Have you recently lost you lost your job or just lost interest in your regular office gig? Are you ready to leave the grind of your 9 to 5 and become self employed? If you’d like to leave it all behind and finally do what you love, we have all the information you’ll need on self employment.
In today's tumultuous times, you can take some control back. You can follow the steps to becoming self employed as an epic entrepreneur.
While you can expect to work harder and longer to set up your new small business, many people who choose to make the leap can’t believe that they waited so long to make their dreams of being their own boss become a reality. When you become your own boss, you'll finally have to do what you like, whether it's just relaxing at home playing slot sites or catching up on things that you don't usually have time for.
If you want to learn more about becoming self employed, read on!
1. Determine What Fulfills You (and Your Legal First Steps)
Often the key to small business is doing what you love. While this may seem like a no brainer, it’s not.
Choosing something profitable that doesn’t particularly appeal to you can spell disaster for those looking to begin working on their own. Why?
If you aren’t truly passionate about what you’re doing, you’re likely to resent the long hours you’ll spend working.
Working for yourself doesn’t come with the normal time constraints of a typical job. You’ll find yourself working late into the night getting ready for trade shows or shipping product.
After you've finished day dreaming, you'll need to explore some of the potential snags you may hit on your way to success. If you're a planning on starting a meal delivery service, for example, you'll need to become familiar with the regulations you'll need to follow before opening your doors for business.
The more connection you have to your business endeavor, the more likely you are to see it through to fruition.
2. Use the Internet to Your Advantage
One of the most positive things about the internet age is the connectivity and exposure afforded to entrepreneurs. Unlike the generations of the past who had to rely on a work skill that was marketable trade within the local area, entrepreneurs today have a much broader market available.
If you’re a master guitar player, for example, you no longer have to keep your day job and play local gigs at night. Platforms like Skype or FaceTime can afford you the opportunity to teach lessons to anyone with internet access.
If the business that you plan to run requires additional employees, the internet can also help you to better understand what you'll need to know about payroll obligations and what sort of insurance and benefits you'll need to provide your workers. You can find more information on that at this blog.
3. Reduce Your Chance of Bankruptcy: Mind Your Budget
One of the most common mistakes made when launching a business is going over budget. You are not a major company (yet) so don’t spend your money like you are. Don’t spend money on anything that you don’t absolutely need yet.
Digital art and website design are two of the areas that you MUST do for yourself when first starting out. Check out YouTube for great tutorials that will help you save your valuable cash for the essentials.
You’ll also want to avoid getting your company into debt. Loans that you may receive or qualify for are not free money! Loans and business credit cards aren’t permission to overspend, in fact, they could cost you your business if you’re unable to pay back the money you borrowed.
Credit cards can also cost you big time in the long term. If you’re only able to make the minimum payments for a card you’ve run up, you’ll likely be paying the lender without making any significant dent in your credit debt. Do you want to give your business’ valuable profits to you lender just to pay the interest on what you originally borrowed? We didn’t think so.
4. Getting to the Customer
You’ll need to find new and creative ways to market your skills to avoid getting lost in the crowd, however, because starting your own business has become such a popular choice, you’ll need to find a way to make you and your services stand out.
Let’s consider the same guitar virtuoso for example. He can’t simply quit his day job and wait for potential emails to reach out to him. He’ll need to begin marketing his skills immediately. If you have the luxury of beginning to market your skills before leaving your 9 to 5, this can be exceedingly helpful as well.
Creating a YouTube channel and building an audience can be a great way to start. You can begin to build your following with people who are interested in what it is you have to offer.
Creating a blog can be another great way to grow your online presence. If you’ve got a story to tell, put it online. Learning some key SEO insights can help you boost your online presence as well.
Take it from marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk and stop worrying about creating content online… just start documenting! Document your journey into the small business world, just be sure to add value for your viewers along the way.
If you need to physically get to your clients and customers, you'll need a personal or company vehicle. That means you might need a loan to buy your car or truck if you don't have one already. But if you already have a vehicle and live in California, you can use it to get a car title loan. You could use that loan capital to get a better company vehicle or money to invest in another aspect of your sole proprietorship business.
5. Incorporating the Dream
Choosing to wait on some of the important legal requirements necessary for a small business can have big-time costs in the long run.
This can be especially the case for self-employed people who are looking to work in specific industries like food and beverage. Regardless, you’ll need to look into creating a corporation to help afford you the legal protections you’ll need as a small business owner or sole proprietor.
Without these, you risk personal exposure that could cost you everything. Without corporate protections that you will have through creating a Limited Liability Corporation (also known as an LLC), a single lawsuit or slip and fall case could cost you your business and everything else.
Be sure to search online for any requirements that may be specific to your choice of self-employed business as well.
Becoming Self Employed: Are You Ready?
Now that you’ve learned everything you need to know about becoming self employed, it’s time to make the leap and be your own boss!
If you have the luxury of beginning your business plan before leaving your day job, be sure to use this time to your advantage. It will pay major dividends when you become completely self-employed.
Want to learn more about being self-employed and running a successful business? We’re here to help at LeanStartupLife.com!
The Lean Startup Life Blog is here to help you make money online and offline on a tight budget.
Be sure to visit more of The Lean Startup Life website for more great ideas to help you take your small business to the next level.
