5 Ways to Jump Start Your Small Business or Side Hustle
I love working with creative, entrepreneurial women of color! Part of it is that I love having a fresh start – a clean slate – on which to build and create something new.
So let’s get real about how to get started! Here are my top 5 recommendations for anyone in the early stages of a creative or entrepreneurial venture.
1. Start.
Yep, that’s it. You may laugh, but if I had a dollar for every time I talk to a woman of color who has a brilliant idea for something, but is stuck in the ideation stage or is in year three of perfecting a plan…
While I do believe that everything happens in it’s own time and there’s no reason to create a false sense of urgency, I also know that there is no such thing as perfect. So, if you’ve done your research and created a skeletal plan – and you know it’s your perfectionistic tendencies holding you back – then it’s time to put something out there.
All you need is a starting point somewhere in the public sphere. You will edit, tweak, and refine from there. But you will never have a polished product, service, website, social media channel – or anything! – unless you put some kind of prototype out there.
2. Talk to people.
Specifically, talk to your ideal clients, customers, or audience. As entrepreneurial women of color, a lot of times, we’re afraid to hear what people will say about our business ideas. And rightly so! We have, as a community, faced more than our fair share of criticism, unsolicited advice, and excessive scrutiny. (Not to mention having our ideas and intellectual property stolen from us!) So I get the fear.
At the same time, I encourage you to trust that your ideal clients are going to tell you exactly what you need to hear and know in order to build a successful, viable business or side hustle. Also, it’s so much better to hear the constructive feedback in the early stages – as opposed to finding out after you’ve invested way more time, energy, and money (and lost your objectivity by getting overly attached to your perspective).
Feedback and advice of ideal clients in the early days is GOLD!!!
3. Optimize your workspace.
Dedicate some workspace (even if it’s small) to your business, project, or side hustle. It can be physical and/or virtual. This is where you can keep everything organized and consolidated. Spend time thinking about how best to keep things organized and what kind of set up will be most conducive to getting work done (this is highly personal and specific to you and your preferences and needs!), and then actually set up your workspace.
A note: it’s much easier to organize (and re-organize) a few folders of 20 documents early on, than to try to organize one folder of 200 documents for the first time one year in. Some clutter is okay (in fact, if you’re like me, clutter is inevitable and also not something that keeps me from doing focused deep work) – as long as you aren’t wasting too much brain space keeping track of where everything is.
4. Write down directions for yourself.
Honestly, this might be the best time-saving tip on here. I learned this from John Natoli of Pollen Brands, who shared this on an informational interview phone call when I was in the very early stages of my business. He told me to create “processes” (or protocols) for myself, which I basically took to mean checklists. So whenever I did something that I’d later have to repeat (especially things that I’d have to do a month, quarter, or year later) I’d create a checklist of steps to take.
Since then, I’ve heard people call these SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and it’s basically like building a manual for yourself (and others, once you start delegating work), one task at a time. So, anything you anticipate repeating, write down the steps you’re taking as you do the task the first (or, more realistically, the second or third) time. It’s not necessarily fun, but it will save you so much time, frustration, and energy later on!
Similarly, for emails, if you find yourself sending the same email more than twice, turn it into a template. Take the email text and use canned responses in Gmail, create a template in Outlook, or use an app like MixMax to turn it into an email template!
5. Be patient.
Starting something new is a TON of work, it can be grueling, and – especially in the early days – you may not have any “results” to speak of. So please be kind and patient with yourself and with your business’ or side hustle’s development.
Building relationships with your clients, customers, and audience takes time. They have to trust you and that’s simply not going to happen overnight. Think about how you’ve grown to trust other businesses, products, or entrepreneurs. I bet it didn’t happen overnight, right?
So try to enjoy the process and go easy on yourself.
Alright that’s it! If you have thoughts or questions, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or Instagram or email me at happier@embracechange.nyc
