When you are in the first few years of business it can be a roller-coaster ride. This is the case whether you still have a day job and you’re trying to start a business on the side, or whether you’ve jumped in with two feet and are ready to make something of yourself.
I have some advice for you…it’s good news and bad news all rolled into one.
It’s all up to you.
You control your time, you have the freedom to choose what to work on, you are an awesome person which means you have the opportunity to build an awesome company! Unlimited opportunity awaits!
You now have control. That’s like flying the plane after you have only read the manual. It is a different experience to read about business and actually have a business. You’ll also need to face the hard choices of working or being with your family. Or whether or not to take risks. Or how you are going to handle all of the requests of your customers and still do a good job.
Amos Winbush III was a songwriter, and started his own company. He now has a multimillion dollar company but here is what he said when he was first starting.
“I was extremely scared. I was excited and really frightened at the exact same time that this company that we had dreamt about and started to develop was actually a reality and people were using the service. And it was all up to me. It wasn’t an idea at this point. It wasn’t something that was remaining within the four walls of my apartment which is where we launched CyberSynchs and it was actually on the market and people were using it and we had the responsibility of keeping these individuals contents secure and safe and accessible at any given time.”
Your customers and clients will start to rely on you. Your family will start to rely on this income source that you control. The responsibility will keep growing and growing especially when you start having employees and start being responsible for other people’s families too.
But everyone is scared at first. I am willing to bet that every new entrepreneur has had some sort of freak out. Just know that millionaires and ultra-successful people have done the same thing.
But we also need to remember and prepare for a lot of hard work. Even if you get past the scariness of it, you’ll still need to deliver in order to feed your family.
I interviewed Michael Port, millionaire and best selling author of Booked Yourself Solid. I asked him about when he became an entrepreneur and he had these words of wisdom:
“When I left my corporate job and I just thought clients were going to fall into my lap. I left with my bonus. I figured okay I’ll be fine; it’ll give me a couple of months. Well here I am living in New York City, my rent was like $3,500 a month and that was like a small two bedroom in Long Island city and I’m blowing through my money.
It was just a huge big scary experience. I said this is wrong. So I really put the pedal to the metal at that point. I think the first sort of big change that happened was for me to realize that I’m not entitled to anything. I thought I was entitled. I’ve worked hard and I’m an adult and blah, blah, blah. When it didn’t happen, I realized I’m not entitled. You know what, that means… I have to work, I have to do whatever it takes – 18 hours a day, I have to get over my fears.
I‘ve got to be willing to be bold and fully self expressed and do things that I’ve never done before and really think bigger about who I am and what I offer the world.”
Many entrepreneurs go through something similar to this when they start. They are told that being an entrepreneur is awesome, and that it’s so great to have the control. They jump in all excited and ready to go.
Then that moment hits when you realize it’s going to be a lot of long and hard work.
That said, remember this quote from Ronco Johnson, a millionaire and President of L.R. Johnson & Associates:
“We all come with two days – a start date and an end date. What you do between it, you have to make sure that everything you want to do is taken care of.”
Well, I’m here to tell you that whether you draw the line in the sand and accept that it is hard or whether you decide it’s not right for you at this time…
It’s all up to you.
(Photo credit: Confident Businessman via Shutterstock)
After paying off $70,000 and quitting her corporate job, Jaime started her own business. Four years later she has been on CNN, MSNMoney, Success Magazine, Fortune, Yahoo's homepage twice and more. She is a business coach and speaker plus she interviews self made millionaires weekly for their tips, advice and stories. Learn more about how to become a millionaire. Sign up for her free webinar series on getting past "I don't have enough time!" with actionable steps you can take during the webinar.
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