What’s your dream? Have you started working towards it? Are you working in it?
Enable Or Hinder?
Many of us have a “9 to 5” job and our side businesses or perhaps thinking of starting a side business. From experience, having a 9-5 while starting a side business is good because:
- The income from the 9 to 5 can help support the side business.
- It’s a good way to make a gradual transition into working full-time in your business.
The flip side of that is sometimes having the 9 to 5 job can be a delays the fulfillment of the dream. It pays the bills, provides insurance, vacation time, plus all the other things we can think of – all great and important things. But we can get timid and complacent because of the security and comfort in the form of benefits and not pursue our dreams.
There’s also the work demands that keep us from fully committing to the dream. Earlier this year, from late January to March I barely had to time to post articles because of the demands of the 9 to 5. There was a big project that caused me to get home late every night. Late as in no earlier than 11:30 p.m. and at one point 3 a.m. Added to that, I wasn’t getting much sleep and I didn’t see my children or husband long enough much less have time to blog. During February and March I only wrote 4 articles, way off what my initial target of at least 2 articles per week. It was a struggle to get back into a creative frame of mind. I started out drafting a few topics and told myself that an article was better than nothing and just kept pushing myself.
Good Avice
No One Said It Would Be Easy
I’m not saying things will be easy, but it can be done. What have you got to lose if you don’t try? There are many resources and guides to help you along the way. If you’re not sure where to start, you can always send me a quick email (kerry@carryonfriends.com). Here are some good articles as a starting point:
- Entrepreneur Magazine lists 7 really good tips for part-time business owners on how to run their business while working a full-time job.
- Miriam Salpeter wrote for AOL Jobs and points out that true job security no longer exists. So why not learn how to get your side business started while working a day job?
- Another article by Miriam Salpeter for US News Career lists 5 tricks to starting a business while working full-time.
Bright Ideas
Start It Before You Regret It
Too many of us end up having a similar experience such as this young lady featured on the amazing blog Humans of New York. She had an idea for a business and started to work on it. But then the demands of work got in the way and he never got around to getting the business off the ground. A year later she read in a newspaper that someone else is successful with the idea.
Do the research, make a plan and start working on you dream or idea a little by little. If it’s in your heart, take the chance. Don’t pass up on the opportunity to work on your dream or idea only to read that someone else did it and is successful at it.
Photos courtesy of: Jen Collins, Sean MacEntee, Nicole Pierce
