The biggest temptation to moonlighting entrepreneurs is to try and do everything. I don’t just mean everything related to their new business either. I mean, they see all these opportunities around them. They hear about someone doing this or that and they go off on a tangent. Before we entrepreneurs know it, we’re distracted and wondering how to deal with the ensuing clutter. Never fear!
You’ve got to set some goals and you’ve got to develop a “gold standard.”
Seriously folks, you cannot do it all and you can’t chase down every opportunity that presents itself on a daily basis. It’s fun, sure, but hugely impractical. If you’re like me, you have different piles of stuff, one pile of stuff for each “opportunity” or different “business idea.” And yet, we all only have so many hours in a day. Very discouraging, right? Pull back. What? Yep, you heard me. You may have to scale back on some of your aspirations to focus on the one aspiration that will get you the results you want. Want to get a new business started so you can quit your job? You’d better throw all your focus onto the business that has the greatest chance of success. That’s the “gold standard” I’m talking about. There are plenty of opportunities out there, but only a few will actually be the “gold standard” and get you the results you want. And only one or two can be done at the same time to boot.
You’ve got to figure out exactly what tasks only you can do.
If you’re doing stuff that someone else can do (even if you have to pay them for it), you’re not using time wisely. Are you putting labels on direct mail pieces? Are you scheduling appointments? You need to outsource those items. Then the time that you save not doing that can be put to use doing something that brings in the bigger bucks. I could figure out my own taxes, but I’d much rather write blog posts. I can write good blog posts (a lot of them) in the time it would take me to figure out my taxes. Thus, my CPA firm is saving my sanity. I pay them every year, with the earnings from those blog posts, to handle what would take me months to finish.
You’ve got to get some processes down and follow them.
This week, I’m all about putting into place a process for the monthly paperwork and a new project I’ve begun working on recently. I know that a process for the paperwork would allow me to hand that job over to someone else at some point in the near future. Also, a process for this new project will also allow me to let someone else do the parts I would rather not do (I don’t enjoy it much) and I can utilize their skills better in the long run. Say, I don’t want to do the web research required to write an ebook I have an idea for. I need to work out the details, finalize the task list, and then hire a virtual assistant to do it instead. Then they give me the research, I’ve been writing blog posts to pay for their time, and I’m moving forward a lot faster than struggling through all that endless web research myself.
You may not get to everything as you’re putting processes in place.
Confession: I can do laundry better than anything. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. It’s just folding it that’s the challenge. Today, my living room is covered with mounds of clean (yes, clean) laundry that I am headed to go fold. Instead of folding it, I’ve been putting processes in place. Now that I know what I need from my VAs and my CPA, I can go fold that laundry and find my living room again.
Remember, moonlighting entrepreneurs aren’t going to get venture capital funding or go rent an office space somewhere during their first few years. We are building a business that we can boot strap. Debt free! We get a job, expand just a bit, just enough to get the next job. Slow and easy! Without stress. Without taking on a burden we can’t carry.
So, no pressure if you don’t get those processes down immediately. No pressure if you’re still sorting out exactly how to outsource. No pressure if your laundry never leaves the living room. We’ll work through it.
Have a great Wednesday!
