Jumpstart Figuring out What Business to Start
Before You Quit Your Job or Shortly Afterwards (Systems Post #2)
So you want to quit your job and start your own business. How will you figure out what business to enter? How do you start? In this series, I am sharing what I learn on how to establish work systems if you want to work for yourself. In the previous post, I told you the importance of establishing systems and recognizing internal systems that might have embedded within you because of your previous employment. In this post, I will suggest a way to figure out what business you might want to enter based on your own expertise.
The Secret is to Start Somewhere
Before you create your own work systems, you have to start somewhere. Where? Well, within you. Somewhere inside you, you know what you are good at. It might be blurry right now yet it is there. You need to start within. Do not start by following so-called gurus with “proven” steps. I made a mistake doing that again and again. They promise the benefits of working for yourself, but do not tell you that it might not work for you because you have different circumstances. If you are tempted by their so called “easy way” to earn money, go try it. If you want to save time and money, you have dig within and get to know yourself.
Get a piece of paper or open a blank word document. Write or answer these questions:
What do you do best? What is easy for you but hard for others?
What kind of help do others ask you again and again?
What do you enjoy doing? What do you want to create or do?
Dump everything you can think of. Then, take a break. Read what you wrote. Cross out some and circle or highlight others. If needed, take another break. Then choose one. Yes, just one. You do not have to commit yourself with this choice. What you need to do is experience earning your first dollar or $100 using this one thing.
Earning Your First Dollars Outside Employment
There are three ways to earn money:
selling a service - employment or time-bound business like coaching
selling a product - actual products you can touch
productize - where you can sell services without being bound by time like teaching through online courses
Here at Teacher Career Change, I prefer to productize because it frees me from the limits of time. I am not bound by my waking hours; I can sell productized services and digital products that are available 24 hours. However, that is my choice. Yours might be different. What’s important is you have three basic business choices:
WHAT to sell - the one you’ve chosen in our writing exercise
HOW to earn - choose to sell your choice as a service, product or to productize it
How to CREATE what you sell
Once you choose WHAT to sell and HOW to earn, you need to create what you will sell. Here is where establishing systems become essential. But before digging deeper into creating work systems, you just need to experience offering what you sell and earning your first dollars outside employment. It is better to “taste” this type of business before formally establishing one.
Ideas on How to Earn from Your Expertise
How do you convert your expertise into cash? Let me give you some ideas if your expertise, for example, is helping new teachers:
SERVICE: coaching new teachers
PRODUCT: a book (or guidelines/handouts that you can make during weekends) on how new teachers can survive their first year
PRODUCTIZE: digital version of the guidelines sold online
Any expertise can be turned into products or services. Any service can be productized. You just need to go right into it and start. When you experience earning (or not earning) from this exercise, you will know if you are on the right track. Go ahead, get to know yourself and experiment with one of your expertise. After you pick one business track, it is time to separate yourself from your business, meaning, it is time to create your business entity. I will share how I created my LLC with minimal costs in the next post.