Tag: starting a business

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E#248 6 Tips to Transition from Work to Business Launch

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6 Tips to Transition from Work to Business Launch

Are you working full-time and trying to start a coaching business on the side? It’s exciting to think about leaving your doldrum job to launch a business that is meaningful and purposeful. But launching a business takes a fair amount of creative thinking, strategic planning and hard work to implement. How do you juggle the demands of work and make time to start your business?  

I’ll share my 6 top tips today – and a link to other tips in my previous episode on this topic. 

In this episode, we’ll cover 
* Commit and Go All In
* Your Special Workspace
* Your Ideas Diary
* Refresh Your Ideas and Mind
* Create Boundaries
* Set Focused, Achievable Goals

Starting a side hustle is pretty common. In September 2022, ABC Australia stated that more than ever, Australians are creating ‘side hustle businesses’, with a record 167,646 new businesses in the 2020/21 financial year.  

Of those, more than 80% were sole traders, where people were monetizing a hobby.  

What we know is that trying to juggle full-time work and a side hustle that becomes your part or full-time gig is stressful, time-consuming and can lead to burnout. Even if you’re a health and wellness coach with all the tools to stay resilient, we all have the same amount of time and are subject to pressure, stress and overwhelm that gets in the way of starting a business. 

I’ve had several conversations in the past four weeks with coaches who are facing very busy periods and finding themselves stalling and procrastinating about their business. 

Some of you are listening. I hear the stress in your voice. I hear the despair and the frustration and the ‘two steps forward, one step back.’ 

I understand that when the pressure of your job and life get too great, you can’t achieve your business startup goals and you feel despondent and start to doubt yourself. 

So how do you make the transition a bit easier? 

Commit and go All In 

This might seem obvious but if you commit yourself to starting your business then you’ll find the motivation, persistence and grit you need to succeed. 

If you have a ‘let’s try and see how it goes’ attitude, you will probably lack the commitment you need to make it work. Half-hearted attitudes get half-baked results. 

You need to commit to yourself that you will start a business and make it work in order to visualise what it will look like, why it matters, and identify the critical path and related goals to get there. 

Your Special Workspace 

My clients talk a lot about needing space. So my first tip is to start by giving yourself a distraction-free, special place to create, brainstorm, plan and get immersed into your business. 

Make it pretty, compartmentalised, and appealing so that it feels like a sanctuary where you can do great work.  

Further, make sure you have that same separation in your business tools. A unique email address. A unique Dropbox folder or Google profile. 

And set up a specific planner with all your tasks listed so that when you arrive in your special place, you open up your business-specific stuff and know exactly what to do, without distraction.

Use An Ideas Diary 

When I was in my late teens I started an exercise book where I could jot down all my crazy ideas. The front cover says Crazy Ideas in big letters. 

The function of this idea diary is to get all the stuff out of your head and onto paper so it doesn’t swirl around in there and create a big pile of things that you feel you have to remember, and so that you can sort through it later and weed out all the good ideas that are realistic and achievable.  

This is so important if you’re working full time, because you have a thousand other things in your head, and it’s disappointing to lose a good idea and stressful to try and hang onto them in your head. It can create tension, overwhelm and fear of forgetting things so you end up ruminating in order to try to remember everything. 

The ideas diary is amazing. Carry it around with you to get all that good stuff out of your head and make sure you capture it all. Later you can review and refine your ideas.   

The act of writing it down is also important to avoid acting impulsively in the moment and heading off into uncharted waters that go nowhere. Often, what seems like a good idea in the heat of the moment often ends up being trash – but you don’t see that at the time and it can be tempting to just take action due to time limitations, without really considering if these ideas have merit. 

When you revisit your diary you can weed out the great ones. Sometimes there are even learnings in the crazy ones. 

Do this and you’ll get better at decision-making, evaluating ideas, and choosing a focused, realistic and workable path. 

Refresh Your Ideas and Mind 

When you start a business outside of a paid job, you have small windows of time to generate ideas and concepts for your business. In that time-limited situation, it’s easy to fall into the trap of second-guessing your ideas and doubting whether they are sane and realistic, simply because you don’t have the time to fully explore evaluate and stress test your ideas. 

That’s why the ideas diary is important.  

But further, when you have great ideas, don’t keep them secret – start sharing snippets of them with people you know. Friends, business associates, colleagues, and potential clients. Get their feedback. 

Each little snippet of feedback helps you validate your ideas and see different perspectives. 

When I have an idea, I always run it past at least two people to gauge their reaction. Often, the positive response helps me to feel invigorated about my business. Any neutral feedback allows me to re-evaluate my ideas. 

Here’s one example – podcast topics. If I’ve run out of ideas, I might brainstorm a few and ask people for opinions on whether that’s of interest and why. Or I might even ask someone else for suggestions! 

Create Boundaries 

Your business is a living, evolving thing that requires constant attention, thought and iteration. If you’re constantly working late, putting other people first, doing things you don’t want to do for someone else’s sake, or taking on too much, then your business will suffer. 

It’s important to both schedule dedicated time for your business, and to also protect the time you set aside to work on your business so that you give it the attention it needs and so you can achieve the goals you set for yourself. 

Creating boundaries also applies to carving out not-negotiable time to see clients if you are in a service-based business. 

Set Focused, Achievable Goals 

The saying goes, it’s no good rowing hard if you are heading in the wrong direction. 

It’s so relevant to your business, especially if you have limited time and are trying to keep moving forward despite everything else. 

You will absolutely move forward if you are focused on one or two things, you can more easily set realistic and achievable goals and actually succeed. 

The 5-4-3-2-1-90-30 planning process I use with my clients is a testament to how focused outcome goals create clear action steps that are easily achieved. 

Just last week, one of my clients finished a 5-month block with me and she mentioned how much more she got done because she had clearly identified her focus areas for that time. 

She felt good because she’d set and achieved goals, and we’d celebrated them. 

It’s not rocket science, and it works if you are consistent with it.  

Summary 

Having a business is exciting but it takes a lot of time and energy, especially if you are working full-time and building the business on the side. 

Today’s six tips; creating commitment, creating a special workplace, using an ideas diary, refreshing your ideas and mind, creating boundaries, and setting focused and achievable goals, are a simple formula to help you get your business ticking along in the background in a focused and efficient way that is both energizing and rewarding. 

Which of these tips will you try first? 

Other episodes on this topic include: 

E49 – From Job to Business – Managing Time Expectations  

E135 – Transitioning from Job to Business 

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More

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E#137 Should You Start a Business?

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This episode is about whether you should start a business, or not

As a coach trainer and strengths-based business specialist, I see a lot of people who are lacking meaning and purpose in their lives and wanting to do something different. They’re bored, unfulfilled, and wishing that they could get out of their current situation and into something more exciting and meaningful.

If this sounds like you, then you need to keep listening because I want to talk to you about whether or not you should start a business. I want to talk about the specific types of people who are more likely to succeed, and those that aren’t. 

I want to help you get a realistic view of what is required to be successful in business so you are equipped to make good decisions about your future. 

In this episode, I’ll talk about 
* Idealism vs realism – Separating the dreamers for the doers
* Having a genuine desire to help people
* The search for more purposeful work

Idealism vs realism

I see a lot of people join my Passion to Profit program because they have realised they want to do something more meaningful that truly makes a difference.

Some of these people are idealists – they have a big dream, but lack the drive or commitment to pursue it, or their idea lacks enough substance to be viable.

But there are some people who have a very realistic vision but might just be scared that they won’t be able to make it, or that they don’t know how to run a business and they might fail. In other words, they’re just lacking confidence and clarity on how to turn their business vision into a reality. 

If this is you, I really want to speak to that and equip you with some information to help you get clarity in whether you should start a business – and perhaps more specifically – whether you’re ready and how to become ready.

Right off the bat, I want to say that anybody absolutely anybody can be successful in business.

The caveat on that is that you need to be prepared to do the work required on yourself and your idea, if you want to be successful.

Sure, you might have learned a new skill or gained a qualification and you will need to be proficient in that, but that aside, you will also need to commit to becoming uncomfortable, putting yourself out there, and learning the skills required to run a business – not just a hobby!

Knowing there is hard work ahead, I want to map out three things that are required for success in business, and that you would need to develop in order to be successful for yourself.

As I talk about these three things, I invite you to reflect on how strong these skills and strengths are in you, and what you would need to do to build on these before launching into your business.

Helping others

To be successful in business, and particularly a relationship business like health and wellness coaching, you need to have a really strong desire to help other people.

Over time you will need to become more specific about who you help and how you help them to be very clear in your marketing, but in the beginning, it’s your passion and drive to help and serve others that really makes you a suitable candidate for running a business.

If you don’t like people, if you aren’t interested in people, or if you just want to make money, then you are unlikely to succeed. The reason is that you are not going to be able to express the empathy and make the connections you need to connect, empathise with and truly serve people.

A really great example of this is what happened during the Covid pandemic in 2020. A lot of businesses went under during this time. 

But the ones that survived went over and above to serve people in the community who were doing it tough. Those businesses that donated food or gave people work experience opportunities, or who contributed in other ways to people in their local areas, built loyal customers by simply demonstrating their core values around the desire to serve.

One of the most interesting aspects of finding the courage to make change is that it’s a lot easier when you have a big driver, when you are attached to something that is way bigger than yourself puts you way ahead of the pack in terms of commitment, persistence and motivation – and attractiveness to your audience!

So if your desire to help people and to be of service is so great that you’d be willing to do anything to achieve that outcome, then that drive alone means you’re more likely to succeed. You’ll keep going, there will be fewer ‘mindset’ obstacles and you will leap over the obstacles more easily.

In summary, if your desire to be of service and help others is great, then starting a business is an option worth looking at.

More purposeful work

The next step is about purpose. It’s great to want to help people, but you can still be aimless and unclear in that, or not driven to start a business. 

But if you are actively seeking more purposeful work, then running your own business might be a viable option.

This was me 15 years ago. I had already created a couple of successful businesses, but I was feeling disheartened with the industry I was working in. Through building a successful business, I had the opportunity to change legislation and change the way some aspects of that industry operate it. 

But I wanted a new challenge, and I wanted to impact individuals to improve their quality of life. 

This led me into health and wellness coaching, because physical, mental, and emotional health and fitness were way more important to me at that stage of my life.

My desire to find this meaning in my work was so great, that I set up and built a successful business and went on to teach others how to do the same.

In my own words, staying in a comfortable safe but unfulfilling role would have been living in mediocrity for me. I didn’t want to live a mediocre life, knowing that I had the potential to impact the lives of so many others.

Does that sound familiar to you?

Fast forward 14 years, and I can truly say that I look forward to getting up every morning, excited to go to work, and excited to make a difference in people’s lives.

After many years of unfulfilling work, I finally found my calling, and 14 years in, I am still as excited about it if not more so than my first day.

In summary, it’s great if you love helping people, but if you want to do that in a bigger way, beyond your everyday life to do more purposeful work – then running a business might be a good option.

Being your own boss

Sure you can work for someone else in a job and there is safety in that. And some people are frightened of doing anything without the permission or validation of other people, so they prefer to stay in a job. 

But please know that these fears can be overcome, and I would suggest that if you have a strong desire to be your own boss and carve your own path in life, then it’s worth tackling those fears, because your chance of success in business is excellent.

When I entered the workforce I was shy, quiet and didn’t want to speak up for myself. But I was just a number in a big machine, having no tangible impact. 

Plus, I had lots of ideas about how to improve systems and processes, ways of communicating and ways of improving businesses I worked for.

Over a period of time, I became a frustrated employee. Sure I liked my bosses, but I could see ways of improving things that nobody else could.

 

I took a hospitality job with a 5 star hotel for a year between my degree and Honours. On my first day in the job in 1992, I waitressed at an outdoor function and saw huge containers of untouched fresh food going into the bin. I wrote a letter to the manager and said ‘Hey, can’t we do something about this food waste?  Couldn’t a charity collect and distribute it?’

A few days later I got a letter basically saying, ‘Thanks, great idea, but it’s too hard with current food safety laws.’

Now 30 years later we have Food Bank, and other such organisations. Imagine if I’d had the courage to take action all those years ago?

This is one of many examples where I was a frustrated employee. Ultimately, I realised that I needed to be my own boss, so I could innovate, improve and create to my heart’s content, to make a difference in the world.

Being your own boss has a lot of benefits. It means that you can work the hours that suit you best, it means you can decide how much income you want it in, and it means that you can work in a way that suits you, your learning style, and your strengths.

Compare that with a job, where you have to show up and work the hours that a company dictates, you have to have a set salary and package, and you might have to do things that you disagree with or in a way that doesn’t suit you or your strengths, or where your ideas for improvement don’t fit in. Mostly when you show up for a job, there is a set job description that you have to fit into.

I have always hired on personality and personal strengths, with qualifications and experience being secondary. 

That’s because while qualifications and experience were definitely important, it’s the people that make a business and which attract all the clients! 

My question to you is – are you satisfied with being an employee? Is having a job comfortable, safe and familiar and satisfying?

If so, then you should definitely stay in that role. 

But if you feel hungry for more, or you’re a frustrated employee who wants to make an impact, to be in charge of your own schedule and your own earning potential, to be in charge of the scale of impact that you can have, then you’re probably more suited to running a business.

Being in business for myself has been challenging, but it has made me who I am today. I have gone from being a shy person who never spoke up, to a more confident and fulfilled person who lives and works on purpose. The challenges, skills and lessons along the way have helped me to grow personally and professionally. I like the new me MUCH Better! 

I’m more resilient, and I have more capacity to make a difference in the world because I took the leap into running my own business.

Running your own business is one of the best adventures you can possibly have in life.

SUMMARY

I invite you to reflect on how much you love your job and how many boxes it ticks for you. Is it satisfying, meaningful, purposeful and fulfilling? Does it help you grow personally and professionally? Does it help you to play to your strengths?

If not, if you are a frustrated employee, you might want to consider starting a coaching or other service-based business.

This is a great avenue for you if you are driven to help people, you are looking to live a more purposeful life, and you want to learn how to be your own boss.

It is difficult but also such an amazing journey of growth, and an exciting opportunity to create personal freedom and choice and to have a greater impact in the world.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More
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E#135 Transitioning From Job to Business

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This episode is about taking the big leap and transitioning from job to business.

Hi there, I want to talk to you today about changing your career. And not just changing your career, I want to talk to you about leaving your job and transitioning into a business.

It’s a huge shift.

And I want to talk about four things that you have to do to create an easier smoother transition. When you’re going from job to business, think about if this job feels safe and secure. All you need to do is show up and go to work. Somebody else is doing all the hard stuff behind the scenes. They’re making all of the plans. They’re doing all of the marketing for you. They’re doing all of the nitty-gritty admin stuff that needs to be done in the business. They organise your workplace, your pay everything else that happens in your job, all you have to do is show up.

In this episode, I’ll talk about – 
* How to minimise financial pressures in your first year of transition 
* Going from job mindset to business mindset
* Strategies and plans to make your transition as smooth as possible

So when you go to your own business, it’s a totally different ballgame.

Before running my own business, I was employed as a scientist in various jobs. I worked for a university for a long time, I worked for the government in various roles. And I was invited to join a start-up environmental consulting business when I was working out of the university. And it was me and another guy, and we co-founded that business. And we eventually grew it to 40 staff where we’re providing employment for 40 people, which I was really excited about.

But let me tell you, by the end of that role, I wasn’t doing much science, and I was doing all business management.

Coming from all of those different jobs that I’ve done, gave me a lot of variety. And I thought I understood how a business worked. I thought I understood the systems.

But it in no way prepare me to run a business from the ground up. We did jobs in that business that used our respective skills. And in the beginning, as a partnership, we looked at what we were both good at.

That worked really well for a while.

Then we started hiring people, which was really interesting because it meant he had to start bringing in more work to keep everybody going to keep everybody paid. So we quickly learned how to recruit and how to hire and how to interview people as well. It was a hard slog, but I learned a lot and it was great having somebody to share the load with fast forward 15 years from then, and I was moving interstate and starting in my own business again. But by myself this time, I was used to having an admin team and an office manager and an HR team and an IT support contractor. And all of those people doing all of those things.

So suddenly, it was a rude shock to go from hero to zero where I had to do all of those things myself. But I learned a lot of lessons. And additionally, because I had succession planned myself out of my own business, I had a lot of skills to help me transition back into a business into my new role. And that transition process gave me a lot of thinking time I had a financial buffer and I had the security of income. So that I could take my time to figure out how I wanted to work and who I wanted to work with and how I was going to set my business up. And that’s what I want to share with you today. Really, I mean, I see now a lot of people who are just sick of their jobs and their careers and they want to do something more meaningful but they don’t realise what it takes to move out of that done for you environment in a way and into running a business. And they might lack confidence or courage or skill or all three of these things. So that’s why I wanted to create this episode because it gives you a chance to see exactly what’s involved in transitioning from a job to a business. And to give you an example of how I did it so that you can make it easier for yourself. I want to walk through four steps with you.

The first step is creating a financial buffer. And this was the first thing that I did, I wanted to have at least a year’s worth of income up my sleeve. So I could take my time to understand any market that I was moving to and get my business set up with any sort of pressure.

Listen to the whole episode to hear how I took the leap from job to business.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

Learn More