HOW TO START A BUSINESS IN 2021 WHILE WORKING FULL-TIME JOB
In this blog post I want to go through the steps I took to start my own business while I was working my full-time $70K/year corporate job. If you are interested to know how you can start your business in 2021 then keep on reading...
Topics:
1. Identify your "Passion"
2. Validate your offer
3. Pre-launch phase
4. Rookie mistakes entrepreneurs make
Are you planning on quitting your 9-5 job and wondering what is the next step? Are you tired of working for someone else and realizing that you can be so quickly replaced and it would take you years to climb the "corporate ladder" to get to the financial goals you have set for yourself?
I don't know about you, but during the pandemic I started realizing what I really wanted from my life:
MORE FREEDOM - to work from anywhere, any time I wanted and the way I wanted
MORE TIME - to spend with my family and friends, no more 11-12hr days, 40hr driving a week to work, no more sitting in the artificial light in a cold office AND
HELP PEOPLE AND MAKE MONEY doing so. All my education and work history still didn't get me any closer to the financial goals I had, which were making at least 6 figures!!
So here I am now, doing what I love, but it wasn't easy to get here. Let me share what I did to start my coaching business while working full-time corporate job, let's dive in...
1. IDENTIFY YOUR "PASSION"
While working my corporate job I realized how passionate I felt about Instagram and social media, making all those connections and building relationships, being creative etc. 9 months (in March 2020) after I started as a fashion and life style blogger on Instagram I discovered social media coaching - smart and strong women coaching people and making crazy money by selling their knowledge and skills.
It really intrigued me and it wasn't until 5 months later when I started really thinking about trying to make money coaching people (teaching about how to grow on Instagram), I made a post in August 2020 about providing Instagram growth services and made over $1,000 working 1:1 with few clients. If you want to learn how I did it, check out this blog post: Make Money Online Fast in 2021
At that point I realized even more that instead of trying to stand out in saturated fashion and lifestyle blogging world on Instagram, not making enough money to quit my corporate job, I wanted to make coaching my career and turn it into my full-time living.
So first step is to listen to your gut and figuring out what really is your passion and what are you good at. I certainly recommend going back into your childhood, that definitely helped me to realize that I used to love drawing and teaching, but somehow I became a lawyer (not much room for creativity). Try to discover what you really enjoy doing or used to love doing.
And if you need more help in figuring out how to find your niche, make sure to download my FREE Guide how to find a profitable niche: FREE GUIDE
If you want to learn more about my journey to starting my own business make sure to check out the below video on my YouTube channel:
2. VALIDATE YOUR OFFER
Before quitting your full-time corporate job make sure you have a digital product/service that has enough demand. To be able to see if there is enough demand you need to find a profitable niche and do some market research, which both I cover more in depth in my signature program InstaMediaGuru
It is really important that you validate your offer before you invest bunch of money and time starting your own business. Validating your offer can be working 1:1 with your clients before jumping into a full-blown business. Validating your offer will help you to understand your target audience and improve your business strategies and structure.
During this period you will also potentially get some feedback and testimonials from your beta-clients that will help your potential target audience to gain more trust in your service.
3. PRE-LAUNCH PHASE
In pre-launch phase and while working full-time I created my landing page and freebie and set up the email marketing. Starting your email marketing is extremely important in the early stage of your business or blogging. Even if you are not selling any services and blogging solely as a hobby. Can you imagine if Instagram is going to disappear tomorrow together with all your work and followers you have been building relationships with for years?
That is why having a website or a free blog is extremely important and growing your email list as well, because that way at least you will have a plan B on how to get in touch with your subscribers and followers.
So in pre-launch phase I basically grew my email list and did some research to see how many of my followers would be interested in my potential services. This phase was solely for letting my followers and potential clients know that something "big" is coming, priming and warming up my audience.
4. ROOKIE MISTAKES ENTREPRENEURS MAKE
I get a lot of DMs and messages from other coaches with the following issues:
1. Not enough interested people
2. Enough interested people who don't convert into clients
3. Enough clients, but a lot of negative feedback and refund requests
and I wanted to go through some of the common rookie mistakes entrepreneurs make when they start their business.
1. No clarity what comes to the offer itself
This is probably one of the common mistakes, where people use social media and online marketing posting content that really don't resonate with their target audience. As an entrepreneur you have to treat your social media like a business and as tools in growing your brand and business. That is why it is really important to be clear what is it that your social media is all about and make sure you and your audience are clear what is it that you are selling.
Lack of clarity can result in your followers not converting into clients because you might have enough interested people but no clarity as to what you are offering.
2. Not attracting the right clients (target audience)
Not knowing who your ideal client is and not understanding your buyer's persona can lead to using wrong social media platforms and wrong type of social media content that will not attract the right type of audience for your business.
If you are not strategically targeting the right audience you might have a problem with not having enough interested followers on social media.
3. Not converting your followers into clients
You might have enough interested audience and you have attracted your ideal clients, but there is no trust in your product and your business and this might cost you sales. This is why you need to make sure that you create sellable and strategic content that will help you to convert your followers into clients.
4. Not having the right business structure and processes in place
Not having the right business structure and processes in place when starting your business might cost you reputation and testimonials. It is extremely important to have the appropriate processes set up to make sure that you get the right clients for your business and can get them results, so your clients will be happy and can refer you to others which will help you to grow your business.
So make sure before you start investing your time and money into starting a new business in 2021 that you at least make a plan which are the first steps you will take and that your service has enough demand before quitting your full-time corporate job.
Knowing which steps to take when planning on starting a business can be overwhelming and confusing, that is why instead of putting your dream about quitting your corporate job on the back burner and procrastinating like I did for 5 months (my only regret is that I should have started executing my plan earlier!!) you need to take action now. And if you are as confused as I was about the next steps and don't want to spend months and waste your time trying to research what you should do next, consider outsourcing and hiring a business coach who will help you to achieve your goals. If you are interested in learning more make sure to read about my signature program InstaMediaGuru where I teach step by step:
1. how to find a profitable niche
2. IMG mindset shift formula to help you succeed on your journey
3. how to find your target audience
4. how to create killer content for your social media using my strategies
5. how to grow on Instagram and get clients instead of just "followers" and
6. how to make your dream come true and start an online business and do what you love, so you don't have to waste hours at the office,
so you can build an influential brand and business online!
If you are tired of trading time for money working your 9-5 and love social media and Instagram, why not make it your career?!
And if you want to learn more about how to grow on Instagram make sure to download my free guides through the links below:
FREE GUIDE TO FINDING A PROFITABLE NICHE
Also don't be shy and come and say hello on my social (follow and subscribe for more Social Media & Entrepreneurship tips and be the first one to implement my strategies):
THANKS FOR HANGING OUT WITH ME GUYS AND SEE YOU NEXT TIME,
Natalia
