One of the huge obstacles in creating your own alternative path and business is money. Everything, and I do mean everything, costs you something. It costs you time or it costs you money. Often times it costs you a large quantity of both. Bootstrapping has its appeal in the pride of the business being all yours. You don’t have to listen to opinions or integrate advice if you don’t want to. You don’t get this when you borrow money from others to make things happen faster.
Great, but how do you do it?
Frankly, bootstrapping is hard work. You may work a day job, spend a few extra hours here and there on your company, and slowly build up the foundation and walls of your dream. In the beginning, you’ll likely have neither a lot of time nor money, but that doesn’t mean you have to not try. What you need are not more dreams and wishy-washy statements of “I wish I could” or “If only I had…” What you need is a plan of action, guts, and a system on how to work through each step.
Plans are the first step to making your dream more tangible. Making a plan makes you step back, look at your current situation, and ask the very serious question: How to I get from here…. to there?
Start with the plan of action
Well, really, that all depends on where you are at, but the best way to start is with something I learnt from Ramit Sethi’s Earn $1k free material. The first step of making a plan is to find a freelance route of something you’re skilled at, the world needs, and is marketable. For example, I’m great a crocheting. Is it a freelance skill that is needed? Not unless every clothing factory in the world suddenly shut down… or the demand for handmade from yarn clothing went up significantly. Thus, it’s not something that I could make a thousand with every month, which is the goal if you’re going to create a profitable side business.
Clearly, then, this is not a viable plan of action. My love of teaching others what I know and learn more about every day is, so I tutor and teach soil classes every chance I get. (In fact, I’m working on a new project that I’ll reveal and talk more about next week once I’ve gotten more done.) These opportunities have given me the chance to build myself outside of the part-time job, full-time school mentality and move on with life.
You won’t get very far without guts, though.
Dreaming of an adventure, having more, contributing to the world is one thing. You’ve developed a plan, but it takes guts to make a move on it. After all, change is scary. This is a two-fold process, really. The first is getting more in touch with your current career so you can be the best you can be. Why? Well, take it from The Burnout Specialist Ben Fanning, not me, that life can feel renewed when you enjoy what you’re already getting paid to do. This feeling of “can do”, once you have it in your life, spills over to other areas as well. This includes making some money on the side with your skills.
This can-do attitude can give you some lift, but it also takes more guts than glory to really make the leap into full entrepreneurship and a life that is completely of your making. You know that there are a lot of risks and even more panic-inducing “what if” moments. You know this because they are what has kept you rooted to the same steady paycheck and health insurance benefit bribes for as long as you can remember wanting to change your life. Ash Ambirge reminds us that it takes guts to make that leap from a boring routine, with bribes of a stable paycheck and bennies to a life you control. After all, there are all those pesky details to deal with that can overwhelm you.
So, make a system to put everything in its place.
Once you’ve got the plan and mustered up the guts, it’s time to craft a system to help you put everything from both your company job and your dream life into working order. If I, the Queen of Chaos, have learnt anything from Natasha Vorompiova’s Systems Rock, it’s that everything will work better when you have a system in place that walks you through your plan with as little gnashing of teeth as possible. Despite my love of serendipity, chance, opportunity, and spontaneity, systems do make it easier to get things done in short order so I can grab opportunities as they rush by screaming. Well, at least long enough to examine them more clearly and decide if I really want to dive in or kick it to the curb.
Systems allow you to run some things on autopilot so you can make more of what little time you have. They keep your mind uncluttered so you can focus when ploughing through a task. Systems also help you stay to task by making you think of whether you really want that new opportunity that only “sort of” fits into your goals. In short, having a system in place for your needs allows you to stay sane while you transition and grow in life.
It’s time to make that change you’ve been wanting. It’s time to live well by your rules.
Speaking of Natasha Vorompiova, I’m starting a series of guests posts that features a successful business person that has made the transition from a “normal” life to one of their own design and making. Natasha is the first in a long line up of inspiration and experience. Look for her blog this week, Thursday for some inspiration.
