How to Run Your Dream Business While Working Your 9-5
There is no shame in working on your 9-5 while running your dream business. In fact, I love doing both!
Some people have asked me why couldn’t I leave my 9-5 when I can run my coaching business full-time. The thing is I crave balance. In my full-time job, I’m an analyst so I can really feed that nitpicky masculine side of me where I can sit in spreadsheets and I actually enjoy doing that all day. Another great thing about my 9-5 job is that I get to work with a great team.
Then my business is that feminine side of me where I can be creative. I can dream and I can be a visionary. I can't be a visionary in my full-time job and that's fine with me. But they both feed what I need in order to be who I am.
You may be like me who loves both her 9-5 job and her business and couldn’t see giving up the former, or you may be someone who is still on her 9-5 while trying to scale her business so she can go full-time on it, here are my top tips on how to run both while still having balance!
Create a ritual or a daily habit you can stick to.
Some people have hours-long morning routines, some do not. Find out what works best for you and try to stick to it.
As for me, I start the day with my Bible in front of me, my journal, and a devotional. So I'll write in my journal, just saying things that I'm grateful for and then I'll look in that and I'll see what I could read today inside the Bible. I'll read that and then I'll read the devotional, I open up my day with God, and then I close it with God too.
After that, I dive right into work!
Be willing to get the help that you need especially when you’re starting out.
In my career as a health coach, most of the time I didn’t know what I was doing and that was the time I realized I needed help. I wouldn’t be able to work fewer hours if I just keep trying all the strategies and hoping they would work. I knew I needed a change so I decided it’s time for a change and made my first investment of $200 which was really scary at the time. From a $200 investment, I made the jump to $7,500, and then I just started investing from that point onwards.
It’s true that you can be successful and reach your goals without a business coach or without investing in courses. However, you won’t be wasting your time and energy on just hoping things will work out for you eventually. Through working with my coaches, I was able to simplify my business so I get to keep my 9-5 while having my kids homeschooled as well!
Besides investing in a coach or in courses, it’s helpful to hire an assistant or other team members as well. They will help you deal with the tasks you don’t want to do and will help keep you in your zone of genius, thus, preserving your energy too.
Define what success means to you.
If success means leaving you 9-5 and running your business full-time then that’s great. If success means getting to keep both then that’s great too! In the online world, you will see lots of people talk about different things and showing different results and success stories. Don’t be swayed by them and don’t let them make you feel bad. Success looks different for every other person and that’s totally okay.
Keep committed to your calendar and schedule...but it’s okay to be messy sometimes!
The Lindsay right now was different from the Lindsay four or five years ago. I was probably spinning my wheels 80% of the time and I did experience burnout. However, I learned how to schedule my days so it won’t happen again. It took some trial and error but now I’m happy with how I work.
To give you an example: Mondays are my admin days where I also track my growth across my platforms. Tuesday is my learning day where I either listen to podcasts or work on a program I’m enrolled in. Wednesdays are my social media days where I write my content. Thursdays are for Coaching Academy. Fridays are my podcast days where I do everything podcast-related. Saturday mornings are clients and group calls.
So every day I have assigned days on what my focus will be. I don’t stray away from my focus each day because I am already used to my schedule.
When you’re just getting started on figuring out what your schedule is, it’s alright that it doesn’t look perfect. It will never be and it’s okay as long as your schedule works for YOU.
Use a project management tool to keep it all organized.
The first step to this is to write everything down and look at how it's related to each other. For example, you have Instagram and Facebook, make all your social media things in one group and group them all into similar categories. I use Asana for brainstorming and tracking all my tasks and I highly recommend it and it’s also free
So in Asana, create a project for each of your days. Color code them so they all look different too then plug in all of those tasks under that project, then set if it's recurring, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and then get that going on your calendar. So when you check it off, that's going to pop up on the next day, month, etc, and then stick with it. I said it’s okay to be messy so if you don't get to it, drag it onto the next week.
Seriously, batch your content.
Content creation is one of your money-making activities so it should be one of your priorities. I have briefly talked about above that I do my content on Wednesday. I always plan ahead and I’m usually a month ahead of schedule. This means that I can use my time for other tasks (or just to relax!) since I’m not scrambling and trying to get a post up every day.
Set aside a time where your energy is at its best for anything content-related (writing, designing graphics, scheduling, etc.) and use it wisely. Brainstorm anything that you want to for the month ahead (launches, podcast guest episodes, events, etc.) and then plot them on your calendar and create posts around them. When you’re at least even a week ahead, you aren’t worried that your community won’t see any post from you because you already got it covered!
Tell me: how are you maintaining a balance between your 9-5 job and your business? Or if you’re still struggling with it let me know which tip from above will you implement first!