What’s Stopping You?

What I learned on my third try at starting my own business

This is a post from a member of the Freelancers Union community sharing expertise or advice to help out fellow freelancers. This post has been edited.

But really — what’s stopping you from starting your own business?

That was the question I posed on the anonymous online forum Fishbowl. Two days and 37 replies later, a litany of the usual suspects had been posted, including ten common ones — some rather colorfully stated:

1. Lack of a good idea.
2. Not having an idea deemed “sexy” enough.
3. No skills to implement the idea.
4. No balls.
5. Paying student loans.
6. Not enough startup capital.
7. Competing goals like grad school — and marriage.
8. That old devil: Health insurance.
9. And my favorite? Plain ol’ Laziness.

I smiled to myself.

Earlier this year, I took a deep breath and plunged back — after two previous fails — into independent consulting. A colleague referred me to a well-established independent HR consultant, who had already been in business for over 30 years, with many name-brand clients, and a two-time President of the Association of Professional Consultants.

Filled with excitement about my new venture, I set up a networking call with her.

Casually, she burst my bubble with the sobering news that the type of entrepreneurs who make it are not “overnight” successes. “Expect to work full-time your first year and make half your salary; in Year 2, make three-quarters of your salary; in Year 3, break-even; but,” she advised me, “if you make it to Year 4, you’ll never go back to working for someone else.”

She also pointed out, “only 50% of success is your technical skill — the other 50% is your ability to market and sell yourself and your products or services.”

While this advice didn’t exactly come as a surprise, she emphasized that the first year is an ideal time to establish credibility through thought leadership — while perhaps producing a small amount of income — by focusing on actionable marketing activities.

Actionable Marketing Tips

• NETWORK/SPEAK — Don’t just attend networking and professional associations meetings and events — serve on boards or committees and speak at chapter meetings or conferences.
• WRITE — Post articles, whitepapers, infographics, or guest blog posts that showcase your knowledge and experience, such as expert tips, industry trends, or case studies of successful client projects.
• TEACH/MENTOR — Look for opportunities to teach or mentor others in your area of expertise, either in the classroom or online. See “Network/Speak” above.
• DEVELOP A PRODUCT — You might want to develop something you wish you had, such as a directory, how-to guide, or an inspirational story/message. Give it away or sell it to drive traffic to your website. You do have a website, right?

Wrapping the call, I sat down to ponder her great — and hard-won — advice. I realized that if I am going to avoid another fail, there are a few things I’ve got to bear in mind.

3 Critical Factors

1. You really want to go independent.
2. You are mentally prepared to face rejection.
3. You make financial preparations to survive the first few years.

If you were not deterred by this advice but instead felt energized — as I was — then going independent may be right for you. Three years since that defining convo, not only has my third pass at the independent life has exceeded my expectations, but I’ve become the one dispensing freelance life advice instead of the other way around!

Jessica Williams partners with diverse, global organizations to deliver customized change journeys designed to drive digital transformation.

Originally published at https://blog.freelancersunion.org on August 11, 2017.