Did you know that up to 45% of Americans work a second job? These side businesses are often passion projects that people want to develop into careers. Many aspiring entrepreneurs take the route of starting a business while maintaining a full-time job elsewhere, but it can be very difficult. If you don’t manage it proactively and carefully, juggling a day job, a personal life, and a brand-new business can result in burnout and possible failure. Here are some advice that I found most useful for starting my business and maintaining a career.
1. Set up two distinct workspaces.
When one’s personal and professional lives overlap, it’s simple to lose focus and feel overburdened. Even though it’s a business, your side project is still personal and ought to be handled completely independently of your day job. Spend some time setting up two separate work environments to ensure that your business development doesn’t interfere with corporate work hours (or vice versa). Even if you only have one desk or computer, you can still accomplish this.
Making a separate user account on your computer just for your personal project or corporate work setup is one of the simplest things you can do. If you can’t afford to have a separate computer or desk setup for your personal business, this is a great first step toward separation.
Next, for each job, try to use a different communication channel. If your main team uses Slack, use Google Chat or RocketChat for side project communications to avoid switching between channels. The same is true for task management: if you’re using Asana for one task, switch to Jira or Backlog for the other, and make sure you’re fully utilizing both. Keep tasks in your head; this will distract you and cause you to take “just one quick break” to work on your other job.
This type of multitasking increases stress and makes you perform worse on both tasks. Because our brains work best when we have a single focus (for example, only working or developing a side business), doing so will make you more effective overall. Creating this separation also makes it easier to shift gears and enter “creative mode” when working on your business. You’re no longer just a worker bee for someone else; you’re now in command. This can provide an extra boost of motivation that you will need in the long run.
2. Maintain your motivation by soliciting feedback on your business concepts.
For better or worse, burnout is an inevitable byproduct of running a business while also working a full-time job.
On average, 77% of employees have reported burnout at work, and 63% of entrepreneurs have reported burnout.
It’s nearly impossible to avoid when you’re both an employee and an entrepreneur, no matter how much you enjoy what you do.
There is a lot of good advice out there about taking intentional breaks to refresh your mind and body, as well as building rest times into your daily schedule, and these are both valuable strategies.
Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, sometimes require more to stay motivated.
Getting constant feedback from customers and peers is my best piece of advice for overcoming burnout and staying motivated.
When your startup is in its early stages, your first clients are usually extremely loyal and enjoy keeping in touch.
They admire your work and want to help you in any way they can.
Calls, chats, and messages, whether positive or negative (we need both! ), can be extremely motivating.
Positive feedback lifts your spirits and lets you know you’re on the right track.
After all, everyone requires someone to believe in them.
Even negative feedback isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it should motivate you to keep working and improve your product.
Finding creator groups and soliciting opinions, support, and advice from other founders, particularly those who have already traveled this path, is also extremely beneficial.
Another thing that kept me motivated was paying myself a small sum for the work I put in to develop my business.
Even if it’s just pennies, it puts you in the mindset of investing in your business and being rewarded for your efforts, creating a positive feedback loop.
3. Whenever possible, outsource.
Once you’ve established some traction, freelancers can be valuable assets in lightening the workload and accelerating progress.
Hiring just one freelancer for ten hours per week can make a significant difference in how quickly and effectively you can scale.
Allow freelancers to assist you with tasks such as writing social media posts, developing a website, preparing taxes, and handling administrative tasks.
These tasks can take up a lot of your time while not advancing you toward your goals.
Furthermore, if you are in the “no-budget” stage of operations, you can turn to AI.
Midjourney or other stable diffusion tools for logo creation, or ChatGPT for social media copy, can be extremely beneficial.
Even if you need to hire a freelancer to polish the results, you will save a significant amount of time and money.
But remember to keep important skills for yourself.
This includes hiring additional help, managing finances, and communicating with customers.
Anything that has a direct impact on your reputation should always be routed through you.
Outsourcing to workers through platforms like Upwork is simple, legal, and non-binding, making it ideal for the early stages of building a business.
It also provides you with access to a global talent pool, which simplifies the hiring process.
According to LinkedIn, 83% of small business owners who hire freelancers appreciate how much they help “get the job done,” and 64% believe that using these workers helps them build a better virtual team.
The one disadvantage of freelance work is that the person isn’t as invested or passionate about the success of your project; they’re more concerned with finishing the job and getting paid.
However, as long as you establish clear goals and expectations from the start, it is simple to get everyone on the same page.
It is critical to remember that no one can do it better than you when it comes to vision and hiring people for higher positions.
4. Open up direct lines of communication.
Having a regular day job means you’re unavailable to communicate with your freelancers, contractors, and employees, leaving you with a limited amount of time in the evenings to handle everything.
This is why it’s critical to create clear communication channels and detailed guidelines so that everyone can work autonomously and asynchronously.
Setting and tracking weekly goals with project management tools like Jira or Trello, both of which have free versions, is a method I prefer.
Having clear instructions and a centralized platform keeps everyone on the same page and aids in prioritization, accountability, and momentum maintenance.
5. Understand when to stop (and how)
Before you begin working on your business, you should establish a financial goal that will indicate when it is time to leave your day job.
Paul Graham coined the phrase “ramen profitability,” which refers to a startup earning just enough to cover its founders’ basic expenses.
This, in my opinion, is a good way to approach quitting your full-time job.
My goal was to earn the same amount of money as I did at my regular job.
If I couldn’t consistently meet that standard, I knew it was time to call it quits.
Of course, if you have a family or other obligations, this goal will most likely be different.
It makes no difference what the tipping point is; what matters is that you set one and stick to it.
Knowing how to quit is just as important as knowing when to quit.
It’s never a good idea to burn bridges when leaving a corporate job, so keeping a “graceful exit” mindset is one of the best things you can do.
Start thinking about proactive steps you can take to ensure a pleasant exit on both sides and to ensure a smooth transition for yourself (and your replacement).
This is not only good business practice, but it also leaves the door open if you need to be rehired in the future.
6. It takes balance to build a business.
It’s not called a passion project for nothing.
It’s always difficult to add another full-time job to an already hectic schedule, and passion is often the only fuel that keeps you going in the beginning.
The good news is that, despite the challenges, if you learn how to effectively manage your time, stress, and goals, you can transition into the role of founder and devote all of your working hours to a single business you are passionate about.
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