I grew my side hustle into a $20,000 a month business — here are 4 tips I have for aspiring entrepreneurs

Jean Kang never thought she would be an entrepreneur. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, she had always envisioned herself working for a big tech company.

"I grew up watching a lot of 'Shark Tank' [and] thought it was always fascinating. I never thought that it could be me though," Kang told CNBC Make It.

Having witnessed the rise of Silicon Valley from her own backyard, she worked hard to land her first tech job. "I felt like I was in a bubble, that's all I knew [and] I wanted to be part of this cool kids club," she said.

After graduating from university in 2014, Kang went on to start a decade-long career in technology — but things didn't go as planned.

Kang's corporate career eventually led her to starting her own business, which has given her freedom from a 9 to 5and now brings in about $20,000 a month, according to documents seen by CNBC Make It.

Kang's career in technology wasn't a linear one. From 2014 to 2024, she was fired twice, worked at six different companies and across many functions such as sales, operations and strategy.

Then in 2020, she landed her first program manager role and realized that she had a real knack for it, so she zeroed in on those skills. Two years later, Kang saw that people began reaching out to her with requests for mentorship and questions about her role.

"I noticed a need in the market... I wanted to help people who were aspiring program managers pivot into this career path," she said.

"Then, I decided to [announce] with one post: 'Hey, I'm launching a coaching business, if you... want to land a program manager job, I'm open for a session [and] you can book a call with me," said Kang.

After she made that initial LinkedIn post in October of 2022, Kang started creating career content on