5 Tips for Launching a Business While Keeping Your Day Job

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Did you know that as many as Four. Five% of Americans have a Second job? For many people, these side jobs are passion projects that they hope to turn into careers. To start a business while working a full-time job elsewhere is a common path for many aspiring entrepreneursbut it can be incredibly challenging.

Juggling a day job, a personal life, and a new business can lead to burnout and potential failure if not handled proactively and carefully. Here are some tips that helped me the most in building my business and maintaining a career.

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1. Create two separate workspaces

When personal and professional lives intertwine, it becomes easy to lose focus and feel overwhelmed. although you side project It’s a business, it’s still personal, and it should be treated as something completely separate from your day job.

To make sure you’re not letting your business development filter into corporate working hours (or vice versa), spend some time creating two distinct work environments. You can do this even if you only have a desktop or computer.

One of the easiest things to do is to create a separate user account on your computer dedicated only to your personal project or corporate work setup. This is a great first step apart if you can’t afford to have a separate computer or desktop setup for your personal business.

Next, try using different communication channels for each job. If your full-time team uses Slack, use Google Chat or RocketChat for side project communications to limit the temptation to switch channels. The same goes for task planning: if you use Asana for one job, use Jira or Backlog for the other, and make sure you’re actually using them. Don’t keep tasks in your head; this will distract you and lead to “just a short break” to work on your other job.

This type of multitasking leads to more stress and makes you perform worse for both tasks. Our brains work best when we have a single focus (for example, we’re just working or just developing our side business), so doing this will make you more effective overall.

Also, creating this separation makes it easier to shift gears and get into “creative mode” when working on your business. You’re no longer just someone else’s worker bee; now, you are in control. This can offer an extra boost of motivation, which you’ll need in the long run.

2. Stay motivated by seeking feedback on your business ideas.

For better or worse, burnout is just part of the process when you’re building a business and holding down a full-time job. On average, 77% of employees they say they have experienced exhaustion in their jobs, and 63% of entrepreneurs they say they have dealt with burnout. When you’re an employee and an entrepreneur, it’s almost inescapable no matter how much you love what you do.

There is a lot of good advice about taking intentional breaks to refresh your mind and body or include rest times in your daily schedule, and those are valuable strategies. Sometimes, however, entrepreneurs need more to stay motivated.

My best advice for overcoming burnout and staying motivated is to get consistent feedback from clients and peers. When your startup is in its infancy, your first customers are usually super loyal and love to stay in touch. They like what you are doing and want to support you in any way they can. Calls, chats and messages can be extremely motivating, regardless of whether they are positive or negative (we need both!).

Positive feedback lifts your spirits and lets you know you’re doing something right. Everyone needs someone to believe in them, after all. Even receiving negative feedback is not a bad thing; it should simply drive you to keep working and improving your product.

Finding creator groups and getting feedback, support, and advice from other founders, especially those who have already been down this path, is also extremely helpful.

Another thing that helped keep me motivated was paying me a small amount for the work I did to build my business. Even if it’s just pocket change, it helps you think about investing in your business and being rewarded for your work, creating a positive feedback loop.

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3. Outsource whenever you can.

Once you have an initial boost, self employed they can be valuable assets in lightening the workload and making faster progress. Even hiring a freelancer for 10 hours a week can make a big difference in how quickly and effectively you can scale.

Let freelancers help with things like writing social media posts, developing a website, preparing taxes, or handling administrative tasks. These tasks can take up a lot of your time without helping you progress toward your goals. Also, if you are in the “no budget” stage of operations, you can even turn to AI. Using Midjourney or other stable broadcast tools for logo creation or ChatGPT for social media copy can help a lot. Even if you need to work with a freelancer to polish the results, you still save a great deal of time and money.

However, be sure to keep the skills that are important to you. This includes hiring extra help, overseeing finances, or talking to clients. Anything that directly impacts your reputation should always go through you.

Outsourcing to workers through platforms like Upwork is easy, legally secure, and non-binding, making it perfect for the early stages of starting a business. It also gives you access to a global talent pool, simplifying the hiring process. LinkedIn reports that 83% of small business owners who hire freelancers appreciate how much they help “get the job done” and 64% they say using these workers helps build a better virtual team.

The only disadvantage of freelancing is that the person is not as passionate or personally committed to the success of their project; they are more concerned with getting the job done and getting paid. However, as long as you set clear goals and expectations from the start, it’s easy to find people on the same page.

It’s important to remember that when it comes to visioning and recruiting people to higher positions, no one can do it better than you.

4. Establish clear communication channels.

Having a regular day job means you’re not available to communicate with your freelancers, contractors and employees, leaving a narrow window of time in the evenings to take care of everything. That is why it is essential to establish clear communication channels and draw up detailed guidelines so that everyone can work autonomously and asynchronously.

I prefer methods like setting and tracking weekly goals with project management tools like Jira or Trello, which offer free versions. Having explicit instructions and a centralized platform helps everyone get on the same page and helps with prioritization, accountability, and maintaining momentum.

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5. Know when to quit (and how)

Before you start working on your business, it’s important to set a financial goal that indicates when it’s time to quit your day job. Paul Graham popularized the term “ramen profitability“, which means that a startup earns enough to pay the basic expenses of the founders. I think this is a good way to get closer to leaving your full-time job.

For me, the goal was to earn the same amount of money that I made at my regular job. If he could hit that mark consistently, he knew it was time to quit. Of course, this goal will probably be different if you have a family or other circumstances. It doesn’t matter what the tipping point is, just that you set one and stick with it.

Knowing how to quit smoking is just as vital as deciding when. It’s never a good idea to burn bridges when you leave your corporate job, so one of the best things you can do is maintain a “graceful exit” mentality. Start thinking about proactive steps you can take to make a cordial departure on both sides, and make sure you prepare yourself (and your replacement) for a smooth transition. Not only is this a good business practice, but it leaves the door open if you ever need to be rehired.

Business creation is a balancing act

They don’t call them passion projects for nothing. It’s always a challenge to add another full-time workload to an already busy life, and passion is often the only fuel that keeps you motivated in the early days. The good news is that despite the difficulties, if you learn to manage your time, stress, and goals effectively, you can step into the role of founder and dedicate all your working hours to a single business that you care deeply about.