Obviously, this short book cannot cover how to get started with 597 different business types. In a few cases, links to helpful resources or an excellent course have been included. For all other cases a simple Google search of “How to become a….” with your business choice will provide you with an abundance of articles, books and YouTube videos that will take you through the next steps.
Once you make your choice, spend a few days reading everything you possibly can about your chosen business option, so you have a thorough understanding of what is required and what it takes to succeed.
Next, you need to write down a basic business plan. Rather than running blindly and hoping for the best, set some clear goals and timelines and adjust along the way as needed.
Your progress will be very different when you know exactly where you are going and how you plan to get there, rather than just starting “somewhere” and hoping it will “somehow” happen.
It won’t!
Keep reviewing that plan each week and make adjustments.
Set reasonable expectations in the beginning and work out a clear action plan on how you can meet those expectations.
For example: if you are aiming for an extra $1000 per month, figure out how many hours of freelance work you will have to perform per month, or how many products you would have to sell each month to reach that number.
Then, break it down per day and you will have a much clearer path to reaching your goal.
Let’s say you want to start a freelance business as a Virtual Assistant. You do your research and learn everything you possibly can about what it takes to become successful in that field. If you did your homework, you will know what a reasonable starter rate will be.
Let’s choose $25/hour for this example.
If you want to make an extra $1000 per month, you would need to get at least 40 hours’ worth of paid VA time to reach that number (and that is not including taxes).
40 hours per month would be 10 hours per week => 2 hours