Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`m still new to SuN and I hope this is the right topic area to ask this question.  I know it`s going to take blood sweat and tears to bring a business to fruition, and in the meantime we must continue to make a living and pay our bills.  I`d love to hear your stories of how you survived the corporate world until you were ready to go full time on your business.  I`ve been a corporate drone for more than 30 years and I have lost my passion for what I do, it makes for a miserable 8 hours, besides the two hour commute each way.  It sounds awful, but it has become a powerful motivator to do something else and to do something meaningful and important.  But I have to survive this existence until my business has reached the critical mass.  How did some of you do it?

I had my own business for over a decade. As a result of personal health issues and a divorce, I left my business behind to take a J-O-B.

Granted, I have not been there for long, a little over a year, but I have not reconciled myself to the employee lifestyle. I like my job and the company I work for, luckily. I have larger plans, however.

Here are some of the things I do to survive:

1. I make some progress towards my personal goals EVERY DAY. It`s necessary to me.

2. I exercise every day. This gives me more energy, and more than pays for itself in time to work on my personal projects and general attitude improvement.

3. I wake between 3:30 and 5:30 every morning and work on my personal projects before I leave for work at 7:30.

4. I don`t own a TV. I watch a show on Hulu most nights with my sweetie, and DVDs on the weekend, but no TV distractions.

5. I enlisted my sweetie to help me with my goals and to encourage/prod me.

6. I spend time on forums like this and on other sites like twitter, so I am around entrepreneurs like myself.

7. On the way to and from work (I have a 20-min commute), I listen to audio books on various topics, such as marketing, business, personal growth, etc. I make notes when these inspire ideas.

8. I have gathered a group of entrepreneurially-minded people around me as friends, so that we can talk over our challenges and help each other.

9. I read at least one research book a week on top of the audio books I listen to.

10. I help other people realize their dreams in the small ways I can. I design logos, I redesign websites, etc. Some of these things I get paid for (I put the money aside for my own project), some I do because I like to see people make it.

I am sure there are more things, but those come to mind. Oh, wait... one more thing that is imperative:

I keep a positive attitude. I look for the good in everything. I`m not wild about working in an office, but I love the people I work with and I have a job that gives me income in this economy. I have found the more grateful I am for what I have, the more that comes into my life.

*smiles*

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The older we get, the more excuses we make for not chasing after our dreams. But truth is, goals are attainable at any age.

Hey there, Terel :-)

Kathy and I became casualties of the working world about 5 years ago, not really as part of the recently crashing economy. Both of us were doing fine, following the rules, and so forth. We thought we`d be just regular folks, but within a year, we both went from "up" to "down."

The hardest thing to learn, and the key to surviving was to actually realize that we were living in a new condition. It wasn`t temporary. It wasn`t a passing problem. Things weren`t going to go back to the way they used to be.

By simply accepting the facts and that life had changed, we were better able to state the problem. And that correct statement of a problem is what begins the process of finding solutions.

The next thing, also critical, was to learn how to handle food. All other things can be reduced. Monthly expenses can be cut, even mortgages can be renegotiated. But you have to have food! And if you eat crap, you begin to lose your health.

Without your health, you`re in real trouble. Above all else, you have to try to remain as healthy as possible. From there, you can at least work toward any kind of solution.

We ended all credit cards, all debt financing, and went to a cash only basis. That immediately reduced our lifestyles down to poverty level. But it also eliminated all further anxieties about being late on payments.

Both of use keep a current database in our heads of food prices. We know the price of everything, so we know when anything is a very good price. We`ve found out-of-the-way grocery places, food stores, and odd boutiques. And we have good freezers, so we can buy in bulk.

We also spent a lot of effort to figure out entertaining things that don`t cost much money. Both of us like fishing, and we read voraciously. We have library cards, and stop in for books on a weekly basis.

You`d be surprised how easy it is to have a really excellent day cooking up a superb meal and having a fine dinner. In summers, we fish then have dinner. In winter, we`ll read, listen to music, and have dinner.

We quickly realized that without productive work, we`d be miserable. So we started IB Designs. We came up with a product we could make, that didn`t cost a lot, and that we could sell as a commodity item. It took a year to work out the details because we had the time. Being broke gives us LOTS of time!

Rather than make something that would get by, we chose to make a very high quality flag, much better than commercial products. And we built a Web site, eBay presence, and so forth. That gave us a way to schedule "work" each day.

Happiness depends on having productive work, relationships, creative ideas, recreation, and an appreciation of art. With almost no money, we had the time to learn how to have fun being people. The productive work was the real difficulty, and starting a business took care of that.

That old cliché is true: the best things in life are free.

The trick is to figure out what are the best things in life. :-)