We live in an age where starting your own business has never been easier, so what are you waiting for?
I started Blue Stripe Creative as a side business over 5 years ago. I was working full time at print shop and after hours I would dedicate my time to graphic design projects. Most days consisted of 15-18 hours of work, juggling side projects while having a day job proved difficult at times. I finally came to the point where I knew I needed to give BSC my all or nothing.
I knew there was never going to be a “perfect” time to jump ship so I started to transition toward my own venture the best I could. I came up with new working arrangements at my full time job and switched to part time. This was a big deal not only because I was taking a pay cut, but now I had more time to pay attention to my own business and I would see if it was viable. Most of you may not have this option to go part time, but you don’t know if you don’t ask.
After six months of this arrangement I had realized that it was time to turn all my attention to BSC and rip the proverbial band aid off. There was no looking back from there. It was full steam ahead on running my own business. The transition had its rough moments, no matter how much you plan ahead, something will always come up that gets in the way, you need to just keep moving forward. Like I said, there is no “perfect” time to move on, you can only prepare so much and then make a move.
Your life, your way.
Working for yourself is about more then just money, it is about freedom, it is about building your life the way you want it to be. Only you know yourself best. You know your strengths and weaknesses. When you are freelancing or working for yourself you dictate the terms on which you work by and this can allow you do your best work. Living the life you want to live and having an awesome life / work balance is very possible.
The best time to start a business is…now.
There is no time like now to start your own business. The technology and resources available to you are plentiful. It used to be that you needed a large staff to take care of all the tasks that go into running a business. These days you can manage most of the stuff yourself with a few apps and programs. There is no need for a bloated team to be assembled, no crazy policies and no unnecessarily long meetings! You may even get away with not having a physical location and work from a home office. Working lean gives you the flexibility to be agile. It has never been easier to test your products and services in the marketplace and adjust accordingly.
You will find that building a lean business can give you plenty of extra time to focus on what is important. By streamlining simple day to day tasks you can then spend your time on things that will move your business forward instead of just spinning your wheels for an hourly paycheck. I’m not saying that you will not have to put in hard work, you will just work in a different way.
Everyone is their own media company these days. Branding yourself is just as important as branding your business. If you put out a good product or service and pair that with proper marketing, you will have the best chance of making it out there on your own. Position yourself correctly and you can build a great business or freelancer career.
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