These days, it’s not so much a matter of what you do, but a matter of how and when you do it, when it comes to owning your future. It bums me out when I hear from people who feel ashamed of their need to find more fulfillment in life. Well, here’s the thing. You should never feel ashamed for wanting to live better and be fulfilled by your work. How you feel is how you feel and it’s a direct result of your desire to live a meaningful life. Honestly, it’s healthy to have those thoughts. It is okay to dream of freedom and control of your own time, money and talents as an entrepreneur. Even better, it’s possible! It doesn’t happen all at once, but it can happen if you devote time to your transition period. Last week’s post was for my ambitious nontrepreneurs. This week’s post is for my aspiring entrepreneurs who are also ready to get movin and groovin.

When people think about starting their own brand or business, those thoughts are most often followed by feelings of complete and utter overwhelm. Where the heck do I start? How do I be smart about this and not screw up my whole life? (Hint, hint: that fear and hesitation is why you feel stuck). There is a lot to cover when it comes to how you can get started as an entrepreneur. However, what many don’t realize is that there is much more prep work required of you before you can even get to the stage where you coin yourself an entrepreneur. So, instead of rambling on like all those other articles you see out there about how you should just go for it, I’m going to break the initial process down for you via a… yep, you guessed it…all new b3 breakthrough. Buckle up, Bs.

So, you want to be an entrepreneur? You have this gut feeling that following your heart and your awesome idea is what you’re meant to do with your life, but you’re not ready to throw all of your eggs in one basket? Fear not. There’s a ton of simple steps you can take first that will help you get to where you want to be!

Tackling The Transition Period

Your Transition Period is that weird limbo you experience between having a job and a really great idea for a brand or business. You maintain your day job and use your free time on lunch breaks, pre-work and post-work to pursue your hobby and develop your actual dream. Once you come up with an idea, it’s hard to justify taking it seriously, but you should and you can. Your transition period begins the moment you commit to your awesome idea and start taking action steps toward giving it life.

Main Objectives

• Acknowledge your aspiration(s)
• Make and manage time for your aspiration(s)
• Keep acknowledging your aspiration(s) with consistent efforts to grow and improve

Reaching your Transition Period is the easy part. It’s once you’re there that gets intimidating. You need to be ready to work twice as hard and make 100X the effort. You need to find free time to develop in your transition period. Otherwise known as the little things you can do everyday to give life to your awesome idea(s).

Prep – Do your research. Brush up on certain skills and truly identify what magic you’d like to share with the world. OWN your idea and position yourself as the true expert. The internet is one of your best and most affordable resources and so is having conversations with real human beings! Make connections as part of this prep phase. Grow your value and see what stems from those discoveries. Try taking an online course, sifting through online journals and articles to consider what is already out there and how you would differ from those who may be doing similar things.

Reflect – Spend time brainstorming and exploring your creative mindset to grow your idea further. You know I’m a huge advocate of list building and mind mapping. Use these tools as resources to help you refine your goals and your vision of success as it relates to your aspiration(s).

Act – Look for side gigs, such as freelance opportunities or other small tasks related to your field where you can gain experience (and possibly extra cash) by sharing what you already know. Start small and begin to build a rep in your desired field as a reliable expert/helper. Fiverr is a great resource and it never hurts to see what people are saying about your interests on sites like Twitter (with hashtags), as well as Quora and Reddit (open forums).

Track – Record all of your research, the info you obtain, the work you do, the sketches/notes you scribble. Keep a notebook or create a Google Drive folder designated to your mission…OR DO BOTH! One day you’ll reach a point where you will be able to share your wealth of extra knowledge as support for your goal/aspiration. Keep track of your progress (small victories count too!) and successes so that you can share it all with your audience someday. This is how you will refine and grow your brand.

After reading these tips, you may be thinking, “this sounds way too easy!” Welp, that’s the kicker: It is. Simple steps count and, in due time, you’ll notice you’ll be making more and more effort in each of these realms. That’s how you start, that’s how you grow and that’s how you improve. Don’t worry, it will get harder. That’s how you’ll know your efforts and contributions are advancing.

One of the best feelings is when you decide to make a positive change in your life and start taking real steps toward doing what you really want to do. That’s exactly what got me here with B3 and I hope it gets you everywhere you want and need to be.

Discover a new interest, idea or inspiration you’d like to share? Leave a comment on this post or share it with us on our Facebook page!