Episode 008 – Ready to Leave your 9 to 5?

Are you done, like really done with the 9 to 5 and are seriously considering making the move into your own business? This is such an exciting time in this process, but there is so much to consider, where do you even start??? What do I need to prepare, what happens if it doesn’t work?

There are many elements that you can do while you are still working and continuing to keep an income for your family or yourself. I am outlining my list of must haves to make this a reality!

Decision Time

Making the decision is the first step, and we all get to that point through different circumstances and realisations in our life. It is scary so own it, there isn’t another person on the planet male or female that wasn’t scared starting their first business. Now that you have made the decision its so important to plan your butt off to ensure that you have lots of your ducks in a row!

Often there is something that we want to change in our lives that working for ourselves will solve? For me personally it was the horrendous treatment of women in the workplace and the way I was treated that finally pushed me to work for myself back in 2008. I wasn’t going to tolerate my future direction being dictated by strangers that were not going to care about me after they got what they needed! I needed to be in control of my happiness. Are you looking for more flexibility in working conditions, less travel time? Outline your reasons clearly and make sure as you build your own business that you are ticking all the boxes for yourself.

Test Your Idea

Talk to lots of people and test your idea to see if there is a place for it in the market. There are so many options on social media to ask targeted questions, this will help you to shape your offering and get your messaging right. Just because we think a business idea is great, doesn’t always translate to making money out of it. See if anyone else is already doing it and how successful they are. It will give you a great gauge on what to expect when you launch. Talking with others will also be a great education, too often we are too close to our idea and we cant see the wood from the trees, this will give you some great insight on how to talk about what you do with others to get some real market research.

Cash Flow

An important step that is often overlooked is making sure you can live, pay your bills and keep a roof over your head. Having a family budget is something that I absolutely expect for everyone! You need to know how much it costs to live and put food on the table. Starting a small business is hard enough, you don’t need to add more stress by not being able to feed your family or yourself and the electricity being cut off. Its not always possible to save lots of money, but I speak from experience if you are serious about starting a business then you need to have money to pay for at least 3 months of bills. If you are serious about starting your business, I can almost guarantee you that you could live on less. We all have absolute necessities and then we have that spending where its not life or death. Dinner out with friends, that take away coffee or treating yourself with clothes can be put on hold for the short term to ensure that you can focus solely on creating a winning strategy in your business.

Discuss with your loved ones

Have you sat down and discussed this with the important people in your life? This could be a spouse or partner and talk to your kids if they are old enough. Getting everyone’s input is critical to success, so often I see start-ups suffering alone and burdened because they didn’t set the expectations and boundaries. Yes spouses/partners may not understand what you are doing but please try and get their support with the rest of life’s duties. It makes such a wonderful difference when domestic duties are shared and dreams are supported. Friends are an interesting component in your life when you start a business. You need to understand that some will be happy for you, some will not understand what your doing and why you are doing it. Others will be downright weird about you starting a business, they will be jealous and there will be nothing you can do about it. Understand that it has nothing to do with you and speaks volumes of how they feel about themselves and their own situation. You don’t need to be rude to these people, simply put some distance between you and them. Surrounding yourself with people who get you!

Business Planning

Now I want to focus on the more formal parts of setting up your business. Before you leave your job you can start on a business plan. Its not sexy and it takes time, but business owners that take the time to plan are far more likely to succeed. It will help you answer those all-important questions and highlight any road blocks that are inevitably going to come up. Having a plan will also keep you on track, having a great plan will help keep you focused and ready for everything.

Start planning your email marketing, register with a provider and everyone you talk to try to get them to sign up for your mailing list so that they are ready for your big launch. If you want to guarantee a great start then this is a necessity. You don’t want to go through all the work and long hours with no one to launch to. Websites are necessary but they shouldn’t be the first thing you do to get your business started. You can create a checklist or cheat sheet of your knowledge and offer this as a lead magnet to share on social media and boost those numbers on your list.

Doing nothing has killed more dreams than taking action ever has! Taking the first step is so important., If things start to derail remember, don’t burn your bridges if you are leaving a workplace, you don’t need to leave in a great big blaze of glory! Simply say you are starting a new chapter and giving something else a go! Before starting your business you had qualifications, degrees or specific training, you can always fall back on those credentials again if you need to, so ultimately you have a safety net!

Overnight Success?????

Success does not happen overnight, and you need to plan for the long game. Consistently showing up in the market over a period of time is the only real way to build credibility and authority. There are always ways to shortcuts to everything but real success comes through this consistent action. So put your head down and focus on all the reasons that you are wanting this change.

Initially there will be lots of work that needs to be done, and it goes hand in hand with the territory. But I warn off the unsuspecting who think that being busy means that you will be successful. Tim Ferris speaks to being productive rather than busy. Productivity is making real progress, I refer to these as income generating activities, these should be on the top of your list each and every day. Try and keep the necessary admin to a minimum, so your making the most of your allocated time.

Final Thoughts

My final thoughts around starting a business are with social media. It is a time consuming black hole of time wasting. Please oh please don’t fall down the rabbit hole of scrolling and comparison. It will literally rob you of your dream business. If we are to believe everything we see on social media then we all might as well curl up and never start anything because everyone else is more successful. I never really understood what it meant to be unique until a few years ago when I realised that there are people out there doing the same thing as others but their personality and the way they show up can beat even the most successful entrepreuner. All you need to do is focus on your business, your goals and your why. Work smarter not harder and remember you are part of the minority who said yes to changing their lives, so many will continue as employees and never understand the exhilaration of starting their own business.

Additional help.

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“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail.
You only have to be right one time and then people can call you an overnight success.”
— Marc Cuban

Meet Your Host

Carol Lange 

From a young age I have been surrounded by business success. Having formally studied a Double Degree of Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Management, this led to many successful opportunities.

I have been an employee for large accounting firms and international companies. I have run two highly successful businesses, becoming sought after in my industry internationally.

I have spoken nationally on the topic of money management and loved having the quiet coffee making radical changes for my clients. I am not a limelight chaser, just a quiet achiever looking to make a difference in the world.

Thankyou for joining me on the podcast, my dream is to inspire you to take action that will create a difference in your life! Dream no more and live the life that you have always wanted.