Starting a Side Business Without Quitting Your Day Job
Issue #2590
- WEALTHY: Creating cash on the side (Paul Lawrence)
- HEALTHY: The 2-day rule (Jon Benson)
- WISE: Michael Masterson on “chicken entrepreneurship”
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The 2 things you should never delegate (Michael Masterson)
- Keeping your inbox under control (Charlie Byrne)
- It’s Fun to Know… about exorbitant prices for tuna
- Add “cavil” to your vocabulary
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“I believe in ‘chicken entrepreneurship’ – starting out slowly and learning about a side business while you have the safe and steady income of your main job.”
Michael Masterson
Starting a Side Business Without Quitting Your Day Job
The best way to create a steady source of income is to start a side business – one that could potentially be expanded into a full-time career. But some people get overwhelmed by the thought.
Take my friend “Bill.”
“I’d like to start a side business,” he told me. “But how can I do it when I already have a full-time job?”
“It won’t be easy,” I agreed. “But it is definitely possible to keep your day job AND get something started on the side.”
I know, because I did it.
At the time, I was in worse shape than Bill. (At least he has some money in the bank and a decent car.) I was stuck in a job as a collections manager for a retail jewelry chain when I began building a ballroom dance instruction business. And that business became a full-time occupation for me within the first 12 months.
Frankly, I can’t see how anyone can afford not to be starting their own business these days. With “solid industry giants” crumbling into ashes… with tens of thousands being laid off… with just about every company tightening its belt by reducing benefits and compensation… having your own business seems to be the only way to feel secure.
The good news is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses that can be started on a part-time basis with little capital.
Maybe you feel trapped by economic circumstances in a job you don’t like. Or maybe you enjoy your day job, but you want the security of having a side business to fall back on… just in case. Or maybe you just want an extra stream of income to supplement your salary.
No matter what your reasons are for starting a side business, here’s how to do it:
Analyze Your Available Time
There are 168 hours in a week. If you subtract 56 hours for sleep (eight hours a day), you’ve got 112 left. If you give yourself another four hours a day for eating, travel, and taking care of personal needs, you’ve got 84 hours. Give yourself another 10 hours to have some kind of social life, and you still have 74 hours. Assuming you currently work 40 hours a week, that means you’ve got 34 hours a week to build your business.
When you’ll be able to use those free hours depends upon your schedule. If your current job is 9-5, that pretty much limits you to evenings and weekends. That’s how I started teaching ballroom dancing. I booked lessons in the evening and on weekends until I was earning enough to be able to quit my day job.
Identify Possible Businesses You Could Operate
The easiest side businesses to start are those that take advantage of any skills, interests, or resources that you already possess.
Expert copywriter Don Hauptman taught people how to sharpen their copywriting and marketing skills. Real estate expert Julie Broad invested in multi-family homes while working her day job, and started a business offering real estate investing advice. (She recently quit her job to pursue the real estate business full-time.)
If you love animals, you could start a side business as a dog walker. If you enjoy scrapbooking, you could sell scrapbooking materials and lessons online. If you’re an antiques collector, you could teach other collectors how to find and buy antiques. If you have a small truck and a strong back, you could deliver furniture for local stores. If you are a black belt in karate, you could teach martial arts.
As I said, I was working for a retail jewelry chain when I decided to turn my passion for ballroom dancing into a side business. As much as I loved to dance, I didn’t feel qualified to teach. So I took a part-time position as an apprentice at a dance studio to hone my skills.
Meanwhile, I started on the next step to starting my business…
Make a Plan and Go For It
Once you know what kind of business you want to start, you’ll be able to come up with a specific plan of action to get it up and running. In the case of my ballroom dance business, the plan included the following:
• Visit ballrooms and make deals to (1) work for them as a freelance instructor and (2) rent their idle studio space to teach my own students.
• Place ads in the classified section of the local newspaper.
• Identify businesses that offer services to people who might be interested in ballroom dance lessons (e.g., wedding planners, tuxedo rentals), and approach them about doing joint ventures.
A Few Words of Caution…
If you are dependent upon the income from your full-time job, don’t do anything to jeopardize it. You might not even want to mention that you have an outside interest. If your boss thinks you’ve already got one foot out the door, you could be the first to be let go at layoff time.
Don’t “cheat” the company by doing anything related to your side business during your regular workday. And don’t even think about stealing customers, vendors, or employees from them. It’s morally and legally wrong. If you have signed a non-compete agreement, you could be liable for damages – and face a possible court order to cease your operation.
That said, nothing should stop you from starting your own side business and securing your financial future. It may not be easy to find the time in your already busy schedule – but with some careful planning, you can do it.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence has started over a dozen profitable enterprises, specializing in low-capital small businesses. For more information on how to make your dreams come true, learn about Paul's "Dare to Live Your Dreams" program here.
It's much easier to start a side business if you harness the power of the Internet. You can get step-by-step instructions for starting and running an Internet business as a member of ETR's Internet Money Club. You'll learn how to do everything from setting up a website to creating products to writing sales letters, and much more. Get all the details for starting a steady stream of side income right here.]
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The Power of Delegation
There’s something to be said for doing a project or task yourself – you know it has been done right. But if you want to be a strong leader, you must learn to give up control over certain tasks. You must learn to delegate. Delegation is essential to leadership because it frees up time for the things you should be focusing on.
As a general rule, you want to delegate as much work as you possibly can. This is an absolute requirement for a growing business. As sales increase, so do problems. Your job as a leader is to delegate all the small and medium-sized problems to subordinates so you have time to concentrate on the big ones yourself.
If the project can be completed successfully by someone else… delegate it. You should also delegate everything that is beneath your level of skill and responsibility.
In his book How to Delegate, Robert Heller says being able to analyze the importance of a project and the skill it will take to complete it is the first step to effective delegation. I agree. And key to this step is also recognizing what you should never delegate:
- The ultimate responsibility for sales
- The ultimate responsibility for product quality
Putting yourself in charge of generating sales is smart because it keeps you in the primary position. (The man who holds the cash spigot gets credit for the cash flow.) And you want to maintain control over the quality of your products because it’s crucial to your ongoing success in the marketplace. If standards start to deteriorate, it can kill your business.
Remember, there are basically two reasons why businesses fail. Either they forget how to make the initial sale or they allow their products to become noticeably worse than the other, similar products in the marketplace. If both things happen simultaneously, the business is almost sure to fail – and fast. Because strong leaders are effective delegators, they’re able to keep their eyes on the big picture and not let this happen.
[Ed. Note: The above was adapted from Michael Masterson's book Power and Persuasion. Pick up your copy to discover the keys to mastering the two universal rules of power and success and unlocking massive personal and professional power.]
Try This Easy E-Mail Productivity Tip
Perpetually buried in e-mail? Here’s a quick and easy tip that may help you out…
SEND less e-mail!
Sure, it’s not the be-all and end-all of the problem.
But there’s no question about it…
When I get on an e-mail-sending binge, I pay for it later BIG TIME… in the form of all those replies.
Which then multiples the problem!
So before you dive into your pile and start firing off replies or new e-mail messages, think carefully about what you’re doing and try to come up with alternate options.
Can a quick visit to the office next door solve this? How about a 30-second phone call? Has this issue already been addressed? Or will benign neglect work out just fine?
Try it out! Just keep telling yourself: “The delete key is my friend, the delete key is my friend!”
[Ed. Note: For more easy-to-follow strategies to keep yourself productive and on task, sign up for ETR's Total Success Achievement Program. Success mentor Bob Cox will give you proven guidelines for accomplishing everything you set out to do. Find out more right here.
Get more of Charlie's offbeat but useful ruminations and discussions on copywriting, marketing, new technology, and business process improvement right here.]
Never More Than 2 Days
By Jon Benson
Here’s a simple rule to follow: Never go more than two days without some form of planned physical activity.
Housework does not count. I’m talking about activity that can be measured so you can track your progress over time.
Seven to 14 minutes of resistance training and 30-40 minutes of brisk walking is best. That’s it.
Just don’t skip more than two days between workouts. After that you quickly lose cardiovascular condition. You will keep your muscle, but you will begin to lose the neurological connection to the muscle – the “mind/muscle connection.”
[Ed. Note: Jon Benson is a life coach and nutrition counselor who specializes in helping individuals discover a life-altering mind/body connection. His work in the field of post-40 fitness and mental empowerment has helped countless thousands rediscover a youthful body and positive outlook. Discover how you can do the same by clicking here.
Exercise is only half the battle when it comes to staying fit and healthy. For a free source of expert advice about what you should and shouldn't be eating, sign up for ETR's natural health e-newsletter.]
It’s Fun to Know: You Paid How Much for a Tuna?
Bluefin tuna caught in the waters off Japan is a delicacy prized by sushi fans.
It better be a delicacy to justify the price a pair of restaurant owners paid at auction for a 282-pounder recently: $104,700. That’s $370 per pound, and will be marked up to $600 a pound for diners.
Market watchers said that the high price could be explained by this year’s small bluefin catch due to rough weather in the fishing grounds.
But don’t get out the fishing rod just yet. Japanese bluefin tuna is the delicacy. American bluefins fetch only around $50 a pound.
(Source: Associated Press)
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Word to the Wise: Cavil
To “cavil” (KAV-ul) – from the Latin for “scoff” – is to raise trivial or frivolous objections.
Example (as used by Tom Rosenthal in New Statesman): “It may seem churlish, amid the selection of so much glory, to cavil at a single omission, but I do think a great opportunity has been missed.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
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