It would be a bit of a lie to say that any side hustle will be easy. But, if you can find something you like doing or it takes you away from pain, then it could be seen as easier. We all want time and money freedom, but it only comes with putting in extra hours somewhere early on. So, what is the easiest side hustle then?
No two hustles are the same. And not all are equally easy. What is the measure of an easy side hustle?
It can be done in your spare time
When deciding on a project to earn extra cash, you need to know you have the time out of your busy day to do it. Especially if you are working full time with a family.
Something you are good at
It pays to work with skills you already have. By doing so, the learning curve will be quicker, and you’ll be able to make more money quicker. If you are good at building websites, perhaps this would be your starting point.
Something you are willing to learn
If you don’t think you have any real skills (very unlikely), or you want to learn something new, pick an area you are interested in. When I was building computer applications, it often took me to clients’ sites. From there I realized that I actually like communicating with clients. So I started a side hustle consulting on the side. I outsourced the actual work to better programmers than me.
Can fit in with your schedule
That same consulting business eventually could not fit into my schedule. It was just too time-consuming and not making enough for it to be worthwhile. So I focused on my job again. My current hustle in affiliate marketing is much better suited for me. I can do my 2-3 hours each day when I can fit it in. (Mostly in the morning when my brain is fresh!)
The question “What is the Easiest Side Hustle” has been answered for me.
Affiliate Marketing
If you are willing to put in consistent effort, over time you will learn all the skills necessary to be successful. And you just need to know a little about them all. When you start making money, you can outsource the ones you don’t like.
Although you can do this on your own, it’s always better to get the help and support you need to get it running like a pro. Six-Figure Mentors have guided me all the way. Their All-In-One Package costs $97 per month and gives you the following:
Hosting for your Website
Web Design Tools for WordPress
Training on how to build a Website
Training on where to find affiliate programs
Training on Email Marketing
Training on Social Media Marketing
Online Ads Training (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more)
Do you make these mistakes in Affiliate Marketing Online Business?
I heard that people make them, I made them, and I stopped making them. But I am sure you can learn from me. They are common. But if I can change, so can you!
1. Waiting Too Long to Launch Your Affiliate Marketing Online Business
Trying to be perfect stops you from earning money early in online business. If you are like me, you always need things to be perfect.
In one of my previous “business ventures”, onthemark, I made this mistake and it cost me. Designer custom logo, business cards, and a pretty website. This all cost me time and money. The time I should have been getting customers. The time I should have been promoting. Soon I was out of money and frustrated.
Even if you have no money for advertising, share your links on Social Media. Send out a weekly email to all your friends and family. Connect with new people on Social Media sites. I still chat with all my new and old connections on LinkedIn and see if there is a fit for them in online business.
Get whatever you have in front of someone and get feedback.
2. Forgetting Your Story in Affiliate Marketing Online Business
You got into online business for a reason. Do you need extra cash? Do you like the idea of being the star of the show? Or you got “gatvol” of your job. (Gatvol is an Afrikaans word meaning, without being rude, fed up)
And of course, there was a build-up to that too. Your childhood, your failed marriage, and even a drug story or two. But don’t forget the good. The promotion, your new partner in this world. Your furry friends are always around to cheer you up. We are all made up of so many intriguing life moments that we remember as stories.
These all make you who you are.
Great marketing is great storytelling.
Tell a story that your customers can connect with and share with others.
That’s how you expand your message beyond your own borders.
3. Focusing On The Little Stuff
Like I eluded to earlier, don’t waste time on things that don’t make money! Just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it makes money! Focusing on things like branding and website design and layout won’t help you early on. Make sure you focus on the money tasks. Blogging, advertising, customer support, and getting it in front of your audience.
And a new one I learned recently; I’m busy creating a strategy around it, guest post blogging to drive traffic back to my site. Backlinks build authority.
4. Inconsistent Emails in Affiliate Marketing Online Business
Smart marketers build an email list. Even smarter marketers build a relationship with that list.
Are you only sending emails when you have a new product to offer? Or are you only sending emails once a month? Stay in regular contact with your people. 2-3 times at least these days. Give them regular values. Link them to your latest Blog, Podcast, or video.
5. Doing Everything Yourself
businessman holding modern city building skyscraper on shoulders real estate agent concept. Humans are building cities on their shoulders. Concept of creating the world of humanity.
You’ve got to treat your online business, like a business. Sounds easy right. But that means stepping out the way when you can benefit in time from someone else doing a better job at something than you!
Are you the content creator, webmaster, customer support, and still working a job?
You don’t have time to do it all. Learn the basics of a skill, then outsource it. Bring in extra money doing things you like and use that money to pay for outsourcing.
Even if it means trading your time for money in a skill you are good at. Use the money to pay a professional for something you are not good at. i.e. If you are good at web design, build sites for other up-and-coming businesses. Use the money to pay for something you hate, blogging or SEO.
Six-Figure Mentors recently brought these mistakes back to my attention. Most people don’t make it online because they try to do it all, and forget the reason they were doing it in the first place.
And yes, I am guilty too.
It’s amazing all the mistakes you can make in this online world and still make money.
Free bonuses include: Special invitation to their next streaming Masterclass, walking you through the EXACT steps and skills you need to learn to make your first 10 sales online.
Seeing you launch your Affiliate Marketing Online Business.
Starting a new venture is scary. Many people procrastinate for months or even years before they take action. And its really not necessary to waste so much time fretting about it. Starting and building a new business is a challenging undertaking, but starting is the first challenge. Here is some perspective to help you get motivated to launch your business today!
Stop Procrastinating!
So you are caught in a cycle of procrastination that has you holding back. To cut to the root of the problem, understand that procrastination is actually just a response to fear. Yes, fear is at the root of it and you can kick through one simple strategy.
Take action!
Action is the remedy to all procrastination. Stop being stuck and avoiding action, by taking action. And that action can be anything small, like opening a social media page for your business. Or creating a website for your business. Or simply telling people you are starting a new venture. Tell someone who can hold you accountable, like a spouse or partner, can help push you to take action!
Launch before you ready
If you planning to start a business understand one simple thing. You will never be ready! There will always be something that you need clarity on. There will always be something you haven’t yet figured out. Make a decision, and start building your venture today. You will learn through the process and your confidence will grow as you see more and more results.
No one starts a business with answers. Often there are things you can only learn as you go. Time will unveil the answers you need. Step forward with confidence and be open to learn as you go. The time will never be perfect. And it doesn’t need to be. Because the time is now!
A business is a not a static entity. It takes time to build a business. It doesn’t happen overnight. A business needs to start in order to grow. You will probably change direction many times. Just be flexible and open to change as you discover new ways to improve it.
Very few businesses start with all the resources they require. Entrepreneurs often don’t have all the skills, knowledge and experience they need when they start. Rather they learn and hone their skills and knowledge as they go.
Connect with Role Models
Social media is an amazing platform for any entrepreneur looking to start a new venture. It offers an amazing platform to connect with fellow entrepreneurs. Search for people that are doing what you want to do and learn from them.
So many entrepreneurs share pearls of wisdom on social media which can be both inspirational and educational. Take the time to connect and follow people that inspire you! This is a great way to get perspective and build certainty.
Start Today…
There you have it. Four great reasons to stop procrastinating about the launch of your business and get motivated to take action! Everything takes time, so why delay and wait any longer, start today and in a month you will be a month ahead, and then two, three, six!
Launch your business today!
Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
One of the biggest challenges for anyone starting any business is the cost of starting. Many people don’t have access to the large amounts of capital required to start building a business. And this is a major limiting factor for many people. Today I will be delving into one business model that requires little to no start-up capital! Yes, it’s true there is a way to start a business with zero money, it is called affiliate marketing and you can even get started today!
Here is what I will be covering today:
Myths about Affiliate Marketing
Building a business without Boundaries
Why should you find a niche?
Why you need a blog?
Use Social Media to spread the word
Grow Your Email List
Be Consistent!
Let’s dispense with the Myths First
Affiliate Marketing, like any real business, will not make you heaps of money from day one, no business will! It is not a quick route to making money. It is a great way to start building an income for yourself, through your own efforts. If you are working and want an additional income stream, affiliate marketing can be a way to build a steady income that can grow over time.
As an affiliate, you will be promoting products and services that will earn you a commission from every person that buys that product. Instead of physically selling any products you are acting as a referral partner, and earn money for referring a customer. So if you look at it from a long-term point of view and invest now, down the line it will yield higher and higher returns as you grow your business.
A Business without Boundaries
One of the great benefits of an Affiliate Marketing business is the fact that you can run it from anywhere! It’s also not like a normal business where you need to be available during business hours. You also don’t need to only sell to people in your country, you can market your products anywhere in the world.
This means if you ever built a strong enough business that makes you enough money, you could live anywhere in the world. So you could truly be a digital nomad and live and work where you want. You could even travel while you work, the choice would be yours.
Why should you choose a niche?
One of the challenges facing anyone starting out is what to sell! There are just countless products and services in innumerable industries that you could sell. The problem is not if there are opportunities to sell, the problem is what opportunities will you focus on? Instead of trying to cover too many bases, focus on one niche or solve one problem.
This will help you be more focused on your marketing efforts! And this is a good thing. If you sell too many different unrelated products, it will severely undermine your content. This is also not ideal from a search engine point of view. So think carefully about what you want to sell by asking these questions:
Where are my interests?
What am I knowledgeable about?
What do I love talking about?
What would I love to learn about everyday?
What products or services do I use everyday?
What products and services am I knowledge about?
Dig into your strengths, passions, experience, and knowledge to find areas that will be more natural for you, as this will greatly help you when creating content. There are many tools online that can help you research the demand for online products and services. Doing a Google search can direct you to some free tools for viewing real data about your niche.
No! But although you don’t need a blog to get started, I would highly suggest setting up a basic blog for your business. Some affiliate programs will require you to have a website, so it depends on the affiliate network. You can share information about the products you are selling, and create a resource with your audience.
A blog gives you total ownership over your content. You are in control and can use it to centralize all your content in one place. Even if you decide to move from one social media platform to another, your content will still be accessible on your website. You can also use your web content to repurpose on social media platforms. This can help you maintain consistency, and help you to build traffic to your website.
Many hosting companies have basic webpage builders to help you set up a basic website, that won’t even cost you any more than your monthly hosting fee. Ask them to find out more!
Social media is a powerful content distribution platform to share your content and grow an audience. Your content can educate your audience about what you are promoting and create exposure for your affiliate products. Choose a social media platform where your target audience is to increase the success of your content. The better you connect with your target audience the more effective your affiliate promoting will be.
People will be more inclined to follow a link from a trustworthy source than someone that hasn’t taken the time to build a strong following. Social media can be powerful leverage for driving traffic, and it is free, so take the time to learn how to use it wisely and it could pay back dividends.
A great way to build a good affiliate business is to build an email list! If your customers have subscribed to your newsletter, they have already shown interest in your products and services. Now you can use this list to regularly send out information that can inform, educate and promote your products. But remember, put your customer first and don’t just cold pitch every email or you could land up with people unsubscribing faster than they join!
Be consistent
A mistake many affiliate marketers make is they fail to be consistent! To achieve success you need to be consistent, and that means working at your business every week. Create informative content for your readers weekly and share that on social media! Make it part of your email newsletter and keep your readers interested and your business will grow.
Lets Summarize, an Affiliate Business:
Can make you money if you take the time to grow it!
Can be run from anywhere in the world.
Can be run anytime of the day.
Should be based on your interests, experience, or knowledge.
Can be run with or without a website.
Can be run using Social Media as a primary platform.
Can be promoted through an Email Newsletter.
Can be successful by being consistent!
So, what are you waiting for?
Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
Over the past two years work from home has become a buzzword. Not only for employees working for companies but also for those who are self-employed. Although much of the technologies were available prior to the pandemic, many companies were forced to encourage employees to work remotely.
Today many employees have embraced the idea of working from home and being available for their families. But some question whether employees can be as productive at home as they are in the office. So here are some ways you can increase your productivity while working from home.
The most important part of working from home on a long-term basis is setting up a workspace. The reason for this is to help you be organized. Have everything you need in one place. And help allow you to move into the work mindset when you sit down at your desk.
It will be beneficial if you use a room that has a door you can close. This will help when you need that extra bit of quiet when focusing on critical work while others are in the house.
You want to make sure there is ample light and fresh air. Simple yet important for sustained working. Setting up a pleasant and organized work area is key to helping you sustain optimal performance.
Clear the Clutter
If you like me or most people, clutter can drain you. If your workspace looks more like a storage area than a workspace you might find yourself feeling irritated rather than relaxed. Clear the clutter and ensure your work area is neat and clean. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel and focus!
Get Comfortable
If you working at your laptop for hours, a comfortable chair and stable desk are essential. Don’t underestimate what a comfortable workstation can do for your back, neck, and productivity! The more comfortable and at ease you are, the more you can focus on your work. That means you going to be getting more done in less time!
Getting into the work mindset while at home can be tough. You might find yourself feeling like you want to walk away from your desk. Break the mood by playing some music or listening to a podcast or video in the background.
Just hearing other people in the background can help you settle down and get into the work mood. Having décor, paintings, or posters on the wall can also change the feel of the room. Try changing the layout or décor and see if it makes you feel better.
Set a Work Schedule
When working from home you might have the tendency to fall out of a strict working schedule. This can be fine from time to time, but as a rule, might reduce your productivity in the long run. Be strict with yourself and commit to being at your desk by a certain time. This routine will also create a sense of certainty that will further enhance your confidence.
Use a Calendar
Our phones and computers have calendars built-in. They are easy to use and can be set to remind you of events, appointments, or just tasks that need to be done.
Using them as a tool can greatly increase your productivity by ensuring you don’t forget things like meetings and important tasks. Because we carry our phones with us, we can be sure we will get reminders and avoid missing those Zoom meetings you love so much!
Prepare for Distractions
Working from home can be a pleasure, but it can also be a hurdle of endless distractions. If you are a parent you know what I’m talking about. It is one of the challenges of blending home life with work productivity.
Taking time to prepare for the day can help reduce the distractions or help you navigate through them a bit better. Have someone you trust to take care of your children when you know you going to have a busy day that needs your full attention.
Take Breaks!
When you are at home there can be an inclination to keep working relentlessly until you’ve “finished” your work. This might seem honorable but it’s not sustainable. Know when to walk away and give yourself some space to breathe. Also taking time to spend with family at the appropriate times will also help avoid you alienating them and ensure you maintain balance in your life.
Change the Scenery
One of the biggest drawbacks of working from home for some can be the monotony of never leaving home. This became evident during strict Covid lockdowns and frustrated many people.
If you feeling a bit of cabin fever, it might be a good idea to pack your laptop and leave home to work at a local coffee shop or friend. The change might just be what you need to get your edge back.
Be Flexible
Often working from home means you have interruptions as we’ve already mentioned. This is just part of the territory of working from home. So instead of getting stressed out about it, be flexible.
If you lose an hour in the day to deal with issues at home, then add an hour in later in the day, or start earlier tomorrow. We can’t stop things from happening around us, but we can respond to them proactively. So be flexible and adapt your schedule as required, make it okay and you will save yourself a ton of stress.
Being productive is important. And one way to monitor your productivity is by noting the time you work and what you have achieved every day. In this way, you can gauge whether you are getting things done.
Assess your performance on a week-to-week basis and see how you are doing. Assess what you have achieved and see how you can improve. Often it’s small improvements that can make the biggest difference.
Conclusion
Working from home can be both challenging and positive. The key is really being organized, having a designated work area, setting your hours, knowing when to take a break and when to buckle down. Distractions will happen, kids will demand your attention and yes sometimes you’ll have to drop your work to deal with a crisis.
The ultimate strategy is being prepared for the uncertainty and working in a way that facilitates the highest performance. So, try to let go a little and embrace a flexible work style and you’ll feel more positive, less stressed out, and enjoy working while knowing you are a room away from your family…
Learn How to Earn Income Online
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
The December holidays gave me time to breathe again for a bit. Sometimes I don’t realize how focused and tight I am until I get significant time to chill. One gift I got this past holiday was a Remote Control Helicopter. I hadn’t flown one of these in a decade. It truly was a blessing to get back into a hobby that I had lost touch with for so long. It helped me relax and focus on a different activity; A fun activity. So I got thinking; When should you turn a hobby into a business?
When should you turn your hobby into a business?
This all depends on your situation. Are you willing to mix business with pleasure? Your hobby really could make your day-to-day fun, but there is always going to be an admin aspect to it. Will you stop enjoying the thing you love?
For me, I have started a business in a new area, simply because I want to learn what online business is all about. And I am enjoying it, and still making time for other fun activities. But for you, it might make more sense to business your hobby straight from the get-go.
Once I get my online business business (Yip, the word has to repeat) running, perhaps I’ll start in a new niche. Maybe to do with another enjoyment of mine, dogs!
Hobby vs Business
Hobby
A hobby is a leisure activity done in your spare time. You should have fun doing it and feel relaxed when done.
The benefits of a hobby can include:
Learning something new and gaining knowledge in something you love.
Feeling refreshed and fulfilled when done for the day
Having something to look forward to when you are at work
Business
A business is an entity that is engaged in commercial activity. There will invariably be some admin, billing, and tax concerns to look after. Also, lots of marketing. If it’s online, you’ll be writing tons of content each week, running ads, and connecting on social media.
The benefits of owning a business include:
Managing your own time
Some Tax benefits (Consult the tax professionals in your area on how to do this legally)
Financial reward when the business grows
Innovation
Social investment on a bigger scale
How to turn your hobby into a side hustle
Now that you have decided to turn your hobby into a side hustle, where do you actually start?
And if you are ready to take it online, click on the blue bar below
Start Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business Here
Do you have to declare a hobby business?
If you decide to take your hobby into the business space, then yes. Make sure you run it like a business. After all, it’s what’s going to support you in the long run. Just by putting my blog etc into a business protects the way I conduct it. Re-investing all the time, and making sure it keeps growing.
With that, enjoy your hobby, and maybe even make some money from it
Learn How to Earn Income Online
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
It’s a New Year; Hope you have a successful 2022. Did you get the needed rest over the festive period? Now that you have hopefully relaxed a bit, there is another heavy year ahead (as always). So how do we make sure we get the work done, but also have time to relax and spend focused time with family and friends. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, work life balance. So, let’s see how we can create work life balance.
What is Work Life Balance?
Work life balance is really making sure you fit in all the work and social activities into your 16 hour day. (Of course, we need 8 hours to sleep). This includes eating, hobbies, time with friends and family, reading, work, exercise, playing with your dog, etc. But if you put all the things you want to get done into a calendar, you’ll often find you won’t have time to do them all. At least not at once. And this is where the balancing and trade-offs begin.
Why is Work Life Balance Important?
By not paying attention to your work life balance, you could either focus too much on the fun activities, and achieve nothing, or you could focus too much on work and burn out! If you are spending too much time on your PC without breaks, eating while working, and checking in at work when you are spending time with family, you are probably on the road to burnout. Humans just can’t do more than one thing at a time. If you keep trying to, it will feel like you are always working and getting nothing done. Let’s see some key aspects we can look at to increase our chance of this work life balance.
How to create a Work Life Balance Program
Whenever I find myself losing the work life balance, I force myself to sit back and do nothing for a moment. Breathe a little, and maybe meditate to empty my mind. It’s usually important at this time to go through the following five steps. Probably because I am doing things that I should NOT be doing.
What are the five steps to work life balance?
1. Find Your True Values
If you know your true values it will help you focus only on the things that make you happy right now. There are many values that we would like to have, but they are all too often not our current values. For example, I was part of a chess club and enjoyed it for years. But after time, I was just going out of habit and not getting enough from it. Even though I love chess, it’s just not a value right now. So I eliminated it from my schedule.
2. Plan the Time for your Values
Once you have your current list of values, make sure you eliminate all the non-values from your schedule. Every time you schedule your fun activities, make sure they are in line with your values. You’ll feel a lot better only doing the things you like to do. Make sure you schedule at least one fun activity per week or as often as you think you need it. (Of course if one of your values is family, you need to nurture that daily)
3. Ensure you make time for Stress Relief and Exercise
There will always be stress, but we simply need to find ways to eliminate it after a hard day’s work. For some this may be a conversation with friends, others it might be a glass of wine. For me, there is nothing better than getting on my running shoes and hitting the road. It seems to clear my mind and prepare me for the fun events ahead (Because we scheduled them remember!) It also has a good side effect of keeping me fit.
4. Use Important/Urgent to access a task
This is an important step that is aimed at your vocational work. Whether it is a job or a business, you need to eliminate unimportant tasks. Outsource or delegate anything that takes you away from the important. The way it works, place each task into the relevant grid spot below. If it’s important and urgent, you need to DO IT NOW! If it’s important but not urgent, schedule it for a time you can focus on this. If you are a morning person like me, schedule it in the morning. If the task is not important but is urgent, get someone else to do it. If you can, pay someone. And finally, if the task is both unimportant and not urgent, DON’T DO IT!
Also, schedule focus time in your calendar. A time where you will undertake important tasks each day. In this focus time, you have to remove all distractions. This includes phone, email, meeting requests, people. Only work on the important task at this time.
By nature, most of us are people pleasers. We have an insatiable need to help others. But if this helping others is taking us away from our work and our values, we need to say NO.
Some tips on how to say no:
Say it in clear terms
Be assertive and polite
Be honest in your reasoning
Conclusion
Next time you feel trapped, as if you can’t escape what you are doing, just breathe and follow the steps above. You’ll start to realize you have more control than you think. Focus on your values.
Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
As the year swiftly comes to a close we begin reflecting on the past year. The highs and lows. The wins and losses. Maybe you’ve reached a tipping point in your career, or maybe you feel you need a change. Here are some things to consider if you plan to launch your online business in the new year.
Why didn’t you start this year?
Looking back over the year gives us perspective. All those “what if” questions. Like… what if you started working on that business idea this year. How far could you be now if you had started earlier on your idea.
When we realize that its simply time and effort that gets results, you can get focused on doing what needs to be done. Opportunities are everywhere. Its just a matter of looking for them, and acting on them.
Break Through the Fear
Are you stuck procrastinating about your business. Waiting for the right time? There is no good excuse to keep putting off your goals and dreams. There is never a perfect time to do anything. During the worst of the pandemic, many people started businesses. And many have made progress despite the most difficult circumstances. Now is as good a time as any, to get your idea off the ground. Why not start today!
One of the biggest challenges when starting to build any business is feeling overwhelmed by the task. A great strategy is to break things down and make them more achievable. The smaller the better.
Instead of just stating “I want to start an online business”, identify the steps:
Setup a social media page for my project.
Connect with people doing what I want to do.
Read blogs about the business I’m interested in.
Watch youtube videos about the business I want to start.
Start sharing my learning on social media.
Register my own domain.
Setup a WordPress blog.
Write my first blog post.
Etc, etc, etc…
Its much easier to pursue small steps than take one giant leap from zero to a full fledged business. No one can do that. It takes many small steps to get a business off the ground. Take your idea or business and break it down. The smaller the better. Identify the tasks and do them one at a time.
Focus on Milestones not Goals
Often goals are more complicated to achieve than we think. And when we fail to achieve them we are left feeling depressed. Why not set milestones for each of your goals.
Your Goal: Start an online blog marketing affiliate products.
Here examples of milestones:
10 January – Start posting on my social media about my idea.
15 February – Setup up a WordPress blog for my venture.
15 March – Post first blog post
30 March – Post second blog post
And acknowledge your success for every milestone, its one step closer to your goal. Milestones will also help you manage the timeline of your progress.
Embrace the Journey.
An online business takes time to build. Its a journey that never ends. Its not a destination. Embrace the journey, embrace the learning and enjoy the ride. The more you see it as an adventure, the more excited you will be to pursue it. The more passion and energy you will have to persevere through every challenge you face. You going to struggle at times, but with the right perspective you can keep yourself motivated!
If you not having fun, why are you doing it in the first place? Enjoy the challenge of building something new and it won’t feel like work. Have fun while you learning new skills. Building a business doesn’t have to be all serious and dreary. Embrace the creative process of learning, building and creating.
It will do wonders to your energy levels. And that energy will reflect in your efforts.
Start Today!
Why wait for next year? Start taking time everyday for your business. Remember your success will not come from one days effort. Not even a few days. But rather the compounded effort you take every day, every week, and every month! Take small steps daily, and build your dream business brick by brick, day by day, and one day soon you will be looking back and thinking “WOW, my business idea has become my business reality…”
Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
If you are considering leaving the corporate world, it can be challenging, but it’s possible. In this article, I’ll cover a few ways you can start creating momentum to launch your own business. Taking your time to build your venture on the side is a great way to learn, gain experience, and grow your business with the security of a stable job.
Here are some things to help you be better prepared for jumping ship and going alone.
Don’t Be Hasty
I wouldn’t recommend just quitting your job. Unless you have ample financial reserves to keep you afloat for a long time, don’t. In fact, it’s better to start building your business on the side while you are still employed to avoid finding yourself in a desperate situation.
Consider thinking about the following:
Plan your resignation in advance.
Be financially prepared for going it alone.
What do you need to be able to run your business?
What skills and knowledge do you need?
What will you be able to charge?
Where will you attract customers?
Do you have an established business network?
You never really know how things will go. Perhaps it takes three months, maybe six, it could even take a year or more to establish a stable income. It might take time before you can even match your current income. You don’t know. And it is a massive risk to take a gamble like that.
Set a Deadline for Motivation
Start with the end in mind. If you don’t set a deadline to get your idea off the ground you are never going to get started. Choose a date, give yourself enough time, say at least 6 months. It takes time to build any business. Realistically it might take longer. The key is to set things in motion to move you forward toward the objective you have set.
Consider how much time per week or month you can set aside to build your side hustle. Will it be enough time to plan, research, and start building a viable business? By the time you leave your position, you want to have something that is at least starting to gain traction. That has momentum you can continue to build on.
Probably the most important thing to consider is your current financial situation. The more stable you are the more you can focus on your business. But if you are struggling to make ends meet, or have little to buffer you, you are taking a huge risk leaving your position. Rather continue to build your business for longer and make sure you are generating income first before resigning.
What is Your Financial Situation?
Will your partner or spouse be able to cover certain costs with their salary while you build your business?
How stable is your financial situation?
What financial capacity do you have?
Do you have large amounts of debt?
Do you have high expenses and no savings?
How much have you got in savings?
Do you have money invested that could be used if you need it?
What expenses could I drop, and cut my overall expenditure?
How much debt do you have, do you have any installments to keep up?
What will you do if things don’t work out, what is your back up plan?
You need to weigh up your current financial situation, your savings, investments, and what the knock-on effect will be if you start your own business. There are always unexpected expenses and costs, so be prudent. And depending on how far your business is, it might take longer before you are able to cover all your expenses.
Do Your Research Thoroughly
Launching blindly into a venture is foolish. Don’t dive into it blindsided. Take time to investigate the ideas you may be thinking of pursuing. The internet offers no shortage of resources for this. Here is a list of ways to build a solid foundation of research:
Google It!
Okay, any search engine will do! The secret to deep research is don’t be superficial. Dig deeper. Seek out valuable resources and content that can help you understand what you are getting yourself into before you jump ship!
Follow People on Social Media
One way to learn more is to hear what others are saying about your desired business. If you want to learn more about digital marketing, follow digital marketers. If you want to learn more about blogging, follow bloggers. They are consistently sharing gold, so why not collect it while they give it away…
Scan Forums
There are forums like Reddit and Quora that can offer a hive of interesting information about all kinds of topics. Search out relevant forums that align with your area of interest and search content, ask questions and engage with the community.
Industry Hubs
There are many rich sources of information from industry hubs that share best practices, latest trends, information, and even host events you can attend. Search these out and join their mailing list to keep informed and up-to-date with events and articles.
There will be established companies that you could search for online. See how they engage with their audience, what information they share, and see what they charge. Researching companies that are doing what you want to do, is a great way to understand how to position yourself in the market and be competitive.
The key is to do your homework before jumping into a new business, as you’ll be far better able to handle challenges if you are prepared for it.
Take it Step by Step
Building any business is a process! It takes time. And you need to be patient. Break down the goal of your business, into small incremental steps. Make it attainable. Easy to comprehend and face. If you make your business into one massive mountain, you’re going to feel overwhelmed and probably not even try.
Conclusion
If you want to leave corporate life behind, it is possible. You can do it. But take time to prepare for it, get organized, and start building your venture on the side. Do it while you have financial security. Once you jump ship, you are on your own. If things go bad without the proper preparation and planning, you might very well regret it.
Get started today, and give yourself at the very least a few months to build the momentum you will need. How long you need depends on many factors, the key is balancing the risks. Don’t be hasty, be patient, and build a strong foundation before you take the plunge!
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2021 was another year many would best forget about. COVID lockdowns and restrictions continued to wreak havoc with our lives. Business faced the continued challenges of remote working and continuing to maintain productivity. Many people lost their jobs. Many had to start over. And now you face the end of another year. And I’m sure you are looking to make 2022 a better year.
But like most things in life, success isn’t an accident. Good fortune may come to some, but most success is undoubtedly achieved through a deliberate conscious effort. And that is both encouraging, and the challenge. Because you have the power to change your life. To manifest new things, better opportunities, if… you are up to the challenge.
You want a better year?
What are you prepared to do about it?
Are you prepared to make changes in your life, and put in the time needed to get momentum going?
Yes, obviously you are, here are some ways to make your 2022 goals a reality!
Visualize the End you Want
The best way to set goals for the year is to start with the end in mind. Envision in your mind the end of 2022.
What is it you want to have achieved?
Who do you want to have become?
Where do you want to be?
Take time and really think about these questions. Dig deep. The clearer your vision of the end of the year, the more focused your goals will be.
Your vision should drive your goal setting. When you know where you are going its easier to plan your journey. Goals are what lead us to our ultimate vision. For example, you may want to buy that luxurious holiday home on the coast, but there are a number of goals you going to have to achieve to make that a reality. The vision reveals the goals. And the goals are the pathway to your destination.
So let’s be honest for a minute. We all have those goals in our lives we seem to constantly brush off. Every year those goals are on our lists, but we seldom carry through with them. But what if you did? How would that make you feel?
How would it feel to exercise for a solid year and get fit and healthy?
How would it change your career possibilities if you actually just mastered that one skill?
How would you feel if you could actually get that business idea off the ground?
We all have those goals we want to achieve, but keep putting off. Make your list and choose at least one to pursue, anyone! Preferably the one that would make you feel the greatest sense of achievement!
Stop procrastinating, stop waiting for the right time, weather, circumstances and just start! You’re going to be so proud of yourself when you get to the end of 2022 and have followed through with it! And all the sacrifice and discomfort you might have to endure will be absolutely worth it?
So what goal are you going to finally conquer in 2022?
Set Goals with Purpose
Anyone can set goals. In fact all of us set goals all the time. But few of us achieve every goal we set. That’s because we don’t have a strong emotional purpose driving them.
Let’s take health for example.
Whether it’s losing weight, toning up, strengthening your body or running a marathon, often we lose the desire to follow through because we lack a really good reason.
Why do you want to improve your health?
Is it just because it sounds like a cool goal?
Or is there a backstory, an emotional reason, something that makes us jump up and say “that’s it I’m doing this?”
Is it because you want to break through your own limiting beliefs about yourself? Is it because you want to fit into sizes of clothing you could years ago? Or are you sick and tired of feeling weak, lacking energy, mobility, strength, or endurance?
Whatever holds the greatest emotional value, hold onto that!
You want to make more money? Why? Just because, or do you want to give your family a better life. Don’t just set the goal, think about the purpose behind it, that reason is what will push you beyond every setback and failure to your ultimate success.
Map Your Journey
Taking time to visualize the end of 2022, is a fun exercise. Setting goals you want to achieve for the year is the easy part. The real challenge is how do you get there? And that’s why many goals in our lives seem to remain just that, goals, and not reality.
Once you’ve chosen a goal to achieve, take some time to think about the journey you will need to take to achieve it. Remember a goal is an objective. It says little about the steps needed to achieve it.
For example, let’s say you wanted to start your own business. That’s a long-term goal. It’s going to take hours of work, every week, consistently. So how do you map this journey?
Research people doing what you want to do.
Follow people on social media that do what you want to do.
Look for opportunities and niches to exploit.
Create a clear idea for your business.
Be able to explain your business clearly to anyone.
Start talking about your business idea on social media.
Start connecting with people and growing your network.
Ask for feedback from your audience to better develop your service.
Reach out and offer a free trial of your service to get feedback and recommendations.
Use those recommendations to build social proof.
Consistently talk and share about your field of expertise.
Create resources to help your prospects understand your services.
Establish yourself as an authority in your field of business.
It’s not going to cover everything you need to do, but will help you get perspective on what you need to do to build momentum!
We all want progress! In fact it’s when we don’t see progress that we get disheartened and discouraged. That’s why you should set time aside daily, weekly and monthly to evaluate what you have done, and what you haven’t done. This will help you maintain focus, keep perspective and identify areas you need to focus more time on.
You cant just go through each month hoping you are going to reach your targets. Monitor your progress, don’t be obsessive, just maintain focus and perspective. Motivate yourself when you gain ground, and reprioritize if you see any areas are losing momentum.
Life is up and down, and things happen that are unexpected. That’s life. Just be flexible to adaptive to your circumstances and maintain focus. It’s why getting into a habit of monitoring your performance is important!
Conclusion
The journey to achieving any goal worth achieving is often fraught with challenges! Goals are most often than not as simple as one, two, three. They require consistent and deliberate action. Some days you will feel like you are progressing fast and furious. Other days you will feel like you are moving backwards rather than forwards.
This is just the nature of life. You have to remind yourself, persistence is the greatest reason you will succeed! Every day you have an opportunity to further your progress. Keep working at your goals, be relentless, don’t give up hope and acknowledge your progress however small it may be!
The positivity you can extract from the journey will fuel your motivation and resilience.
Wishing you the best year ever for 2022, may all your goals finally become a reality!
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