One day several years ago, I was in my tiny little home office scanning through an entrepreneurial Facebook group I’d just joined. There were requests for all sorts of business referrals. And as I watched people in the comments section endorsing different individuals and their businesses, I wondered if that would ever happen for me. 

I had just started out, probably still just trying to figure out the process for filing an FEIN. I hadn’t quite figured out how to make a name for myself yet. Networking seemed terrifying. And just newly in business, my budget was practically non-existent, so advertising was out of the question.

It slowly started to occur to me that you need to take an online business offline to make valuable connections. No one was going to blindly recommend me. And now, many years and several big successes later, my name is getting tossed around in the comments section of business referral request posts. But that’s simply because people got to know me, my work, and my commitment to excellent service.

The thing is, people don’t hire companies. At any given moment, for any given service, there are hundreds of companies who offer exactly what you do. And you may not be any better or worse than they are. But what you can depend on is that people hire people.

So how do you show people who you are behind your business?

Ask for coffee dates

If there’s a person or business you admire, reach out to them and simply ask to connect over coffee sometime. Entrepreneurship, especially for us virtual entrepreneurs, things can get pretty quiet and lonely behind a computer screen. Talk shop and be a support for one another.

Attend events

Okay, if you’re an introvert like me, this can seem somewhat terrifying. I get it. But hear me out. Attending events (conferences, speaker series, workshops, etc) allows for you to take some of your online relationships off line. If you’re a member of several online entreprenurial groups like I am, there’s nothing better than getting to take those connections to the next level. Scared to go alone? Ask one of your new coffee date friends to go with you!

Be social

Okay this one might sound sort of silly, but being social can actually help you make the right connections. Chat to the people around you while you’re out. Striking up conversation with the strangers around you while you’re out may lay the founation for important connections. Chat to the guy standing next to you at the bar who is also waiting for a beer. Join a communal table at a restaurant and actually connect with the people on the other end. Simply being friendly and chatty will allow people to get to see the person behind your business. You’ll have to ask me to tell you the story sometime of how just chatting to a girl next to me at an event changed the trajectory of my entire life. Anyway…

And while these people may not be the ones to hire you, they will be the ones who refer you to their friends, family, and connections.

If I’m honest, we like to over-complicate things. We’ve heard our entire lives It’s not what you know but who you know. While I would argue that what you know is important, I would also totally agree that who you know matters too. People take recommendations seriously. So if you can make connections and work in a way that allows your reputation to proceed you, you’re golden my friend.

As a small business owner, one of the hardest situations you’ll deal with initially is determining how to price your services and/or products. Pricing yourself too low can lead people to draw conclusions that you’re too fresh in the game (read: inexperienced) while pricing yourself too high can cause potential clients to find what they need from someone else.

When I first started freelancing, I fell into the former trap — I priced things way too low…and boy, did it come back to kick my butt. 

Let’s take a walk through the biggest mistakes I made, okay?

1. ASSUMING. I assumed that everyone knew how to do what I did, so I obviously couldn’t charge a lot.

2. IMPROPERLY VALUING MY KNOWLEDGE. Because I didn’t know how to put a dollar value to the knowledge I’d built up over the years, I just slapped a number on the services and went with it.

3. NOT ACTUALLY KNOWING MY TARGET AUDIENCE. While I knew what I wanted to do, I didn’t know my target audience the way I should’ve. I was in a hurry to get my business up and off the ground, so I was willing to take on anyone who would give me the chance to begin forming my portfolio.

Throwing all of those mistakes together, I ended up with a pricing scheme that just didn’t fit the amount of work I was doing. Lots of working hours + not enough payment makes for a very burned out Joey. Anyone feel me here?

And while I could’ve continued on this path of being priced too low and struggling to make it all work, I realized the better thing to do was to restructure and properly price out my services.

“So how do you do that,” you may be wondering? Well, I’ve got some tips for ya! 

1. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Before you can figure out your pricing, you need to learn more about other companies that do what you do. What do they charge? What services/products do they provide for that price? Are they good at their work? Once you’ve done your homework, you’ll have a range within which you can set your pricing!

2. KNOW YOUR COST + PROFIT MARGINS. To price yourself fairly, you need to know your monthly, quarterly, and yearly costs. Now add in the profit margin you want to earn. As a small business, your main goal should be to earn a profit and if you aren’t charging enough, you won’t be meeting that goal.

3. DETERMINE IF YOU’RE PRICING PER PROJECT OR PER HOUR. When I started, I was immediately drawn to pricing myself per hour. But I quickly learned (and my wonderful husband helped me realize) that by pinning myself down to the hour, I was excluding a whole set of additional clients. In the end, I decided to bill per project and it has been a much smarter move for me! Not only am I able to help my clients whenever they need it, I don’t have to constantly bill them extra to cover the additional hours of work.

Now that you know your pricing, how do you get paid?

Good question. There are so many options when it comes to billing for your services and getting paid. There are so many options, in fact, that it can feel a little overwhelming. The first thing I would do is establish a business bank account. From there, you’ll likely want to pick a payment gateway that works for you and your business.

Something that was hugely important to me was being able to bill for my services (and products: my books) in a way that makes it super easy to for someone to pay me. The last thing you want to do is make it difficult for people to give you money. You may want to opt for something like easy invoice generation by payanywhere — this way you can take payments from wherever whenever.

If you’ve been struggling with setting pricing for your company, just remember that many of us have been there before! So, take a deep breath, start at square one, and remember you can always change your pricing to ensure it’s working for you the best it can!

How to start a business

Getting Legal:

• Sole Proprietorship: the simplest and most common structure chosen to start a business. It is an unincorporated business owned and run by one individual with no distinction between the business and the owner. You are entitled to all profits and are responsible for all your business’s debts, losses and liabilities.
• Partnership: a single business where two or more people share ownership. Each partner contributes to all aspects of the business, including money, property, labor or skill. In return, each partner shares in the profits and losses of the business.
• Limited Liability Company: a corporate structure whereby the members of the company cannot be held personally liable for the company’s debts or liabilities. Limited liability companies are essentially hybrid entities that combine the characteristics of a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship.
• Corporation: (sometimes referred to as a C corporation) is an independent legal entity owned by shareholders. This means that the corporation itself, not the shareholders that own it, is held legally liable for the actions and debts the business incurs.
• S-corp: is a special type of corporation created by an IRS tax election. An eligible domestic corporation can avoid double taxation (once to the corporation and again to the shareholders) by electing to be treated as an S corporation.

Want to hold off on the legal filing?

Apply for an EIN (Employer Identification Number)

Establish business banking

There are plenty of business banking options available. So many, in fact, it can feel overwhelming. But this is not something you’ll want to skip. It’s imperative that you keep your business banking separate from your personal banking for so many reasons. Choosing the right bank for your business boils down to finding one that offers the right combination of features, benefits and cost. Depending on the type of business you’re running, you might even find it best to work with a specialty merchant services provider.

This friend has an MLM business. And she’s been off social media since February. “I hate it,” she told me.  “But I feel like I have to do it.” She wanted my insight into hiring someone to create the content and manage her accounts. The accounts that she hasn’t logged into since February…

I could have easily handed that information over. There are several people in my network who would happily take on that project. And they’d rock it. But instead, I asked her a question.

“Since you’ve been off socials, how is your business doing?”

She went on to tell me that things are going well. Slow and steady but consistent. So I asked her exactly why she felt like she needed to be on socials.

“Because my network is only so big. I need to expand my reach.”

I could hear the disappointment in her voice. She felt such pressure to do something she really, really didn’t want to do.

Here’s the thing. We all do this. With one thing or another, we all force ourselves to do things we don’t want to do because we feel like we have to. Maybe it’s the easiest thing to do. Or the most traditional. Or my favorite: because everyone else is doing it.

You guys, you started your business to design your life. To design your day-to-day. Yes, every business has aspects that no one likes. And the typical advice, in that case, is to simply suffer through it until you can afford to hire it out. But we add things to the miserable “have to” list that don’t actually need to be there because we forget to employ creativity. Somewhere along the way, we stopped giving ourselves permission to think outside the box.

Don’t just accept the misery. Get creative. Think. Explore.

MLMs have been around forever. I remember attending Tupperware parties with my mom and I rubbed Skin So Soft all over in the summers like every other kid of the 90s. Social media is young. A baby! It is not the end all be all of success for a creative business. Can it help? Sure. Can it have a massive impact? Of course. But social media also has the power to consume you. It requires constant attention like a needly little toddler. And if you simply cannot stand it or worse, you see that it’s negatively impacting your well-being, don’t force yourself to do it.

I asked my friend to pretend it’s 2002. Social media doesn’t exist, and you’re determined to grow your business. What do you do? I encouraged her to find an in-person networking group in her area. (I’ve been a member of WIN which is a great one. BNI is also a really powerful group.) I told her to start attending events like Creative Mornings. Make deep and meaningful connections with the people around you in your regular day-to-day life. Find vendor events. Pop up shops. You get the picture.

The thing I love about this friend and how she runs her business is she doesn’t spam people. IRL or online. She understands the power of connecting not selling. When she did post to her socials, she offered true value.

“So take it offline,” I told her.

By the end of the call, she felt energized. A heavy, wet blanket lifted. Her perspective shifted, she was reinvigorated to tackle this next stage of growth.

So I’m going to ask you–what’s weighing you down? Holding you back? Paralyzing you and stunting your growth? What do you feel like you have to do but you’re repulsed to actually do? How can you shift your perspective? Brainstorm some out-of-the-box solutions. Stop reaching for the simplest or easiest and get intentional about designing your life and business to operate in a way that brings you joy.

SYSTEMS & PROCESSES UNLOCK FREEDOM IN CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Those two words: systems & processes have become such sexy buzz words in the entreprneur community that I’m afraid no one reallys know what they mean. They just know two things: they sound official, and they need them. Before I started my first business, I devoured episodes of the Being Boss podcast. This was back in 2015/16 when they first launched, and I’d listen to Emily and Kathleen chat while I swept someone else’s floor, dreaming about someday. I wanted to be prepared for someday. As prepared as possible. And if I learned anything listening to those bosses, I knew I needed systems & processes. But like…what exactly? I craved specifics. I needed details. Systems where? Processes for what?

SYSTEMS & PROCESSES: WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY?

Your system keeps things running smoothly, like canned emails that allow for a rapid reply with a few quick edits or project templates in ASANA. Systems are your own personal business hacks. They help you be efficient and consistent. They’re the little automated favors you create for your business that make your life easier. I like to think of my systems as my little robotic assistants. Your process is your method of operation; it’s how you do things. Think of it this way, your process should be documented in a way that should you (likely the sole individual in your business initially) were to fall suddenly ill, your processes would instruct someone with no prior knowledge of your business how to operate it.

WHERE YOU NEED THEM & WHY

In my humble opinion, you need either one or the other or both in pretty much every aspect of your business. But here are a few key places you may need/want systems and processes and why.

Communication. You need both a system and a process in place for your communication: all of it. From inquiries to your final client meeting. Communication, in my experience, is one of the biggest time sucks in business. It’s vital, unavoidable. But if I spent one more day drowning in my inbox, never getting any actual work done, I was going to lose my mind. (Oh wait…I did…)

Packaged offerings//DOING THE WORK. You might be able to create and establish some systems here, like the aforementioned project templates. Maybe you are able to create design templates or a coaching structure map or any kind of thing that might make doing the work a bit easier for yourself. But what you definitely need here is a process. For your own sake and especially for your client’s sake (which really, is for your sake, let’s be honest). Having a process here will change your relationship with your business. And better yet, it’ll change the way your clients view your business. Whether you have one packaged offering or 15, create a process for each one. A process allows you and your client to know what to expect throughout their relationships with your business. It communicates credibility and earns trust. With a process, you’re able to ascertain the life cycle of a client which helps you determine your bandwidth and allows you to plan strategically.

Marketing/Social Media. Systems here are good. Having a some canned, recyclable posts, graphic templates and a general post structure to follow are all helpful. But a process here is vital. Do you follow a posting schedule? (i.e. motivational Monday, tip Tuesday, etc) What is your brand voice? Do you have a certain structure for your posts? An email marketing schedule? Figure out how you do this (or how you want to do this) and create a process around it.

Roles. Okay, so it might just be you in your business right now. But hey! Dream big! Like dressing for the job you want to have, dress your business up as the business you want it to become. Even if it’s just you, establish roles. Sure, you might wear all the hats, but you probably won’t always. Establish a process for the different roles (or departments) in your business. How does the work get done across the board? Further more, a benefit here is, even if you wear all the hats, this helps you establish boundaries within your business. Once you start hiring, it allows your employees and team members to establish boundaries as well. And let me tell you, this is crucial.

Business day. Both systems and processes will play a role in your standard business day. Think through everything you do on a daily basis and see where you can simplify (i.e introduce systems) and document the general operations (i.e. establish your process).

The short answer as to why you need these things is pretty simple: systems save you time and keep things operating efficiently, processes establish and maintain consistency in your business regardless of who is at the helm.

If you’re like, dude…I gotta get some systems and processes into my business stat, I’ve got you covered. I’ve designed this in-depth guide to help you create your own custom systems & processes and implement them into your business. So, what are you waiting for? Grab your free guide! 👇🏻

November 15, 2017: I feel numb. I finally shut up long enough to listen rather than ask. And I was told to let go. I know leaving [company name] is the right move, but it doesn’t mean this is easy. This has been a doozy of a year, and I am ready for whatever 2018 has in store.

In the months between those two entries, my whole world got flipped upside down. My husband lost his job. My mom, who is my only remaining parent, had major back surgery and I came home to care for her, and my business grew so quickly that I was buried in work. Buried.

I feel like the breakdown came on suddenly, like the flu. One minute I was fine and the next I just wasn’t. But the reality is, the breakdown was a result of all the tiny little things compounding; a game of Tetris I was slowly losing. I was happy doing all the things and being everything to everyone. But somewhere along the way, a turbo switch got flipped and I was powerless to slow things down, much less stop them. Like a tire with a slow leak, eventually, I had nothing left inside. Deflated, exhausted, sick and useless.

I couldn’t breathe. An old GI illness flared. And I constantly felt like my heart was going to blast right out of my chest. Despite feeling the worst I ever felt in my life, I couldn’t slow down. I couldn’t take a sick day or a vacation. I couldn’t find reprieve. And the worst part is: I’d done it all to myself.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Probably not unlike a lot of you, I started my business to build in the flexibility my life required. Also probably not unlike many of you, when the company first started, I was obsessed with it. I couldn’t work enough. I was never tired. I collected clients like kids of the 90s collected pogs. If someone was willing to pay, I was willing to do the work. I was eager to prove to myself and everyone else that I could, in fact, really do this thing. The problem is, once the thing really took off, I didn’t have anything in place to protect myself. The business didn’t crash and burn. I did.

WORTH ENTANGLEMENT

The first thing worth mentioning, which I believe is at the root of this entire issue, was that I measured my worth by my productivity. This is an easy trap to fall into as an entrepreneur because typically, our dollar bills are literally attached to the amount we accomplish. And I was so desperate to make the thing work that I threw myself into the business 100%. Dedication and discipline are great qualities as an entrepreneur, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and I didn’t. I was my business. My business was me. And that entanglement, my friends, will derail your life. You cannot and should not attach your worth to the success of your business, your productivity, or really anything that can vary day by day. It was this entanglement that fueled everything for me.

FLAWED SYSTEM

As a client-serving business owner, you wear all of the hats. You are the client relationship manager, the admin, the billing specialist, oh…and you have to actually like deliver the work they’ve paid for. A ton of work goes into a client relationship. I thought I did a good job trying to anticipate all the things, but in reality, I’d never actually run a business before. The first year in business was a huge learning curve. Establishing precedent and systems for all the things took up a lot of time. Doing all the work also took up a lot of time. And mind you, these things were getting established on the fly as issues came up.

I was also terribly unaware of bandwidth. Because I’d never done this before, I had no idea what the average lifecycle of a standard client was or what that relationship would actually look like. So while there were systems in place, those systems ultimately didn’t really serve or protect me–just the client.

HALF-BAKED BOUNDARIES

Here’s the thing. The business wasn’t without its structure and boundaries. There were things like client communication guidelines and standard procedures in place, but there was one major critical error: I, personally, didn’t have any boundaries with the business. The structure and procedures that were in place were solely looking out for the client and our standard business operations. I honestly didn’t know enough about running a business to understand that I also needed to set these things up with myself in mind, too. It’s important to note here also that this company launched in the age of hustle glorification. I believed in order to be successful that I had to be slightly miserable. Dreams don’t work unless you do, after all. 🙄 HEAR ME WHEN I SAY THIS, PLEASE:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HUSTLE FOR YOUR WORTH!

I didn’t know about my go-hard tendencies yet. I wasn’t in-tune with my working preferences or my most productive hours. I didn’t take the time to get to know myself as a business owner and establish a process that allowed for me to best serve my clients and protect the way I preferred to work. I haphazardly threw procedures into place as issues would arise never once considering what those things would mean for me as a business owner.

I introduced zero white space. I was scheduled to the max and completely overloaded. I took on every client that came my way and went above and beyond for each and every one of them. I woke up working. I fell asleep at my desk. I came home after a 20 hour day at the hospital where my mother just had major surgery and hopped in a Zoom call to launch a client’s website. I. Had. Not. A. Single. Personal. Boundary. In. Place.

It’s hard to envision business ownership as anything other than a sprint, especially when you’re first getting started. Establishing effective policies and procedures takes a lot of work and effort and good googly moogly, they aren’t sexy in the least. Taking the time to understand who you are, what you prefer, how you actually want to work and the potential issues that might arise won’t just set your business up for success, it’ll set you up for success in your business.

There are so many things I would have done differently with my first business, but implementing this foundation is at the top of that list. In fact, it was this foundation alone that gave me the courage and confidence to give entrepreneurship another go. After my experience with burnout, I’m sure you can understand my hesitation. But I’m happy to report that 1.5 years in, this foundation is still solidly in place and offers not just me but all of my clients as well the freedom we so desperately crave in our businesses.

]]> https://www.joeyhodgeswrites.com/2019/07/03/business-burnout-my-experience-a-free-guide-to-avoid-it-yourself/feed/ 0 205384 https://www.joeyhodgeswrites.com/2019/06/25/my-dream-workday-how-to-discover-your-own/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-dream-workday-how-to-discover-your-own https://www.joeyhodgeswrites.com/2019/06/25/my-dream-workday-how-to-discover-your-own/#respond Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.joeyhodgeswrites.com/1969/12/31/my-dream-workday-how-to-discover-your-own/ I did a lot of dreaming in the final weeks of my day job. I tried my hardest to envision what my life would look like once I was a full-time creative entrepreneur. What would my days look like? One cool thing about being your own boss is that you’re in total control: there’s no one there telling you what to do. But without the proper structure and discipline, that very same cool feature can also lead to rapid failure if you’re not careful. I knew going into this endeavor that failure simply wasn’t an option. I couldn’t afford to fail. And I definitely wasn’t going to let a lack of preparation and planning be the cause of my failure. So I did what I do best: I made a plan and mapped out my dream workday.

Preparing to map your dream workday:

Get to know yourself

I worked a variety of jobs in the decade leading up to my entrepreneurial journey. From nanny to cupcakery manager and pretty much everything in between. My mom lovingly referred to me as a fish out of water. Little did we know how right she was until I finally took the plunge. It would be easy for me to look at my first decade of job experience as a frustrating waste of time. But something really good came of it: I got to try out a bunch of different ways to work. And in that period of exploration, I discovered a lot about myself

• The type of work I enjoy doing
• The type of work I’m good at (which is not always one in the same as the work I enjoy…)
• When and where I’m most productive
• When and where I tend to be the most creative
•  What I cannot stand doing
• Which distractions have the most power

Self-reflection is vital when it comes to setting yourself up for success. Because we’re all unique, what works for me might not work for you and vice versa. I have a friend who consistently works from her couch with the TV on all day long for background noise. That sounds like my perfect recipe for an unproductive disaster. But my quiet, isolated office is her nightmare. Different folks. Different strokes.

Understand the point

While it’s super fun to get dreamy, I believe it’s actually essential to get an idea of what your dream workday looks like. Why? Because without an awareness of how you want to show up every day, you run the risk of establishing habits and routines that you don’t love and don’t work for you. Your dream workday map serves two important purposes:

1. To optimize your productivity

2. To optimize your joy

It’s also critical to recognize that this sketch of your dream workday is simply a guideline. It’s designed to help you make stragetic decisions about how you spend your time and where/when to schedule things in. While I wish I could fit every single workday into the structure of this map, that’s just not possible. A blessing (and a curse) of entrepreneurship is that no two days are ever really the same. But you can do a lot of intentional decision making and scheduling with your dream workday in mind.

My dream workday

Up & at ’em 

It’s 5:15 AM. I have a steaming hot cup of coffee and at the kitchen table with my Bible and journal. I spend about 20 minutes in the word while I have my coffee. I then take some time to write my gratitude list. I don’t worry about any responsibilities at this time. This is my time. There will be a time for things like face washing and getting dressed. This is not that time. I fill this space; showing up in my most vulnerable state. After I write my gratitude list, I spend three minutes free-writing in my journal. At this time, if I feel like catching up on Youtube or blogs or the internets, I do. It’s my time, after all.

Let’s get movin’

It’s 6:30 AM. The dog needs to go outside. I need basic hygiene and probably something to eat. I take the next 30-60 minutes to get myself ready for the day depending on what I have going on.

The grind

It’s 7-7:30 AM. I’m dressed at behind the computer ready for the workday. My typical location is my home office, but sometimes I might migrate to a coffee shop, cafe or coworking space. My wardrobe consists of jeans, cute tees and comfortable shoe (or let’s be real: barefoot/socks). If I have an out-of-the-office meeting, I might get fancy with things and put on a dress. Probably not, though.

The first thing I focus on is something creative like blog content or an internal project. If I’m in the midst of a book project, the first hour of my workday is dedicated to writing my daily words.

8-8:30 AM: Log into emails, Slack and Asana; spend an hour communicating and addressing client needs.

9 AM – 12 PM: Client work & client meetings/sessions

12-1 PM lunch (DO IT JOEY. STOP AND EAT SOME DANG FOOD. I MEAN IT.)

1-3 PM: Client meetings/sessions; client work, creative projects

Switch gears

it’s 4PM and the workday is over. To switch gears, I change my clothes and get movin’ by either going for a run, attending a workout class, doing yoga, something active. After my workout, I take my shower, change into lounge clothes, and start prepping dinner. Work mode: deactivated.

Evening

It’s 5-5:30 PM. I’m working on dinner, cleaning up around the house and possibly drinking a beer or glass of wine. The husband might be on his way home, he might not be. I spend my evening eating and intentionally relaxing by either watching a TV show, reading a book, catching up with friends, etc.

Winding down

It’s 9 PM, and I’m a grandma so I make my way upstairs. I brush my teeth, put in my retainer (bc I’m super cool), and climb into bed. I take my sleeping pill and read until 10 PM. FRIENDS of HIMYM on and LIGHTS OUT. #goodnight

Now it’s your turn! Use this download to discover your own dream workday.

“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!

HOW I WORK

I am a mama of two, so my routine varies from day to day, But, every day I always make sure to check my emails, engage via social media and look for potential clients. I have a desk in our office/play room and that is where I work. Or honestly, a lot of the time it is from my iphone that goes any and everywhere with me. When I have photoshoots, I have a backpack with my camera, extra lense, props, and business cards ready to go so I don’t have to worry where everything is! I typically do outdoor photoshoots that vary from family, cake smash, birthday parties, engagement photos, maternity, etc. I also do newborn photos, and those usually take place indoors at the client’s home or hospital if they are doing a Fresh 48 session.

I stay organized by my calendar in my phone. Whenever I book a session, I make sure to add it in my calendar so I get a reminder the day before! I have an ongoing to-do list that is on my desk so I can keep track of anything like that. I created and manage my website and social media accounts so I also make sure I keep them up to date with my most recent photoshoots as well as any specials I am running at the time.

I think that photography is such a beautiful thing. They are images captured at any given time in your life that you are able to cherish for the rest of your life. For me personally, whenever I look at old pictures, it brings me back to that time in my life as well as all the emotions and memories that come from the pictures! I love being able to be apart of creating those lifetime memories for people and their families.

LIFE BALANCE

Honestly, I feel like I am constantly working here or there so it’s not ‘set hours’. If I have work I need to do on my website, I typically save that for after the kiddos are down for the night so I can really focus. I relax by doing yoga. I am blessed to have it at our clubhouse and that is a set event in my schedule every week. I also really enjoy listening to podcasts; my favorite right now is Yoga Girl! She is so inspiring and relatable and every time I listen to her it is relevant to what is going on in my life. I also really enjoy cooking and fun fact…I was a chef in a restaurant before I had kids, and now I am still one just for a smaller clientele. 🙂 I usually meal prep every Sunday to help save time during the week! My favorite show to watch right now is ‘Billions’; that’s currently the show my husband and I are obsessed with.

Thanks for hanging out with us for the day, Lauren! Everyone, be sure to go show her some love on Facebook and Instagram, and keep her in mind for any of your future photography needs!