When Nicole Tocci started turning vintage Chanel buttons into necklaces in 2016, she knew she had a business opportunity.
But building her side hustle from scratch took time. First, Tocci started selling the jewelry at pop-up shows and in her Berkeley Heights, New Jersey-based spray tan salon, Nikki Tans. Over the next four years, the necklaces gradually gained public interest.
At the end of 2020, Tocci launched a website for the side hustle, called One Vintage Button. Last year, she made $90,000 from it. As of last week, she's made almost $413,000 from it this year — just over $41,000 per month — according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
The best part, Tocci says: She only dedicates three hours per workday to her lucrative side hustle.
Tocci, 45, credits One Vintage Button's growth to an Instagram strategy — getting influencers to share her products — and strict before- and after-work routines to help juggle her side hustle and full-time job.
"I don't really think [having two businesses] is a struggle for me," she tells CNBC Make It. "I feel that it's about being very organized and having really good time management skills."
Here's how she structures her day:
An after-work and weekend hustle
Tocci works at Nikki Tans from Tuesdays to Fridays, plus one Saturday per month. The salon also employs three contract employees, and Tocci says it brings in up to $350,000 in revenue annually
The days are 9-to-5, which helps: Aside from posting a story on the One Vintage Button Instagram page first thing every morning, Tocci says she doesn't work on her side hustle until after she leaves Nikki Tans.
Instead, she checks her email, works out and eats breakfast before leaving for work. The daily routine helps her focus, she says: "I'm pretty consistent about my morning rituals."
After finishing work between 5 and 6 p.m., Tocci goes home to focus on One Vintage Button for two to three hours. Marketing is the most time-consuming part, and it's very costly, she says: She spends up to $1,100 on social media ads, mostly Instagram, to reach new customers.
Tocci also spends five to six weekend hours each month sourcing vintage clothing, typically from Chanel. Scouring thrift stores and local boutiques for designer clothes can be difficult, considering the stock is often unpredictable, she says.
Mondays are for marketing work, for both businesses. Tocci mostly takes Sundays off to recharge, reserving one hour to organize for the week ahead.
"I realized early on that if I have a busy work week coming up, I typically need to stay home and relax," she says.
Lessons in stillness
Tocci says she's always had a knack for organization and time and money management. Her first few years of running Nikki Tans taught her that routines can additionally help with productivity, she adds.
But the side hustle, which comes out to roughly 20 hours of additional work per week, presented a new challenge. It forced her to become more understanding with herself and the people around her when things don't go as planned, she says.
"I needed to build in scheduled times to rest and exercise, or both businesses would suffer," Tocci says. "I also found that downtime was important, because that's when I could do some brainstorming."
Taking guilt-free time off has helped Tocci stay flexible and mentally focused, she says.
"Today with social media, people are used to seeing results and high numbers when you reach success — but they don't really see what happens along the way," she says. "[My side hustle] isn't something that just happened overnight two years ago. It was a process, and it took confidence to give that idea a certain amount of time to see if it would work or not."
This story is part of CNBC Make It's series Six-Figure Side Hustles, featuring people of all ages who find ways to make money in addition to their full-time jobs, and have great routines or habits to share. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at AskMakeIt@cnbc.com.
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