In Your Business?
Written by Jessa Lewis.
When I first started my online business, This Jessa Lewis, I only had about $100 to put into it and I could have easily let this stop me from moving forward with the side hustle.
People I had spoken to often spouted off a range of figures with respect to what capital you needed to launch on online business. You ‘needed’ money for the website, the shopfront, the member site, the payment provider, the ads, the logo, the photoshoot etc. etc. etc. Fortunately I also had a good many mentors reminding me that I didn’t ‘need’ anything and didn’t have to do XYZ to start. I just needed to put myself out there.
From a fiscal point of view, the reality was that I could have easily started the business with $0. The only true required cost was ever going to be time and energy.
I was lucky enough to already have expertise with respect to building websites, creating graphics and editing media, and, using organic reach/strategy rather than paid ads to propel me forward BUT even if I hadn’t been - it would have all still been doable.
To this day, I use Canva to help create my graphics, iMovie to edit my videos and podcast episodes and PayPal Me to receive one off and subscription payments from clients. These are all free services or software options. I have also been very economical with my Wix website costs, MailChimp mailing list/funnel provider and other costs.
What's The Cost of Being Present Today?
These days, I don’t have my lucrative career supporting me and my early-stage business as 5 months into the journey I finished up at my day job. This has meant, at least for the time being, that my business investment on paper is even LESS than what it was 10 months ago. Not always the norm, and not necessarily ideal but regardless - doable and completely separate to the true required cost of it all.
From a time perspective, I probably spent at least 25 hours a week on my side hustle when I first launched it (whilst working 45 hours a week/4 days in my then career in Social Media/Business Management). Now, I spend about 35 hours a week on my business/client work whilst juggling the kids 2 days a week and sadly being reinstated as responsible for household duties.
So - if money is mostly besides the point and time is being allocated, how does the investment of energy come into play?
According to Bloomberg and Forbes, 80% of entrepreneurs fail in the first 18 months of their businesses - that’s 8/10 and it’s certainly not a disadvantage of capital that puts the majority of them in that space.
I believe the biggest challenge during this phase is instead finding the dedication and drive to show up online consistency with the right energy, separate to the flow of abundance.
The hardest moments of being an entrepreneur isn't so much in the getting started (but OMG if you haven’t, please do already!) or during the honeymoon period or later when things are going perfectly. It’s when things aren’t going your way, cash dries up and from an energetic place it feels so much harder to keep moving forward.
When the going gets tough these are my top tips to shift my state and focus in on my goals:
1. Write out my mission and remind myself of why I started. For me, my mission is to help the next million inspired entrepreneurs to create strategy and attract their tribe so that together our ripple affects can change the world.
2. Practice gratitude by writing out 11 things from the last week/month that I am grateful for in my business.
3. Do some journaling/guided meditation to help identify what my next business strategy steps are.
4. Load up on my essential oils, crystals, incense, and meditation music. What we surround ourselves with, hear, smell and sense changes our experience and I am a big believer in using earth medicine and sound healing to help with anxiety or move past negative moods in business.
At the end of the day, we all have a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and insight inside of us, and we could all start businesses tomorrow (and maintain them) with zero dollars and be seeing the rewards but it requires more than just money in our bank accounts to do so.
It requires tenacity, confidence, and moving through the mindset blocks that would otherwise provide us with excuses NOT to proceed.
It’s about having a purpose, passion, and calling the supersedes our bank balance and supersedes the ebb and flow of sales in the first however many months.
It’s about realizing that our worth and potential business impact is about so much more than any numbers.
What's The Cost What's The Cost What's The Cost