iJobid

I've been entrepreneurial for as long as I can remember -- in fact, I think that most kids are, but they learn not to have these "crazy" entrepreneurial dreams! I had been trying to work on building businesses in my "spare" time between working a full time job and raising 2 little kids, but nothing was happening.

The final straw that caused me to quit my job and go out on my own happened after my personal life pretty much fell apart after throwing myself into a job at an internet startup and began spending all of my time there. This young internet startup was the closest I had come to combining the entrepreneurial spirit with a regular paycheck. Anyway, I was spending way too much time and energy there, and I was completely ignoring my family.

One afternoon at a company awards ceremony held at a restaurant/bar, I was given the top award in the company -- wow! I celebrated with drinks and laughter -- it was a real highlight. At around 7:00 I called home to check on my husband and kids and found out that he was asleep and had never picked up the kids! The daycare closed at 6:00 and they had been sitting there for an hour wondering where we were. I had to go pick them up late and after having a few Long Island Iced Teas (I could walk there -- we lived downtown), I felt like such a loser. I decided that was it. I needed to find a way to bring in an income, please my entrepreneurial side, AND be more available to my kids.

I was terrified about where money would come from when I first started out! I had no plan when I left my job, but put myself in a position where I did not have a "life preserver" to grab onto when I got scared. We moved out to a tiny town in the desert, far away from everything and everyone I knew. There was no place other than Walmart to even get a job if I started to doubt my ability to make it on my own. This forced me to find a way. I guarantee that I would have latched on to an easy way out if I could have. At some point I (briefly) even considered getting a job at Walmart for an easy paycheck!

The most difficult thing about starting a business from scratch is unlearning the mindset that we have learned over the years about how to work for someone else. Working for yourself requires a completely different mindset about money, confidence, bravery, and other fundamental values than working for someone else does.

It also feels intimidating when you're just starting out to look at all of the competition and see how much further ahead they appear. There is a feeling of not wanting to start because you feel you may never catch up. I've learned that the competition doesn't really matter. This is a HUGE world and there are plenty of opportunities for everyone. Now I don't even really pay attention to competition; I just do my own thing. If you think like this, I believe you have an advantage. By not comparing yourself to the competition, you can discover lots of things they are NOT doing where you can excel.

Splitting time between multiple businesses is tough. However, I believe in "Parkinson's Law" that Tim Ferriss talks about in the 4 Hour Workweek. Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion," or that "work expands to fill the time available." (Parkinson's Law at Wikipedia)

The old 80/20 rule also really comes into play when you're juggling multiple businesses. If you don't have a lot of time to spend, you've got to narrow your tasks down to the most critical ones. There are PLENTY of things business owners do that don't get them closer to the bottom line. If you have 10 hours a day to spend on your business, you're likely to do lots of "fluff" actions. However, if you were to ask yourself -- what if I only had 1 hour today to spend on my business -- what is the most essential task? I haven't been maximizing all of these businesses, but I've recently made some changes to have more time and mental energy to spend on each of them.

I think that in order to be an entrepreneur, you've got to be a risk taker. You've got to be deeply dissatisfied with the idea of working for a regular paycheck without much risk. You've also got to work really well with others. Nothing is created in a vacuum. It takes many people with many talents to truly make something great.

As an entrepreneur, I think you should not be too much of a control freak. If I were to look at the characteristics of all of the clients that I see who are setting themselves up for failure and slow growth, it would be that they are too controlling. The most successful entrepreneurs I know hire experts to do their thing -- and then let them do their job.

My next step is to discover ways to create passive income. Until now, my main source of revenue is from SEO content writing. When I stop writing, I stop making money. It's a one-to-one relationship with work and money. Now I plan to find ways to create more value for more people while also creating passive income. I've got some fun ideas and am actually starting on one of them today!