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My Top 3 Tips For Starting A New Business… Before You Leave Your Current Job Or Business

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As an entrepreneur, I often get asked this question:

How exactly do you transition from being an employee to being in business?

My answer is always simple. There are two types of people in the world: there are waders and there are divers. You’ll see how important this distinction is as we go on.

I’m going to outline my top three tips for starting a business before you leave your current job. After being in business myself for decades (and struggling for 12 long years), this advice comes from my firsthand experience — and could save you a LOT of valuable time and money in the long run.

Here we go…

1. Find Out How You Work

First, you need to decide what kind of person you are. Do you like to just dive into things, take a big risk, just go for it and put all your attention on it at once, or do you like to just wade in slowly?

Simply asking this of yourself will come into play when choosing whether to start a business (or not).

Regardless of who you are, one of the things that really bothers me is when people drop their current income to zero in order to start something new. I’m not just talking about a job here — I mean income.

When you’re starting out in business, it’s crucial that you take care of cash flow. There is no point in jumping in and running hard only to find out you’ve run out of cash two months in. Instead, it’s super important to make sure you have money coming in, so you can give your business the chance it deserves.

I don’t care if you’re a diver — suck it up for a little bit. Don’t lose your income. You can lower it, yes, but don’t lose it.

Why is this? If you are starting out in business and cut yourself off financially, you won’t be happy. Let me tell you now, you’ll be stressed, in fear, and full of anxiety.

You’ll start coming from a place of scarcity, as opposed to abundance. There won’t be any joy in your new business, and it will feel like a burden… before it’s even started.

Do you know what that is called? That’s called diving with no water into a pool.

And what’s going to happen if you jump into a pool with no water? You’re going to crack your head right open. I have a million students, and I’ve heard thousands upon thousands of stories about this. It happens all the time — but the good news is that it’s easily preventable.

2. Start Your Business Part Time

Whether you’re in a business that you think is not doing well and you want to get out of that business and into a new one, or if you are in a job and you want to get into a business that you love… here is the route I highly recommend you take.

Keep your current situation and start your new situation part time.

Of course, this would mean working overtime, late at night, and on weekends.

Let me say right now that if this is unappealing to you, you shouldn’t start a business. Because if you want to be successful in business, you will have to work weekends and you will have to work at night. Boohoo!

The truth is, when you own your own business, at the beginning you will have to work your freaking buns off, with 1,000% attention and 1,000% focus. That’s how it works.

I didn’t make up the rules. It’s just the way it is.

If you’re not going to stay in your job, while working nights and weekends on a part-time basis and earning some income with your new business (until it’s stable enough for you to fully transition), then my humble advice to you is to forget about starting a business altogether.

3. Get Educated In Your Field

This is a big one so pay close attention.

If your new business situation is in your current field, and it’s very similar to what you’re already doing, then you’ve got a nice head start!

But if you want to jump into something new and different than you’re doing right now, what do you have to do? You need to get hands-on experience in the trenches.

Even if it seems like a downgrade at first, it’s really an investment in yourself, your knowledge, your skill — and the assurance that your business will succeed instead of thinking short-term.

If you get a job in the field you want to run your business in, then you learn the ropes… on someone else’s dime.

(You do this at the same time as building your business on nights and weekends.)

The truth is, people go to university for four, five or six years to get skilled in their chosen field, and they pay to go. But if you do it this way, instead of you paying them, they’re paying you a little something.

Think of it as an investment in your business – and your future success.

In my book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, I tell a story about when I was 95% sure that I wanted to open a restaurant. I wanted to open a restaurant, so I took my own advice and I started working in different jobs in the restaurant industry.

I was a broiler cook, a sous-chef, a host, a busboy, a waiter and a manager at a pie store, because I thought I was going to have a dessert restaurant, so I wanted to meet bakers. I was going through the garbage every night to see the boxes they threw out, and who their suppliers were.

I had seven different restaurant jobs in four months. I would leave each one of them, sometimes even before I got paid fully, because I was simply there to learn.

I learned the most important thing about the restaurant business for me: that I would never be in the restaurant business.

Can you believe it? That’s honestly what I learned: that I don’t want to be in the restaurant business. This was the most valuable advice I could’ve ever received.

When you work before diving head first into a new business, you go to school on someone else’s dime. You learn what it’s like to be in the business, not to look at it from the outside.

You want to be inside the business. You look in the trash can. You learn the suppliers. You learn everything you can about being in that business: the pitfalls, the good stuff, where the money is made and where the opportunities are.

Here’s a statistic: 80% of all new businesses fail within the first five years.

You’ve heard that 100 times, and it’s true — except for one thing: 65% of all new businesses succeed if the person was already in that industry.

If they were just creating a new niche within the industry they were already in, then the chances of success skyrocket.

If you’re serious about having your own business, you need to know how you work, be prepared to do the work, and be humble enough to admit you don’t know everything.

By taking a step back and seeing your approach as a slow and steady investment in your future, you’ll be able to play the long game — and reap the rewards.

So there you have it. My top three tips for starting a business, before you leave your current job.

Again, like I mentioned, I have many years of firsthand experience with starting businesses. I started 14 different businesses throughout 12 years and out of the 14, almost every single one of them failed. If you follow my guidelines above, I assure you your chances of success in business will dramatically increase.

For Your Freedom,

Before starting a new business or leaving your current job or business, having an idea or vehicle that’s going to create wealth is absolutely critical.

Unfortunately, most people try and succeed with the wrong vehicle at the wrong time and wonder why they struggle.

So to help you with this, I’ve created a template that will give you a step-by-step blueprint for generating highly profitable ideas on demand.

Click here to download your “How To Generate Million Dollar Ideas Every 60 Seconds” template now.

Make It Clearly Important

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That’s the easy part—it only seems difficult sometimes if we feel guilty about wanting what we want or scared of what others might think. Once you get over stuff like that, knowing what you want isn’t that hard.

Among the many things we all want in life, more money tends to be in the Top 5. Money makes life a little easier, at least financially. You can do more things with more money. That leads to another connected want on most everyone’s list—greater happiness, which includes less stress about financial security, more personal time, more freedom, greater joy.

These are things that lots of people say they want, but most people aren’t financially secure and barely get by while working jobs. This job might be “more money” than they were making before, but is that the road to financial freedom or simply retirement, and how long will it take to get there playing the money game like we were taught?

And is that a joyful way to live?

That second key to getting what we want in life is the “Why”: why do you want what you say you want? Does it really mean something to you? Is that someone else’s imposed thoughts echoing in your head or your own, from your spirit?

I always wanted to be free. I love doing what I do, but the worst thing I could think of is being forced to do this. I wouldn’t love it anymore. People just don’t like to be forced to do things. You want to do it from choice.

That choice has to be backed by reasons that are honest, true and excite you to your core, like a kid who can’t stop jumping up and down and clapping in anticipation of pure joy.

In my experience working with thousands of people, more than 50% of the people that do this one simple action doubled, tripled or even quadrupled their income within a year:

Write down want you want. It must be clear and it must be absolutely important to you. Write at least five reasons why you want what you want, especially in terms of wanting more money. Put that sheet of paper on a wall you can’t avoid.

You want to see miracles in action? You’re not sure Spirit exists?  Think the Universe is trying to support you if you would just get out of the frickin’ way? Do this!

It’s unbelievable, but you have to do your part, and it starts with putting it right up there front and center in your consciousness.

Now give us stories of your miracles in action. Did a door that you didn’t expect open for you after making a life-changing decision? Were there times when your income jumped drastically? What choices were you making at that time? What goals are you proud to have checked off your list?

Share your stories! Together we can continue to grow and learn with each other!

For Your Freedom,

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The Secret to Your Success in 2014

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As 2014 has swiftly arrived, we are brought to that time of the season when most of us take to planning and plotting the next 12 months of our lives. If you’re already considering your to-do lists and new years resolutions, then you’re on the right track, but you’ll need to be careful in making your plans in order to be sure that you’re able to use them to your advantage!

Set Goals

The first rule of making progress in anything you do is setting goals, allowing yourself to always have a finish line in sight. This provides a boost in motivation during those moments when slogging forward seems impossible, giving you something tangible to work towards at every moment.

Whether you’re planning positive changes to your work or personal life, take note of the things that you want to achieve by the end of the year, and what you’ll need to do in order to get there. With these goals firmly in heart and mind, you’ll have just what you need to propel you in the right direction.

But wait…

Set Reasonable Goals

Goals are great, but what if those goals are only barely achievable? Like a high-risk gambler, you stand to gain the most when you meet sky-high expectations, but your chances of any success at all are well below par.

In order to limit your risk of perceived failure, be sure not to aim too high when setting your goals. Take the time to consider your history and your present circumstances, planning to hit milestones that are within reach instead of shooting for the stars and coming up short.

That’s not to say that you’ll never reach the stars, mind you – only that you’ll need to get to them in incremental steps.

Set Reasonable, Incremental Goals

Alright, you’ve got goals set that are useful, reachable, and will serve to take your endeavors to the next level throughout 2014. With the whole year plotted out ahead of you, it may seem that you’re ready to close the books on another successful year planned and get started with the heavy lifting.

 Not so fast.

You may feel particularly pumped up about achieving your goals now, but what about that inevitable day when inspiration is lacking and your goals seem further away than they did the day before? Whether it’s a day, a week, or a month away, that time will come, and you’ve got to narrow your plans even further if you want to get yourself on the right track without fear of hitting a serious bump.

Overarching goals are a necessary thing when you’re taking in the big picture, but life isn’t a big picture; on the contrary, life happens minute by minute, and that means that you’ll also need a more focused view. In order to achieve maximum momentum and build the kind of habits that lead to long-term success, be sure to set incremental goals that take you from point to point towards the place you visualize yourself being at the end of 2014.

No matter what your goals are and what aspect of your life they apply to, good planning and hard work will get you there – good luck!

What are your plans to make 2014 the most successful year of your life? Let us know in the comments below the specific routes you’ll be taking towards improved finances, better health, stronger relationships, and increased happiness, helping others to follow in your footsteps!

 

Happy New Year!

For Your Freedom,

harvsignature

The Power of Gratitude

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Be grateful!

We hear it all the time, at least in a community of fellow seekers who want to grow their financial success building as much as their spiritual peace. Life has its highs and lows, but the one thing that’s the same no matter where we are on the wheel is that there are always many things to be grateful for.

It’s easy to be grateful when it doesn’t really require a ton of effort, like saying “please” or “thank you.” It’s easy to be grateful when things are going great. But what about when things aren’t going quite as planned?

Everyone’s been there. The mind starts going into “what’s wrong,” or what’s not enough, what’s too much to deal with, too much to do in order to overcome an obstacle and reach a goal. In some ways it’s natural, but when it becomes a habit then the pity party is simply a safer choice.

The truth is it takes much more courage to appreciate what we’ve got—no matter how little it may seem—than it is to surrender to the scarcity model and let ourselves off the hook for taking action because something isn’t enough.

Our egos will tell us that if we spend too much time being grateful for what we have, we won’t try to get more, and we’ll become stuck with being “content” instead of happy.

Wanting what we currently have has nothing to do with somehow tricking ourselves into “settling.” Just because you’re buying an economy car now that’s practical but not so hot-looking doesn’t mean you won’t want a Ferrari three years from now when you’re rich. It’s not hard to be grateful for that fact that you have four wheels to drive that gets you where you need to go. There are plenty of people in this world that don’t have that, with consequences we couldn’t imagine.

It’s the lack-based protective mind that continuously hungers for more, like a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter. The scarcity model, constantly looking around, overlooks and discounts what’s right in front of us. We have to consistently remind ourselves to look for “what’s right” in our lives instead of “what’s wrong.”

Then we’ll be less likely not to forget to show our appreciation to the people who are closest to us; our family, friends, loved ones, co-workers, employees. Then there are teachers, postal workers—all the people that make our daily lives more convenient and enrich our larger communities. And let’s not forget to say “thank you” to the Universe for our many blessings.

Gratitude particularly holds true when it comes to finances. To have abundance, be grateful for and properly manage whatever wealth you have now, even if you don’t think it’s much. Why? If you’re not appreciating what you already have, that means you’re not maximizing what’s available right now. If you can’t do that, why should the Universe believe you can handle more?

Now it’s your turn! Who and what have you not fully appreciated?  What are some of the things that you think we tend to take for granted? Below list the people and things in your life for which you are grateful. Show your appreciation to the people who mean the most to you for all that you have.

For your freedom,

harvsignature

Getting What You Deserve

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Whatever’s coming at us in life – is it happening because we somehow deserve it? Did we ask for it?

Sometimes it’s our blueprints that limit what the Universe brings into our lives. People unconsciously punish themselves over something that happened a long time ago but they haven’t forgiven themselves. Or they feel guilty about actually getting what they want. Sometimes there’s a part of us that feels like we don’t deserve more.

Other times, things happen out of nowhere; extreme challenges hit us out of the blue, and if we’re honest with ourselves, there’s a part of us that will ask, however briefly, “What did I do to deserve this?”

How we think about what we get in life—the meanings we attach to events and circumstances—will impact the quality of our lives. So it doesn’t pay to give too much credit to the Universe when things go right, nor too much blame when things go wrong and we don’t get what we want.

Success starts with us and our attitudes—and we’re grateful when the Universe gives us a nudge in the right direction.

We have the power to ask for and get what we want. People who are successful at it are considered “smooth-talkers,” with just a hint of resentment behind that tag, as if they’re just lucky to be born with the gift of gab.

There does seem to be some people that are better at it than others, but the power of persuasion is a learnable skill. If a kid in a marketplace can do it, for heaven’s sake so can you!

Most people, though, either go into a negotiation assuming that they’re going to get raked, and either don’t bother trying to negotiate out of fear or talk themselves out of getting the deal they want by not believing they can get it or deserve it.

That’s actually a big thing for a lot of people—the belief that getting what they want must mean that they’re taking something away from someone else. Of course that’s not true—the best negations are win-win scenarios.

In business and in life, ask for what you want! What’s the worst that could happen? The other person says no? So what if they do? People are so afraid of receiving “no” into their lives they don’t even try.

The best negotiating tool is the truth. Let the other person know how you’re feeling. The idea of good negotiations is to work together so you both get what you want and you both feel good and you feel the deal is fair.

When you ask someone, “What do you want?” they’ll usually tell you what they want. When you ask, “What do you think is fair?” they’ll usually tell you what they think is fair and balance your part of the equation.

Don’t get attached to the whole thing, and it’s actually a lot of fun. There’s a feeling of success that builds confidence once you become good at it, but there’s also a sense of fulfillment when you actually get what you deserve.

And as the saying goes, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you can negotiate. Let the Universe sort the rest out for you.

Tell us your experiences with stepping outside your comfort zone to get what you want. Was it a business experience? A personal experience? We want to hear from you!

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