I’ve stated in previous posts that I am gearing up towards self-employment. I have figured out my service niche, the actual types of services that I would like to offer, and created a pricing model for those services. Things haven’t started in the way that I was hoping. And it’s all my fault!
What’s up?
- It has been a challenge to find extra time in my schedule. I’ve finally identified 40 extra hours in my week. I had to begin waking up earlier so that I could exercise, clean my house (if needed), and to look at any emails,etc. I am waking up at 4:30 a.m. Yes, that’s freaking painful but necessary.
- Focus on my time saving systems and get them cleaned up and a lot more organized. I prep my meals on Saturdays/Sundays so that I just have to dish them up throughout the week. Meal prep is huge because if you’re not careful it sucks up a lot of time during the evening. Even if you’re dealing with pre-packaged items from the store…I don’t eat pre-packaged foods…I cook, so I have to have a plan.
- Having a meal plan-In the past I’ve sort of half-heartedly utilized this time saving process. Now, I’m kicking it up a notch and really trying to use the meal plan system a lot more effectively. Everyone does this differently. Basically, I look at what I have in my pantry/freezer/fridge and then create a meal plan with those items. I then list 15-20 meals for the month and plan each week separately. I have no interest in cooking a month’s worth of meals so I just do one week at a time. This week I’m making: Basil chicken with jasmine rice, black bean and sweet potato tamales (yes, I have corn husks and masa!), kale salad with lox, sesame noodles with snow peas/edamame/ and ginger. NomNomNom!!
- Don’t agree to things that I’m not 100% excited about 🙁 I did this recently and I wasted someone else’s time. I did apologize to this very nice person who I met at FinCon13. He works for a business that was offering a cool service, but I wasn’t at the point where I wanted to be or should be involved in the project. I kept agreeing to connect at times that weren’t convenient for me-and then things got hectic and I had to cancel. More than once. Lame. The thing is I’m really anal about doing what I say I ‘m going to do. It’s a question of integrity. I didn’t do what I said I would do and I was lame. I won’t make this mistake again.
- I didn’t realize how tired I was after the holidays. This took me by surprise. I haven’t begun actively approaching my leads as I had originally planed. I’m glad that I listened to myself and continued to rest. My workload will double starting the beginning of February when my colleague leaves. I’m not surprised by his resignation-he will be working in Denver and won’t have to do the commute anymore. I’m glad that I listened to myself and rested.I will be working on increasing my leads list and will begin sending out inquiries on Monday of next week.
- Not acknowledging my fear. I have to be honest. I’m nervous as hell. A lot is riding on me making this work. I think it will…I just to have to honest that I’m scared and not get paralyzed by that.
What I am doing right:
- I have a clear system of billing. Nope, I haven’t done any work that needs to be billed-but, I have that worked out.
- I have a separate business account for any and all moneys that I earn from virtual assistant/social media jobs/etc. It’s also there for all my side hustle money.
- Creating a process for my taxes. I’ve created a spreadsheet that will list the amount that I made and the amount of taxes I should take out for each month. I’m calculating everything at 30% right now (that’s a little higher than my current tax rate).
- I switched my PayPal account to the account earmarked for business money.
- Having a very clear niche of businesses that I’ll be approaching. This niche is in line with some personal philosophies that I have and I feel good about working with them.
- I’m finalizing my business plan in a couple of weeks. I should have done this before launching services but I’m almost done.
- Creating a protocol for approaching my leads. I also figured out a way to thank people who tell me “yes or no.”
- Enthusiasm that is addicting. I’m getting obsessed with making this work!
I did think that making the switch would be a challenging process. I didn’t realize how introspective I would become while doing it. Going out on your own is DEEP. There are a number of people in my family who are entrepreneurs but I don’t have the opportunity to talk to them about how they started their businesses and why they decided to work for themselves.
Are you self-employed? What was the process like for you?
Do you have any advice?
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I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.
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Holy cow, Michelle.. 4:30am? You are hardcore.. And you REALLY want this. Which is impressive.. and inspiring.
I want it too.. and keep listening to entrepreneur oriented podcasts.. which doesnt help. But it still feels like a far-away-dream to me..
If it makes you feel better, today I woke up late because of the 3 day weekend!! Basically, I need time to exercise and do whatever I need to do around the house. It also gives me time to do some blogging stuff. My weight really bothers me so I’m removing the no time for exercise excuse. Maybe it’s not your time yet. I know I’m ready because I’m almost at the point where the idea of doing this any longer makes me feel like crying or walking off the job and working at Starbucks. I’m serious. I HATE the commute. It took me 2 hours to get home tonight. I left work at 5:00 pm and walked in my home at 7:05 pm. It’s driving me crazy. When you get this fed up, you’ll know when you’re ready.
AAAAAAAAAA! This is really exciting. What’s your niche? How can I help?
Hi Kathleen, Thank you so much for your kind offer!!! I will email you the details 🙂
I really need to start an account for my side income money. I also need to work on a business plan. So much to do! But we’ll get it done!
I didn’t do that last year and it wasn’t that big a deal because I didn’t make a lot of extra money in side-hustles. With me starting a Freelancing career and really focusing on side-hustles I thought it would be a good idea to separate the finances to keep things organized. I have several bank accounts so it was a pretty easy switch.
Time is one of the biggest hurdles for making this kind of thing work. You could always do what I did and just get thrown on your butt on the street and have someone say “sink or swim!” lol! OK, not the best approach. I really don’t have a clear cut daily plan. I’m just taking it one step at a time, one day at a time. God that is so cliche. I think though, as you know and every freelancer has mentioned, have lots of money saved for peace of mind.
We already had the discussion about me working at Starbucks. I think I’m going to work this a la Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. I’ll be tired and bitchy but I think that’s the approach I’ll take.Luckily, we’re going into a great time of year for me to focus on a project like this. All I’ll be doing for the next couple of months is avoiding the cold, doing home renovations, and working on my projects. Usually it gets nice and cold in February-and the Olympics will be on. So, that will keep me at home. Tonya, you should feel so proud of all that you’ve done considering how you had to get started. You SWAM!!
What an exciting time in your life! It sounds like you have a lot of the business logistics down, and I hope you find that sweet spot for your work-life balance. The basil chicken sounds amazing – care to share the recipe? 🙂 Best wishes, my friend!
Anna, that chicken was so good that all of my colleagues kept asking about it 🙂 I think the sweet spot will happen when I’m no longer commuting. Until then, I need to work like a Rock Star!
I’m so happy for your progress. I can feel your enthusiasm and how much you want this. I am interested in doing more side hustles and eventually should look into business account. I need more money though, as it’s definitely just on the side for now. Time is my biggest struggle too. Between looking for side hustles, networking, commenting, writing, cooking, cleaning, I’m spent!
If you knew how done I am you would understand the level of intensity. I’ve just done the same thing for WAY too long and everyday when I wake up I want to cry. There is nothing wrong with my job, my colleagues are hilarious, and the clients are wonderful (usually) I am just done. I want my life to change and my job has become a symbol of the lack of progress/change in my actual life. The commute also SUCKS. Today I called in sick (cause I don’t feel so hot) if I had gone in it would have taken at least 2 hours because it snowed. Sigh. Ironically, I’m working to step up my professionalism, completion of tasks, etc. Because even though I’m mentally done, I’m still there.
I know that self employment is something that I’d like to do, but I’m still not sure if I’m going to commit to that road just yet.
As far as having a separate business account for side income, did you open one before you ever earned any side income or did you wait until a few gigs later? I’m still going back and forth about whether I should do so or not…
I’ve always had more than one bank account. Once I switched from a hobby mentality and started making more than $1000 that’s when it made sense to separate the money. For tax reasons the sooner you separate the money the better.
Another one in admiration of your 4:30 am wakeup call. You go get ’em!
I am not a morning person. At this point I’m desperate for things to change. I will even wake up at the crack of down to work on changing my life.
4:30? You are a bad ass!
This is terrible, but I still haven’t separated my business from personal. But I only use PayPal for my business, and I use a good (free) bookkeeping service to stay on top of things 🙂
I manage to get up at 4:30 about every 2-3 days a week so far. It’s getting “easier.” I need more time for exercising and other stuff. Separate your expenses! It’s a new year and it will make any kind of business related paperwork easier to do.