The greatest journeys always start with a single step.
Setting out on your own, often without the support of friends, family and peers is a difficult thing to do.
Quitting a safe, secure job in the midst of a difficult and uncertain economic time is also difficult. Replying on your own devices for your income, and trusting your instincts takes an immense amount of courage and faith. You owe yourself more than a pat on the back if you have reached this stage.
You are now self-employed. You are also doing something that you love. But, don’t for a second think that you are on easy street! Some of the challenges you’ll face in this stage are unlike anything you’ve faced before. But remember what I said about challenge?
That’s right. The harder it gets, the more you can be sure that you are on the right path! Following your dreams takes courage.
The Fourth Stage
There is a popular saying among many older adults:
“Bloom where you are planted.”
Or some variation of that. This is terrible advice, really. It’s essentially like saying “make the best of what you are given,” and living this way can become an excuse for not challenging yourself. As if challenge and growth were bad things.
You want challenge? Here is a nice list of potential things that you may have to deal with in stage 4:
- Doing your own taxes, or having to hire someone to do them for you
- Internal battles with yourself commanding you not to give up during the hardest days
- Finding ways to “live on less” while your business or new path takes off
- Working on weekends and nights to help your new business or venture take off
- Doing something new and different that will seem scary and destabilizing at first
- Going through the often surprisingly difficult shock of not having your days planned for you by someone else (your boss)
- Knowing full-well that your new venture could fail and you’ll be stuck back in stage 2
- Dealing with friends and family who might not support your “risky” venture
- Learning as you go and making numerous mistakes
- Feeling isolated with fewer/no co-workers or anyone to go to lunch with
This list goes on and on. Every situation will be unique, as there are as many dreams as there are people following them.
But therein lies the key: dreams.
If you are truly following your passion, and truly building a world that is uniquely yours, none of these challenges will seem insurmountable. They will just be a part of the picture, and become a means to an end. And you’ll be so busy enjoying your journey, that you might not even notice how much your workload has increased, or that your income has taken a significant cut.
Do What You Love…
I don’t know the exact statistic, but I’d be willing to bet that the average hot-air balloon operator makes significantly less than the average investment banker. In fact, it’s likely that unless the former starts a very successful business operating his own hot-air balloon racket, he will never come close to the income levels that an investment banker could make.
But, if money were no object, I’d be willing to bet that more people would choose the hot-air balloon career over the banking career, simply because it is more fun. And it provides a service to people, rather than just manipulating money from one corporate entity to another, gives people some pleasure.
If you even try to deny this, I’ll just come out and say that you are full of hot air.
The money issue is the force that stops a lot of people, though. And make no mistake, it can stop you in your tracks while you are working hard in your new business venture. It’s no wonder that so many businesses fail after the first year, or earlier. Operating costs become too much, and the owners can’t keep up with their expenses. A little bit of a planning goes a long way.
It is essential that you set a budget for your new business, and write a business plan. No matter how well your widgets might be selling, unforeseen costs can blindside you if you are not paying attention.
 |
Stage 1 – Learning to Earn |
 |
Stage 2 – Working for Others |
 |
Stage 3 – Self Connection |
 |
Stage 4 – Building Your World |
 |
Stage 5 – Passionate Living |
It’s also sometimes difficult for the newly self-employed to deal with “bad months.” Sometimes business will be strong, and sometimes it will not. These are just natural ebbs and flows of business. Don’t get discouraged if you have a bad month after a decent one. If you really want to get a good idea of where you stand, make a graph of your revenue for the last 6 months to one year. Figure out the mean income line (it’s that line that shows general growth or loss on a chart) and physically draw it out.
You might be surprised to find out that your bad month is an aberration and you are actually seeing decent growth long-term. For example: if you make $3,500 in March, $4,900 in April, but only $4,500 in May, you might find yourself sitting in your yard on a beautiful June afternoon and thinking, “where did I go wrong in May, it was worse than April!” This would be silly.
If, however, you are not seeing the growth that you would like, it may be time to re-evaluate your strategy.
If Your Stage 4 Plan is Getting too Challenging
Building your world is a back-and-forth affair. It can change size, shape and color with the weather. But if you have built a strong foundation and planned ahead, you should be able to weather tough times, or at the very least, change directions.
While I was starting my web development business I went through a period where I was getting work like crazy. It felt like there was not enough time to get the things done that I needed to get done. There is a sort of Murphy’s Law in the self-employed world that whenever you need more time to focus on a specific project you will get bombarded my all of your clients at once. When it rains, it pours, and usually only in the bayou.
I was afraid that I would never get it all done in time. I ended up staying up until 1am regularly for a week and then waking up at 8 the next morning and starting again, often forgetting to eat! Somehow, it all got done, and my client (who was honestly difficult to work with) was very happy with me.
If you feel like you just can’t get all the work done, or you aren’t getting enough work, it is important to know when to do one of the following:
1. Change your strategy
2. Work harder
I my case, I chose option number 2 and it worked for me. If I had chosen the first option, I would have made a posting on craigslist that looked something like this:
Seeking Wordpress developer with 2+ years of experience in PHP, HTML/CSS for major code cleanup on a large project. Wordpress template, PSD and Photoshop slices provided. Need to seamlessly code slices, widgets and functions into the theme and be cross-browser tested. Needs to be complete by Friday. E-mail inquiries only. $400 flat for the completion project.
Perhaps that would have been better. But in the end, I got to save my money and I just stayed up late. Decisions like this on a larger scale can make or break your business.
You Are in The Fourth Stage if…
Following your dreams is actually hard work, and it’s also incredibly rewarding. If you are sitting at your desk at work and reading about this stage, you’ll probably have a pretty good idea by now if it is for you.
But, as someone who is there, I can promise you, that it is. Being able to answer to myself (and my clients) and take vacations when I want, and manage my own life are all the rewards I could need. The best part is that there is a revered stage beyond this one. That’s where we all would like to be.
If you match at least 5 of the following characteristics, you are in stage 4:
People in Stage 4 tend to…
- Not have a boss
- Set their own schedules
- Genuinely love what they do
- Have clients instead of co-workers
- Work a career that could be considered uncommon
- Do their own taxes, or hire an accountant to do so
- Be self-employed
How to Enter the Fifth Stage
When you have fallen in love with your work, and it’s become a way of life, rather than a job or a career.
When you are living every day with excitement and passion for the work you are going to do today.
When you make the decisions about what kind of work you’ll do for the day, and when you are making a real difference in others’ lives.
You’ll know when you are in the final stage. Nobody can tell you that you’ve reached stage 5 except yourself.
Resources
Here are some articles that will help you if you are in this stage:
- The Ethics of Automated Income
- Facebook as a Marketing Tool
- The Art of Risk (Part 1)
- The Art of Risk (Part 2)
Click Here for the next article in the series: Stage 5 – Passionate Living
Loading ...