Four years ago, I started my main blog.
Since then, I have branched out into several different areas of online entrepreneurship – everything from ecommerce, to niche websites, to other blogs and freelancing.
When I speak to most people about my online ventures, they are interested, but when I tell them that I do it all on the side of my day job, most of them would say that they don’t have enough time and leave it at that.
I think that we have enough time for whatever we prioritize, and if we spent an hour less time watching television in the evenings after work or if we woke up an hour earlier, we would be able to build something that we can be proud of.
Just spend one hour a day..
If you just spend one hour per day, working toward building a business for yourself, in a year, you’ll have put 365 hours into your business.
In two years, it will be well over 700.
If you map out what you need to do, and strategically plan your time, you can have a profitable business in that amount of time (or, far less).
And no, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg!
Often, when somebody thinks of starting a business, they start thinking of all the costs of staffing, product, equipment, overhead.
This doesn’t have to be the case, however.
My first online business cost me less than $20 to start, and maybe $4 per month to keep going.
My second one was free to start. I only had to buy supplies when I had an order.
You can use what is in your head (your brain!) and sell ideas, or your art. You don’t need to build a brick and mortar store, staff it, buy equipment or really spend more than $100 to start a business, if you do it online.
It’s rewarding and allows you to explore things that you actually like to do..
Building something for yourself is incredibly rewarding. Not only can you prove to yourself that you can support yourself, and build something worthwhile, but it also allows you to explore things that you actually like to do, as opposed to what you think you have to do to support your family.
If you start the right business for yourself and are strategic about how you go about it, you can be very successful at it. You may find yourself making more money online off of your business than you are at your day job.
And it can be the golden ticket out
Don’t think that you are stuck in your corporate day job forever. You don’t have to be, if you don’t want to be.
There are plenty of other options out there, all afforded to us by the internet. It’s a huge, daunting community, and people get paid to do crazy things on the internet.
There are some people that get paid to wear shirts with company logos, people that get paid to do yoga on Instagram, and even people who will phone you to get out of a commitment for extra cash.
The options are endless and you don’t have to spend the rest of your life toiling away in an office from nine to five, then fighting traffic on your way home.
I took a contract job in July knowing that it would likely end at the end of December. It was a huge step for me back then, but now I know I will be able to support myself off of my passions and do what I love to do, all because I began starting businesses on the side over the years.
The one thing I love about online businesses is that they generally don’t cost much to start at all. That makes it easy to try something and see if you like it without a big investment.
Great subject! I think most people would have a biz on the internet if they would allow themselves to go beyond conventional thinking. Super post! 🙂
You are right that there are so many ways to start making side income without a lot of cash outlay. My first rental property was a true no money down purchase. If you get creative, you can do just about anything. Once you get one income stream going, then it frees you up from full time work to get other income streams going.
Love this idea! I’m a tax preparer and I see too many people jump feet first into their own business with no safety net. If they could just start small while working their day job (if it’s not too hideous) they would be much happier down the road. Thanks for the post.