscribe, or be suckered into paying more over time.

So, what do you get with Buy me a Coffee? Quite a bit:

• Your own free bio page on the web (so you don’t need a separate website)

• The ability to receive direct payments

• An option for automatic recurring payments, i.e., a subscription, but only if they want to - no pressure.

• You can also sell digital content like podcasts, downloads, videos, diagrams, how-to pamphlets, etc.

• It comes in a mobile app

• You can even set up an email newsletter to all your new clients

• It includes 24/7 support

…All free to set up. There is no cost to getting started at all.

There are other features as well, but if you just want to receive payments for your knowledge, setting up your own personal web page on the web to do this could not be simpler. Buy Me a Coffee sounds like what it is: relaxed. So many other services just seem much more spammy and sticky.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a sales pitch for Buy Me a Coffee. Honestly, you can use many other services to do the same thing, but I’m quite certain it won’t be as easy or convenient. Right now, what we’re after is to get set up and start receiving payments for our new side-hustle.

Here is an example of what your page will look like:

Where do I go from here?

This is just a first step to allow you to generate income right away. One thing I found out when I left my job is that I received two questions more often than any other:

1. Is there anything I/we can do?

2. Can you do some freelance work?

If you were good at your previous job, then there are people who will pay you for your expertise. Even your old employer may need your help from time to time. If so, now you have a way to immediately answer those questions: send them to your Buy Me a Coffee page.

As a matter of fact, you should order a set of business cards as well and include that address with the contact info. You should also add it to your Linked In profiles, to your social media profiles, and if you have a separate website already, you should add it there too.

If you are a blogger, vlogger, or online content creator of any type, you should include a link to it each time you post online. I can’t tell you how many times I heard from people reading my blogs that they wish they could thank me for the useful advice. Well, now they can.

So go get yourself set up on Buy Me a Coffee, or if you prefer, one of the other similar sites out there. You might be surprised at how well this works for you. Keep in mind, though, this is still just a side-hustle… at least for now.

Oh, and not to sound like the Hair Club for Men commercial, but I am also a customer (Gen-X reference #2). I actually created my very own Buy Me a Coffee page just now. It took a whopping 10 minutes, and most of that was spent trying to think of a clever tagline. Yes, this is super easy and if you liked what you read above, then by all means, Buy Me a Coffee!