Ashland Viscosi had a full-time job working in development and marketing at the Austin Film Society in Texas, when an acquaintance offered her part-time work consulting for independent film productions.
Viscosi had been thinking about branching out from her full-time job, and the offer gave her a chance to try her hand at entrepreneurship.
Within six months she had left her full-time position at AFS, and six months after that she started her own venture, called Creatives Meet Business, an event and podcast series that helps creative people develop business skills.
Leaving the confines of a full-time job for a side venture may sound risky, but Viscosi is now much happier not having to rely on anyone else to make ends meet. "I like being in ownership of everything in my life," she says. "I don't ever want give that up again."
With job security a thing of the past for many, some experts recommend that people follow Viscosi's example. They say that more workers should consider starting side ventures to supplement their incomes and maybe even provide them long-term stability.
Some experts believe that women are more vulnerable to changes than men later in their careers, making a side-hustle even more important.
People too often trust their corporate careers to provide them financial security, but don't anticipate layoffs or other potential setbacks, says Nely Galan, former president of the American Spanish language network Telemundo and author of Self Made: Becoming Empowered, Self-Reliant, and Rich in Every Way.
"2008 was a game-changer for everyone," says Galan. Because of the financial crisis which affected economies globally, "it became a necessity to become entrepreneurial because so many people lost jobs."
A 2015 study found middle-aged women received fewer callbacks on job applications than younger women. Meanwhile, the rate of callbacks for middle-aged and younger men were about the same
A January 2016 report from the World Economic Forum predicts that five million jobs will be lost by 2020 in the 15 largest economies.
Galan believes that women are more vulnerable to shifting winds, making it even more important for them to start a side hustle that helps them supplement their income and potentially create more long-term stability.
The pay gap divide isn't new and there is plenty of research to show corporate life has been less generous to women, both financially and in roles breaking through the glass ceiling.
Older women are generally more vulnerable to losing their jobs and they have a harder time finding new ones, says Lauren Stiller Rikleen, president of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership. She points to a 2015 study that shows middle-aged women received fewer callbacks on job applications than younger women. Meanwhile the rate of callbacks for middle-aged and younger men were about the same.
In speaking with hundreds of women in their 50s and 60s, Rikleen also found that many of the women she interviewed had supervisors curtail responsibilities and lower pay, even as they were supposed to be working their way up the corporate ladder.
Women disproportionally suffer from ageism in the workplace because of the double stigma of age and gender and a heightened emphasis on physical appearance
She thinks that women disproportionally suffer from ageism in the workplace because of the double stigma of age and gender as well as the heightened emphasis on women's physical appearance.
"It's terrible," she says, about the double standards that women face in the workplace. "To say 'it's not fair' is an understatement."
In the United States, full-time working women are paid 80 cents for every dollar that men are paid, according to an October 2016 study from the Economic Policy Institute.
The pay gap divide becomes particularly pernicious as workers approach retirement - lower salaries translate into lower savings, which means women have less available to them when they stop working.
"If you have not had gender pay equity throughout your career, you will not have the same resources available to you as male counterparts in retirement," Rikleen says.
To combat these discrepancies, workers today need to have a backup plan, according to Galan, who says that women shouldn't waste time waiting for corporate settings to become more equitable. Instead they should find other ways to become self-reliant.
