So You Want To Start A Business? – How To Get Started
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Hey, it’s Q&A day, and today’s question comes from Jus Tin. Jus Tin says, “I want to start a business,” yes, “but where do I start? I don’t know what kind of business to go into. I see so much opportunity to work online, but don’t know what is the best avenue to go down or where I should focus my time. I know that I want to work from home so I can be with my family and make more money than I do in trades right now. Where do I start?”
Okay, great question, and I have been there. I know the struggle of being like, “I want to do something, I don’t want to work in this 9-5, I want to do something on my own that I’m passionate about, but what is that?” And I’ll share with you some of my stories.
I was a dental hygienist before. I used to clean teeth all day, which isn’t that creative and not that exciting, I mean, it’s quite the conversations you can have with people, but it’s a little bit one-sided because, you know. So, I knew that I wanted to have a business, but I didn’t know what it was. I knew that I was passionate about teaching and about speaking with people, and about learning their stories and about sharing my story, but I didn’t know how to turn that into a business. I also knew that I was passionate about singing and acting, and some of my hobbies were in the performance area. But I didn’t know how I could turn that into a business. Something that I could do and serve the world and be passionate about every single day; and make a good living while doing it because as much as we want to follow our passion, we also need to, you know, pay the bills, have a roof over our head, eat.
So, what I would suggest is, work backwards, and you have a great start here, Jus Tin, by saying, “I know that I want to work from home. I know that I want to make more money than I do right now,” and you want to be with your family, and that’s kind of where I was, too, that I was in my 9-5 as a dental hygienist, which I always knew was going to be a temporary thing and I do think that it’s important to have something that. Whether it’s a plan B or something to fall back on while you’re figuring it out, but then when you do have that idea in mind, go all in.
Some people will say, “Don’t have a plan B because it holds you back from your plan A,” but this is where I would say, if you don’t know yet what your plan A is, have your plan B to sustain you while you’re figuring it out. And then when you’re ready, go all in on plan A. I’ll tell you my personal story about that, too, because I understand the fear of taking that leap, and my story was scary, but worth it, so just wait, and I’m going get to that in a bit.
I was in a very similar situation, that I was working in my 9-5, knew that I wanted something else, and I had this idea of what I wanted that to look like. I knew that I wanted to work from home, that I wanted something that was location-independent so that I could be anywhere in the world and still be serving my clients. I knew that I wanted to make a certain level of income or more, that I wanted to work with people all over the world, that I wanted to be able to work from my laptop and do things that I knew that I had the skills in. I believe so much in setting an intention of what you want, but then letting go of the attachment to how, and letting the opportunities come to you in an organic way.
I’ll share with you my story, that I was working in that dental office, cleaning teeth every day, and I found myself a little bit bored. So in between patients, I was working on their social media and I worked on their website just for fun, just because it was something that I was good at, and their IT guy noticed and said, “Hey, you’re good at this. Can I refer you to another client of mine?”, and I said, “Sure, I guess so.” And so, that referral became another referral, became another referral, became another referral, until I realized, “You can do social media for a living? Like, you can make money doing this?”, and, “I’m good at this!” That was pretty exciting to me because I was, like I said, a dental hygienist, cleaning teeth and didn’t realize that doing social media for other businesses was actually something that could make a very profitable living, and also provide value for another company.
When I look back on my journey. I know it’s so much easier to connect the dots looking backwards, but when I look back, I think, if those opportunities hadn’t fallen into my lap, and if I had the idea of, “I want to do social media management,” I wonder which way would’ve been easier. If I had my vision set on, “I want to do social media and I’m going to learn things for myself,” or the way that it came to me, that the opportunities fell into my lap so effortlessly and, of course, we love to hear effortlessly, but when you have the idea of what you want to do. The first thing to do is start to follow that passion, whether it means taking up some free opportunities where you can just dip your toes in the water, working for other companies or helping a friend or family out.
Learning from people. The biggest thing that I can tell you is also to get a mentor. Find the people who are doing what you want to be doing, and learn from them, surround yourself with those kinds of people. And I want to share with you, you know, the story from an experience that I had when I had to take, I had to make a choice. Was I going to stay in dental hygiene where I was making $45 dollars an hour and it was a great wage or was I going to go all in on my business? Because now, I knew that this was something that made me happy and this was the lifestyle that I had designed, that I had always wanted. And I do believe in spirit, in divine intervention, in things happening that were just meant to be, and I was in a position where I was just on the fence. I was like, “Do I leave, do I go all in? Do I leave my 9-5?”, and the decision was made for me.
My husband had a very bad dirt biking accident. He fell off, he scraped his butt right off, he fractured his tailbone, he had his arm, (two arms) both of his arms in casts that he could, like, hardly even reach his mouth. I was in a position where I couldn’t go back to work, he needed me to take care of him, and it was also two months before our wedding. So perfect timing that he couldn’t go to work because of his injuries and I couldn’t go to work because I needed to take care of him with his injuries, and that was GO time. It was peddle to the metal, that there is no choice but to make this work because not only do I have a wedding and honeymoon to pay for, but we need to make this work so that we can survive, and that was the turning point in my business, that I wasn’t going all in, I wasn’t ready to make the decision for myself and that was my big sign to go ahead and do it.
So, when you’re in that position where it’s, “Do I go all in, do I take the leap, do I do this?” Decide for yourself what it would cost you if you didn’t, that how long do you want to stay in your 9-5 and not be fulfilling your potential? Or, do you want to have that what if of, “Could I have reached a further potential?” And I know, I know, there are things to worry about like money and bills and, “Who’s going to pay for this?”, but here’s the thing, we live in a time where we can get loans, we can be late on our bills, and I’m not recommending that, but the worst that can happen is paying a little bit of interest while you’re growing your business.
I don’t want you to get mad at me for saying that. But when you’re ready to go all in on your business, that could be the leap that you need to take. And I don’t want you to be so worried about the material things and what else could be holding you back and keeping you with excuses from going all in.
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