Are you living YOUR life or someone else’s?
Are you trapped in mediocrity, working in the same field for many years but feeling very dissatisfied & unfulfilled?
I do a great deal of Networking & meet many different people, mostly independent business owners but also many others who represent the company they work for but who would really like to work for themselves. They often feel that they are creatively stifled and frustrated by the constraints of having to “fit-in” with the ethos & practices of their employer, even when they disagree with those principles & methods.
When I ask them why they haven’t jumped ship & taken the step into self-employment, I usually get the answer that they are scared to give up the regular wages because they have commitments to meet each month & aren’t sure if they could make it alone – don’t we all? Most people would say that regular wages are important. That is perfectly understandable but that doesn’t mean you can’t change the situation. For the benefit of your mental health you also need to feel fulfilled by living your purpose & working according to your ethics rather than someone else’s.
At this point I often offer to help them understand how they can actually do both, alongside each other, building their own business without the need to walk away from their regular income until THEY are ready to do so. This often comes as a shock to people because we are conditioned to think that we can only do one or the other So in this blog, I thought I’d outline a few points for you to consider.
By far the best way to become an independent business owner is to minimise the risk of being left with no regular income if your business idea doesn’t work. You can do this by starting your business on a part-time basis, working around your current commitments. Doing this allows you the freedom of being able to iron out any wrinkles in your business model, tweak your services and build a solid customer base before taking that decision to walk away from full time employment. Very often this growth model can be managed until the time when you need to take your business to the next level. By this time, if you have built a strong foundation, your business should be generating enough income to warrant stepping into the world of full time self-employment.
Admittedly, it isn’t always practical to build your business this way depending on your trade or service but still there are ways to minimise the risks and by putting a detailed plan in place from which to take action a similar result can be achieved.
In order to ensure that your business has the best chance of success when you eventually commit to it full time, you need to engage with a quality Business Coach who will take you through the processes necessary & make sure you consider every aspect of creating a strong platform to ensure success.
Where do you start?
The first thing you should do when you realise you are not happy with your current situation, is to determine what is it that is niggling at you – what’s that recurring thought/feeling that you can’t shake?
Keep asking yourself WHY? Until you get to the core reason for you being unsettled. Get a paper & pen to write your answers down, so you can track your thoughts. This process can take some time but is so worth the effort in order for you to get clear on what your purpose really is and what you think you want. You might be very surprised at the final conclusion when you realise that what you thought you wanted to do is not actually where you end up. Being honest with yourself is paramount – listen closely to the first thought that comes to you when you ask these questions – the first answer you get is the real one, all thoughts that come after are your subconscious programming trying to keep you stuck where you are (that’s a whole other subject to explore!) and trying to convince you to settle for the status-quo.
It is said that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. Personally I love what I do, helping clients to see possibilities & creating a plan to help them achieve their dreams. I can’t succeed unless I help others to live their purpose!
When you are happy that you have finally got to your core reason for being, you then need to decide how you are going to create a successful business around this reason that will allow you to serve others effectively by providing solutions to their problems – that is what all businesses are actually about, solving people’s problems, wants and needs by either providing services or products.
When you start to plan your business, it is very important to be ambitious but also realistic. We often over estimate what we can achieve in 12 months and under-estimate what can be achieved in 5 years. Business is a long game, especially if you want to have a long term, successful business that will reward you for years to come. All too often, we want quick results and are very disappointed when we don’t make a profit in the first few months. Many will give up too easily at this point, but remember the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and remind yourself that anything worth having takes time to build. You must concentrate on building a strong platform from which to build a strong business that will last as long as you want it to.
This is the first stage of building a business in a small nutshell. It’s also why Phoenix Rising and particularly, the new Road Map to Business Success Course was created, to help people see possibilities, get it right and make things happen.
I love helping expand people’s horizons to see a bigger picture. If you’d like to explore possibilities, then please get in touch.