Building multiple side-hustles while working full-time — Felix Wong of Zlides, Abstract Lab, and VenturesList

Having a side-hustle when you're employed full-time is hard. Having three side-hustles? That's nuts. I caught up with Felix Wong (@felix12777) who is somehow managing it, and I was surprised to find out that he doesn't even want his projects to overtake his employment.

I think there's something cool about that. He's building for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Here's how he juggles it all 👇

On why he's all about the SIDE-hustle

Felix: I treasure the combo of full-time job and side-projects.

I don't ever want my projects to replace my work. I already have experience in founding and selling a startup, so I don't have ambitious goals for them. I treat them as fun things to do. They're opportunities for me to experiment with new things. They're excuses for me to build things that are completely under my control.

So I'm currently heading up performance marketing and analytics for a health tech eCommerce company, and I'm making around $1,000 per month on average from various side-projects and services.

Here’s a rough breakdown of where that revenue comes from:

• Zlides: $500/mo
• Abstract Lab: $400/mo
• Ventureslist: $100/mo

Tips on growing projects

Felix: Here are a few tips that I've learned from experience:

• Show your work
• Show your milestones
• Be open-minded about feedback
• Launch fast, fix later
• Leverage Product Hunt (I talked about that here)
• Become an expert by leveraging Quora (I talked about that here)
• Reach out to potential early adopters
• Collaborate
• Teach (you will discover new ways to improve your skills)
• Get sustainable traffic through social media and communities.

On why he has so many side-projects

Felix: I like building and running multiple things because it allows me to grow and fail faster in many aspects. And I love the flexibility — jump from one side-project to another, anytime. Stay hungry, stay foolish!

But the worst part is that it's itchy. I always wanna touch my projects.

On juggling multiple side-hustles: Automation

Felix: I have a few automated workflows to help me clear out tedious tasks. It allows me to utilize the little bit of time that I’d otherwise spend on them. For example, I onboard paying customers through Email Octopus and map all email addresses to a CRM on Airtable for engagement drip and upselling. These workflows are usually done with Zapier.

On juggling multiple side-hustles: ICE

Felix: I only work on my side projects in my free-time — in the morning and evening. Here’s what my schedule usually looks like:

• 7:30: Wake up, clean up emails, read 1 article
• 9:30-6:30: Full-time job
• 8:00+: Side-project, learn new skills, community engagement

I decide what to work on according to the ICE scoring system:

I = Impact
C = Confidence
E = Ease

I take a task and give it a score for each of these attributes from 1-5, then I multiply them together. The highest number is the one that I complete first.

On juggling multiple side-hustles: Sub-tasks

Felix: I break down my roadmap and goals so that they're as small as possible. This makes it so I can see my progress and bring things together gradually. For example, if I need to publish four articles a month, I break it down into one paragraph per day, and I convert it into a routine. You don't have to force yourself to write a whole article in a day.

On coping with the stress

Felix: Coffee, sports, and family time are where I find my relief.