solopreneur

Going from corporate cog to solopreneur is never easy. It’s even harder if you are a mother. I remember the first time it happened. It’s seered into my memory. The first time I was addressed as R’s mother.

I winced at the introduction because it meant that I no longer had a name, or at least one that mattered. There was an irony in the situation. I had never wanted to be defined by a man. I wanted to be judged by my own accomplishments, by my own character. However my 3 year old son, a pre-man, was indeed the yardstick for how I would be identified and yes, judged.

I loved my son and loved being his mother. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him grow and discover new things about himself and his world. What I didn’t love was the fact that I now wasn’t quite sure who I had become. In my pre-Mommy days I had ran a nationally recognized think tank focused on civic engagement. I was regularly invited to speak at colleges and in the media.

That all changed in January 2005 when I resigned from the organization that I had co-founded and run for nearly 5 years. I now wanted to be a full-time mother to my 7 month old son. It was the right decision for me, I wanted to be a hands-on mother, but knowing that didn’t stop me from having an identity crisis. Like many women who leave the corporate world to start home-based businesses, I was adrift when the title, pay, external validation, friendships and perks of our old life was stripped away .

It took me some time to regain my footing. First I had to realize that both my personal life and my professional life had indeed changed. Then I had to figure out what I wanted to do. The personal end was easier, I loved caring for my son. I also knew that I needed to lose some weight and start taking better care of myself. Frumpy by choice may be one thing, but frumpy by neglect was an entirely different matter. I came to the conclusion that if I didn’t nurture Yvonne the woman, I wouldn’t have the energy and desire tackle my family and career goals.

Professionally I had to get clear about what type of work fit into my idea about motherhood. This meant working from home, very little travel and topics that centered on women. I was lucky that financially I didn’t have to worry about making money immediately; but I did have to figure out my next career move.

There is no magic formula, however once I was certain about my professional and personal priorities, opportunities started to appear. My first book was published the year my son was born. I wrote another book and worked on smaller projects. In 2008 I launched the first iteration of Sophisticated Woman and Mama (WorkingMomsMentor.com) and my motherhood anthology, Who’s Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers was published last year.

Here are 5 Steps to Making the Transition from Corporate Mom to Solopreneur:

1. Take care of yourself. A healthy and happy you has to be a priority for the sake of you and your family. If you are sick, tired or irritable how does that affect your interactions with your kids, spouse and possible clients? Schedule regular “me-time” so that you can nurture and care for yourself. Also make sure to go the doctor if you don’t feel well–DON’T ignore physical pain or discomfort.

2. Realize that you’ll probably miss your old job. Unless you are leaving your gig because you absolutely hate it, you’ll miss many aspects of it. Don’t beat yourself up, instead focus on creating your next act, which speaks to your current life and interests.

3. Before You Quit Have a Financial Plan. Have a safety net (cash and health benefits) that can take care of your financial obligations until your business is profitable (It will take most businesses several years to make a dime).

4. Don’t Immediately Jump into a New Field. Rather entering a new field, develop a transition strategy. Start with the skills and talents that you already have ( volunteer or moonlight), so that you have contact and clients when you do escape cubicle nation.

5. Don’t fire your daycare provider. It’s VERY difficult to start a business and take care of children, so you’ll probably need a few hours a week of child care. (At three years I started sending my son to daycare for 2-1/2 hours 3x a week). You want to spend more time with your children, but you’ve also got to dedicate time to work that generates income.

Most important!!–Learn to do motherhood your own way. Like your child, it changes everyday. Ask for help and advice, but trust your gut about what you do.

P.S. If you enjoyed this post today, do me a favor and share it on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, or any of the other sites you see below as well. And I’d love to get your feedback… What do you think? Also don’t forget to download my FREE report: 5 WAYS TO LOVE YOUR LIFE NOW and STOP BEING A GUILTY, STRESSED OUT WORKING MOTHER that can be found at SophisticatedWomanandMama.com

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Why did you start your business? It’s not a trick question. Most folks will immediately say, “To make money,” but there is usually another reason lurking beneath that slick answer. Maybe you want to be able to provide your children with a great education and extracurricular activities; perhaps you’d like to retire with a nice nest egg. Maybe you started your business because you truly believe that your product or service can improve people’s lives.

It’s an important questions to ponder. Why? Because the underlying reason you started your business, not the dollar signs, is what will keep you motivated to slog through all of the terror and confusion that’s associated with being a business owner. Whether you having a successful business is to benefit you, your family or the world, you know that failure is not an option for you.

But if you’re like me, you may have started your business and then quickly realized that being an entrepreneur was no joke. You learned that having an idea or even a good product or service is not enough to create a financially viable business. In the beginning you may have poured money and time into your business without generating a dime of income. You may have also become overwhelmed by all of advice and strategies that are being touting as the “answer” to developing a money-making business.

After spinning my wheels for a bit, I’ve realized that regardless of the “system” or “blueprint” that is being discussed there are three (3) main components to building a sustainable business. I caution that these are not quick fixes to instant riches, think of them instead as building blocks.

Planning: Call it goal setting if you like, but it boils down to deciding what you want/need to achieve within a given time frame. Do you want to launch a new product? Write a book? Get invited to speak at a professional conference? Open a an online or brick and mortar store? Clarity of purpose is important. Why is this goal important to the success of your business? It’s also important to set a deadline for the attaining the specific goal. Deadlines gives us humans a needed sense of urgency. I can’t forget this— You need to plan how much money you want/need to generate a month or per quarter. I personally learned the hard way that real businesses don’t run on a “I’ll make do with what I can make” basis. As a solopreneur, your income is tied to your revenue projections and your calculations on how you can achieve that dollar figure.

Execution: Basically this involves mapping out the action steps that you need to take to support your goal(s). If you are launching a new product, your actions steps may include: doing some market research; writing or recording content; interviewing experts in the field; investigating vendors who can manufacture the product. If you plan to make $5,000 a month, then you need to determine how many units of your product(s) you need to sell or how many clients, you will need to achieve that income goal. Essentially each goal can be broken down into a series of smaller action steps.

Marketing: It’s how you regularly educate your target audience about your product or service. Most of the experts agree that solopreneurs should be spending between 2-4 hours per day on marketing activities. It sounds like a lot of time, but what’s the point of working to refine your product or service when you have no clients? Marketing activities include: creating new offerings for your target audience (products, tele-classes, programs, services); researching and following-up on opportunities; connecting with your clients. Client contact can include one or more of the following: sending out regualar blog posts (written, audio or video); sending out a monthly e-newsletter; interacting daily via social media such as Twitter or Facebook.

Mastering the building blocks of business development is critical to your business. After you’ve got these principles down, then you can move on to the delving into the shiny, exciting bells and whistles.

Here are some related posts that you may find helpful:

Solopreneurs and Freelancers: Do You Have A Business Improvement Plan?

Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review: Overview and Outline (It’s not too late to do the exercise)

Danielle LaPorte’s The Secret to Self-Promotion: Radiance and the Facts, Jack

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