business growth Archives

OUR MANY RESPONSIBILITIES CAUSE OVERWHELM

As business owners, we have many responsibilities.

These include:

Marketing our products or services (finding customers)

Dealing with customers (and customer complaints)

Keeping accurate records (bookkeeping)

Managing our websites and social media accounts

Ordering supplies

Finding time to do “all the extras”

All of these responsibilities can cause us to become overwhelmed.

Today, we are going to talk about how we can cope with such feelings, learn which tasks can we can outsource to others (and where to find such people to help us), and what to do to help us stay on track and continue to be motivated to not only run our businesses, but grow them.

I had no idea when I started freelance writing on the side almost two years ago where it would take both my business and personal life. It’s true, I was looking to it as a way out.

My Way Out

I didn’t have it bad per say at work, I just wasn’t really passionate about what I did all day/week/month/year long as a financial adviser and support person to a large financial planning practice in my area. In fact, I had it pretty good.

I had:

A 10-minute drive to work
A decent salary (that supported our family of four)
Nice co-workers (that were family and treated me as the same)
And a whole lotta potential to grow

But it wasn’t what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Even if there was a lot of opportunity for advancement and pay. I had already spent the previous decade figuring that out.

And since I had another 30 working years or so ahead of me, I didn’t want to succumb to something I wasn’t passionate about so early.

So after I became honest with myself, I decided to buck the trend of Corporate America by starting a freelance writing side hustle instead.

And then I added virtual assistant services. And it grew – so much so that I was grossing $4,000 per month WHILE working full-time and having two toddlers at home.

Less than six months after I looked into it in the first place. And I’ve since more than quadrupled that since going full-time. In fact, in November 2015 I grossed over $18,500 from my little freelance business.

How’d I Do It?

It’s simple.

I got started. And I learned a heck of a lot on the fly.
I put myself out there. A lot.
I asked to be hired, rather than waiting for clients to find me. (Because trust me, they won’t!)
Then I started teaching what I learned. (‘Cuz, that’s the best way to start building an audience.)