It can be terrifying to start a business. Will you lose money? Will you forget to do something?
I’m here to reassure you – you will make mistakes. It’s all part of learning and growing, and that’s okay. The key is to have a plan for getting started and processes for fixing problems as they come up.
Decide and Commit
Unfortunately, we often decide to do something, but we don’t always commit to complete it.
Have you ever decided to go on a diet?
So don’t decide to make money. Decide and commit to setting up a side business that will bring you in extra funds. When things get tough (and they will), remember your commitment to succeed and persist past it.
Often times, the entrepreneur will need to do something like research or write a blog or check up on the performance of an affiliate link, and they will get sucked into social media for “just a second.” Then a few hours go by.
You can set a timer to go off every fifteen minutes to wake you up out of what you’re doing and remind you to get back to work. Often, mentors recommend writing down what you were doing and thinking at the time the buzzer goes off. And don’t worry. You only have to do this for a few days before you catch yourself drifting. Then it’s back to work time.
Persistence Is the Core of Achievement
Everyone who has ever achieved success in their lives has done it through persistence.
If you want to achieve your goals of making money online, you need an unwavering resolution to see it through.
Yes, it will be hard.
Yes, you’ll make mistakes.
But when you stick to your commitment, the magic will happen. And you will be a better person having learned the skills of self-discipline and patience.
Identify Your Needs
What is it that you really want to achieve?
Do you want to work a few hours to bring in money to cover your rent or car payment?
Or do you want to start a business that replaces your current income (or more!).
It’s ok to start slowly and build up as well. This way you learn about yourself and your tolerance for risk.
You also need to figure out how much you can invest. It may be nothing right now. I’d recommend signing up for my ebook on How To Earn $109.61 in the next 13 Days (Then Do It Again and Again and Again)
Start earning a little bit extra each week, and put half aside for your future. You can invest in coaching or education. The more you know, the better decisions you will make. And this money is earmarked just for you to build your business.
There are sites out there where you can learn things like affiliate marketing for free. That’s one of the first ways many people choose to go to earn money. You don’t need a paid website, and email hosts like MailChimp are free if you’re under a certain number of subscribers.
Test the Water
You may love shopping and think that being a concierge or working for companies like Instacart could be a great way to get fast pocket money.
But you won’t know until you try it out a few times.
You may find that it doesn’t fit into your schedule, or is more stressful when trying to find substitutions. Or you may find you love it.
You may think doing quick surveys or Amazon Turk is a good way to earn some cash while waiting for things. But you may find it doesn’t earn you as much as you’d hoped for.
So, try it out. See how well it works for your life.
I’m not saying you have to love it to continue doing it. Heaven knows we’ve all had to take jobs or have a class with one of THOSE teachers where we counted the days until we could move on. You need to have a balance with long and short term thinking and also knowing what you’re willing to put up with.
Set Up Your Boundaries
There are a few types of boundaries you need to think about when creating your mindset.
- Your time
- Your feelings
- Your beliefs
Your time may be obvious. You need to know your schedule and when you have time for doing microgigs. Pull out a calendar or use an online one like Google. Block out the big things like when you have to eat dinner with the family, or when you have to be somewhere like class or a job.
Then you can schedule in when you have time to work on your business.
Schedule time for this before you schedule time to goof around on Facebook or binge watch your favorite series. Put your future self first.
Next, you will need to set up boundaries for your feelings. I’m here to tell you that people who love you will say things that hurt. They may mean well, but they don’t understand who you are and why you’re here right now.
“Well if you just managed your money better…”
“Well if you applied yourself and got a promotion…”
Put your favorite in the comments.
But you need to protect yourself from this. You can’t let it get in your head. Practice smiling and saying “Thank you.” And leave it at that.
Ok, my favorite? “Thanks for your opinion. I’ll file it accordingly.”
Then let it go. If you have problems with that, create a journal where you write down all the negativity, and then promise yourself you are going to leave it in the journal and not bring it into your real life.
And finally, you need to set boundaries around your beliefs. You need to stop talking yourself out of success. How many times do you get an idea and then the voice in your head says, “Why bother. Who would listen to you?”
You need to protect yourself from yourself sometimes. Mel Robbins wrote a great book called The 5 Second Rule. She told her story about how she motivated herself and protected herself from negative self-talk. You need to do this too.
Plan Your Roadmap
How much do you want to make? And do you have a timeline?
Some people just want to make enough for a road trip for a concert. And good on them! It’s fun to have these experiences and have the pocket money to enjoy them. You can do a lot in the short term.
Others just want a little extra money for above and beyond. Perhaps they want extra to invest for retirement. This requires medium to long-term planning. And you want to find something you enjoy. You may be able to combine a hobby with a business and sell crafts on Etsy. Or go yard sale’ing and sell your treasures on eBay. You need to figure out how to set up a business, how to plan for supplies, and then time to create. You’ll also need to figure out how to ship the items.
And others want the freedom and intend to have their side hustle replace their current income. This will require more planning. You’ll want to take into account self-employment taxes, how you’ll pay for health insurance, and how you will run your business. I’ll go into this in a lot more detail in a future blog post. But remember, you need extra money above and beyond your take-home pay.
Final Thoughts
To be successful in earning fast pocket money, you need to believe in yourself. And you need to have a plan. That requires you to know how much you want to earn, when you want to earn it by, and identify what you think you may want to do. Then try it out. You may love it, or you may hate it, and need to move on to something new.
And I’ll say it again – protect yourself against other people’s opinions and that little voice in your head.
You can do this because you deserve to make extra money. And it can be easy.
I’m here to help you if you need it. Don’t forget to check out the Facebook page.
