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Side Hustle Story…How Far!

Starting a new business is like birthing a child. Watching it grow, crawl, learn to walk, fall, stand again, walk, soar…

My side hustle journey may have so far mirrored the early stages of child development and, ‘watta long haul’ it’s been.

Many times I’ve introduced myself saying, ‘I’m a Jack of all trade, proudly master of none’. As much as that intro may sound exciting to the ears, being that ‘jack of all trade’, has proved to have its draw backs, to me at least. Are there any other ‘Jacks of all trade’ out there?

So….everyone’s been waiting to hear about this side hustle ‘thing’ Nono has been on about for such a long time ehn….hahaaa! Well, here goes:

I thought to start off with something I enjoyed. I enjoy doing a lot of things. Trust me!

I love learning languages and of course improving on my languages. I decided to teach Igbo. Yep, my side hustle is based on this one skill I’ve had since I was about three. So, sometime in the Summer of 2018, Supu was born and on the 1st of June, I launched a Supu channel on YouTube.

This has been one of the highlights of my year amongst many other things.

Note, having a YouTube channel does not equate to having a side hustle. Of course a lot of people have thriving channels that contribute to making them a lot of money today, but it has taken hard work to grow to where they are now. For me this is just one avenue for getting myself heard and pushing Supu out there to the world. There’s still a lot to tell about Supu; what exactly does it mean, what problem am I solving in my chunk of the world with this? I ask myself these questions to keep me in check and focused on the goal to run a successful side hustle.

Ok, so this post was just to whet your appetite because it has been a looooong time.

There’s much more to come on this venture, so watch out…

K’odi nu!

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Side Hustle…an idea!

I’ve been working on a lot of ideas since the start of the year. Well, filtering the ideas flowing through my head actually.

One of them involves setting up my side hustle. This has been a long time coming now. In July last year, I had a kind off brainwave whilst driving to work. I had had this particular one about 7 years before, and did nothing about it. Now, it came right back at me just as I’d stopped at a red light on Windsor road.

For a side hustle, I’ve always wanted to do something that will add value and knowledge to people’s lives, a sort of learning experience. This side hustle should do just that if executed properly…….I hope I can get through with it.

I think, this will be fun. Join me as I begin his journey. Over the next few blog posts, I’ll be sharing my idea and steps I take to getting it out there. Perhaps you might have a side  hustle idea you’d like to share too. 😉

 

 

 

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To 2017- Cheers!

It’s amazing how this is the one and only post I’ve put up on Nono says… in 365 day.

This is a quick one as I have only 12 minutes before the great gates shut.

2017 has been full of blessings.

I started 2 new jobs (a personal promotion from one to the other) and I’m working on my side hustle at the moment 😉

We moved homes, yes me, hubby and the kids are in our very own house now.

Everyone in my family turned a new year….yayyyy!

Not sure anyone really reads my blog. It’s been a bit of a closed box in here because I’ve allowed it this way, but things will change now- watch 2018, Nono is out now.

Anyway, biko nu, if there’s anyone out there who finds this post somehow, tell me something about 2017 and have you got any particular plans or changes for 2018? Would love to hear from somebody….anybody. Happy New Year!

Nono out! (slowly dancing to Simisola’s ‘Complete me’)

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Along comes the two thousand and seventeen

Twenty sixteen began yesterday, now its all gone. Twenty seventeen has started with a bang, at least at my end, and like its big brother and sister years before, this too shall pass. Slowly, but steady, the minutes and hours will become days, then weeks, then months and eventually, the top end of the yearly circle will start again and like a gate inching its way shut and open, next year will awaken.

I give this analogy at the start of every year. For many, it is a time to whip out the pen and paper and mull through a never ending list of New Year’s resolutions that will probably not get past the first month in practice. If you are like me, we pretend not to make resolutions. I keep promises in my head but try not to same them out loud, for fear of jinxing my promise to myself.

For many years I have promised myself to watch what I eat, procrastinate less, spend more time studying my bible, do more of the things that make me happy, worry less, keep my house tidier….duh duh duh, and for as long as I have made my promises, I have lingered in keeping them.

So, within the last few minutes of inching into 2017, as I have watched the fireworks light up the athmosphere somewhere far beyond my back garden, I have had a moments thought and now decide not to have a New Year’s resolution. Rather, in twenty seventeen, I promise to live life and love life.

Yep, you heard it…..I promise to live life and love life. I know it sounds easy, but this borders on being disciplined, doing what I need to do when I need to do them, being thankful for the little things and being content about everything, making time to do the things that make me happy, be concerned less about what people think about me, spending time with people I love and learning to love as much- I promise to live intentionally. I guess it will be easy once achieved. The thing is, life itself is too short to spend on things that don’t matter.

So, 2017, here I come !

 

 

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Counting my blessings!

Every year on the 31st of December I think a lot about the events of the months past and I count my blessings. I remember what I achieved, what I missed out on, I think on how much I gained in building up myself (not necessarily in materials), how much value I added to the lives of others and above all, I thank God.

2016 has been a great year!

I learned to love myself better, to stop and part myself on the back, reminding myself that ‘gurl, you’ve done really good’.

l learned to show my appreciation for the people I love; my husband and children and the beautiful people around me that blessed me with kind thoughts and words.

I learned to plan my time better and prioritise. Yes, with the never ending workload of motherhood and having a newborn and juggling with my responsibilities as ‘super woman’, I learned to place things in order of importance.

I learned to not be superwoman- to let my hair down, let the kids be kids, let them play and scatter the house. I’d always make them put things back in the right order afterward….hehe!

I constantly fall in love with my husband over and over again. It happened again in 2016. I learned to love him even more.

I spent more time with the kids. We got dirty in the mud, cut up papers, scattered the house, went nuts over nuts, encouraged one another….I love my babies to pieces.

I learned to speak my mind- a little. I learned to communicate better, speak up when I’m not satisfied and give kudos where it is due.

I picked up new hobbies that I enjoy and that make me happy. I learned to sew and garden and still practicing my French. My blog at http://www.nonosays.com was launched- hey I’m writing again.

May the new year be blessed!

I grew yet a deeper relationship with God- It still goes deeper and yet, there’s more  and more to learn from and about God.

I bore and brought forth a most beautiful beautiful child- Sammy! The highlight of my year!

….and now, here I am, 6 minutes to 2017, alive and well and so expectant of beautiful things for the new year. There may be challenges but, I know God is in control. Everything will be alright.

May 2017, bring joy and peace and fulfilment.

Happy New Year!

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Carrots, Beans and Lettuce seeds

My first new found hobby, gardening, has gone really well. Since sowing our first seeds of carrots, green beans and lettuce, its been a great time of learning about seasons and how to prepare the soil, plant nursery and transplanting. Great!

At the end of September we had our second harvest, a lot bigger than the first one. This time, the carrots came through, and more lettuce. For someone who had never grown a bean stalk for more than 4 days in the past, I think I’ve done very well. Of course, I mustn’t forget all my helpers, the kids for telling me when there was a slug feeding on our green leaves, Cristina for all the lessons on gardening, learned from precious grandma, for watering the plants and all the lovely pictures.

A few weeks ago, I harvested the bean seeds from their dry pods which had been saved for sowing next season…..and yesterday, my first lettuce seeds were picked, ready for planting next March. It’s been an amazing vegetable planting journey. A journey whose reward has not been measured by how much food was produced, I got just a bowl full of carrots and beans and a handful of lettuce, but by how much fulfilment gained from growing food.

I recommend gardening for relaxation after a stressful day, for winding down from work, for bonding with family, for learning something new, for getting a bit of fulfilment and getting to say to oneself, ‘hey, I done real good’.

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From May till now

So my last post was in May.

A lot has happened in my life since then, as would be expected. I’m assuming the average everybody else  would have had a fair deal of experiences  within the last five months too. So in hope that I’ll be covering a multitude of unwritten and unpublished posts which would have been put up during the past five month period, here is my almighty diary of what I’ve been up to from May till now.

  1. In April (yes I know it’s before May), we started a vegetable garden, the kids and I. It started out as a child’s play thing. We had taken a walk to the grocery shop, then pound land, then we got talking about growing carrots and I thought, ‘hm, this would be a good way to keep them busy over the Easter holidays and perhaps make them responsible for a project’. I bought some compost, a few carrot seeds, and lettuce  seeds and green beans- cost me about £6. At home, we rummaged for some old biscuit tins and ‘voila’, we were getting muddy fingered already. Watch this space for how we got on.
  2. In May, my little man Sammy arrived….whoop whoop! Welcome sleepless nights and noisy days. I hadn’t realised how much I’d forgotten about caring for a baby. I had so many questions during those first few days- how long should he sleep during the day, I panicked when he slept for five hours straight and found myself trying to wake the little man up- ‘unbelievable’, how do I hold  him during bath time, how long should he feed for….? At the end, I got the hang of most of it, so we are trudging on.
  3. I think I slept through most of June.
  4. We harvested our beans and lettuces in July. It was just a few leaves and pods really, but the pride and fulfilment that came with that little harvest was immeasurable. They tasted….fresh too.
  5. I took up a new hobby in August- sewing. It all started when I decided to watch The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC. I’ve always had this belief that I can do anything when I set my mind and heart to it. Thanks to  Phillipians 4:13! First I dusted and oiled my old second hand unbranded sewing machine. Then I practised sewing on a straight line using old clothes. It took about a week and my mum’s help to get my full body measurement, I was my own model. I somehow got the hang of cutting out my patterns, then….
  6. In September I made my first dress. It was supposed to be for a friends birthday party and my first project looked quite good. Mum thought it was very well done for a first try….yippee! The rest of September saw me planning new sewing projects, trying to cook up new menus in the kitchen and I harvested more of my vegetables.
  7. Oh wow, it’s October already! I read my first book since last September. Yes, believe it or not, I haven’t been able to read a book since I found out I was pregnant last year and five months after having my baby. That’s another story. But last night, the curse of the brain block was shifted and I finished a book I started reading last week- The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. I highly recommend. Be warned though, have a good chunk of tissue paper to sniff into whilst you are at it, but it will be worth your while.
  8. Still in October, I started weight training. Absolutely unbelievable! You’ll hear more about this.
  9. Guess what! For the one hundred and fifty fifth time (or so), I’ve decided to write a book. I’ll see what happens in November 😉

So that’s a brief summary of what I got up to, whilst my blog swung it’s slender legs, waiting for me to write something new and the middle of 2016 sped on. In the hope that I’ve caught someone’s attention, please come back again and again.

🙂