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Your desk-job-to-business-owner journey is different.

You didn’t finesse getting fired from a famous tech start-up into a six-figure book deal. You probably don’t have the privilege of living at home with your parents or splitting the rent with four roommates. And I highly doubt you created something that went viral and then landed a multi-million dollar media contract.

These things don’t make what you’re doing any less valuable.

It just means you have to be a little more resourceful if you want this whole self-employment thing to work out for you.

Here’s the reality of your current situation:

Your full-time job gives you financial stability so you can work on building your business with a peace of mind.
That same job drains your energy and makes you feel guilty for not making as much progress on your side business as you could be.

So how do you reclaim your time and free yourself from this unproductive cycle?

Start by avoiding or eliminating the costly mistakes most non-traditional entrepreneurs make.

MISTAKE #1

You have too many social media accounts and you’re spread thin across too many platforms.

Action Item: Determine which channel is best for reaching your audience and gets the most engagement. Establish a primary account. If it’s really necessary to separate your business account from your personal one, two is the maximum. Retire the rest.

Until you can actually see tangible results from social media (ie: leads, conversions, sales), don’t fall into the trap of believing that every minute you devote to it is productive. You definitely need to establish a presence and build an audience, however things like constantly checking your analytics and monitoring who unfollowed you are time wasters.

MISTAKE #2

Bouncing back and forth between multiple concepts. Thereafter, you spin your wheels planning the perfect launch.

Action Item: Make a decision, commit to it, and then execute. See a project through to completion before moving on to the next new thing. You have to give yourself the experience of doing and then adapt and strategize based on the outcomes.

You will not succeed unless you adopt a singular focus. Excessive brainstorming and floating from one idea to the next keeps you aiming at an unidentified moving target.

Elaborate launches work for people with large audiences, big budgets, and a team of assistants.

When it's just you, along with a small following and a limited amount of time — over-analyzing can put you in the red before you ever get started.

Understand the purpose behind what you’re doing and what you want to accomplish. A tactical “ready-fire-aim” approach can be refined as you make progress.

MISTAKE #3

Not working on money-making activities.

Action item: Make a list of 3-5 things you’ve done to make money in your business. Next to each, write down the last date you performed a task related to that activity. Now pick up where you left off.

MISTAKE #4

Spending money on the wrong things.

Action item: Audit every purchase to ensure your business investments make sense. Spend money on things that buy back your time (grocery shopping online and using curbside pick-up service is the upgrade my life desperately needed!). When possible, pay to outsource your weaknesses.

To guarantee success in the areas where you fall short - find somebody to hold you accountable. Imagine what you could accomplish if you had another like-minded person (either virtually or in real life) to report your progress to and get feedback from.

So what should you do next? Take this information and go get your first win!

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