One day, it just hit me, managing my business finances just seemed to be easier. I’d made the leap from my 9-5 to becoming self-employed at the end of 2014. After years of working at a university, dealing with a 4 hour commute each day, and asking myself if this was it for me…I quit my safe and secure job of 10 years and flew off to Hawaii and Australia to decompress. The physical and mental stress that I was dealing with was so bad that it took a year for me to feel physically well. In retrospect, it was absolutely crazy for me to quit my job the way I did. I didn’t have clientele, I had a vague idea of what I would do, and I had thousands of dollars in debt. Right before my return from Australia I began connecting with online projects to begin working before my return because my money was dwindling fast. It’s often said that before you become a full-time entrepreneur you should have a year’s worth of savings, know what you’re selling, and all your shit together before taking the leap. It’s my observation that while that approach is the best approach, most entrepreneurs are in the middle. They may have an idea that they work on in the quiet hours after working their 9-5 or they become entrepreneurs out of necessity because of a job loss, or they just take a leap of faith. My point is that many entrepreneurs go into business before it’s financially ideal. If that’s you, I need to share 7 lessons on personal debt and your business. It’s important.
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Grab This Resource!
How to Grow Your Business from Day One . This is a quick guide sharing some of the steps that I took to grow my business when I didn’t have a ton of money to reinvest and I wanted to get the most bang for my buck when I did spend. **Available Monday, August 10, 2020 after 10:00 pm MTN***
Listen to the Show
Show Notes
Lesson #1 Debt Affects Your Business Growth
For those of you who are new to me, I am in the process of paying off a significant amount of unsecured debt. To complicate the process, I started working for myself. What I didn’t realize was that even though my business grew, it grew slower than other similar businesses because I was focused on paying off my debt vs. solely focused on growing my business. The bigger the debt the more distracting it is from a business growth and strategy perspective. You just are going to find it difficult to focus on business growth while you’re focusing on eliminating debt.
Lesson #2 Debt Eats Marketing Dollars
I had to rethink my marketing strategies because for the longest time I couldn’t afford to spend money on marketing. I was paying off my debt. What I ended up learning was how to grow my income without paying a lot for marketing and how to leverage platforms better. It’s now my view that because of having to rethink how I market my products, I have a much better understanding of who my avatar is, what they want, and where to find them. Also, I have a much better idea of where to spend my marketing dollars.
Lesson #3 Debt Eats Professional Development
When you have no debt, you can reinvest your initial earnings back into growing your business. I couldn’t do that because anything that I earned went towards paying off debt. That meant that I had to use side-hustle money towards business investments such as:
- Attending conferences
- Taking courses
- Getting coaching
- Paying for the tools to run my business
I chose to pay cash for all of those resources that were necessary to grow and maintain my business.
Lesson #4 Debt is a Distraction
Depending on how large your debts are and how complicated your debt situation is, your debt will be a distraction. It just is. The goal is to get your debt to the point where it’s not a distraction and is manageable and that you’re making consistent progress with it. Growing a business requires a lot of mental energy, but if you’re in debt your focus is split and it distracts from the single minded pursuit of growing your business.
Lesson #5 Stay the Course
The less you owe, the more your business will grow. I noticed this reality starting in 2018 But, in 2020 during a freaking pandemic I really noticed that I was making more money and that it was so much easier than before. It was easier because I had more mental bandwidth to focus on my business, I was able to leverage the lessons that I’d learned marketing my business with very little cash spend. In fact, I’ve earned over $10,000 in book sales in the past 2 years with less than $300 in marketing spend. There will be a point in your journey when things will shift significantly.
Lesson #6 Share The Journey
It was hard to admit that I didn’t have everything all figured out. But, by sharing what I was doing my journey resonated with other entrepreneurs and my clients. People related to my journey.
Lesson #7 Don’t Listen to the Naysayers
I’m so glad that I started my business when I did. Each person’s business journey is different. But, what is pretty consistent is that it will take awhile to grow and sustain your business.
- I dealt with Imposter Syndrome and had to work my way through that
- It took the longest time to figure out how to create consistent revenue into my business each month.
- Learning how to receive positive and negative feedback as an entrepreneur took time to learn.
- Understanding what I should focus on energetically was huge. Basically, what actions moved the needle forward in my business?
It is the first week of August 2020 when I release this episode and it has taken years to get to this point. Years! Years of doubt, failures, and small successes. I started at the beginning of 2015 building up my business. But, it wasn’t a business at that time. I was self-employed working for other other people as a virtual assistant, doing social media, and editing podcasts.
Interested in becoming a virtual assistant? Listen to the following podcast episode with Kayla Sloan from the $10KVA and check out her course HERE. She made a minimum of $10K a month as a virtual assistant and now teaches other people how to grow their businesses too. With everyone working from home, now is a fantastic time to start your virtual assistant business.
Also, years of slowly but methodically paying off my debt. One bill at a time. It has not been an easy process or for the faint of heart. In fact, I often say seriously, that I understand why most people stay in debt. To live debt free is seen as an audacious goal and bold choice as an American.
To do this as an entrepreneur is even more difficult.
People who’ve never started a business will tell you what they think you should do. People who have started a business will tell you what you should do. But, ultimately, you will need to decide what works best for you. Entrepreneurship is a journey. What has your journey been like so far?
Time to Get In
I’m opening the doors to The Brand Building Lab, a group coaching program where I work with online entrepreneurs looking to balance out and uplevel their brands.
If you’re looking for support on how to:
- Leverage podcasting to grow your business
- How to market your business before ad spend
- Increase your businesses’ passive income
- Develop products specific to your brand
- And set up better systems to get you from confused to done
Then, The Brand Building Lab may be the program for you. I’m looking to work with 12 amazing online entrepreneurs into the Fall 2020 inaugural class starting September 8, 2020. Go to michelleismoneyhungry.com/thebrandbuildinglab to get more information.
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