How to slowly become your own boss while being bossed
TLDR:
- Everyone has the same 24 hours to work with, it’s all about what you prioritize.
- With the time you prioritize, you also have to efficiently manage that time.
- You can’t bear the burden of the entire world on your shoulders, outsource if possible to focus on what you do best.
- To differentiate yourself from your competitors, build your personal brand.
- Don’t give into the temptation of scaling immediately, scale gradually and securely when you know the signal is green.
Let’s face it, many people who work a 9-5 find it mundane and tiresome. They want to channel their energy into creating something of their own rather than someone else’s creation, becoming their own boss in the process.
Some will feel that their 9-5 is eating their soul away, and in the process of soul-searching, they figure out that what’d give their soul sustenance is to work towards building their own business. If you happen to find yourself in this dilemma, here are 5 ways you can build your own business while working a 9-5.
1. Prioritize Your Time
Everyone has the same 24 hours each day. It’s all about what you’re prioritizing while you’re awake. That few hours you have after work to do whatever you want, begin to dedicate some of it towards building your own business. Brainstorm what is the vision of your business, the expectations you’re setting for yourself and the business, how much time per week you know you’re able to allocate toward building it and define your unique selling proposition (USP).
Prioritizing your time will help create a balance between both your 9-5 and business objectives simultaneously. Just remember that Rome was not built in a day; everything takes time.
2. Effective Time Management
A complement to prioritizing your time is how efficient you are in managing the time you allocate to what you have planned for the day. Look to prioritize your tasks by identifying the most important and high-impact tasks for building your business during your most productive hours, allocating time as mentioned in the previous section, leveraging technology to streamline tasks, manage schedules and automate processes when applicable, and creating a dedicated workspace to minimize distractions.
3. Outsource and Delegate
If it is possible for you, look to outsource and delegate when possible. Recognize that akin to how you cannot bear the burden of the entire world on your shoulders, you cannot do everything on your own. If you’re a natural at one aspect of your business’ vision, double down on it and hire complements who have the talents for the other vital aspects, such as freelancers for content creation, graphic design, and administrative work. You can also leverage virtual assistants to help manage emails, scheduling, and other administrative tasks, and implement automation tools for routine tasks such as email marketing, social media posting and customer service if applicable. This would not only help you save time, but also enable you to fully maximize the potential of your business’ vision by being able to solely focus on what comes to you naturally.
4. Build Your Personal Brand
If you want to truly differentiate yourself from the rest of your competitors, build your personal brand. You have to be recognizable and represent your business even when you’re not working at both a conscious and subconscious level. Look to establish an online presence on as many relevant platforms as possible, create relationships with people who are in the community of the niche you’re looking to target (if you’re thinking of creating an app that targets a specific niche, check this out), and use AI to help build your personal brand, for which we have a free eBook on how you can use ChatGPT to boost your personal brand that you can download here.
5. Scale Gradually and Securely
Depending on your drive, there’ll often be a big temptation to dive headfirst into building your own business immediately, but it’s better to scale gradually and securely, particularly if your 9-5 is a steady one. Look to test the waters of your vision and get a taste of how much the scope is before committing full-time, ensure you have financial safety in place to cover any potential gaps in income during the initial phases of building your business, and develop a business plan that outlines growth in an optimized manner. All of this helps reduce the financial and emotional risks associated with starting a business while maintaining your 9-5. It is important to also acknowledge that the hunger of building your own business will take quite some time to satiate, for as we’ve said earlier, Rome was not built in a day; everything takes time. If you’re not seeing instant progress, it’s not that you’re failing necessarily per say, but its all a part of the process. And if this is the route you want to take, you’ll have to trust and love the process.