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The $100 MBA Show
MBA2396 Q&A Wednesday: How do I start a business while in a job? I have no time.
00:16:21
Many of us dream of starting our own business, but finding the time and juggling responsibilities can often seem impossible
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- [00:01]
Jim
And we're back folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.
- [00:06]
Co-worker
His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking can he get through his expenses in that time?
- [00:12]
Jim
He's going for it.
- [00:12]
Co-worker
Is that his phone?
- [00:14]
Jim
He's snapping a pic. He's texting ramp.
- [00:16]
Co-worker
Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.
- [00:18]
Jim
That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.
- [00:21]
Ramp Representative
On ramp expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com hey, welcome.
- [00:42]
Omar Zenhom
To the $100 NBA show. No fluff, just the good stuff with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an in dependent software company I started back in 2014. And today's episode is Q and A Wednesday. On Q and A Wednesdays, we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me over at omar100mba.net and I'll answer it right here on the show. Today's question is from Aaron. And Aaron asks a question that I get asked a lot. That doesn't make it a bad question. Actually makes a great question because that means a lot of people want to know the answer. Today's Q and A question is how do I start my business while in a job? I have no time. Between work and my commute and obligations to my family and trying to get some sort of exercise during the week, I'm not left with much time. Any advice would be helpful. Aaron, I got your back because I did exactly that. I was in a job for 13 years. I was an educator. I was a teacher, a high school teacher where I taught English. This was my career. And I side hustled for about 10 years when I was a teacher before I became a full time entrepreneur. So I got a chance to start my businesses while in a job. So I'll show you how you can do it and what I would do differently if I was doing it again today. Because there's different resources, different things available to you today that I didn't have. How to create a plan for yourself to make that exit out of your job into your full time business, depending on how much time you have, whether you want this to be a really quick transition or one that takes a bit of time. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I want to start this lesson by addressing the biggest problem people have when it comes to starting their business while they're in job, this is often called a side hustle. And many think that the number one problem is they have no time. But I'm here to tell you that is not the number one problem you're having here. The number one problem is an identity problem. You're perceiving yourself as who you are in your job and you're experimenting with this idea of being an entrepreneur. What helped me really accelerate my transition was a change in mindset. I was side hustling for a very long time until one day I realized I'm not a teacher, I'm actually an entrepreneur. I need to become an entrepreneur full time. And once you kind of shift that in your mind, I know it's a very subtle thing, but it does affect your progress into becoming a full time entrepreneur. When you believe, this is who I am, this is what I should be doing, this is what I'm meant to do rather than I am. Whatever you do for your career, like for me was a teacher or being a teacher, I thought, I'm a teacher and I want to try this thing out, I'm going to see how it goes. But identified myself as, you know, this teacher that worked at this institution. And when you have this kind of mentality, you're kind of hedging your bets. You're not really fully committed because you're saying to yourself, this is who I am, but I'm going to do this thing outside of my comfort zone for a bit and see how it goes. This is very subtle, but it's so important. Listen, you can't hedge your bets because when you hedge your bets, you're basically setting yourself up so you don't get disappointed. What does this mean? You kind of say, hey, I'm going to try this out. Because if you fail, which we're all afraid to fail, sometimes it's kind of like, oh, no big deal, I can always stick to my job and my career and I didn't really lose out. I'm still okay, I'm still successful. But if you change your outlook and you say, no, actually I'm not this career, I'm an entrepreneur and I need to pursue my destiny, I need to pursue what I should be doing. And you start side hustling, you start building things and you fail in the process, which you will, that stings a little bit because it feels like you have failed and it starts to creep in. Doubts, doubts start to creep in, I should say. And you start thinking man, am I cut out for this. It's human nature to try to feel safe and create a safe space for us and not feel like a loser. But I'm here to say it's too hard of a task, it's too hard of a mission to become an entrepreneur. To not go all in, you have to go all in. You have to say, this is what I'm doing. I'm going to give it everything I can. I'm not saying quit your job. I'm not saying quit your job immediately. I'm saying you got to change your mentality. You're not somebody with the X career, in my case was a teacher. I'm not a teacher trying to become an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur that has a day job. I'm an entrepreneur that has to work right now to pay the bills until I figure this thing out. This is the best gift I can give somebody who has this struggle. Because the mindset change that you're going to have right now by doing this is going to help lead you to the right decision, lead you down the right path. It's going to help guide you as you struggle through balancing work and building your business. I'm going to keep on going and give some more tips, but I want this idea to sink in. Think about it for the rest of the day because it really matters. It was this big shift for me that allowed me to really accelerate my transition from full time job to full time entrepreneurship. Alright, let's talk about the reality of no time. Listen, there's only 24 hours in the day. You are spending probably eight to nine to 10 hours at your job. I was working like 12 hours because I was like a head of a department at the university at the school I was working at. And it was not a cushy job. You know, a lot of people think teachers don't work that many hours. Well, if you're in management, if you're in a high caliber school, it's a lot of pressure. Even if you're not in a high caliber school, there's a lot of work you got to do. Grading papers, exams, tests, all bunch of stuff, but that's another story. So I spent like 10 hours, 12 hours working. You're probably also commuting, which is taking 30, 40 minutes each way. You got to eat, right? Breakfast, lunch and dinner. You got to sleep seven to eight hours, right. That doesn't leave much time. Right. And time is limited. So this means you're going to need to take something out in order to make More time for your business. In my opinion, in order for you to really move the needle in a side hustle, to actually have some traction and start moving things forward, you need to spend at least bare minimum 10 hours a week. Now, if you want to increase the velocity of you becoming a full time entrepreneur, add more hours, 15, 20 hours a week, but bare minimum, 10 hours. Where are you going to get these 10 hours? Well, you're going to have to find out. Where are you spending your time? This is where journaling comes in. You should be journaling every day, even if you're not working on your side hustle right now in your business so you can keep track of what you did every day. How much time did you spend watching YouTube on social media, watching Netflix, maybe even like reading books, doing something useful. Keep track of this. Why? Because you're going to need to replace those things for a while. I know, I know, I know it's not fun not being able to wind down. But if you're passionate about your business, if you love what you do, this becomes your new escape. It becomes your new way to relax, your new way to have fulfillment and excitement. So where are you going to get these 10 hours? Well, this is how I did it. I only gave myself one day a week off on the weekend and one of those days I spent five to six hours on the business. And I'm talking about solid, no interruptions. If you can't have a solid five to six hours with no interruptions, where nobody is distracting you at home, you need to leave your house, go to the library, go to a cafe, go to a co working space is what I would recommend and get that work done. What about the rest of the hours? Well, I would do the same thing during the week. One hour each day. On the way home from work, stop by the library, stop by the co working space and put in a solid concentrated hour. When I say a solid hour or a solid five or six hours, I'm not talking about in this hour. You're checking email, you're checking social, you're playing business. No, this is production. This is you creating things, creating your product, building your website, building your offers, actually working on your business, serving your customers. You don't have a moment to spare. When you're side hustling. You have to be very brutal when it comes to cutting out any fluff, any tasks that don't really contribute to the bottom line in a big way. You need to be doing what I often refer to as a thousand and ten thousand dollars tasks. Not $10 tasks, not $100 tasks, not tasks that really don't move the needle. We're talking about things that actually will create your business, launch it, make you money, serve your customers. This is a busy time. The next chapter, this next chapter where you're building your business while you're working is going to be a lot. Just embrace it. Just accept it. Understand that this season of your life is gonna be very busy. A lot of hard work, but you're gonna reap the benefits later. Most entrepreneurs I know that are successful, it's funny. Cause I have a bunch of friends that I got to know. We all started becoming entrepreneurs at the same time, and they all have become incredibly successful. I'm so proud of each one of them. But right now, their life is pretty comfortable. They don't actually work that much. They're reaping the benefits of all the work they did the last decade, all the sacrifice, all the side hustling, all the sacrificing their time with their friends and hobbies and all that kind of stuff, right? But now they're basically reaping all the benefits of what they've invested. They have a good lifestyle. They're comfortable. They're not overworked. They're in the best shape of their life. So make the investment now. I didn't know this at the time. I was just so hungry to become an entrepreneur and be successful that I kept on grinding. But I realized later on that, okay, this will pay off. I started seeing some examples of other people. So see that as kind of your reward. Kind of see that as, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel, you can make it. It's not going to be like this all the time. It's just a lot of hard work in the beginning. Embrace it. Put on some rocky music, you know, relish in the pain. It's okay. It's okay. We all have to go through it to be successful. Now there's another piece of advice I want to give you to help make this all easier for you.
- [10:38]
Jim
And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.
- [10:44]
Co-worker
His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time?
- [10:49]
Jim
He's going for it.
- [10:50]
Co-worker
Is that his phone?
- [10:51]
Jim
He's snapping a pick. He's texting around.
- [10:53]
Co-worker
Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.
- [10:55]
Jim
That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.
- [10:58]
Ramp Representative
On ramp expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them With a text, switch your business to ramp.com.
- [11:10]
Omar Zenhom
You need to talk to the people that are in your inner circle, whether it's your family, the people you live with, parents, close friends, people that you speak to, see, spend time with. Maybe you have your, you know, basketball buddies, people that you play on the weekend with, whatever. And it's probably not a lot of people, about maybe 10 to 20 people. But the point here is, is that you need to talk to them. You need to inform them and say, hey, this is what I'm about to embark on. This is what I'm doing right now. I'm trying to build this business. I want to make this my full time thing. Eventually I will leave my job, but it requires me to sacrifice. It requires me to take a lot of time in building this thing while I'm in a job. This means I might say no to, to you when you invite me to your birthday party. I might say no to you when you say, hey, let's go out and have some fun tonight. If you're talking to your family, your immediate family in your household might mean in the next year or two we won't be going on, you know, big, extravagant long vacations. But in that sacrifice, we're going to build something incredible and you'll be living with somebody who's very fulfilled and happy. If they love you, of course they do. They're going to want to support you and you need as much support as possible. You need everybody and everything on your side so that you can succeed. It's hard as it is. Don't make it hard on yourself by just doing this by yourself and not getting the most important people in your life included and really informed about what's happening. That way they can support you. That way they're not like weirded out about what's happening. That way they understand why you're doing this. And this is basically your first sale. You have to sell this idea, this dream you have for this business to, to the people that are closest to you so that they can come on board and say, yes, I'm here to support you. What can I do? Or at the very least, cool. Thanks so much for letting me know. I won't get offended if I invite you to a party and you say no. In this process, I actually learned who my real friends are. Most of them were my real friends, but a few kind of said, you're being selfish and friendship is more important than making money. And they just saw it as a monetary thing rather than, this is a career shift. I'm trying to reinvent myself here. I'm trying to do something big in my life. And that's okay, because guess what? When you become an entrepreneur, when you start growing your business, when you start living this new life, you will meet some interesting people who are also on the same path as you, just like I mentioned I did. And they become your new friends, people that really identify with you and understand what your life is all about and what you're going after. So if you want to speed up your transition, put in more hours. It's that simple. It all depends obviously on your business and your audience and how much velocity you can have. But if you put a minimum of 10 solid hours a week, it's going to give you some traction. It's going to help you get the business off the ground, make some money and be able to start gauging when you can start transitioning into full time entrepreneurship, when that business allows you to earn enough money to replace your income in your job. Now, before I wrap up, a word of warning. If you work from home, if you work a job that you know, they really trust you and you're really autonomous, do not fall in the trap of doing a bad job at your career, taking them for granted, not doing what you're supposed to do, and doing work on your business while you're supposed to be working. There's a couple reasons why, most importantly, this is not something that is going to work in your advantage in the long run. Because most companies say in their policies that if you are doing any kind of work on company time or property, whether it's their computer or their office or whatever, it's their intellectual property. So if you built something while you're supposed to be working, there's a good chance they can just claim that business that you built is theirs. Now, it's not cut and dry, but do the right thing, keep it separate. That's why I like the idea of going to a coworking space. Use your own computer, use your own time, okay? And this allows you to shift gears easily, mentally, that, hey, I'm not doing the job anymore, I'm going. When I was working, I went all into my job. I worked hard, I did what I did. I wanted to make sure I was successful there so I can do what I was hired to do. And then when I went to the coworking space, I shift gears and I started working on my business with my own laptop, with my own resources. Thanks so much for listening to the 100 ombation. If you got A question you want to ask here on Q and A Wednesday, Go ahead and email me@omar00mba.net I'll make sure to answer right here on the show. And of course, if you want to show us some love, leave us an Apple podcast or Spotify review right now. Open up your phone, give us a star rating, write us a review for an Apple podcast. Thank you in advance for doing that. I read every single review, every single comment. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I look back at those years when I side hustled, when I built my businesses on the side and I was making that leap into full time entrepreneurship. And I have kind of two strong feelings. First feeling is nostalgia. I feel like, wow. I love that period of time because I was learning, I was growing, everything was new, I was motivated, I had full of energy because I was really pumped about what I was doing. It was a good time. There's some good feelings there. But I'm gonna be honest, I also have the feeling like, man, that was a lot of work. It was a lot of work. I worked a lot of hours. I really put in a lot of time. I was learning a lot. I was consuming a lot of information. I was producing and I was failing and I was improving. But man, am I happy that I went through it because it allowed me to become who I am today. And any transition is going to be uncomfortable. But one piece of advice that I want to share with you that I learned from actually Jim Carrey, who gave this commencement speech in a university, and he said his father wanted to be a comedian, but he took a stable job and became an accountant. And a few years later he lost his job and they really struggled financially. So he said, you have just as much likelihood of failing at something you don't want to do. You might as well go ahead and do what you want to do, what you'd love to do, because the chances of failure on both ends are the same. So go after it. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Friday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.
- [17:24]
Jim
And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from Snails just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.
- [17:30]
Co-worker
His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time?
- [17:36]
Jim
He's going for it.
- [17:36]
Co-worker
Is that his phone?
- [17:37]
Jim
He's snapping a pic. He's texting ramp.
- [17:40]
Co-worker
Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.
- [17:41]
Jim
That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.
- [17:45]
Ramp Representative
On ramp expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.