Hey possums!

This week, me + my Chief Operations Officer/brother-from-another-mother Grant will be answering one of your questions.

Namely:

We hear this question a lot.

You might be wondering the answer too.

So the two of us will answer in our own ways.

Working for income while you’re trying to plan your business is a challenge for a lot of people.

Putting yourself in a position to start things moving forward in your business is key.

Ask yourself these questions to help you get there:

• Is there a different job you can take?
• Can you job-share?
• Can you change to a lower position of responsibility that will give you more head-space?
• Can you do some of your job remote, saving on some aspects of your commute and workplace related things like looking awesome (not that you don’t need to look awesome at home, but some days the first time I think about myself is when I see myself on Skype and I’m like ‘holy hell, what happened?’)

Look for ways that you can leverage what you know and what you can already do into a situation that is a solid next step. You might not need to jump fully off the cliff to make it work.

I know Leonie started her business while still working in a civil service job – but managed to get it off the ground enough to see the potential and while she still had to step off, it wasn’t the same as into nothing.

Yeah. What dude said above.

I have been blogging for 11 years + only fully quit my cubicle job 5.5 years ago.

I worked on my blog/fledgling business at night and on weekends.

As it grew busier, I slowly reduced my hours down. By the end I was only doing 3 days a week, and then I was ready to take the full leap + soar.

I’m a huge advocate for NOT quitting cold turkey to start a business. It takes time to test the market, learn how to run a business + build your audience. And it is way, way, WAY better to do that when you are NOT freaking out about paying rent each week.

So, here’s my advice for anyone who is working + business-ing it up:

Find a place that doesn’t suck to work.

You know – one that isn’t super awful & without a nutty boss. If you can find a place that is flexible & allows you to go part-time at some stage, even better.

Not having to worry about finding money to pay rent while you play with your passions & work out what you want to do is really, really lovely. Having the backup of a job’s money, structure & stability can be really healthy. It definitely was for me!

(This were from a month-long work competition I invented called The Cheese Awards 2006. The person who could selfie the biggest smile with me would win… a block of cheese. #thingsIdotoamusemyself)

BRING GLITTER WHEREVER YOU GO.

I’m convinced that half the reason my office job was lovely was because I made it lovely. I was the one who did angel card readings at her desk. The one who held a hugging competition and hugged 200 people in one day. The one who gave shoulder massages to other people. Who wrote very silly weekly roundup emails to bring joy to the job. Who interviewed people in the office to find out what their passions were, and got them published in our work newsletters.

I even took a three month stint doing financial reporting (yuck!) because I wanted to see just how far I could spread the glitter into the belly of the public service dinosaur.

My findings? People everywhere are open to love and joy and having fun. They just need someone to start it.

Evidence A:

That time we did “Team Building” by going sailing on the lake.

Unfortunately, only one of us knew how to sail.

The rest of us mostly just fell off the boat laughing, and got stuck in swamps until the Water Police helpfully helped us out.

Evidence B:

I would regularly create “Friends + Strangers” lunch dates where any of our workmates invited random friends + we would have theme parties + tell secrets + call each other by porn star names. Because #whythefuckwouldntwe?

(Above is everyone pulling their most “Sultry” Face. We then rated who won. Ben [second from right] won of course. He’s also a talented comic artist. He didn’t work with us, he was my “Random Stranger” invite. I met him on a bus. I meet a lot of people on buses. Yes, I’m one of those crazies that talks to everyone. I’ve made some beautiful friends + deep connections on buses! And yes – I am an introvert. I really do have to push myself to talk to people. I do it because I know there are miracles to be found in connection.)

Evidence C:

In the ricketty old work lift with my boss + HR manager. Both of whom are still my dearest friends today.

Lile sat beside me for 7 years + we managed to never argue. After I had Mermaid Daughter #1, she came + made me food. She is endlessly thoughtful + loyal as fuckery.

Deb introduced me to the magic of women’s circles + is one of the greatest spiritual influences of my life.

Office jobs pay good friend dividends.

Transition slowly

Once your business is built up, and your income streams have been worked out and fine tuned, then you can start the process of transitioning from full-time work to part-time work to full-time business goddess.

It doesn’t have to be an ALL IN, ALL OUT kinda thing. You do NOT have to quit your job in order to start the business of your dreams. My recommendation is having some balance, and doing it in a way that is fun, easy, non-stressy and in line with the evolution and growth of your business.

I repeat: You can have a job & STILL be a business goddess.

Be gentle on yourself, dearest. Give yourself the gift of time to grow and have fun without massive pressure!

My studio where I would spend many joyous Mondays + Fridays by myself.

And something I painted on that very desk…

You have no idea where your experiences will take you and what your jobs will end up helping with in your business.

There were a lot of very, very boring things I did in my various jobs. And I always considered what I was doing to be completely the antithesis of what I really wanted to be doing.

But here’s the thing: every single one of the jobs I did taught me wonderful and valuable things.

Things that came in handy much, much further down the line in my business.

For example: the time I spent as a legal secretary helped with getting more comfortable with the legal contracts I needed to know about when we formed a company. The time I spent in financial reporting made me feel less squeamish about numbers and spreadsheets and profit and loss statements. My job at business.gov.au taught me all sorts of odd + wonderful skills that have come in handy – from project management to online editing to events!

Every job taught me wonderful things about how to interact with people, how to be compassionate, how to set boundaries.

All in all: the things you are learning right now in your job may end up giving you wonderful skills that end up being incredibly useful + prosperity-making in your business.

It’s all doable. It’s all possible. We believe in you.

Big love,

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