Latest / You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women / 95. You Want to Start a Side Business But Don’t Know Where to Start

Transcript

95. You Want to Start a Side Business But Don’t Know Where to Start · You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women

• 0:08
  Hi, I'm Danny Tan and if you are here, you are in the right
• 0:11
  place. Welcome to the Pivot and
• 0:12
  Promotion podcast where we say forget the rules because they
• 0:15
  weren't written for us. I'm Danny Tan, I'm your host as
• 0:18
  well as career and leadership coach and a proud advocate for
• 0:21
  redefining what success and leadership looks like.
• 0:24
  And here's what I know. You can lead at any level, you
• 0:27
  can pivot at any age, and you can make moves that feel right
• 0:30
  for you, whether you're climbing the corporate ladder, starting
• 0:33
  something completely new, or just figuring out your next
• 0:35
  step. I've got you covered with
• 0:36
  strategies, stories, and straight up inspiration.
• 0:39
  So let's make some moves. OK, so we're talking about how
• 0:48
  you want to start a side business, but you don't know
• 0:50
  where to start. And I think this will be fun
• 0:54
  because everyone has that like one idea that they've been
• 0:58
  sitting on and sitting on and sitting and they're like, should
• 1:00
  I take action in it? Should I make it happen?
• 1:02
  And yes, yes, you should. And it doesn't have to be an all
• 1:05
  or nothing approach. I kind of talked about this in
• 1:07
  the episode from the week prior about how it doesn't have to be
• 1:10
  all or nothing in one way. And so if you want to start a
• 1:14
  side business or you've been sitting in the idea of starting
• 1:16
  a side business and you don't know where to start, let's just
• 1:19
  talk about it. Let's just talk about what it
• 1:21
  means to start that business that you've been wanting to
• 1:23
  start. And so Part 1 is the hesitation
• 1:26
  phase. I've been thinking about it for
• 1:28
  years. Is that you?
• 1:31
  And so you've had a business idea on your mind.
• 1:33
  Maybe you've had multiple ideas on your mind for months or maybe
• 1:36
  even years, but you have not taken any action towards it
• 1:38
  because of all the woulda shoulda coulda's that have
• 1:41
  popped up in your mind of why it could be a bad idea or maybe
• 1:45
  because you don't know where to start.
• 1:47
  And so the hesitation phase is the part that will keep you in
• 1:52
  in action where you won't take action towards it, what it is
• 1:55
  that you want to do. So if you are wondering maybe,
• 1:59
  oh, am I the entrepreneurial type?
• 2:01
  Is this for me? Is it just like a fantasy?
• 2:04
  Well, I hate it once I'm there. What if I don't make any money?
• 2:07
  What if I fail at it? I'm scared.
• 2:09
  What will others think of me? And So what if I failed
• 2:12
  publicly? That seems embarrassing.
• 2:14
  These are all a part of the hesitation phase that is holding
• 2:19
  you back from just trying something that you've already
• 2:22
  been thinking about for years, for absolutely years.
• 2:25
  And so I want you to kind of say what the fact of why are you
• 2:29
  hesitating? Where is the hesitation coming
• 2:32
  from? What is stopping you from
• 2:34
  trying? And if it is the answer of
• 2:37
  failure, of what other people will think, what is the worst
• 2:40
  that will happen if those things happen?
• 2:43
  Can you pick yourself back up? Have you failed before?
• 2:45
  How will you support yourself? Do you care about what those
• 2:48
  other people think? Right.
• 2:50
  And if you've been sitting on this idea for five years, two
• 2:53
  years, months, how much longer are you willing to sit with it
• 2:57
  and wonder what if, what if, what if?
• 2:58
  And if you're totally OK with living with a life with what
• 3:01
  ifs, that's totally fine. But I live my life with not
• 3:04
  wanting to experience large amounts of regret.
• 3:07
  I'd rather just do the thing and either I do it and I really
• 3:10
  didn't want, I don't like it. And at least I know that and I
• 3:12
  have information to go off of versus always wondering in this
• 3:15
  dreamland. And so a client example that I
• 3:18
  will share with you is I had a client who came to me and she
• 3:22
  was like I for years, for years have been wanting to start this
• 3:26
  marketing business, but I don't know.
• 3:29
  I don't know if I can do it. One, I'm an immigrant.
• 3:32
  I'm not even originally from this country too.
• 3:34
  I was like, what if no one takes me seriously?
• 3:36
  I'm not high enough of a level within my marketing career in
• 3:39
  order to be seen and taken seriously.
• 3:42
  And so she'd just been thinking about it and thinking about it
• 3:44
  and thinking about it. And so I was like, let's talk
• 3:48
  about what it looks like to even just start something so simple
• 3:51
  of like, what is 1 simple way that you can help somebody out
• 3:55
  of the things and the experience that you already have?
• 3:57
  What is 1 simple thing that you could serve to help somebody
• 4:00
  with? And knowing that even if you are
• 4:02
  not at the CEOCMO, whichever O level, it's OK because as long
• 4:10
  as you are further along than somebody else, you're able to
• 4:13
  help them with the information and the education that you have.
• 4:17
  And as long as you do it with good intention, you'll be able
• 4:20
  to help somebody in some way in some capacity.
• 4:22
  And so I think we get stuck on so many different things of like
• 4:25
  having the perfect plan, the perfect website, the the perfect
• 4:29
  offer, all these things. But it's just like, what is one
• 4:33
  thing that you can in one way you can help someone is just the
• 4:36
  best way to start it. And so that was the first thing
• 4:38
  that we talked about was for her.
• 4:40
  And the first thing she was like, I can do SEO in my sleep.
• 4:43
  I know how to do that in my day job.
• 4:44
  I can do that in this business. And so the thing was, OK, so SEO
• 4:47
  is going to be the way you're going to help someone.
• 4:49
  Now let's find somebody who you can help that you'd want to
• 4:51
  help. And for her, she was like, well,
• 4:53
  I have this like group of people that I know in the Wellness
• 4:56
  industry, maybe I could help one of them and help them with their
• 4:59
  website. They have an amazing website,
• 5:02
  amazing services that they do with these retreats, but I don't
• 5:04
  know if everyone knows about them and they can get more
• 5:07
  clients. And so I was like, well, want to
• 5:09
  make a proposal to help them. And so they did that.
• 5:11
  I ended up booking their first client.
• 5:12
  Not to say that it's always going to be that simple and not
• 5:15
  easy, but it's when you have the skill set and you see that there
• 5:17
  is a need and you're able to help serve and provide for that
• 5:21
  need. It's just about being able to
• 5:22
  find the opportunity. And then there you go, first
• 5:25
  client. And so for her, she was like,
• 5:27
  OK, I'm doing this. And now from learning, from
• 5:29
  experience, she's learning, OK, what parts does she like?
• 5:32
  What parts does she want to add more of?
• 5:33
  How does she want to help this person?
• 5:35
  Does she want to help more people like this?
• 5:37
  And so that is the way that you can get out of the hesitation,
• 5:40
  the overthinking, the research, the the thinking of the what ifs
• 5:44
  and just taking action towards it.
• 5:46
  I'll even talk about myself for an an example.
• 5:49
  I knew since 2018, this year is 2025.
• 5:52
  I knew since 2018 that I wanted to build a business, but I had
• 5:56
  no idea what kind of business. And I was like, well, I don't
• 5:58
  have the right name. I don't have an LLC.
• 6:01
  I don't know how I want to serve people.
• 6:03
  I don't know. I wasn't I had experience in
• 6:05
  e-commerce and retail and and digital, but I didn't know if I
• 6:07
  wanted to do that and be a consultant for that all these
• 6:10
  different things. And so I kept hesitating and
• 6:13
  waiting on building a business because I wasn't sure on what
• 6:15
  action I wanted to take. I just knew that I wanted to
• 6:17
  help people. And so for me, the biggest thing
• 6:19
  was me, I was getting in my own way.
• 6:20
  I had no ideas to some ideas to unclear ideas.
• 6:24
  And so from 2018 up until 2023, I finally started working with a
• 6:32
  business coach who sat me down and was like, OK, we need to
• 6:37
  just sit down and actually like do the work of the reflection of
• 6:40
  the analysis of the homework of what it is you need support wise
• 6:43
  in order to make this happen, to come with fruition.
• 6:45
  And so, yeah, it was the hesitation of what if I picked
• 6:48
  this thing and it's the wrong thing that I picked for my
• 6:50
  business and I'm not good at it or I fail at it or I, I have to
• 6:54
  be vulnerable, put myself out there.
• 6:56
  And so realizing that like the first iteration of your business
• 6:59
  is not the forever version of your business, I'm going to say
• 7:02
  that one more time. The first iteration of your
• 7:04
  business is not always going to be the forever version of your
• 7:08
  business business. And so if it helps you at all to
• 7:10
  get out of the hesitation phase, the overthinking phase is just
• 7:13
  knowing that start with the first idea.
• 7:15
  That feels like, OK, let me just start with this first one and
• 7:19
  then test it out. And then it's going to evolve,
• 7:21
  right? Who I was and you're one of my
• 7:24
  business versus who I am now. There are some things that I
• 7:28
  definitely changed, right? But for me, my vision and my
• 7:33
  values and my mission have always stayed the same.
• 7:34
  But maybe how I deliver it, how I serve it has changed.
• 7:37
  And so just knowing that you just need to have a jumping off
• 7:39
  point of starting or else you will always stay in hesitation
• 7:43
  and in action, which is not going to help you move forward.
• 7:45
  It's better to take messy action and to move forward than to take
• 7:49
  no action and to have nothing to show for it.
• 7:52
  So here is the prompt that I have for you.
• 7:55
  What is 1 idea you've been sitting on and what would it
• 7:58
  take for you to actually take action and give it a shot?
• 8:01
  So what is 1 idea you've been sitting on and what would it
• 8:05
  take for you to actually take action and give it a shot?
• 8:08
  I'm super curious. Is it accountability?
• 8:12
  Is it a friend? Is it a mentor?
• 8:13
  Is it a coach? Is it just trying to get your
• 8:16
  first client? Is it having some information,
• 8:17
  interviews with people who do that?
• 8:19
  Like what could it be for you? And the next piece, which I kind
• 8:22
  of touched on was being able to take that first step when it
• 8:26
  comes to just getting some clarity, getting some, having a
• 8:30
  package and testing it out. And so you don't have to have a
• 8:32
  full on business plan to start your business or to test it out.
• 8:36
  People think I have to have a business plan with all these
• 8:39
  different things before I go ahead and execute it.
• 8:41
  Like, yes, can you do that? For sure.
• 8:43
  But also, if you're someone who knows that you are notoriously
• 8:45
  get stuck in research phase or hesitation and you just circle
• 8:49
  around there and you don't move forward, then I challenge you to
• 8:52
  kind of make a move. So here's an example.
• 8:56
  Just having an idea of like what is 1 clean offer and one person
• 8:59
  you can help. So like in the example that I
• 9:01
  said before, she knew that SEO was her thing.
• 9:03
  So just need to find one person to help.
• 9:05
  For me myself, I had always helped people with their careers
• 9:08
  in my corporate job with building out teams.
• 9:10
  And I also did it in a nonprofit volunteering with first Gen.
• 9:13
  college students. So I always knew that I
• 9:15
  inherently could help people when it came to career
• 9:17
  development. I had those tools and those
• 9:19
  skill sets from who I helped, from the experience that I
• 9:21
  they've had. So just need to find a person
• 9:23
  who needed it. And so once you have that, it's
• 9:27
  all about focusing on the value that you can provide someone.
• 9:31
  Our business is typically about, it is about value of what you
• 9:34
  can provide to someone else, the service you can provide to
• 9:36
  somebody else, what goals are trying to achieve and how you
• 9:38
  can help them achieve it, right? Whether that's through a
• 9:40
  product, whether that's through a service like you pick.
• 9:43
  And so realizing that it's not about having like the perfect
• 9:46
  package or the perfect business plan, but just having a starting
• 9:49
  point of who do you want to help and how can you help them?
• 9:52
  And so make that first move. And that's what it comes down
• 9:55
  to. How do you make that first move?
• 9:56
  So understanding when you have an idea of who it is you want to
• 9:59
  help, OK, where are they? That's the first step.
• 10:02
  Who do you want to help? What kind of problems do they
• 10:04
  have? What kind of problems can you
• 10:05
  help them solve? And where do they hang out?
• 10:07
  Are they someone who's going to be on LinkedIn?
• 10:09
  Are they someone who's going to be on Instagram?
• 10:11
  Are they someone who's going to be at certain organizations or
• 10:13
  events? Go there, meet them, talk to
• 10:16
  them and see how you can help them.
• 10:18
  That is the first big step that you can take and and get
• 10:21
  feedback. Get real feedback.
• 10:22
  So if your ideal client is a college student and you are
• 10:25
  going to some like college events, campus events that are
• 10:28
  happening and you want to provide ACTSAT tutoring, go
• 10:33
  ahead and ask them like, hey, how are things like what support
• 10:36
  or resources do you have for SAT and ACT tutoring?
• 10:38
  How are you looking to support yourself within that?
• 10:40
  What would you need out of somebody who can help you with
• 10:42
  that? These are the things you ask
• 10:44
  your ideal client and then you talk about like, Hey, these are
• 10:47
  the things that Ioffer. Here's my expertise is what I
• 10:49
  do. If you're ever looking for
• 10:50
  support, that's how simple it starts, people.
• 10:53
  It starts that simple because that way you start to collect
• 10:55
  data and research on your ideal client, how to serve them, how
• 10:59
  to help them, as well as the package and the services that
• 11:01
  you're offering. And you start to refine it as
• 11:03
  you go. So I had a client who actually
• 11:08
  is a coach and she was like, OK, I want to be able to help people
• 11:12
  when it comes to their, their lives holistically as a life
• 11:16
  coach, right? Not just in, not just in the
• 11:19
  sense of like, what's the big thing?
• 11:20
  But I want to help them with their lives overall.
• 11:22
  What how people who are looking to make a big change in their
• 11:24
  lives. So how can I do that?
• 11:25
  And so the biggest thing was like, OK, so who's your ideal
• 11:28
  client? What kind of problems do they
• 11:29
  have? And they said, OK, well, they're
• 11:30
  looking to make a big change, but they're not sure what the
• 11:32
  change is. They're kind of feeling stuck in
• 11:33
  their lives. Hey, great.
• 11:36
  So where do they typically hang out?
• 11:37
  Oh, well, usually they're in like these different groups
• 11:40
  where they can go ahead and share feedback and get support
• 11:42
  or they're trying to look for people who are helping them
• 11:44
  within these other websites. And so, OK, great.
• 11:47
  So then if those are the forms that they're typically in where
• 11:50
  they're asking questions, then just offer value in those forums
• 11:53
  of like, hey, you asked this question, here's how I can help
• 11:56
  support. Here's my answer.
• 11:57
  Here's a recommendation to build trust and authority and to
• 12:00
  understand them. And then outside of that, if
• 12:02
  they're looking for more support, you can always let them
• 12:04
  know and direct them to your resources.
• 12:05
  It is something as simple as that is just adding value to
• 12:08
  help somebody, right? In a forum where your ideal
• 12:11
  client is can convert into something else.
• 12:13
  Because then people can get to know you and they feel as
• 12:16
  salesy. And then if they decide that
• 12:17
  they want to learn more about you, they're going to ask you.
• 12:19
  So there's that. And you can also share how to
• 12:21
  get in contact. So I think the most important
• 12:23
  thing here is how can you find a simple way to test your idea
• 12:29
  with a real person this month? So how?
• 12:31
  Well, like think of a simple way you could test your idea with a
• 12:34
  real person this month. That could be something called
• 12:36
  like getting a beta client. So maybe it's someone who you
• 12:40
  have your service, you're offering it to a family member
• 12:43
  or friend at a discounted price as a beta client to test out
• 12:46
  what that service is like and helping them.
• 12:49
  Or it could be something as simple as like going ahead and
• 12:53
  doing a survey with ideal clients to see if they're
• 12:55
  interested in the idea of that service, if they want to buy it.
• 12:59
  So just thinking to yourself, what is a simple way you could
• 13:01
  test out your idea with a real person this month?
• 13:03
  All right, the last piece that I always talk about because I know
• 13:06
  this comes up a lot for like our high achievers over achievers is
• 13:10
  how can you do this without completely burning out or just
• 13:14
  not even knowing where to start? And so I think again, I want to
• 13:18
  reiterate is like, how can you start?
• 13:20
  Very simply? I think whenever we want to go
• 13:22
  into something like sometimes our overachiever voice pops in
• 13:28
  and then she's like, well, we have to have a marketing plan, a
• 13:30
  business plan. We need to we need to have an
• 13:33
  e-mail list. We need to be able to be on
• 13:35
  TikTok and Instagram. Like no sit down, honey, like
• 13:38
  sit down. We don't have to be doing all of
• 13:40
  those things all at once in the beginning.
• 13:42
  That is the point. It is how can we test and trial
• 13:45
  to see if we even like it, if we enjoy and how we want to
• 13:47
  experiment with it. And so this is what I would say
• 13:50
  how to build without burning it all down or burning out would be
• 13:54
  how can you start with one hour a week?
• 13:56
  Just start with that. Like if you're somebody who's
• 13:58
  listening to this and you took months or years to take any
• 14:02
  action one hour a week, what will that do for you?
• 14:04
  That's going to be a big jump. That's amazing.
• 14:06
  So I would say, how can you start with even one hour a week
• 14:09
  where you can just protect your energy from everybody else, Sit
• 14:12
  down and commit to building momentum in this.
• 14:15
  The consistency is key. Time and time again, I see
• 14:18
  people who will like, I'm all in, I'm all in, I'm 100%.
• 14:22
  And then something happens and they're and they're out and
• 14:24
  they're on pause and they're on pause and they're on pause and
• 14:26
  they come back, I'm all in, I'm all in.
• 14:28
  And then they're like, how come I haven't seen any results?
• 14:30
  I've been all in. No, you haven't actually.
• 14:33
  No, you actually were all in. You stopped and then you went
• 14:37
  back all in. And The thing is, is that like
• 14:39
  the slow roll, the slow burn of the consistency is what actually
• 14:42
  is going to build upon each other versus the stop start
• 14:45
  energy of what it is that you're doing.
• 14:47
  So curious for you, how can you take one hour a week just to
• 14:53
  start to make a commitment to this, to start to build
• 14:56
  something and experiment and learn what you love about it and
• 14:59
  learn what you don't and how to let that shape the path of what
• 15:02
  it is that you're building. To experiment it.
• 15:04
  And that you don't have to like get rid of your career in order
• 15:06
  to build a business that you can start slowly and build it up.
• 15:10
  And so that's what I think is so important for like one of my
• 15:13
  clients who she's building up her business outside of work.
• 15:16
  And so we don't want her being burnt out.
• 15:19
  She's already like a high achiever.
• 15:21
  She really has that stressful high pressure job.
• 15:23
  And so for her, it's been how do we create a strategy of what
• 15:26
  she's doing for her, scheduling for herself, for her business
• 15:29
  when it's on the weekends or after work.
• 15:31
  That also integrates her having a life where she can see her
• 15:34
  family, her friends, or she can have fun, where she's working,
• 15:37
  building her career, but also building her business at the
• 15:39
  same time. And so I would say if you gave
• 15:42
  this project or this idea even one hour a week for the next
• 15:46
  three months, what do you think you could accomplish?
• 15:49
  What do you think you can get done?
• 15:50
  What would you want to focus on? So if you gave this project,
• 15:54
  this idea, this business, one hour a week for the next three
• 15:57
  months, what would you want to focus on?
• 15:59
  What do you think you could get through?
• 16:01
  That could even be something as simple as like identifying what
• 16:04
  you want to offer and who you want to offer it to and maybe
• 16:06
  getting like your first beta client.
• 16:08
  So just to reiterate, because this is like a fun topic for me.
• 16:12
  I love it. I, I, I hold it near and dear to
• 16:15
  me because I feel like I loved it.
• 16:17
  Also outside of helping the folks that help with it.
• 16:19
  But if you want to start a side business, but you don't know
• 16:22
  where to start, here are the things that I just want you to
• 16:25
  consider is that if you are stuck in the hesitation phase,
• 16:28
  you've been thinking about it for years.
• 16:29
  You've had this idea, you're not sure about this, the woulda,
• 16:32
  shoulda coulda are coming in. I want you to really think about
• 16:35
  what that idea is and what could happen if you gave it a shot.
• 16:38
  So versus sitting in the, I don't know, I don't know, I
• 16:42
  don't know if sitting in the OK, how do I get this going?
• 16:45
  How do I make this become a thing?
• 16:47
  How do I get this started? And I think that's the biggest
• 16:50
  thing is just being able to experiment and being OK and
• 16:54
  comfortable with failure. So if you don't know where to
• 16:56
  start, you start by picking one thing and seeing how it goes and
• 17:00
  then being able to test it with about having to have perfection
• 17:04
  creep in. And that's identifying who it is
• 17:07
  you want to help and how you want to help them and find that
• 17:09
  first person that you can help. And lastly, being able to create
• 17:13
  the consistency around it to see how it goes, see what you like,
• 17:16
  see what you don't like. And that way you can have it
• 17:18
  eventually evolve. All right, so hopefully you
• 17:21
  found this episode helpful and you will find me again here next
• 17:25
  week. But if you have any thoughts or
• 17:27
  questions when it comes to building a business, whether
• 17:30
  it's a side business or a full on business, I would recommend
• 17:32
  that you join my e-mail list. I talk about all those things
• 17:34
  there. Or you can go to my website if
• 17:36
  you're curious about coaching and all that good stuff at
• 17:38
  dannytan.com. That's DA mitan.com and my
• 17:42
  e-mail list is in the description.
• 17:44
  So I will talk to you soon and I will see you next week.
• 17:47
  Have a good one.