But in the end I had no choice. I was dying inside. I actually thought I had some kinda weird 2 day a week mystery illness. Turns out my body was fine but my soul was capitulating!
I’d negotiated a part time gig so I could focus on building my business. Every week when it came time to go into the office I’d wake up feeling sick.
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked my partner Wes. Wes is an acupuncturist so I was expecting some kinda helpful medical insight. “Hmm lets see?” He took my pulse. “Ahh you hate your job” he enlightened me.
Talk about obvious but I hadn’t joined the dots. Every other day when I was working on my business, RealChai (not called that at the time cause back then it didn’t have a name) I would bounce out of bed, raring to go. Only to be savagely struck down, by a reoccurring bout of ‘Mondayitis’ whenever I was due at the office.
I’d just signed another 12 month contract and 2 weeks into it I renigged. That was it. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was selling my soul and no amount of money was worth it.
My business was up and running (and had been for 8 months) but I was still shit scared. It wasn’t making anywhere near my salary but it was paying the bills. And for me that was enough.
I remember someone telling me “just go for it, when you really commit your business will take off, because it has too!” They were right. As soon as I cut off that life-line I really pulled my finger out. I was able to give it 100% of my energy and the momentum soared.
BUT…. personally, I don’t actually recommend doing this straight up. Even though I nearly died from Mondayitis, starting my business part time was a actually a blessing. Here’s why…
3 reasons to keep your day job (initially)
1. All your eggs aren’t in one basket There is almost zero risk. If it failed I still had my job to fall back on while I regrouped. I was able to be bold and experiment. I tested the market, tweaked my branding, built my website knowing that if I got it ‘wrong’ it didn’t matter. I learnt heaps during this phase.
2. You have money. With money rolling in from your job you can finance the start up of your new biz. I was able to buy whatever I needed for my business without batting an eyelid.
The concept of ‘cash flow problems’ was not in my vocab, until I quit. When you are stressed about how to pay yourself, your bills, and your staff your energy and creativity energy can nosedive. Your dream business can quickly feel like a nightmare when survival becomes an issue. Tis best to avoid such challenges early on if possible. New businesses can be money hungry little suckers, with more expenses than profit in the early days. If you have another source of income it totally takes the pressure off.
2. You can test it out first. I got see out if it was really right for me before I fully committed. You can dip your toe in and check the water before you dive. Turns out, for me, it was. 150%. But if it wasn’t, I’d have been no worse off for trying.
Of course there comes a tipping point. Eventually I found it was all getting a bit much trying to juggle my job and grow my business. I’d reached a point where to get any bigger I’d needed to have more time for the biz.
Because I’d been able to take my business for a test drive I was a lot more confident about the likelihood of it‘s success. It wasn’t just an idea in my head. I had real sales data to base my decision to quit on.
I’d never ever advocate staying in a job you hate just for the money. But if you have a goal in mind in can be worth it (as long as there’s an end in sight). In my case rather than going out and searching for a job I liked more (in the meantime) I decided to focus all my energy on getting my business going. The moment it was starting to make a semi decent amount of cashola I was outta there.
Of course there are people who dive right in and never look back but for me the gentle transition was the way to go. If you are interested in learning more about turning ‘pro’ and really going for it check out Stephen Pressfield’s The War of Art.
Let me know in the comments below what approach sounds more up your ally. Or if you’ve already started your own biz how did you go about the transition?
Big Love
Anthea (aka the just do it girl!)
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