The two things you must do to be successful in your side business…
Through my years of running my own businesses and also helping other women grow successful businesses, I’ve learned what I think are the two most important things you must do to be successful in your side business.
Are you thinking about starting a side business? Or maybe you have a business on the side but it’s not growing like you wanted to?
In my opinion, there are two things you must do in order to have a successful side business. I arrived at these two things by looking back at the women I have helped in business and found what was missing in businesses that have failed. In other words, I looked at successful businesses and found areas of commonality between them. And then I looked at the failing businesses and realized the areas of commonality that were missing.
The good news is, these are things that you can do right now no matter the stage of your business. Whether you’re about to start one or whether you’ve been in business for five years and it’s just not exactly where you wanted it to be.
First, dedicated time on your calendar every day. Or at least five days a week. This might sound simple, but can be harder for some over others.
It needs to be more than the thought or plan of I’m going to work my business on Monday through Friday, or Wednesday through Sunday, or I will work my business 30 minutes a day. It needs to be dedicated and set aside on your calendar. On your work calendar. On your family calendar. Whatever calendars you use to delegate your day and week.
So here’s what you can do, you can start by putting all the time in your calendar that you CANNOT dedicate to your business. And then look to see what is left over. For some of you may only have 30 minutes a day and others may have some hours of time.
I’m here to tell you from experience, the amount of time you have each day does not equate to how successful your business can be. I have seen people who only have 20 to 30 minutes a day to work their side business and they have grown it to replace their full-time income. And then I know other people who have spent hours a day, maybe even close to full time hours in a week, on their business and didn’t succeed. So it is not necessarily the amount of time that is important, but it’s that it is dedicated time and that is set aside so you are sure to fulfill that commitment.
Because the worst thing you can do for your business is to work it inconsistently. And by inconsistent I mean a couple times a week here and there, one or two weeks a month here and there. So whatever amount of time you can carve out to work your side business make sure it’s written down as dedicated to your business. Color-code it if you need to. Highlight it if you need to you. Put an alarm on your phone if you need to. Whatever you can do to dedicate this time uninterrupted and exclusive to working your business.
Second, a written down mission statement or a meaningful why. Why are you doing this business? By meaningful why, I mean you can’t just write down I want to make money. That’s a no brainer. That’s the difference between a business and a charity.
Why do you want to make money? What is your mission or purpose behind this business? It takes some digging. Do you want to make money to retire earlier? Get out of your full-time job? Contribute more to your favorite nonprofit or church? Maybe it’s just to stop living paycheck to paycheck? Maybe it’s to pay for your kids sports lessons or dance lessons or private school? Maybe it’s to take financial pressure off of your spouse? Maybe your mission or why isn’t only about money but more about finding purpose for you or pride in ownership and creation for you?
People go into business for thousands of different reasons. But if you don’t have a strong mission or why behind your business, after the novelty and excitement wears off, you won’t have a strong enough reason to keep going. Or during the difficult times that every business incurs, again you won’t have a strong reason to keep pushing. Just making money is not enough to continue to propel a business forward long term.
So get to work…create your personal mission statement. Check out my PDF download for a template to help you create that personal mission statement:
And that’s it, the two top things I think you need in order to have a successful side business. You need dedicated time marked on your calendar and you need your mission or your WHY somewhere in writing.
