How To Start A Side Business (While Still Working)

In this post, I’m going to share the five biggest things that have led to my success in business so far while still working at my full-time job.
 

So stay tuned.
 
 

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So the first thing is that I learned, is don’t waste time on activities that aren’t going to make you any money.

I wasted a lot of time doing things that were not getting me anywhere.
 

So building a website, automating things, trying to make things perfect, trying to make my website look perfect, working on my about page when I really shouldn’t have been spending any time on those until I was actually making some money.
 

So the things I should have been spending my time on, which I know now, we’re doing webinars, making offers, talking to potential clients, stuff like that.
 

Stuff that was scary for me, but I needed to actually do it in order to have a successful business up and running.
 

So that’s what I learned from that.
 
 

 
 

Two, don’t try to make everything perfect.

So I personally wasted a ton of time trying to make my videos perfect at first and they were never going to be perfect.
 

It was never going to work anyway. So I wasted a lot of time doing that.
 

Filmed a lot of videos that I didn’t put out because they weren’t good enough and in the end, I had to just become comfortable with the imperfection and I had to be willing to suck at first anyway.
 

Put stuff out before you’re ready because you’re going to have to do it anyway at some point.
 
 

 
 

The third thing is what got me really moving, was get a coach or a mentor.

They’re going to be able to look at what you’re doing and tell you, “Nope, that’s not going to lead you to revenue. Don’t do that yet. Don’t waste your time on that.”
 

So massive revelation for me and that’s what I would recommend you do at the beginning.
 

If I were going to go back and do it again, I would hire a coach from the start.
 
 

 
 

Fourth thing, so focus on one or two things maximum and stick with them.

So a lot of the times I was getting on shiny object syndrome. Saying like, “Oh, Facebook ads.” And, “Oh Instagram.”
 

And everyone was telling me that the one thing that they were selling or the one thing that they were advertising was what I needed to succeed, but I didn’t.
 

I just needed to stick with my one thing.
 

So I chose to start with YouTube and I’m really glad that I did that. It was difficult in the beginning to keep making videos when nobody was watching them.
 

And I’m really glad that I kept going on that.
 

So the reason why I was able to keep going as I was lucky because my husband kept telling me YouTube is really big, YouTube is growing and I did know in my heart that I wanted to be making videos.
 

So I stuck with the videos and four years later making videos, it has definitely paid off and it’s really nice now because I’ll get emails daily from you guys saying this video helped me get a job offer, this video helped me get interviews, these videos have really changed the way that I’m looking at things.
 
 

 
 

So now it’s really easy and motivating to continue to make videos.

But in the beginning when nobody was watching, probably for about the first year, it was really hard to get motivated sometimes.
 

But I had to keep in mind that if I stopped making them, I’d have to start from scratch with something else and I didn’t want to have a whole bunch of half dug holes.
 

I wanted to stick with the one thing, even though that was challenging.
 

Stick with one or two things max and keep going with them.
 

Master them and then you can move on to something else.
 

Maybe I’ll move on to something else when I’ve got my 50,000 subscribers or something, but for now, I’m really glad that I stuck with YouTube so far.
 
 

 
 

The fifth thing is mindset versus strategy.

Mindset is actually the most important thing and it’s really 80% of this whole building a business thing, especially if you’re working full time and you’re trying to build a business on the side.
 

You really need to manage your mind and what I mean by that is to watch your thoughts.
 

So if you have thoughts like, “Oh, I don’t have time to build my business because I’m working full time.”
 

A lot of people have that thought. They’re like, “Oh, there’s just too much to do. There’s just not enough time.”
 

So instead I changed it to the thought of, okay what are the things that are going to need to move me forward?
 

What do I need to do to move me forward today and what can I do with the least amount of work to move my business forward?
 

To do revenue-generating activities?
 
 

 
 

The mindset was the most important thing.

Having a coach and just managing my mind and watching myself because it’s very easy to go into a rabbit hole of, “Oh, I don’t have enough time. I’ve worked all day. I’m very tired.”
 

Instead, I had to be focusing on, okay I want to build this business because I want to build something that’s outside of my job.
 

So if I ever don’t want to work at my job anymore, I have an option.
 

So maybe that’s you too. So you have to focus on why you’re doing it because otherwise, it’s really easy to just say, I’m just really tired and I don’t want to do anything and then it’s very, very slow.
 

And at times it was slow for me, but I still got things done and having those non-negotiables, like I’m just going to get this done today no matter what.
 

It’s kind of like if you have kids, you’re not going to be like one day I’m too tired to feed my kids right?
 

That’s a non-negotiable. You’re going to do that no matter what.
 

So you have to treat your business, if it’s important to you, as a non-negotiable.
 
 

 
 

In conclusion

And there you have it. Five Things I’ve learned from building a business while working full time.
 

So I’m Natalie Fisher. I’m a career and business mindset coach. I help people get their dream jobs, get promotions, and now I’m starting to offer business coaching as well on how to build a successful business online.
 

So if you’re interested in any of that, you can reach out to me via email.
 

Do you know one person who could benefit from the information in this post? If so, do your friend a favor and share this info with him/her.

And remember, the current system isn’t perfect, but you can outsmart it. I’m here to prove to you that you do have what it takes.

I’ll see you next time and I can’t wait!

In Work & Life

I’ve got your back

– XO Natalie