If you are starting a business on the side, your situation is different from those who leap into full-time entrepreneurship. As a sidepreneur, what is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to running or starting your side business?
If you aren't comfortable answering on this thread, that's just fine! Email me at [email protected] and let's talk about it. I want to hear exactly what frustrates and blocks you.
I can guess at some of the issues because I face them as well. But I want to know your story! Shoot me an email and let's talk.
Replies to This Discussion
-
I'll go first.
My biggest challenges are:
1. Connecting with others when I would rather focus on tasks and isolate myself. (I'm an introvert, and happy that way.)
2. Staying up and motivated. I have periods of high energy and output followed by times of self-doubt and low energy. I'm learning to spot the downturns as they approach and be sure I catch up on my sleep to help improve my attitude.
-
Group LeaderPermalink Reply by Lee Flint on -
1. How do you balance work-life-work when you have a business-family-full time J-O-B?
2. When your business model contains direct customer interaction, how can you schedule appointments when your job can often have unpredictable schedules (pop-up meetings, crisis of the day, etc...)
3. How long do you plow money back into the business before you start enjoying the fruits of the work?
...for starters.
-
Lee, thank you for taking time to respond! I see from your 48Days profile that you've recently been able to get a job you want in Europe. Congratulations on knowing what you want and taking steps to make it happen! I've taken a few minutes to respond to your challenges to building a side business below. I'm far from expert, but I have been working at it for a few months, so I can speak from a bit of experience. I hope it helps!Schedule
Balancing family, work, and side business is tough. In my case, my family is supportive so that's helpful.
I was working almost all the time, but now I try to have at least one night each week where work is not allowed and family fun is on the agenda. That helps. Every two weeks my wife, Jodelle, and I have a date night. Sunday is a rest and relaxation day. I try to completely avoid work on that day.
If I preserve some family time, it is remarkable how much room remains in my schedule for side work. I'm up at 4:40 in the morning and usually have several hours for reflection and productive work each morning.
Customer Service
This one is tough, but not as difficult for me as some. In general, my work hours are predictable. With unpredictable hours it would be tough to synchronize conversations with others. In that case, I'd try to use email and other asynchronous communication as much as possible.
Path to Income
In my opinion, the best side businesses should have a quick path to income. That said, one of my pet peeves is all the talk of "side hustle." It sounds like someone wandering the streets looking for any way to make a quick buck. That's counter-productive.
I've chosen to start with a blog and build a platform where I can learn what others need and create products to serve them. But blogs have a notoriously long path to income, so you can see I'm not doing what is most practical. However, I'm trying to work with my gifts and interests and this path seemed best from that perspective.
I also prefer sweat equity to actual cash investment. So I'd try to build a side business where investment is limited and any cash that comes out of the business can be liquid rather than needing reinvestment.
Thank you for sharing Lee! I'm learning along with you, and I would love to see what you're working on right now.
-
Great question, Harvey! I'm also interested in finding out what other side-prenuers face. It has been great to read Lee's and your response so far.
I agree with your #1 & #2. Those are huge challenges for me.
#3 Challenge is how I approach my "business" itself. "Start" vs "Plan."
I am a "ready, fire, aim" person. Recently, when I took the time to actually "ready, aim, fire" I was able to make money right away as a career coach, but HATED the actual work itself. I believed I wanted to work with people who didn't know what they wanted in life, but found that work to be very draining.
Now I'm pivoting. I want to work with people who know what they want to do. However, I don't know exactly what that business will look like. But I am itching to get started vs. plan.
Time and time again I have an internal conflict. "Should I start?" (which is what I naturally do) or "Should I plan?"
-
Oh, that's a good one Stephanie. By nature, I'm the inverse of you. I would rather think about things and wait for the perfect time. It's important for me to act and get small wins regularly or I start to believe the goal is not possible. If you have an overabundance of confidence, taking more time to plan might be exactly what you need!
-
Thank you for the insight, Harvey! What a great barometer for myself on if I should act or plan: Confidence high - probably plan. Confidence low - take action.
-
Yes! I think that will serve you well.
-
Permalink Reply by Holly Scherer -
Trying to figure out what products I could create that people would want to buy.
-
Holly, huge coincidence alert here! I just sent an email to my list on that exact topic. It's an article by our own Terry Hadaway titled How to Choose a Product Your Customers Will Love. Pretty cool eh? I hope it helps you. I used that method he recommends and the advice of my coach, Allan Dubon, to pick a topic for the course I'm creating.
-
Permalink Reply by Holly Scherer
-
I see that in my inbox Harvey. Thank you!
-
Permalink Reply by Holly Scherer
-
Here's on for you - SEO - an idiots guide in no time. :)
-
Holly! I did write an ebook two years ago called 7 Simple Steps toward a Search Savvy Site that was exactly what you describe. I pulled it from the market for two reasons: I felt it needed an update, and I wasn't sure people should focus on SEO when they were just getting started. It's better to focus on engagement in social media before investing time and effort in SEO.
The last word in SEO is optimization. It assumes you're starting from something ... I wrote it as if a business was starting from nothing online.
LIVE EVENTS
Check it out!
Follow 48 Days:
Have a question or want to connect? Enter in some keywords here to see what we're already saying!
Weekly Podcast
Good stuff from 48days
© 2016 Created by Jon Dale.
Powered by
