Business owner trying to get away from the dreaded "day job"

[nevergiveup]

Please bare with me because I'm no writer! lol

Like many, I've been lurking this forum for a while and have read MJ's book. I figured today would be a good day to finally introduce myself.

Long story short...

Got my high school diploma, went straight to college, graduated with a 2 yr associates degree in a field I "thought" I was interested in, got a job, got married, started my own business, had a couple of kids, and here I am today, age 29 & BURNT OUT!

Like many young people I've done things without thinking... bought a house (loan), a nice truck (loan), and a nice toy (loan). Also, my wife is a stay at home mom and takes care of both of our kids, 5 mths and 3 yrs old. I make plenty of money to cover everything we have and do but, lately I have become extremely burnt out from having to work so many hours. Some days I get off from my 8 hr day job and work late at night and sometimes into the early morning hours to keep my business running. By doing this, it takes away from family time and being able to actually enjoy doing things I like.

To help you better understand my business, it was formed by fulfilling a niche in one of my hobbies. I created a product that solves a problem, which I manufacturer and ship out myself weekly. I bought an e-commerce website, done all of the design work on it and added hundreds of other products along with mine that fit in my niche market from other manufacturers. The good thing is I don't have to make their products or keep inventory because they drop ship. The bad thing is not knowing if something is in-stock or not.

Most of my customers call with questions or to place orders while I'm at my day job. I always miss them unless the customer emails or texts me. This has always been an issue. My wife helped in the past, but it become hard for her to answer calls once we had two kids.

I know, you are thinking "why not hire help?", well that is where my actions have screwed things up. I have always tried to do everything on my own because I am very picky and want everything to function and look its best. On top of that I procrastinate on my bookkeeping because I get so overwhelmed with orders coming through and trying to keep my family happy. I have wanted to hire somebody but not being organized prevents that in my opinion.

With all of this being said, my goal is to get organized and quit my job by next year since my business brings in more income than my dreaded day job. The only good thing about my day job is the benefits, but I'm sure everybody says that.

Anyways, any feedback would be greatly appreciated since a lot of you on this forum are successful and know how to run a successful business, or maybe you have been in my shoes before?

 

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[Vigilante]

Hi. Glad you are here.

My advice will be the opposite of 90% of the responses you get.

Double dip by keeping the day job as long as you can possibly stand it.

Get a ring central account to voicemail answer the calls and/or route them to your cell. You can set the system to email you alerts to voicemails. Your call volume is probably not crazy enough that you couldn't return them during your day job.

What can you do to DOUBLE your business in the next 12 months?

 

[Gravytrain]

Please bare with me because I'm no writer! lol

Like many, I've been lurking this forum for a while and have read MJ's book. I figured today would be a good day to finally introduce myself.

Long story short...

Got my high school diploma, went straight to college, graduated with a 2 yr associates degree in a field I "thought" I was interested in, got a job, got married, started my own business, had a couple of kids, and here I am today, age 29 & BURNT OUT!

It sounds like you definitely have a lot on your plate.

Like many young people I've done things without thinking... bought a house (loan), a nice truck (loan), and a nice toy (loan). Also, my wife is a stay at home mom and takes care of both of our kids, 5 mths and 3 yrs old. I make plenty of money to cover everything we have and do but, lately I have become extremely burnt out from having to work so many hours. Some days I get off from my 8 hr day job and work late at night and sometimes into the early morning hours to keep my business running. By doing this, it takes away from family time and being able to actually enjoy doing things I like.

Step 1: Sit down, take out a pen and write these four things down: Family, Career, Business, Self

Step 2: Prioritize them in order of importance to you

Step 3: Consider your lifestyle and goals in comparison to your priorities

To help you better understand my business, it was formed by fulfilling a niche in one of my hobbies. I created a product that solves a problem, which I manufacturer and ship out myself weekly. I bought an e-commerce website, done all of the design work on it and added hundreds of other products along with mine that fit in my niche market from other manufacturers. The good thing is I don't have to make their products or keep inventory because they drop ship. The bad thing is not knowing if something is in-stock or not.

Most of my customers call with questions or to place orders while I'm at my day job. I always miss them unless the customer emails or texts me. This has always been an issue. My wife helped in the past, but it become hard for her to answer calls once we had two kids.

Identified problem: nobody to answer the phone

Solution: hire someone to answer the phone

...that is, unless you're actively trying to not grow your business.

I know, you are thinking "why not hire help?", well that is where my actions have screwed things up. I have always tried to do everything on my own because I am very picky and want everything to function and look its best. On top of that I procrastinate on my bookkeeping because I get so overwhelmed with orders coming through and trying to keep my family happy. I have wanted to hire somebody but not being organized prevents that in my opinion.

Every entrepreneur goes through this - I call it "water fingerprint disorder" as the first time I was complaining about this stuff to a mentor he put a glass of water in front of me and said "touch the water with your finger". So, I did.

"Look in the glass. Do you see a fingerprint in the water?"

"No."

"Then you're replaceable. Hire people and start delegating."

Approaching your issues in order...

1) Great to be picky; not so if it harms your business and it sounds like it is. Choose the things you are passionate about and like to work on; delegate the rest.

2) Bookkeeping is probably the easiest possible thing to outsource. Stop your excuses and call a bookkeeper TODAY. THE VERY SECOND YOU FINISH READING THIS SENTENCE YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE CALLING A BOOKKEEPER. Having crappy or cooked books will never, ever help you and will certainly hurt you if you ever want capital expansion funding, VC funds or if you plan on exiting the business via a sale.

3) Hiring someone has nothing to do with your organizational abilities and all to do with your own excuses. Do you have classified ads, craigslist, etc. in your town? Great... GET AN AD UP FOR A GENERAL ASSISTANT TODAY. RIGHT NOW!! Pull out the ol' keyboard and write a task description of everything that can be delegated. From there all it takes is writing down a step-by-step in a Word document / PDF for each task, which then creates your first employee manual. You show the new hire once, let them do it a few times while being corrected, and away you go.

Bottom line: stop with the excuses, and you'll start to see results.

With all of this being said, my goal is to get organized and quit my job by next year since my business brings in more income than my dreaded day job. The only good thing about my day job is the benefits, but I'm sure everybody says that.

No... the only good thing about your day job is "stability". Benefits you can easily provide yourself through your business, but the stability of the paycheck keeps you coming back and given your situation that doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. But of course, I'd get out ASAP as the business sounds like it's got a ton of room to grow and the main hurdle is you.

Most of us with real businesses have been here before - the good news is that you're generating sales and you're profitable. Now it's time to make the jump.

Oh, and PS: get a mentor or someone who can hold you accountable. This is one of the best moves an entrepreneur can make in my opinion - it's very helpful to have someone around who doesn't give a shit about your excuses and only cares that you're moving towards accomplishing whatever goals you've set out for yourself and your business.

 

[nevergiveup]

How would I go about finding a good mentor?

I would love to hang out with or meet new people that are also young business owners or entrepreneurs like myself in my area.

 

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