Thinking About Becoming An Entrepreneur? Here’s My Advice

I geek out over things like new website themes and page designs, and just the simple act of updating my blog theme has re-invigorated my excitement for blogging. I’ve been slacking on the posts because of my obsession with getting my online stores running.

I decided I want to keep my business life completely separate to this blog and focus more on the principles and lessons I’ve learned going into life as a ‘solopreneur‘. It’s damn scary and intimidating at times but you just gotta get over those self-limiting beliefs and whatever fears you have and go for it, at least try it for a while.

Not everyone has the stomach to becoming an entrepreneuryou have to be pretty set on wanting to go this direction because it will really test you.

I find that when I follow whatever feels fun, then success comes naturally. This is a general description of the Law of Vibration which flows into the Law of Attraction, and was an idea that I learned from one of my online mentors, Abraham Hicks (via Esther Hicks).

Since I quit my job (and the fact I was still in my 20s), I really felt like I didn’t have much to write about in terms of success and motivational life tips because I wanted to achieve more first and prove to myself I’m not a bullshit artist like most of those Facebook Ads you see about people making five-figure incomes per month running a website.

Then I realised that I hadn’t done so bad, starting a business (dance studio) at age 20 while simultaneously working in the most innovative team (Digital) at the largest financial institution in the world (Citi) for almost a decade.

When I figured out I was better off leaving the desk job, I had doubts again. So I travelled for a bit, met my future husband in Hawaii, eloped after 10 months and built my online businesses to replace my banking salary in just 12 months. Not bad. I shouldn’t be so harsh on myself.

Anyways now that I built up the confidence to share my stories and how I got through the really low times in my journey, it seems the Law of Attraction is bringing similar, younger hopefuls contacting me for advice.

That’s great. We all need mentors, people to reach out to for some guidance. I read so many articles, listened to so many podcasts and watched hours of videos about going into business over 5 years before actually quitting my job (even though I was still running a business on the side).

It’s hard to give general advice here. The smart way would be to keep your day job and work on your side hustle and reduce your expenses, simplify your life so that you have a decent amount of life savings to fall back on at all times.

Not me.

I was in huge amounts of debt but I quit anyway AND took a 3 month trip around the world because… yolo. I was ballsy and well the good thing was that I met my future husband on that extended trip, which is worth every sacrifice I’ve made.

If you don’t really know what you want to do yet, then I’d caution you to stick to your day job until you have an idea and have launched it. I pretty much knew for several years that I wanted to focus on decluttering my house which turned into my first online business and that just exploded into this gigantic vortex of opportunities in the eCommerce space.

Everything started coming together – all my passions and expertise were being drawn on for this project. From the websites I used to build from scratch when I was 9 years old to content I’d create for my hip hop and dancing blogs during university years or the dance events I’d host in my studio, to the user experience design and testing, website product/project management and online marketing consulting I’d do in my day-to-day Citi life, I was prepped for this.

You might have ideas to start with, several in fact that you think you want to do. Then you start trying and it just evolves from there; for me it was based on what I absolutely loved doing.

I would sleep 4 hours a night just because I was so excited to learn all about Shopify apps or WordPress extensions and test them on my sites; or I’d be up creating dozens of eBay listing templates for my items, or talking to suppliers and negotiating bulk orders.

It’s fun. It should be fun. It won’t always be fun. But that’s what Netflix is for. To take breaks when you’re overwhelmed.

Also, exercise and meditation are essential to keep you performing at a high standard. You have to constantly clear your mind which helps settle the fears and doubts that will plague you every now and then.

I started to love cooking gourmet meals (I do a killer butter chicken now) and cleaning my house – the mindfulness of those activities and how it impacts your environment really helps with productivity if it gets your mind off your work.

Now, I write to get better at writing. I look at this post and I think it sucks – I know I can do better. But from what I’ve learnt, done is better than perfect. If you knew how many posts I didn’t publish because I wasn’t happy with them, well… I would have one for every day by now.

So start small. Do your research. Meditate on it. Follow what feels good. Be your #1 cheerleader.

Good luck.

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