My name is Jaana Phillips.  I am the creator of the Sweet Life of Texas and the marketing director and co-owner of Andalon Studios with my husband.

 As a small business owner, I know how exciting it can be to operate your own business, but I also deeply understand the hardships that come with it as well. Outside of working our day jobs, my husband and I work diligently building our “other jobs,” chasing our dream to make the side hustle a successful full-time business. 

These last few years, my family has worked through tremendous trials that have nearly pushed our small business dreams to the side. 

In April of 2022, I was hospitalized for several weeks with a sudden onset of severe neurological gait issues, odd muscle spasms, and functional seizures.  I was wheelchair-bound and, after being released, had several more months of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. 

I had to teach myself how to walk, speak without slurring my words, bathe myself, and drive again.  My independence was stripped away, and I had to learn to rely on the love of my family completely and wholeheartedly, and so many others that provided meals and monetary help while I recovered.

Not knowing if this new normal was going to be a permanent disability or if I was going to be healed. Our family was pushed beyond the limits of fear, financial stress, and much more!  Everything had to come to a halt, even with our small side business.  

All marketing, advertising, in-person exhibit sales at events – all of it came to a screeching halt!

When I tell you that I understand how life can throw a wrench in your plans and your dreams, know that I completely understand. 

But if I have learned anything from this, it is…. that God is always in control, and you WILL recover and get through to the other side!  I have also learned resiliency is key and that YOU and YOUR dreams of financial freedom and entrepreneurship can and WILL bounce back even BIGGER than ever if you continue to push through without giving up!

I started this blog shortly after coming back home from the hospital. It was crazy to create something like this when I could barely walk or think clearly. But along with my recovery, I knew that I could not give up on my long-time dream of building another stream of income by monetizing a website. 

Years ago, I originally started the Sweet Life of Texas Community in an effort to help small business owners and entrepreneur dreamers like you and me, learn “resiliency” while pushing through the many obstacles that small business owners face on a daily basis. 

Additionally, I wanted a community that connected small business owners and entrepreneurs together to help one another in a variety of different ways. In my commitment to pursuing my own personal and business growth, and the goal of helping small business owners connect, I began interviewing successful entrepreneurs.

 I was so curious as to what led them to their own success and what their secret was to resiliency and not giving up. I began to document the true success stories, especially how they grew their businesses, what mistakes they made, and their wisdom to help us avoid making those mistakes ourselves along this entrepreneurial path.

As entrepreneurs, one thing we have in common is our constant search for essential growth strategies, the latest tech tools like customer relationship management programs, improving advertising conversion rates through social media and email marketing platforms, blogging and SEO hacks, best small business mobile apps, collaboration and networking opportunities, accounting software, and much more to help streamline the operational growth of a side job hustles and future business venture!

As I learned from their stories, I also began to compile a huge list of legitimate side job hustle ideas and opportunities to help bring you and your family financial freedom!

My goal in writing these success stories along with many other how-to articles is that you not only find small business tools but that you discover proven strategies to propel you into significant growth in your pursuit of side job hustle and business ideas.

Not only that, but I also hope you find encouragement and emotional tools for your work and family-life balance, so you don’t lose sanity along the way no matter what you encounter along your entrepreneurial path!

Their stories will inspire you, as they share the amazing successes that they have accomplished and even lessons from their failures along the way. I know that your dreams of financial freedom are very real, and the burning desire to become a successful entrepreneur is something to be admired … and not given up on!

If you would like to collaborate or have a small business success story you’d like to share, please reach out. I would love to connect and hear your story!

The advice at Sweet Life of Texas comes from a community of abundance mindset individuals who started out with very little but have grown their businesses to an inspiring and profitable scale. This community is made up of givers who believe that generosity is also the key to their success. As they share their step-by-step strategies and growth hacks, they do so for the benefit of YOUR success in your pursuit of side job hustles, small business dreams, and financial freedom goals.

If you would like to help others by sharing your story, please do not hesitate to get it told! Email me at [email protected] to submit your story or for business collaborations or just to connect! I would love to connect with you.

I look forward to hearing from you! 

Jaana Phillips