Episode 7: Nuggets of Advice If You Want To Quit Your Job and Build A Business

IN THIS EPISODE I COVER:

9 nuggets of advice if you’re thinking of leaving your 9-5 and building a creative business
Why you are already enough
That Seth Godin believes the time is now!
Visioning out the best and worst case scenarios
The formula you need to know

LINKS + RESOURCES I MENTION:

The Marie Forleo TV interview with Seth Godin on Why Seth Godin Thinks You Should Stop Waiting For The Right Moment

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READ THE EPISODE HERE:

Is building a business and a life full of purpose and passion and reward the ultimate dream for you but it seems out of reach? Are you sitting in your 9-5 dreaming of more but not knowing where to start? Do you have the fear about how you’ll pay the bills, attract the clients or taking the steps you need to towards making it all happen?

If so, today’s episode is just for you. My intention is to uncover some of the common barriers we face when we’re about to take a big leap and also to offer you some support and encouragement as you start to think about how you can start to transform your life from working for someone else to honouring that creative dream that’s growing deeper and deeper inside you.

Today I’m going to share the formula you need to see results! The coping mechanisms you need to get in plan, the no 1 rule to grow your business from the start and some of the other ways that will help you.

So before we get into today’s episode, I just wanted to say that I’m offering a three month coaching + accountability package, CLARITY, where we spend an hour working through your business on a Skype workshop to dive into your ideas and figure out where you want to be and what you need to do to get there. I will then check in with you via email every week to keep you on track and we’ll have a follow up one-hour Skype towards the end of the twelve weeks to review how you’re doing. I’ll also be available by email during that whole period so you can run things by me and I’ll share all the resources and things I’m working on that will help you too. If you’d like to learn more, head over to ruthhoskins.com.

Ok, let’s jump in:

You are ALREADY enough

This is a message of support if you have a deep-rooted fear of quitting. Because I know that it takes big-hearted courage and determination, but I want to tell you this.

You already have something unique to share with the world, it’s just a case of working through a process to figure out how you can make an impact.

Sometimes we just need a bit of help in uncovering our super-powers, sometimes we just need to take the time to ask ourselves those big questions, to dive deep into what we really want, what our future life looks like. Maybe you are a natural connector, and that’s your thing. Or maybe you have trained as something in your spare time that you want to do full-time, whether that’s painting or writing or coaching people in different ways.

What I know is that you have evolved over years, if you write down all the things you are already good at, I think you might surprise yourself. What I want to do with my content is to help you bridge that gap and give you the business knowledge you need to make it all happen. But my biggest message here is that what you bring to the table is AMAZING + FOR REALZ.

I believe (and so does Seth Godin) that the time is now!

Do you keep putting your creative dream back in a box, carry on with what you’re doing and another year slips by? This is so common, but one thing I truly believe is that we only regret the things we didn’t do and seldom the things we did do.

And Seth Godin agrees. I listened to him on Marie Forleo TV, the episode’s called Seth Godin Thinks You Should Stop Waiting For The Right Moment and I’m linking to it on the show notes. He said:

“We are wasting the chance of a lifetime…this is our revolution. We live in this moment of time where anyone with 100 bucks can connect to a billion and a half people around the world anytime they want to…we have this opportunity to leverage, we have this platform. An internally, if not this moment, when?….we wait for things to calm down, we wait for it to be the right moment, but this is the right moment. If we look back a year from now, five years from now we rarely say I’m disappointed that I spoke up, I’m disappointed that I did my art, I’m disappointed I made that connection. What we regret is not doing that.”

Vision the best case scenario

For me, working on my own terms is my dream. Travelling whenever and wherever, always being there for the school run, collaborating with crazy-awesome creatives who I admire SO much is the ultimate reward. Working when I want and with who I want. Earning what I want. Although I’m not saying working for yourself is easy but it brings so much in terms of richness of life that I couldn’t imagine going back into a job.

The number one thing you need to ask yourself is what life do you want? What looks so cool to you that it makes your spine tingle and puts fire in your belly? This is the most important thing to know and it’s so good to have that visually represented so you can look at it as you go through the process to remind you of what you want. I like to create a board on Pinterest but you can do this in whatever way feels right for you.

So mine is filled with experiences (I’m the kind of person who ALWAYS chooses to travel over a handbag) like trips I wanna go on, the type of house we’re looking for, retro VWs and van life stuff but everybody is different. Maybe you’d love to go on a creative retreat, or to send your kids to private school or buy a horse, or a posh poodle! Whatever really, you can pin it on the fridge, on your phone or wherever and look at it every day to keep you motivated.

Acknowledge the worst case scenario

I really dislike the word failure, because I believe everything we do puts us on the path to where we are meant to be. But it’s a good way to face our fears to acknowledge what the worst case scenario looks like.

Maybe money is tight right now or you have big outgoings or you are really scared of failure. Acknowledging the worst case scenario can help you to face it.

What I do know is that if you learn the art business and do the work you need to do it is unlikely that it will fail.

Businesses fail when they take on too many people, or have big outgoings but the beauty of having a small creative business is that we can stay small, we can keep our costs down really low and we can minimise the risk of failure.

Set the date, make a plan

Would you mark the date for your wedding or birthday party in your diary? Of course! Even if you want to take a slow approach to this, that’s A OK. But I’d encourage you to find your diary and mark a date that you want to start working full-time on your new business.

Maybe it’s a year in advance, or maybe it’s just a few weeks away. I’m going to go into detail on creating a plan in an episode very soon but the things you should start to think about are:

A spreadsheet with all your outgoings. Whatever your service or product is, how many do you need to sell to cover your costs? Then set a stretch figure to outline what extra you’d like to make and add it into your plans.

Design your products and packages or programmes. What do your revenue streams look like? How many are there, do you have entry points for each?

Be clear on the number of your service or product you need to sell to achieve this and how that can fit into your working week, allowing for time to market and sell what you do too, as well as any other boundaries you want to set, like time to explore other projects or for family commitments.

Who your clients are, what your service helps them with and how you impact on their lives for the better

Where your future dream clients are hanging out and how you plan on finding them and building connections

there’s a feel-good business plan template for creatives, freelancers and bloggers over on my website. You can access it over on ruthhoskins.com/freebies

Remember, this is your big dream, my friend! You have to show it all the love you can!

Pick your crew

You know, like with everything, it takes a village! So you need to pick a crew who are going to go with you on this journey. They can be anyone at all but definitely you need to go seek out some business mates, people in a similar position or on the same path as you (and maybe at different stages to you too). They are people you can share your bad days with, your hopes and your fears and learn from each other. Maybe you can find someone to act as a mentor, or maybe you want a coach on your crew to keep you accountable all the way through.

I’ve joined the Mothers Meetings as a member because I know that having creative mums on the same wavelength as much as me and I’m lucky to have lots of creative friends that I can run stuff by or turn to for support.

As you start to build your community (and all this can be done whilst still in your job), you’ll naturally make friends and gravitate towards certain people. You’ll find real friendships develop that you can take offline and support each other as you grow. Don’t underestimate the power of community.

The formula you need to know!

Nope, I’m no Einstein (cue some geeky music), but this is the formula that I know works.

Clarity + Consistency = Results

I’m going to repeat that again because I want it to go in your brain.

Clarity + Consistency = Results

Whether your a planner or a fly-by-the-seat of your pants, you have to have clarity. Clarity about where you are going, what you stand for, of who you are, and what are the magical elements that make your business amazing and unique. I really do find this is something that a) happens as you go through the process of writing a plan and b) evolves over time. Perhaps these things come clearly to you, or perhaps you need to spend time working through all this, depending on where on the path you are, but either way this is a big, positive and exciting step to take.

And when you have clarity, it’s a case of showing up and doing the work you need to do. There’s no magic formula and this sounds a lot easier than it is (more on that later) but the bravest and boldest move you can make is to turn up every day and be you. If you have these things, I don’t think you’re going to go wrong.

Learn the art of “business”

This is absolutely the #1 thing you need to be doing.

One of the biggest things I’ve taken from investing in myself through both being coached, taking free courses and immersing myself in online content that helps me get to where I want to be is this: It’s always worthwhile to learn the art of business, and don’t be put off by the word business, it’s not too complicated if you have a good teacher, it’s really a structure that you will learn to play with, learn from, and maybe even have fun with!

Even if you don’t go to a physical business “school”, the more skilled up you are the better. The best way I found was to do that through my own business coach 1-2-1 because I know that the best chance of “success” was through having an accountability partner, and someone that I admire greatly.

But, if that’s out of your budget right now there is so much stuff out there to help. From podcasts to free content there is a huge amount of resources. What I would say is that there are lots of different styles of coaches and online business cheerleaders out there so I suggest researching them online, on Instagram or giving their podcasts a listen and figuring out who resonates with you the most.

Build your own channel

My final nugget of advice is this: Whatever work you are doing, whoever you want to attract, think about what your dream online presence is going to be. Social media is always rented space, it’s great for driving traffic and engagement but you need to have your own home, a place to host and excite and spark a connection with your clients.

Even if you’ve no experience of building a website, it’s much easier now with so many pre-packaged templates to help you create something that looks slick and professional even if you don’t have web building expertise. Of course, Wordpress offers the most functionality but can overwhelm lots of people I know, so I would say if you want to start simple look at something like Squarespace which is much lighter and user-friendly.

I hope, from this that you’re feel inspired to work towards building the business and life you want, that you know you’re already most of the way there, that you can start to plan out your future business, the impact it will have on the world and to consider what you need to do next on this journey. I, for one, am so excited for you! I’m going to go into more detail soon on things like heart-centred business planning and building an on-point online presence that attracts the people you want to work with. I hope you’ll join me there.