5 Things Sidestrappers Are Thankful For Shane Labs

It’s easy to get lost in our sidestrapping world of developing, marketing, and bootstrapping, which is why it’s important to take a moment and reflect on things we’re thankful for. I try to do this every day, but at a minimum let’s talk about it annually on Thanksgiving.

At a personal level, I’m thankful for a million things (family, health, cookies, etc), but from a sidestrapping perspective, these 5 things are critical to my endeavors:

My Full-time Job – It sounds silly to be thankful for something I’m trying to eliminate, but without it I wouldn’t have the freedom to pick and choose my side projects. I’d be forced to doing freelance work that I wasn’t excited about, which is no fun. The fact that I have a steady income gives me the ability to enjoy my side projects without stressing about them. I’m also thankful that my job only requires about 40 hours per week of work, any more and I wouldn’t have time to work on the side. The Plethora of Resources Available – We live at a time of where there’s an incredible amount of resources at our fingertips. Technical resources like speedy servers that allow us to host reliable sites with a minimal budget, web browsers that have more power than early space ships, and software like wordpress and bootstrap that enable us to spin up new sites in minutes. Personnel resources like Elance and Fiverr where we can hire someone to do a quick task so we don’t have to know everything. Marketing resources like the millions of books on Amazon and podcasts that teach us how to promote our side projects. Social networking resources such as Reddit where you can meet and connect with other entrepreneurs. None of this stuff has been so in reach until recently. My Inspiration – Rarely a day goes by where I don’t see something that inspires me to keep working on my side projects. From TV shows like Shark Tank to entrepreneurs who share their journey like Pat Flynn and Nick Loper, there’s proof that anyone can go from idea to the next big thing. My Support System – Probably most important of all are the individuals that support me. My family, friends, and readers (that’s YOU!) that listen to me and encourage me not to give up. There are days when I tell my wife I’m losing steam and thinking about throwing in the towel on all this side project stuff, but she tells me she won’t let me cave in (thanks, Kelly – you’re amazing – and you know exactly what I need to hear). Without all this support, none of my side projects or this blog would be possible. My Success – I may not be buying Ferraris with my side project income, but I do have tons of little wins that I am proud of. Last month I had over 60k people visits my side websites. I usually bring in about $300/month, after expenses. And I have more followers on Twitter than I am following myself. Even if you’re not bringing in any revenue, I bet your sites don’t get zero visits – and that’s a success you should be thankful for.

Thank you job, resources, inspiration, support system, and little wins. You enable me to have fun making some killer side projects, and that rocks. Thank you *so* much from the bottom of my heart.

What did I miss that you’re thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving,

Shane