I’m writing a serious of blogs on what to expect when trying to start up your own business. Some tips that might help you get started and some advice which may help you now or in the future.
I’ll always be as honest as I can be to have you prepared for what’s to come, and it won’t always be easy that’s for sure. In fact it’s more difficult than you can imagine, but potentially very rewarding.
Here is my previous blog on some things I would be writing about - https://steemit.com/business/@sheeshkababage/thinking-about-starting-business
Now fitting in the hours of work to try and kick start your business while you are already employed can be extremely difficult.
The times that I’ve had to tell customers that we were too busy during the working day to do any work for them, makes me wonder how we got work in the first place.
This was obviously a white lie because I was working at my employers but didn't want to sound like we were just starting out, we wanted to present that we were busy all the time and this was our full time jobs.
Weekends are the time that people want to go out and do something with the families and friends, and with today’s world, many folk work at the weekends as well.
Evenings are a time where people want to just get home, have the evening meal, and settle for the night. Some folk have kids as well which makes it all the more difficult.
And to top that off, many people go to the gym or play sports after work and just don’t have the time to get things done in the evenings.
But on the flip side, weekends can be the time where people get things done and that includes getting work done to their homes and vehicles or whatever it may be.
With the increasing demand for people to work around the clock, many people do shift work where they might be free one evening or weekend but not the next. So this can work in your favour as well because you can always say you are booked up on that day.
Yes you will lose the odd customer or job because of time schedules, but something to do to counter that is to try and get a day off from your employer. It’s a risk but it’s just something that we done to try and work around certain customers in the hope that we can keep them as long term customers, who will hopefully recommend us to their friends and family.
You need to be prepared to work at any time, on any day if you are committed to your future as a business owner. That means you need to work evenings, weekends and during the day, whenever your customer can fit it into their schedule.
Some nights we worked until midnight and had to get back up for work the next day with our employers.
When we started out we had to sacrifice so much, I remember thinking to myself before we ever thought about having our own business, that I needed to make sure my holidays were in for certain days so that I could watch my sports team play because I never wanted to miss a game!
Now it’s all changed, and I’m pretty used to having to miss a game due to work because there are more important things in life. It’s all about getting your priorities in order, the correct order!
For business, the order is your customer is first, particularly at the beginning because you want to build a customer base as quickly as possible so you can get out of your dead-end job and start investing in your future.
Going from your day job to work in the evenings is difficult, especially when you are tired, hungry and trying to make room for your own things to do, like shopping, hospital appointments and family events.
Having to wake up early at weekends to go to work, sacrificing your social life for a while really sucks too.
Look on the bright side though, the money you would be spending on your social life, can be put back into your business to help further you on and allow you to make the jump and quit your day job.
After you have gone through this exhausting, draining spell, you will see it was worth it, trust me on that!
Eventually you will be able to set your hours of work to suit you but only once you have a steady stream of work coming in, but that will be down the line at some point. Way down the line!
Even as I write this though, one thing I would like to mention, is that in a way you are always working in all hours of the day because you could have customers calling you on your day off, if of course they have your personal number. I say personal number but it really isn’t a personal number anymore, just a contact number for you, be it for your personal life or work.
Your contact list will eventually have many people with the same first names, and you might even start forgetting who people are on your contact list, I know I have!
This is just something you have to be prepared to do. Nobody said running your own business was easy but down the line things get easier, they really do. The tough part is the start, because your trying to show your new customers that you are determined to please them but also at the same time showing them that you are in demand.
As discussed before in previous blogs, some of these articles may help you and others may not relate to you but it’s all good information to know about and to be prepared for.
Hope this helps!
