Bullock Defines The Side Hustle Properly. Five To Fifteen Hours. The Hobby Distinction Is The Real Lesson.
Lilach Bullock published a piece drawing a precise boundary between a hobby with occasional sales and an actual side hustle. Her definition: a side hustle begins the moment you are doing work specifically to earn money on a repeated basis, even if the amounts are small. She cites a realistic time commitment of 5 to 15 hours per week to reach steady, repeatable income, noting that service-based hustles like tutoring or freelance writing require fewer hours than product-based ones like reselling, which involve sourcing, listing, and packing on top of selling.
The mental model here is intentionality plus repetition equals enterprise. One lucky sale is not a business. A repeated effort to generate sales is. Bullock also surfaces a second principle that most guides conveniently omit: time cost varies systematically by hustle type. Service work converts hours to income more directly. Product work carries overhead that is invisible until you are doing it. Understanding this overhead asymmetry before you choose a hustle is the difference between a sustainable second income and a slow drain on your evenings.
Lilach Bullock, publishing at lilachbullock.com, wrote this guide focusing on the real time commitment and honest definition of what constitutes a side hustle versus a hobby.
- Write down anything you currently do that has ever generated money, even once. A painting sold to a friend, a favor you were paid for, a blog post that earned ad revenue. Now apply Bullock's test: are you doing it repeatedly with the specific aim of earning? If yes, it is already a side hustle. If no, it is a hobby. Expected outcome: you have an honest classification of your current money-generating activities.
- Estimate how many hours per week you currently spend on it. Compare that to Bullock's 5 to 15 hour benchmark for reaching steady, repeatable income. If you are below 5 hours and wondering why the income is not steady, you have your answer. Expected outcome: you see the gap between your current effort and the threshold for reliable earnings.
- Classify your activity as service-based or product-based using Bullock's framework. If it is service-based like tutoring or writing, your hours map fairly directly to income. If it is product-based like reselling, add 30 to 50 percent more time for sourcing, listing, and packing overhead. Now recalculate whether the realistic hourly return is worth it. Expected outcome: you have a clear-eyed picture of what this hustle actually costs in time, not just what it earns in dollars.