WRITTEN BY
NATHAN CHAN.
Unless
you happen to have very rich and very supportive relatives, or have some
incredibly deep savings, chances are you’re one of the majority of entrepreneurs currently working on a business while working another
job.
How many of you reading this article
right now find yourselves working as an employee by day, and as an entrepreneur
at night? I’m guessing a lot!
And don’t worry, you’re not doing
anything wrong. In fact, it might even be the best approach. A study by the Academy of Management found that businesses that started off while the founder
was still employed were actually 33% less likely to fail when compared to those
whose founders dove straight in.
Most new businesses these days start
off as side-hustles. For the modern bootstrapping entrepreneur, there really is
no other choice.
The
whole “needing money to live” thing can be awfully inconvenient sometimes
But if you work hard enough and have
a little bit of luck, you’ll find yourself in a position to turn that passion
project of yours into your main source of income. Instead of stealing away a
few hours here and there from your 9-to-5, you’ll find yourself with a chance
to turn your side-hustle into your full-time pursuit.
But the question is: How do you get
to that point? What steps do you need to take to quit your job and finally give
your business the attention it deserves? It can be very hard to kick things up
to the next level, after all, and so many early entrepreneurs get stuck at the
precipice, only to let their past progress fade.
Well wonder no longer, because I’m
going to lay it out for you.
Here are the five essential steps
you need to take in order to turn your side-hustle into a full-fledged
business.
Get
Organized
The first, and most crucial step in
turning a side-hustle into a full-time business is to get organized.
One thing I find a lot of
entrepreneurs lack is a distinct sense of specificity in their
goals. It’s all well and good to dream about finally being able to work on your
startup all the time, but unless you have a path to get there, it’ll forever be
a dream.
The last thing you want to do is
take a leap of faith only to fail at sticking the landing.
In order to take your business to
the next level you’re going to first need to understand what the next level
even looks like. It’s all too common for early entrepreneurs to
hack away toward an ambiguous goal without ever crunching the numbers of what
you really need, and tracing back the steps to getting there.
So before you quit your job,
determine what needs to happen for your side-hustle to be considered
successful. Once you have that in place, you can start creating a realistic
timeline and start laying down the foundation you need to make the transition
successfully.
In order to help you get organized,
let’s first figure out what your startup needs to look like before you can
start working on it full-time. To do that, you’re going to need to do a Business Model Canvas.
Recommended by the “Godfather of
Silicon Valley,” Steve Blank himself, the business model canvas is a simple
tool that allows you to take a step back and look at your business as
objectively as possible. It highlights the nine essential elements of any
business and arranges them in a way to show you how they influence one another.
Here’s a great tutorial outlining
how to use the business model canvas:
What you need to do is fill out
the business model canvas with what you think your business needs to look
like before you can commit to it fully. Take some time to really
hammer out these details, so you know exactly what it is you’re working
towards.
Take that abstract idea of what
success looks like out of your head and get it onto paper. Understand what critical mass means for you.
Figure out how much revenue you
need to be making in order to both maintain and grow your business, while still
meeting your cost of living. Be careful not to fool yourself about what you
need to live. Make it as rooted in true expenses as possible. Put some thought
into what resources you’ll need to ramp up, so you can start preparing.
Get as granular as possible, because it’s these details that can end up hurting
you later down the line if you’re not paying attention.
Remember, you have to stick that
landing.
Plan
Accordingly
Now that you’ve figured out what
needs to happen, it’s time to create a plan to get there as soon as possible.
That means doing another homework exercise, this one called the Goal Pyramid.
It’s something we’re huge fans of
over here at MEJA Business Services And Agencies,
because it allow you to visually unpack your goal and break it down into its
significant milestones. It was an invaluable tool for our own founder JAMES
LAURIAN, as he work his way toward leaving his full-time job.
While it’s all well and good to know
that you need X amount of money coming in, it’s not going to mean much if
you’re not sure how to get there.
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With the goal pyramid, you can
figure out exactly what you need to do, and what actions you need to take in
order to get from side-hustle to full-time business. By mapping these
milestones out with your goal pyramid, you’re giving yourself an actionable
plan you can immediately start working on.
Here’s a great video by the inventor
of the Goal Pyramid himself, Matthew Michalewicz, explaining how to use it.
Now that you know what key
milestones you need to meet, you can now start creating for yourself a
realistic timeline of what needs to get done by what time. The timeline part is
important.
Giving yourself deadlines for these milestones means that you’re 91% more likely
to reach them. Knowing that something needs to be done at a certain time
gives you less of a reason to procrastinate and waste time.
It also allows you the opportunity
to get outside of your own head and look at your progress fairly and
objectively. If you don’t meet certain milestones at key dates, instead of
beating yourself up about it, take a step back, do some self-reflection and ask
yourself, “why?”
Chances are that you didn’t meet the
goal on time because humans are just naturally bad at long-term planning. Sometimes it means that you need to change your strategy
because of something unforeseen circumstances or details you may have missed.
By giving yourself a timeline, with
milestones and goals to meet, you offer yourself the chance to examine what’s
working and what’s not.
It’s only when you reach these
milestones, and you’ve set up a solid foundation by doing so, that you know
you’re ready to become a full-time entrepreneur.
Work
Smarter, Not Harder
As a part-time entrepreneur you’re
not going to have a lot of access to that valuable resource that we know as
time.
There are only so many hours in the
day and if you’re working a 9-to-5, that’s eight hours already gone. Take away
another eight hours for sleep, and a few more here and there for activities
like commuting, eating, and being a general human being, and what you’re left
with is not a whole lot of time to work on your business.
When you’re only person working on
your business, you can very easily fall into the trap of thinking that you just
need more hours in the day. But having more time doesn’t necessarily mean
you’re going to get more done.
Something everyone seems to forget
is that you only have a finite amount of energy. It really doesn’t
matter if you’ve managed to carve out a few more hours in the day here and
there. If you don’t have the energy or willpower to actually work, the extra
time is useless.
Many also make the classic mistake
of thinking that all they need to do is reduce the number of hours they have at
their current workplace. This is a smart thing to do when you’re only a few
weeks away from quitting, but not so great if you haven’t already laid out your
foundation.
Others will instead choose to buy
more time by reducing sleep in favor of more work. This might work for a while,
but before long you’ll, find yourself burnt out and without any of that
precious energy to keep going.
And
we’re back to square one.
It might sound counterintuitive, but
the rule of thumb for any business that’s trying
to scale is to remove the individual as much as possible.
That’s because the longer and harder
you work on a business, the more dependent it becomes on your ability to
participate. While you might see a small growth spurt from throwing more hours
onto the fire, what you’re actually doing is trapping yourself.
There are natural limitations to
what you can do, and if your business’s growth is based upon your personal
input into it, your business simply cannot grow past a certain point. The last
thing you want is a scenario where you can’t take a day off because that means
your whole business comes grinding to a halt.
If you want to start working on your
business full time, you need to make sure that your time and energy are being
properly leveraged.
If you’re always stuck working in your
business, then it means you never have any time working on your
business.
Consider hiring a virtual assistant, and see if there are any tools and resources. Yes, you will be spending money and that can feel like a
setback. But instead, I encourage you to look at it as a necessary investment
into your own business.
This way, you can focus all your
energy on the things only you can do. Whether it’s nurturing relationships with
potential partners, or finding new customers and coming up with a new marketing
strategy.
Go back to your business model
canvas. Find out what absolutely, 100% needs to be done by you, and what can
you be automated. When you finally quit your job you want to make sure that all
the extra time you now have is being put to good use.
Keep
Your Eyes on the Prize
I won’t lie to you. If you’re
serious about turning your passion project into a full-time business, you’re
going to have to prepare to be exhausted. Even if you’re working
smarter, as described above, there will be a period where you’re pushing things
as hard as they will go.
In order to make the transition
successfully, it could take some time. Be prepared to be working 12-15 hours a
day, for quite a while. When your goal is to turn your side-hustle into a
profitable business as soon as possible, it’s going to take epic amounts of
patience and perseverance to get through it all.
It may mean missing out on going out
with friends and seeing family, and having to deal with people who just didn’t
understand why you would be putting yourself through so much stress.
Before MEJA BUSINESS SERVICES AND
AGENCIES turned into a full-fledged business, it was just the side-hustle of
our CEO and founder JAMES, while he worked full time as an INSURANCE consultant
AND ACCOUNTANT at the same time.
He’d work hard at high full-time
job, come home and almost immediately work on MEJA BUSINESS SERVICES for at
least a couple hours a day. Every day it was a hustle to move the needle
forward so that he could bring himself closer and closer to his goal.
At times, it may feel hopeless, but
if you’re genuinely enjoying what you’re doing then you’ll know that the hard
work will pay off eventually. Every day, just focus on pushing yourself
forward, even if it’s just a little bit. Otherwise it will forever be a side
project.
Something else to keep in mind while
you’re on your journey to become a bona fide entrepreneur, though, is to make
sure that you don’t get distracted.
Something that all entrepreneurs are
guilty of is “Shiny Ball Syndrome”. It’s when you’re working on something, but then something
else comes up and you’re suddenly chasing after that instead.
Don’t worry, you’re not the only
one. Even veterans entrepreneurs with years of experience find themselves
chasing after something new and losing focus on their original goal.
When that happens, it can spell
disaster.
It’s all well and good to update
your business plan as you go, depending on new circumstances. It’s only natural
to pivot when one aspect of your business is working better than expected. But
what you don’t want to do is try to give yourself more work by focusing solely
on your new shiny toy.
Usually in these scenarios, an
entrepreneur becomes so enamored with their new project that they’ll start
devoting all of their precious time and energy into making it work. Unless
you’ve gone ahead and tested and validated this new idea, all you’re doing is
setting yourself up for failure.
What typically happens next is that
because you’ve spent so much energy into this new project, your original
concept will inevitably begin to fail. Unless this new project is just as good,
and you’ve made a conscious decision to re-prioritize, then all you’ve done is
give yourself more work.
So remember to stay focused, and
have a clear understanding of what your goals are and what you need to do in
order to get there.
Give
Yourself a Break
I’m sure many of you reading this
article will be able to remember a time when you found yourself getting bored
with something you originally had a ton of passion for.
Inevitably, that feeling will come
when you’re working on your side-hustle. The luster and excitement of working
on something new wears off and you find yourself hating the grind that it’s
become.
You find yourself questioning why
you’re working late nights and weekends, missing out on going out with friends
and family, and even wondering what the purpose of it all is.
Passion projects are only sustained
by the amount of passion you have for it, so when that wears off, what’s next?
First of all, don’t beat yourself up
about it. Realize what’s happening to you isn’t a lack of motivation, but more
than likely just simple exhaustion and stress catching up with you. Recognize that these are just signs
of burnout, and that it’s perfectly normal to feel that way.
Image
courtesy of Toptal
To stave off burnout, remember to make
time for yourself.
While you may be giving the best
hours of your day to your passion project, that does not mean you’re not
allowed give yourself time to relax. Remember that when your whole business
lives and dies with you, then how healthy you are, both physically and
mentally, is now more important than ever.
Go to the gym and exercise, invest some time into a creative hobby,
or just spend an hour or two sitting down on the couch watching Netflix. Do
whatever it is you need to do in order to decompress and relax.
An important part of managing your
energy is giving yourself time to actually recharge.
I, for one, am a huge fan of naps, and it’s actually not that uncommon to find myself
splayed out on the floor at the MEJA BUSINESS SERVICES office.
But most importantly, remember to
celebrate the small wins. For every victory that you encounter, make sure you
take a moment to marvel at how far you’ve come and all you’ve achieved.
Don’t get stuck in the poisonous
mindset where you think there’s always more that needs to be done, or that you
that you haven’t done enough. Practice the art of being compassionate
to yourself and give yourself a break.
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!Conclusion
If there’s a final, super secret tip
I’d want to end with, it’s the one that really applies to all progress in this
wild journey of entrepreneurship—take action! One uniting trait we see among so
many successful founders is their sense of will and driving urgency.
Just like it takes that sheer power
of will to take the first step toward starting a business, so will you need
that strong internal drive to pick your foot up off the ground and take the
next big step: quitting your day job. As much as you need to be prepared, you
also need to have the bravery to take the plunge, like so many others did
before you. So what are you waiting for?
Are you trying to quit your day job?
Taking those all important steps to running your business full time? Tell us
about your own struggles or successes below in the comments.
DON’T HESITATE IN CHECKING ME VIA MY
PERSONNAL EMAIL: jameslaurian1990@gmail.com
or mejabusinessservices@gmail.com for direct consultancy.
