People dreamed of doing the same and wanted advice from someone who had transformed. You did not just leave a company and go into Business Lifestyle of your dream like the way you left a job for another. You need a road map to make the journey.
- From dependence to freedom.
- From the security of a pay job to a new exciting venture.
- Redeem your sense of identity, being yourself
- Find the “Inner You”
- True identity is authenticity
- Pick and choose the way you want to work
- Be your own boss and work the hours you like to work
- The taste of independence
- Real money because you earn it
- Have more time with families
- Work to suite your lifestyle
You need a development Plan before saying good bye to a paid Job:
- Know your Desire, Passion and Purpose is knowing your desired destination and outcome.
- Identify your long, medium and short term goals
- Your goals must be measurable with milestones for their achievement, so you can anticipate their attainment.
- Make a list of essential things you need to purchase.
- Buy only the most basic equipment and materials you’ll need to be ready to deliver finished work on the day one of your new venture, preferably without borrowing any money.
- Cut back on your expense now, not later when circumstances require it.
- Do advance cash flow projection so you know how it will look like in the next twelve months.
- Shape your cash flow to suit your business lifestyle.
5. Searching for your Ideal Clients
- List 5 ideal clients in 3 categories
- clients can be anyone to whom you provide a service or product:
A. The A list- certain worth of getting
B. The B list- certain worth with a little work
C. The C list-Far to reach with some effort
- Under each client’s name, write down 3 keys points you can do to lift B and C clients into A list.
- When possible, approach them and secure their interest in advance.
6. Network & Marketing
- Draft a press release or an email to announce your resignation and send out to friends and local press. (Even if you never go public with it, it establishes your worth to yourself.)
- Dream up 3 stretch goals, these are the goals that are out of your comfort zone:
To speak at major conference
- To publish a paper
- Do a blog on the net
- Learn to take photographs to use in presentations or for your designs or new business venture, etc.
- Any goals that enhance and motivate you to accomplish your business lifestyle of your dream.
- Create a business lifestyle network team: Find specialists in the area you need help in building your new identity. (e.g. Art & Craft supplier, graphic artist, and gallery owner or group of people compliment to your business)
7. Self Development goals
- Build in a goal for your self development focus “The Mind, Body & Spirit”
- learning yoga
- Join the gym
- Learn marketing on line
- Select an activity that you love to do but never get around to commit to it.
8. Up Skilling
- Do your very best on every job. Continually improve your skills.
- Learn new skills to enhance and compliment your business lifestyle.
9. Your Hourly Rate
- Set your rate where you really want it. Then quote only flat fees.
- From day one, set your hourly rate at the figure that you want you be making when you’re successful.
- Never mention it verbally to your clients unless absolutely necessary.
- Quotes flat fees for each job based on multiples of your hourly rate, using some common sensediscretion to offer a finished cost that will gather the work. When you bill it, break the quoted flat fee show it that way on the invoice, even if it isn’t necessarily an accurate reflection of the time spent on the job. By doing so, you’ll custom your clients to the hourly rate you really want and deserve, without scaring them off at the beginning.
- As your business grows and you gain confidence, you can bump up those flat prices without raising your hourly rate. If the clients see the hourly rate staying the same on the invoice after invoice over a long period of time, and they know you deliver as promised, they likely won’t protest.
- If you ‘re talented, if you’re delivering quality services for fair prices, and if you’re spending time promoting yourself and benefiting from healthy word-of-mouth you’re going to be very busy.
10. Do not turn down profitable work, no matter what it is.
- You can get selective later once you have established your business.
- Your goal is to get as much money coming in the door as possible, and to build a broad client base that provides a steady income.
11. Discipline with your working hours
- Have a set schedule to start, just like a normal job and if you’re done at 3 pm, do low cost email marketing, update your website, write a new blog (or something equally productive) .
- Once you can barely get all the work done that you’ve got coming in, once you’re almost overwhelmed by it all, smile… you’ll be in the driver’s seat.
- Plan your weekly activities in a week advance so you can see which areas of your business needs your attention.
- Regularly work on your business strategies
- Write down when, in the course of a week, a month or a year, you get time to reflect on:
-The direction your business is heading
-Your personality , your uniqueness, your USP
– Maintaining your competitive edge.
– The change of your industry
12. Steer your lifestyle business in the direction you want to go
- Now you can get picky. At this point ask yourself one simple question: “is my primary problem that I’m not busy enough, or that I’m not making enough money for as busy as I am? That’s the only question you’ll need from now on.
- If you’re not busy enough, go right back to step 5. If you’re not making enough money, raise your flat rate prices, which you can do without raising hourly rates for as long as you like.
Embarking a Business Lifestyle of your dream is not easy, and it’s absolutely possible for anyone with a genuinely marketable skill. You don’t need a giant loan, or lower your standard of living, and you don’t need and MBA… just confidence,commitment, dedication and talent.
So, what are you waiting for?
Take action now and make tomorrow today………
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