It was a Thursday night, which meant I was walking into RuSans, my favorite sushi place, just like I did every Thursday to meet my friends for dinner. But this time, things were different. I climbed into the barstool next to my friend.

“It’s just me tonight,” she said, sliding her menu over to me even though we both knew I’d be ordering the Gladiator roll. She noticed the look on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do it anymore,” I huffed, grabbing my glass of water and taking a sip. “But I have to. Ya know? This is my life. I wake up. I go to work and do all the things. I come home to even more work and even more things. Then I wake up and do it all again the next day. I’m exhausted.”

“You’re miserable,” she stated matter of factly.

She wasn’t wrong. I was miserable. I had a good job working for good people, but my heart wasn’t there anymore. Instead, my heart was in the company I’d been slowly bringing to life for months and months.

“Quit,” she told me. “It’s time.” This friend is the most responsible person I know. So careful and intentional with every dollar and decision. The yin to my wild and crazy yang.

Panic clenched my throat. “No way. I can’t. We count on my income,” I explained. “It’s not the right time.” This is a conversation that my friends and I had been having in one form or another for several months. It always ended with me sucking it up and trudging through. But in the comfort of a one-on-one dinner date, my friend took the conversation to a new level.

“What’s in your savings?” A bold question, but I expected nothing less from my practical friend. She knew I’d been tucking money away in hopes of someday making the leap. I told her. “Okay. You’re writing your resignation tonight.” I stared at her blankly. “You have your buffer. You’re covered” she told me. “Quit.”

Did you know that when panic and excitement blend together you get a powerful cocktail that numbs you from the inside out? No? Well, if you’re about to quit your day job, you’ll know soon enough.

I went home that night and wrote my resignation. The next day, I stood across from my boss, a woman I respected so much who only 13 months earlier offered me a job that changed my life. I cried the ugly kind of tears where snot drips out your nose, and I offered them a thirty days notice. There it was. A deadline. From that moment, the adrenaline started pumping and three years later, I’m still waiting for it to stop.

 

MAKING THE JUMP FROM SIDE HUSTLE TO FULL-TIME GIG

First of all, if you’re on the brink of this move congratulations! You should be very, very proud of yourself. And yes, it’s totally normal to feel scared. Throat a little dry? Does everything feel sort of tingly? Worried you might be having a stroke? Bingo. You’re right on track. (Jokes. Well, kind of.)

I hope this goes without saying, but in the event that it does not, I’m just going to put it out there. You do not have to quit your day job to do this thing. There is nothing, and I repeat N-O-T-H-I-N-G wrong with keeping your day job. I am in no way advocating for you to quit your job. You have to do what is right for you and your family.

But if you’ve decided that going full-time is the right move for you, here are some things that can help you make that jump successfully.

Manage your mindset

Working from home and working for yourself, in theory, sound really dreamy. Pajamas and flexibility and coffee shops. But if you jump from day job to full-time side hustle with that mindset, things can spiral quickly. At the end of the day, your new full-time gig is a job. And you need to treat it as such. Yes, flexibility and athleisure may be included (and those things are dreamy), but go into it treating it no differently than you would treat your previous traditional day job. What does this mean? Well, it means you’re in charge so you’ll have to employ some critical thinking when it comes to your decision making.

If you’re constantly flitting off to go shopping or ditching work to lay out at the pool, nothing will ever get done. Beyond that, if you continually push your work aside to accommodate others, not only will you not get anything done, the people in your life will never respect the fact that you have a job to do.

Your side hustle is now your job. Show up and take it seriously. No one else will unless you do.

Have a plan

Listen, I get it. Plans are not exactly sexy to a creative entrepreneur. And I’m probably putting myself into the minority camp by saying I don’t really believe in business plans (I think they box you in too much). But I do believe in knowing what you’re doing for the foreseeable future. Yes, flexibility is fun and awesome, but all that free, open space can paralyze you if you don’t know what to do when. So, make a plan. Decide how you intend to spend your hours and days.

This is a pen to paper situation. Get a general understanding of what it’s going to take to do this thing. We’re talking from scheduling social media to hosting meetings. Make a list. The scary fun part here is that you probably won’t know all that it’s going to take at this point. And that’s okay. The point here is to have a general idea and make a loose plan of what you can expect to be doing day to day.

Be ready to work

You knew this was coming, didn’t you? Along with the mindset and the plan, you have to come ready to work. The work you’re doing is probably going to feel fun. In fact, it might even feel wrong for a hot minute. We’re so programmed to hate what we do that strangely, making this mindset shift takes some effort. But fun or not, you will probably work harder, especially these first few months, than you ever have before. So be prepared for that. If you think quitting your day job translates to laying in bed all day eating bonbons (sidebar–has anyone ever even eaten a bonbon?) you won’t get far.

It’s also incredibly important to note here that it’s very easy to let the pendulum swing too far in the wrong direction here. If you’re anything like me, as you’re starting out you might obsess over being taken seriously. And that might cause you to work from sun up to sun down. And you might find that you feel like you have to hustle for your worth. I did. And because of that, I burnt out hard and landed myself in breakdown town. Discover and implement a healthy balance for yourself here. Please. If that’s something you need (or think you need) help with, get in touch.

Give yourself an intentional buffer

I’m a firm believer in creating the space necessary. If you’re filling all your space and time with the things you don’t want, you won’t have room for the things you do want. But it’s also important to protect yourself. Be smart, please. Don’t jump into a situation that’s going to put you at immediate risk. Leaving your day job and going all in on your side hustle is risky enough. Don’t make this situation any riskier than it needs to be. Plan for it. Prepare for it.

Determine your living expenses and intentionally put money aside for this specific reason. Yes, have your regular savings account. It’s always good to have your standard buffer. But this buffer is a little different.

As a creative, pressure can be good. But intense pressure can quickly turn into paralysis. You need to give yourself the space and time you need to get established. I would recommend having at least 3-6 months of your full living expenses saved up for this jump. This is money you will likely have to touch, so you may not want to use your already existing savings account.

Establish structure with systems & processes

If you haven’t caught the drift yet, the key to making a successful leap from side hustle to full-time is to take yourself (and your business) seriously. You’ve been working hard in the in-between hours up until this point, so I have no doubts that you can pull this off. But in order to ensure your success, get serious about how your business operates. Make important decisions about how you plan to communicate with your clients and your business hours. Think through your customer’s journey and all the various ways they touch your business to establish a process you (and they) can rely on.

With that process in mind, think through ways to simplify and automate with systems. These systems and processes will offer you (and your clients) dependable structure. Trust me, potential clients will see you as far more credible and trustworthy with an intentional process in place.

These are the things that were crucial for me when it came time to making the leap from side hustle to full-time. And I hope they’re helpful for you as well. If you’re contemplating making the jump, snag your freebie planning guide below!