If you are reading this, you are just like me, a 9-5 working adult looking at how to get out of the rat race!
You are constantly hunting for new jobs, have a pay rise while hopping over to another company. Eventually, the pay versus the workload just doesn’t add up!
And you start looking for new prospects again while the cycle goes on.
It is never-ending and you are still working for SOMEONE!
According to MarketWatch, 40% of the employee wanted to start their own business.
Are You The One That Stops It From Happening?
I’ve heard many people complaining about their jobs, bosses, colleagues as if the workplace is so horrible. When you ask them to leave, they reluctant to do so.
Why don’t you just resign then?
My finances are so tied up, I don’t have any spare cash 
Everyone has debt, whether it is a good debt or bad debt.
Good debt is a debt which the value will appreciate or help to build something more valuable in time. While a bad debt just depreciates while you are reading this article.
Are you spending on the correct side? Are you getting an expensive cup of coffee every day?
I Don’t Have The Skills and Time
Nobody was born with any particular skills. We sacrifice our leisure hang-out time to ensure we are covered in the future.
We learned while you are watching a movie, having a couple of drinks, and holidaying by the beach.
We spend more time acquiring new skills after work at night while you just lazying on the couch watching football.
Bear in mind that we are working for our future. When the time comes, you will be delighted that you have taken this step in the past.
It’s Too Risky
Well, starting up is always risky in terms of financially. You wouldn’t know whether will it succeed in the first place.
Why do you need to wait until you are jobless or retrenched to acquired new skills or build a business?
While you are still on a paycheck, you can afford to start planning for your next venture or hustle. You can spend some money to attend courses.
Invest in yourselves while you can. The skills that you acquire might be useful one day.
I Am Mentally Prepared For All This
In order to get started, you need to be mentally prepared and determine to get it going.
I don’t want you to be in circumstances in which you are not prepared and waste all the initial effort and commitment.
Here are some sacrifices that I made in order to achieve what I have now.
- Cut down expensive dinner and night outs.
- Spend countless nights working on your side hustle.
- Bootstrap and save from unnecessary spending.
- Willingness to learn new things.
- Spending my weekend on my side hustle.
Are You Excited To Get Started?
Everyone does! But here’s the thing. Do not expect to see instant results after 1 or 2 months. Be realistic! 🙂
It takes time and effort to build a business or to acquire a skill. Do not rush through the money-making process while you are still learning!
Here are my 5 steps when I get started on my side hustle.
STEP 1: Acquire Knowledge On Things That You Interested In
Whether you are a venture in investing or building a business, knowledge holds the key to your success.
Do not blindly follow what other people are doing without understanding the matter.
Look for your passion. I’m sure that your current job is not something that you are passionate about. (Or else you won’t be here) 🙂
Do you love photo editing? Are you interested in stock trading? Does building marketing strategies excite you?
Find online resources to help you to gain more knowledge about your passion. The greater knowledge you pose, the better people will respect and trust your advice.
When you love doing something, you will make time for it!
Key Takeaway: Search for opportunities that are related to your passion. Dig deeper and drill into the topic to know what is the latest trend and understand the inside-out.
STEP 2: Validate Idea And Research The Market
Before spending a single buck on your new venture, idea validation and market research are crucial.
Most likely your idea has been done by someone else in the market. That is your competitors within that space.
Is that market saturated and dominated by big fishes? Is there any opportunity where you can do something different in that area?
If you found one particular small part which you can make a difference, specialize in that area first. You can rise up from there in the future.
NEVER SKIP THIS PROCESS!
Key Takeaway: Idea validation and market research will make or break your business. Do not take it lightly. You will find some hidden gems in the industry where you can make a difference.
STEP 3: Defining REALISTIC, Non-Monetary Goals and Visions
“I want to be the best photographer in the world. I want to earn $1 million next year! ”
Those are unrealistic goals that we often think of. Yes, that can be your end goal. But it is better for you to take baby steps to achieve it.
Define your achievable goals for the first quarter, half-year, one year, two years, five years, and ten years goals.
From my past experience, defining monetary goals will always detour us from our original visions. Never involve money targets in your goal.
Whatever you do, have a vision of what you want to achieve through these ventures that you going to create.
Key Takeaway: Abandon your monetary goals. Build a business with a vision to solve people’s problems, not to achieve your financial goals. When the problem is solved, money will come in.
STEP 4: Start Small, Think Big
Congratulations! When you are here means that you have already taken action to get out of the rat race! Don’t stop at Steps 1, 2 & 3 with all the thinking and feeling of failure.
TAKE ACTION by starting small!
Starting small will let you validate your idea on a smaller scale. In this way, any problem that arises can be dealt with instantly and it is easily manageable.
Don’t be afraid of failing. Failing is part of the process which leads you to grow stronger and wiser.
When you are confident in the smaller scale, it can be expanded to cater for other related services.
Most of us don’t have the initial capital to start big and hire a group of employees to manage the business. Don’t do that on an unverified idea of yours.
Key Takeaway: Start small has the ability to maneuver across a problem and solve it quickly. You have a choice to scale it or switch to other ventures as there is less investment involved while starting small.
STEP 5: Network and Connect with People Like You
While you have some small success in your venture, start to network with people within the same circle.
Be friends with those people, social with them in every aspect other than the common ventures that you are in.
Leave a good impression and NEVER ASK something from them on the first time you meet.
Be genuine and do not expect you will be great friends when you first met. It takes time to build up this relationship and maintain it.
With all these connections, you wouldn’t know there might be a chance where you can partner with them in other venture.
Key Takeaway: Sometimes a piece of advice from the expert will save you money and time to pursue a path that is a waste of your time. This is the power of networking.
Where Should I Kickstart My New Venture?
Now that you been through the steps above. Where is the best place for you to start marketing your business?
I separate it into two categories when it comes to businesses, Product-Based and Service-Based ventures.
Product-based Venture
Starting a product-based venture requires much more capital than a service-based.
I’ve categorized it into two different options, the traditional and modern way.
1. Traditional way: Physical stocks in store to fulfill the order.
The traditional method requires some capital to stock up the inventories in order to fulfill the order in a timely manner.
You can leverage fulfillment services such as Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) to manage everything from storage, packaging, inventory control as well as delivery.
There will be some fees incurred for the storage and fulfillment process done by Amazon.
Recommended Sales Channel: Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, Instagram
Kickstart with a huge e-commerce site and social media is the best choice as those platforms are filled with users.
It is not wise to own an e-commerce store while you only have a handful of products.
Pros:
- Faster delivery time.
- Better profit margin due to purchase in a large quantity
- Leverage on the sales channel from huge E-Commerces stores.
Cons:
- Huge investment for inventories, you can’t have too many varieties in terms of products.
- More fees incurred using the fulfillment center for a large e-commerce website.
- The fulfillment process is painstaking if the process is not automated.
You will require a larger capital to start up a product-based venture in the traditional way. This excludes the marketing cost of this venture.
Why don’t we use the modern way for product-based ventures?
2. Modern way: Ship directly from the manufacturer.
The modern way of e-commerce requires practically no inventories from the business owner. It is called dropshipping.
You just need to have a proper sales channel to sell the item and leave the fulfillment process to the manufacturer.
Recommended Sales Channel: Shopify E-Commerces Site + Oberlo / Dropified
Shopify is a website-building platform that focuses on building your own e-commerce site.
The template comes with most of the e-commerce features that you need such as product pages, category pages, payment platform, add to cart services, and many more.
Oberlo and Dropified, on the other hand, automated tools which easily import products from manufacturer sites such as Aliexpress and DHgate.
Besides, it automates the product ordering process including placing orders on different sites and input the recipient address.
Pros:
- Low setup cost. You just need to manage your sales channel (your own website) or on huge e-commerce sites.
- No need to handle the fulfillment process.
Cons:
- Low-profit margin due to low quantity ordered from the manufacturer.
- Low entry point means many competitors selling the same product in the market.
- Huge spending on marketing costs.
- Capable of switching to a more profitable category.
One thing I like about dropshipping is giving you the flexibility to switch between categories or niches when it is not profitable.
You don’t have to fork out money to buy the inventories and found out that it is a not profitable business.
Service-based Venture
Many of us love service-based ventures. There are no inventories needed as the end results what the customer is looking for.
You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to promote your services.
Pros:
- Less investment needed to get started. Some service-based venture is literally free.
- You can work anywhere as long as you have a laptop and the required tools.
Cons:
- Low entry barrier.
- Takes a longer time to build up the reputation.
Here are some examples of where to start your service-based business.
1. Start on Freelance Jobs
Freelance jobs such as photo editing, copywriting is one of the best places to kick-start your side hustle.
A thousand customers around the globe are looking for a freelance job every single day. You can literally engage the customer around the world.
You can visit the website likes Fiverr, Upwork, 99designs, and Freelancer. The more you join, the better the chances you will get a freelance job.
2. Become a Social Media Influencer
Social media not only bring billions to their creators, but it also brings millions to the content contributors, AKA the Influencers.
Have you ever wonder how much does one of the Instagram posting cost to an advertiser? As much as $30000 for a post!!
That is the life of the influencers. They build up their social media followers and leverage them to earn a living!
If you love taking great pictures and making great videos, this is the path that you should be choosing!
Start updating your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts now! Don’t forget to put in a lot of #hashtags.
3. Building Your Online Brand and Presence
Have you ever wonder how a blogger can make thousands of dollars every month?
How can a 5-year-old “thewirecutter.com” website be sold for $30 million by just doing a comparison of products and never spend a penny on advertising? How did they do it?
Well, most of them earn a living by building their online presence as a pro in those categories. When a customer made a purchase, they get some commission from the sellers.
This is called affiliate marketing.
You can build a website around the things that you are passionate about. Eventually, you will become a pro in that niche.
I’ve written a comprehensive post on how to get started on affiliate marketing for beginners with less risk.
You can get started right now for FREE to understand more about this!
Conclusion
While I have suggested various ways to guide you on how to get out of the rat race, it is ultimately up to you to take action!
YOU can be still reading it all day and hit the “Back” button and nothing will happen.
Take ACTIONS now by starting off one of the 3 service-based ventures today which is less risky!