For the first time in 7 years, I didn’t go back to school this year. I left my job as a teacher in May to take my blogging and online marketing business full-time. (And yes, I’m feeling ALL the feelings this back-to-school season!). A question I get asked a lot is “How did you know you were READY to quit your full-time job?” or “How did you know it was the RIGHT TIME to quit your job?” So today I’m getting REALLY personal and talking about how I knew I was ready to leave my job and be self-employed.
*Long Post Alert*
First, a little history on my career path:
I graduated with a degree in mass communication from LSU in 2010. My dream was to work for a fashion magazine. Once I did that I realized it wasn’t entirely what I thought it was. This was also around the time of the recession, and journalism jobs didn’t seem stable. Lots of long hours for little pay and really no job security.
In the meantime, I had started my blog in 2010 before I graduated college. This was a time when Twitter and Facebook existed, but social media and jobs in social media were basically non-existent.
In 2011, I started grad school to become a secondary education English teacher. Being a teacher was always in the back of my mind too. I taught middle school English for 7 years — up until this past May. Being a teacher always came naturally to me. I really enjoyed the challenge of performing well and having high test scores. I was probably the only teacher who actually enjoyed getting observed by the principal lol. I also enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of running my own classroom. I enjoyed getting to be creative and seeing my knowledge getting passed down to my students.
When I became a teacher, I really thought that was it. I believed I would stay in education until retirement. I wanted to get my doctorate, maybe go into admin, but ultimately I wanted to teach teachers how to teach and classroom management (which was always my personal strength).
But over the years, education just seemed to change for me. I let parents get to me. I let the data get to me. I let the apathetic kids get to me. And I knew I needed a change.
This was SO hard to admit to myself because I truly believe I was at the BEST school with the best faculty and could not have asked for a better teaching experience there. But in my gut, I could feel I was being pulled toward another path.
At this point I’ve been blogging for 8 years. I started blogging as a hobby, that’s all I ever thought it would be. But for almost a decade, I’ve continued to crank out blog posts and grow. It wasn’t until about two years ago, I really started to consider taking my blog full-time.
I was teaching during the day and blogging at night. And I kept this up for YEARS. The fact that I continued to blog after long exhausting days for little or no pay was a sign to me. Clearly, that was my passion.
And eventually social media and online marketing started to get woven into that passion. You can read a full post about the evolution of my online marketing business here.
This past year, I came to a crossroad where I knew I couldn’t keep going at the rate I was going. With the long hours and never-ending to do lists, I knew something needed to change.
Ultimately, I decided to take a chance and leave teaching to take my blog + social media consulting business FULL time.
How did I know I was ready to quit my job?
The truth is… I didn’t feel ready. And I knew I never would.
But honestly, that was part of the excitement for me. Mostly because I felt proud and brave. And felt like I was actually doing something for myself vs what I felt like the world is telling me I should do as a responsible adult.
My 2018 Word of the Year was discomfort. I wrote a full blog post on it, but here’s a clip that I’m re-sharing today:
“We will never ever be 100% ready when it comes to our professional risks. Sometimes you just gotta leap out of that comfort zone and make it happen. But if you stay cozy in your comfort zone, then you’re never going to accomplish those things you really want in your career — because usually what we want the most is the SCARIEST thing to do!
The longer you WAIT on taking these leaps and risks, the longer you’re feeding into your fear and staying in your comfort zone, which ultimately doesn’t lead to the success you COULD have.
When it comes to your profession and career goals, your comfort zone is basically where dreams go to die. — You can quote me on that!”
Four Questions To Think About:
1- What’s the WORST that could happen?
1- I knew I wouldn’t literally die. So that was a plus. Haha!
Dying would be the absolute WORST. And that wasn’t going to happen from quitting my job and starting my own business.
2- Failing and running out of money was another terrible thing that could happen.
But I knew if it came down to that, I could get another job. So losing all my money wasn’t the WORST. More money can be made.
3- For me, the WORST that could happen is that I DON’T take this chance and I miss an opportunity.
I’d miss the opportunity to earn a full-time income through something I built.
Or I’d miss the opportunity to change business owner’s lives through my online marketing and consulting.
Or I’d miss the opportunity to have the freedom to work from my laptop wherever I want to be in the world.
The biggest WORST case scenario for me would be the regret of not trying.
So that leads me to my next question…
2- What’s a worse feeling for you? Regret or Failure?
I can live with taking risk and it not working. I can live with failing because I know failure is part of the journey.
But the feeling of living with the regret of knowing I played it safe didn’t sit well with me.
Failure can also be SCARY and the fear of failure holds me back A LOT.
But I think it also comes down to spinning failure into a positive thing.
In order to be successful you have to fail. Failure after failure leads to success. So I’m 100% OK with going through failure. If something didn’t work, fine. I’ll try the next thing. Every failure gets me one step closer to what I’m trying to achieve. (I can thank the dedicated folks at 409 cleaning products and Thomas Edison with the lightbulb for teaching me this)
3- Do you have a plan?
I don’t suggest quitting your job without a plan. Winging it is not a plan.
Building my business is something I had been working on for 8 years. And I considered quitting for two full years before actually doing it.
I made sure I had clients and work lined up before taking the leap. I made sure my website was built. I had mapped out a plan on my calendar of when certain things would happen — projects, events, launches, etc.
I made sure I had SMART goals in place and action steps to achieve those goals.
My plan is incredibly detailed. It’s a slow plan — and not happening over night. But I have faith in my process.
Obviously, a financial plan is necessary whether you’re starting your own business or going a different career path, so that leads me into my last question.
4- What about money? Insurance? And other adult things?
1- I get asked about finances A LOT. Mostly because people don’t understand how I make money from blogging and social media. That’s a whole other post, but let’s just say I made sure I had enough money saved to be financially stable during this transition time.
The good thing for me, is I was able to live off my teaching salary and SAVE everything else I was making from my personal business the past few years.
I am a homeowner and not married, so I don’t have a spouse to financially depend on. So saving enough money was a BIG factor for me.
Getting a part time job or another side income may be necessary when you take the leap to self-employment just so you can have a steady income to support you.
You’ll also have to get comfortable that self-employment is NOT like a salary job at all when it comes to consistent income. Some months might be great… some months not so great. I’m realizing that my current lifestyle may have to change a bit just starting out — maybe less happy hours and dinners out. And probably less Target trips.
And learning how to manage money stress is VERY important — because being stressed about your finances will cloud your mind and get in the way of what you’re trying to achieve.
2- Ugh now my least favorite thing to talk about — insurance & retirement.
I feel some deep personal hatred toward both of these things. I feel like sometimes we can let our careers and our entire life get based off insurance and retirement. I’m being dramatic, I know.
And I know I need BOTH of those things, but I hated feeling like I was basing my career and what I do every.single.day of my entire life planning for the END of my life or some crazy accident or illness. (I’m also factoring in that I could be completely naive right now.)
I’ve had some tough conversations about insurance and retirement the past few months. Is staying a teacher the easiest/smartest thing to do for insurance and retirement? Yes. Is it what I ultimately wanted to do? Not right now.
So deciding between being comfortable and safe with retirement/insurance or gambling a little bit was a decision that needed to be made.
But I know people do it every day. People are constantly starting their own business. Getting their own insurance. Saving their own retirement. It IS possible. It may not be the traditional route, but it is possible. Very uncomfortable and unfamiliar but possible.
3- Other things to consider would be paying for your mortgage, car, kids and any more expensive life surprises that come your way. And if you have a plan for when those things come up.
I don’t have kids yet, so I knew now was the time to take this risk. I feel like once I had kids my mindset would be different as far as being able to safely provide for them. But at the same time, I would ideally have a husband to depend on as well. So who knows!
But for me, I knew NOW was the time to take this risk and leap into entreprenership.
A Final Thought:
I do want to say one last thing… leaving your job to start your own business sounds like you’re already successful. But you’re not. Not even close. And it isn’t for everyone. I don’t deserve some trophy for doing this. I just knew it was right for me.
It doesn’t mean I’ve made it yet. Or that I’m even close to the success I want.
I feel like being an entrepreneur or having a “side-hustle” (ugh, I hate that word) is honestly a trendy thing right now. Everyone wants to be a #girlboss or a #mompreneur (gross) and run her own business.
So even though entrepreneurship seems to be having a trendy moment, decide what’s best for you. Since leaving teaching, I’ve continued to work 12-14 hour days. It’s stressful. I doubt myself constantly. It’s not all hanging out on the beach with my laptop like I wish it was.
There’s still A LOT to figure out and I can continue to share along the way.
If you’re in a similar situation, I hope these questions can give you some guidance today!
KEEP READING: 8 Lessons I’ve Learned in 8 Years Of Blogging