I feel like I’ve been getting a lot more personal about my business lately, and I hope you don’t mind. I enjoy talking about it and didn’t realize how much so until I started Blog Better. Don’t worry, I’m not about to spout off blogging tips and tricks here, but I do like talking to you guys about being an entrepreneur because it’s something that’s close to my heart and something I think anyone can do!
Have you ever wanted to start a blog or even a business? If so, what’s holding you back? Is it one of these common reasons (eh hem, excuses).
“Now’s just not a good time.”
“The timing isn’t right.”
“I’m not making enough to leave my other job yet.”
Guess what? The timing is never perfect. If it were that easy, everyone and their dog would would be running a business. So what I really want to talk about is getting started as an entrepreneur. Part of ‘going out on your own’ is taking an educated leap of faith and diving in head first knowing that things might be bumpy for the first six months to a year. I know my first six months doing freelance design was pretty slow. I went to a lot of yoga back in the day! On the flip side, if it’s been a year and you’re still not seeing progress, it might be time to rethink your game plan and bounce some ideas off people to see what sticks. Collaborating and networking have been key in growing my own business!
Sooooo, what are you waiting for?
Start planning, create a roadmap of actions you need to take, along with a timeline of when you can reasonably get them done, and then start working at it. That might mean a lot of late nights (or early mornings!), but when you’re passionate about what you’re working on, I think you’ll find that it’s worth it. Working deep into the night to eventually quit your day job and control your own schedule — doesn’t sound that bad, right? Jess Lively used to call these people the midnight hustlers and I think that’s a great name.
Lately, I’ve been hearing lots of my friends talking about quitting their day job to blog full time or start a freelance business and it gets me so excited and giddy for them! It’s probably because I’ve loved the career path that being an entrepreneur has given me and want the same for all of them — you guys know who you are!
It’s a scary jump to make, but if you take the time to get organized and create a plan, I think you’ll find that it’s not nearly as daunting as you think. I recommend setting goals for 6 months out as well as goals that can be achieved each month. I have to admit, this is something I more recently started doing and it makes everything seem a lot more achievable and manageable.
I’ve set goals for my business, Leap — numbers I want to hit in sales and gaining more traffic to Blog Better, and for my blog — growing traffic, my social following and monetary goals as well. I’ve also been creating actionable things I can do to reach those goals each month and wow, does it make it a lot easier!
Good things don’t happen accidentally, they take hard work, planning and strategic moves, but the first one of those moves is actually getting started. If your goal is to start a blog, why not come up with a name and buy that domain. If you want to start a business, start formulating a rough business plan. It’s easier to fill in the holes once things are generally outlined. Set goals for each month and when you reach your ultimate goal, take that plunge and enjoy the ride!
photography by Cassandra Eldridge
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