There is a saying that goes you are either an entrepreneur or you work for one. Meaning there is no inbetween when it comes to how we earn money. We are either making it happen on our own or we go work for someone else who has figured something out that we can help them sell. Every corporation, business and service is founded on this same structure that someone had an idea and built a business from it. It just so happens their business became some mega corporation that hires thousands of people working in cubicles now.
For millions of us, working at something on the side while we work for these other entrepreneurs is a necessity whether we ever wanted to have our own business or not. As our economy tanks, thousands of jobs are loss at the pen stroke and prices for homes and foods increase we are forced to think what else can we do to take care of ourselves? While it scares me to no end to think when it may hit my family I also see the potential for what could be possible as my own entrepreneur.
I think too many of us wait until there is a crisis before we realize there is an abundance of opportunities around us. We think we don’t have time or it isn’t for us, that we will be alright and then boom! It hits like a fly ball lost in the sun out in center field. We go through our savings like quicksand trying to make the best of the time while we desperately search for another job. I quickly realized I didn’t enjoy living at the mercy of others to determine my livelihood, the question was what I was going to do about it.
Working full time does introduce some challenges to time and energy for building your own business but it absolutely can be done. It is worth figuring out too because you depending on what you do and how you do it this little cottage business could actually become your biggest safety net. The trick is finding the thing that lights you up and fits in alignment with your dreams, values and budget. This has to fit into your life and not be just another chore you pile onto an already busy lifestyle otherwise it becomes something you forget or lose interest in. It also has to be something you don’t feel desperate in.
When I first started selling natural products I made a rule that I was not going to be do it in desperation mode. Oh there are plenty of days, especially those bad days at work, where I wish Dragonspit Apothecary was able to take care of my family financially fully but me getting desperate about that won’t make it happen faster. I was fortunate in that I had the option to choose my business to be something I could let grow more slowly over time. It wasn’t an urgent situation for me at least not yet. Being clear on your needs and goals is the biggest advice I can give you to finding the right business for you. If your situation is desperate and urgent then you need something that can fill that immediately. Perhaps a part time job and not a business.
Being a healthy entrepreneur means finding that balance between keeping the necessary things in life going and finding that creative space to work in your business, as a business. Hobbies only pay well when you but the business operations around them to make them into an enterprise. Otherwise they are just activities you do to spend some fun time getting crafty and having your friends ooh and ahh over your latest Pinterest creation. There is nothing wrong with that either but if you’re interested in making money that gradually builds as a way to secure your family and perhaps even replace incomes, you have to think like a business person.
For me this looks like getting up between 5 and 6AM weekdays and sometimes on weekends to write blogs and create social media content. It is recording vlogs during my lunch hour and hosting master classes and special events to teach potential new clients. It is taking customer calls while I’m cooking dinner for my family and returning texts and instant messages as quickly as I can. It looks like fitting my business into the crevices of my world every day so that it is in my fiber and constantly on my mind for how to grow it. This has worked for me. It is something that lights me up and makes me want to do it. I love it.
It is not the fact I sell essential oils or natural products that I love. While those are great the part that lights me up is the fact this is something I am creating. It is freedom I am building slowly, methodically and strategically in every spare minute I have so that one day I don’t have to care what our government does with taxes and jobs and prices. I want enough through my business to afford to not care. I want financial freedom so deep it gives me the courage to live life the way I want and not have to wait until I have enough saved up or enough time to ask for permission to take a few days off. That is my goal and dream. It is why I do what I do every day, multi-tasking between my corporate job and my small business to make possible because it speaks to my very soul.
When you find that passion that drives you to that extent that you’re willing to fit it in everywhere every day, you have found the right business to be in. You have found the drive you need to make that healthy jump to it being more than just a side hustle or part time gig for some extra in the moment. You have tapped into the very essence of what it means to live your dreams and not stop until they are reality.
FInding that path should be fun. It should light up your curiosity and wake you up in the middle of night with incredible ideas. It is about finding your passion and letting it loose and it is one of the best and most healthy things you will ever do in your life. That energy is the very stuff of living your best every day regardless of what happens around you. It is putting into place the things you need to take care your family and doing what is necessary all the while building something more than just surviving. If you’re on this path you know that it is about living not surviving that makes it happen too.
If you’re ready to find out if this path is the right one for you, let’s connect. Message me at dragonspitapothecary.com