Welcome to the Lylia Rose money & lifestyle blog

In the end, I decided not to start the childminding business. Our upstairs flat was small and had no garden so we needed to move first, which took longer than expected, the new house needed lots of improvements, life got busy and we wanted another baby... oh, and my online businesses were becoming more and more exciting!

By then I'd realised it was running my own business that truly lit me up, not childminding itself.

In 2015 we welcomed our second child and I took 8 months maternity leave - during which I became completely obsessed with blogging, writing new posts and learning about blogging all the time. I used to write blog posts on my phone notes while my son slept during night feeds - I had so many ideas I couldn't write them down quickly enough, and my head was even buzzing with them in those early hours of the morning!

After maternity leave, my online store sales struggled so I took on two part time cleaning jobs, started side hustles such as mystery shopping and online surveys, and looked into monetising my blog instead - I was confident I could do it, so went full steam ahead. It was the right move, as by the end of 2016 I was earning a full-time wage online.

I was keen to leave my employed role, but needed the security, so waited six months to see if my newfound online income was secure. In January 2017 I left my last employee role for good, and I've never looked back!

I launched a healthy living website and travel blog in 2018, started selling online digital marketing services, and by summer 2019 I became our family's breadwinner thanks to all my online businesses and money making side hustles.

I eventually closed my online store, focusing on online publishing and digital marketing services instead, and my original Lylia Rose blog evolved over time too. As a former shopping addict who faced a £17,500 debt crisis in my teenage years, and having navigated mortgages, unstable self-employment income, building an emergency fund and new debts as a married couple, financial stability became a passion - which is why Lylia Rose naturally evolved into a money and side hustle blog, writing about what I was actually living and doing.

My husband followed me into self-employment around 2017, about five years after I started. He currently runs a handyman business in Newquay, DIY and garden building website, and Etsy and eBay shops selling handmade furniture and digital printables including self-build shed plans.

Between us we now have years of experience running digital marketing businesses, ecommerce websites, selling on handmade marketplaces, digital printables, local service businesses and more - which is why I can write authentically about such a wide range of side hustles, passion projects and ways to make money.

Together we genuinely live the working from home, self-employed, side hustle life - while raising a family, managing debt and unpredictable income, tackling two DIY home improvement projects and a relocation - oh, and we try and squeeze in healthy living and an outdoors lifestyle by the coast!