Getting started on your business idea is no small feat. First, you have to get past the mental drama that is taking place in your head.
Maybe you have the dream that you want to work for yourself and be your own boss but you don’t know what you want to do.
Maybe you know what you want to do, what you’re passionate about but for some reason, you can’t seem to get yourself into action. You can’t seem to get motivated.
Maybe you’re already running your business full-time and you still find yourself getting stuck, focusing on all the things that don’t really matter.
In today’s episode, I’m going to unpack all three of those scenarios with you and provide some actionable things you can do to get unstuck and take that very next best step.
Maybe you’re in the first camp where you know you want to work for yourself but not exactly sure what type of business you want to start or how to channel your creative energy productively. If you’re in this camp it is most likely you have so many creative ideas, passions and you may spend a lot of time during the day scheming of what your business could look like and all the different options yet, when you get home from working or you turn off your work laptop, you’re depleted and have very little to no energy left to do anything. Don’t worry, I’ve been there too.
Maybe you think you want to create graphics, build a website, write copy,
The challenge when you’re in this camp is that you have so many ideas, you’re just not sure which one to focus on and invest your time and energy into.
If you’re in this stage I recommend listing out all things you could do or ideas that you have. Go through each idea and identify and rate them on the following:
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, how excited do I feel about this idea?
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, how economical is this idea? Can I make money from this? Are other people making money teaching/doing/coaching this? (you can do a quick internet search or visit a site call Upwork to browse and see what and if people are getting paid to do what you want to do)
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, how competent am I in this skill? The majority of people want to make money fast to replace their income and in this case, you want to stick with something that you already have developed a skillset in, vs, having to go out and get extensive training.
After you’ve gone through all your ideas and tested them against these three questions, rate them and add up the numbers to see which idea is the most viable in terms of your zone of genius and sweet spot. Start at the top of the list and work your way down. Now that you’ve gotten clarity on which idea to start taking action on, let’s move to the next stage in this journey...
When you know WHAT you want to do but don’t know HOW to get started, I recommend the following…
Step 1:
Find someone who is doing what you already want to be doing. Want to start a VA business, find someone who is doing what you want to be doing and learn from them. If you want to start a VA business, I recommend you check out my friend Abbey Ashley’s course, Savvy System. Abbey spent years being a VA, built a successful business and now she teaches women all across the world how to do the same. We’ve included her free training “Become a Booked out VA” in our training library on Shediditherway.com. (for show notes - LINK directly to the training library).
This is the quickest path to success.
Step 2:
Be willing to invest in yourself. I spent years trying to piece together what I thought would work when I could have invested my dollars (not time) in learning from someone who has already done what I want to do.
If you want to start a blog, learn from someone who has launched a successful blog. If you’re in Corporate America and you find that you don’t have a ton of time outside of your job, then you don’t have the time to NOT invest in yourself and pay for a course or coaching. It is worth it and will help accelerate the process of you being where you and where you want to go.
Not only does investing in a coach or a course demonstrate your willingness to take the next step, but it also more importantly gives you a plan for what to do with your time that you DO have.
The reason why it is so easy to come home from work and procrastinate is that you don’t have a clear plan with how you’re going to spend your time. If you know how you’re going to spend every minute when you get home from work, and you know exactly what you’re going to do in every 30-minute time block, you’re more likely to get work done and not just any work, important work. Work that will help you accelerate the process of getting out of Corporate America and making your ultimate leap.
Step 3 (and the most important step):
Is to commit. Commitment looks like not questioning what you’re doing when things don’t go the way you planned because they won’t go the way you planned, that I promised. Keep your goals the same but be flexible with the way you reach your goal and destination. Commit more than 3 months or 6 months. Commit for the next 12 months. Let’s say you enroll in a course that is standalone and you take on your time, make a plan for that course, and commit to the plan. What I mean by creating a plan is to decide what time and date you’re going to go through the lessons and what you’re going to do and by when. Start with what you’re going to accomplish and commit to doing in the next two weeks. Maybe that looks like in the next two weeks I want to have watched all of Module 1 training lessons and have done the homework. Great, schedule this on your calendar in 30-minute increments so you know exactly what you’re going to do with the time that you have.
Now, if you’re a full-time business owner and you’ve recently made your leap, it can be easy to get distracted by ALL the things that you’re being told you need to do to have a successful business, you can easily get overwhelmed. When you’re constantly consuming content it can be easy to lose your way and get overwhelmed.
I recommend limiting social media intake, unsubscribing from any emails that distract you, find a coach or a program and focus on only the things you’re enrolled in at that time. Focus on one strategy at a time. First, make sure you’re taking care of your existing clients. How can you offer up an even better experience for them? Referral marketing is one of the best, fastest and cheapest ways to grow your business. When you do great work, people talk. Then look at your business and identify where does your audience hangs out most of the time, where do you love to show up, where are you generating the most leads and revenue and focus on what is already working.
One reason why you might feel like you’re all over the place and can’t see what next step to take is because you’re overloaded with being told so many things you must do right now. The key is to remember that everyone is sharing what worked for them. Which means it could work for you as well. The success is picking the method that most aligns with you, your personality, business and then sticking with that one thing for a period of time.
So if you’re in the stage where you have so many ideas and not sure what to do or where to start, list them out and rank them.
Then move to the next stage. If you’re already there and you know what you want to do but not sure how to get started, find someone who is doing what you want to do and is successful and learn from them.
Lastly, the early stages of building your business can be some of the noisiest and overwhelming. Continue to serve your current clients, learn from a limited number of people and commit.
Don’t forget early bird tickets are on sale for this year’s She Did It Her Way Summit until Friday, October 16th. Head on over to www.shediditherwaysummit.com to get yours today to this epic event!