82: It's Okay To Not Be An Entrepreneur
At the end of the calendar year, there’s a lot of noise about “hustling to the finish line” and getting ready to create big goals for 2022. I love goal setting, planning, and mapping out a sustainable profit. But the key word?
Sustainable.
If you are a small business owner or therapist in private practice, there are many voices that say “go big or go home,” “jump and a net will appear,” or some other similar phrase that asks you to push past your comfort zone as the only way of succeeding. Of telling you that the only reason you haven’t succeeded in small business is because of your “limiting beliefs” or “scarcity mindset.”
Here’s a shocker from me, a small business owner who loves it 80% of the time: it’s ok to not be an entrepreneur.
In this episode and corresponding post, I’ll talk about why it’s ok to not be an entrepreneur, signs you might be hitting founder burnout, and if you want to start a business or potentially re-start a business, how to take sustainable action steps to use your 9-5 to fund your business.
Should I Stay At My Job?
If you are employed full-time somewhere and are wondering if it’s time for you to go, you may have been asking yourself, “should I stay at my job?” Especially amongst the “Great Resignation,” and hearing about “rage quitting,” it can be tricky to navigate your employment situation with nuance.
If you like your job about 60-79% of the time, I’d invite you to think about what would have to change at your job for it to get to 80% or higher. As a pragmatist, you won’t like your job all the time, so I aim for 80% satisfaction and invite my clients to assess themselves in the same way.
If you have access to the following benefits such as health insurance, retirement matching, paid time off, holiday time off, paid family leave, vision insurance, health savings account, supplemental pay or financial assistance for child care, dental insurance, or life insurance, you may want to see if there are ways for you to stay at your job that can increase your job satisfaction.
Try this prompt, “If X could change at my job, I can imagine I’d be 80% satisfied with it.” X could be working in a different department, having access to more flex time, changing up some of your job responsibilities, or something else entirely. Once you’ve identified what would have to change to increase your job satisfaction, make the ask. Sit down with your manager or team and be transparent about what you need to change.
If they can’t accommodate your request, then it might be time to look for a new job or consider using your current job to fund a small business venture (more on that later). Additionally, if you are in a toxic or abusive job, it’s ok to leave as quickly as is financially and mentally safe rather than trying to make a lateral move within your company.
Founder Burnout
Contrary to what celebrity entrepreneurs sell you on (yes, thats’ “sell” and not “tell”), that you can start a business selling yarn characters in your sleep, owning a small business is hard. Again: being an entrepreneur is not easy. Many entrepreneurs experience entrepreneur burnout.
Signs of founder burnout include experiencing any of the following for a period of two weeks or more: fatigue, dreading going to work, dreading working with clients, doing less-than-your-optimal work, insomnia, and getting sick often. Other symptoms of founder burnout include doubting yourself, consuming content more than creating content, or distrusting marketing yourself. As a mental health therapist, I want to let you know that if you’ve tried standard self-care techniques such as setting stronger work-life boundaries, taking off more time, and taking care of your physical self, the symptoms mentioned could also be signs of depression. If you think you may be experiencing depression, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider or at a free clinic to get an assessment for depression.
If you’ve already quit your traditional job, and have a business but are experiencing founder or entrepreneur burnout IT’S OK TO GET A 9-5.
Reasons to Quit Your Job and Start a Business
If you have a job that is depleting your soul and there aren’t reasonable accommodations or changes that will happen in your job, it may be time to start thinking about quitting your job and starting a business. However, DO NOT quit your job hoping that the Universe will catch you on the way down. The Universe isn’t a magician--your bills don’t care how intense your manifestation practices are and affirmational journaling you do. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard of someone quitting without any possible stream of income lined up because they thought it was the only option they had, only to regret it or feel financially stressed afterward. I’ve said it before and will say it again: Being practical and having a plan doesn’t mean you are telling the Universe you don’t want to succeed.
I didn’t quit my job and do a trust-fall into the Universe when I became an entrepreneur. I took measured, calculated steps to make my journey as supportive as possible over the course of a few years.
Things to have before your quit your job and start a business:
Have an emergency find
Figure out how much health insurance will cost/what you qualify for
Add up your business’ overhead expenses
Start working toward becoming fully-self employed
*OR not! It’s also ok to keep something on the side if that feels good to you!
Set kind, soft, and gentle goals for yourself. It’s important to have a goal for yourself and look at it as a roadmap that can be tweaked and changed as needed. Make sure your goals are in alignment with your financial, emotional, and energetic needs.
Small Business Tips for Beginners
I am not here to gatekeep who can and cannot be an entrepreneur. If you are considering starting a small business and are a beginner, think about one of my favorite ethical business models, the Social Enterprise Model.
The Social Enterprise Model says that at the intersection of three things is an ethical business model.
What are you good at?
What is in alignment with your values?
What can you be paid well to do?
As a shame-free financial therapist, I’m humbled and thankful that I’m good at providing financial therapy, practicing financial therapy is in alignment with my values of anti-oppression, social justice, and empowering people with emotionally focused financial literacy. Finally, I am paid well to serve people clinically as a financial therapist and help other service-based providers build sustainable businesses.
Other small businesses tips for beginners:
Get comfortable with mistakes--you will launch things that don’t sell, underprice items, and make mistakes in your marketing. These mistakes don’t define you and aren’t a reflection of your talents or abilities
Growing your business sustainably is worthwhile
Listen with humility to feedback from your clients and customers
Focus on the delivery more than marketing and sales
Go deep, not wide
Two workshops for you that you might be interested in that help you take your practice from “on the side” to full time in a sustainable way AND plan for 2022 in alignment with your energetic and financial needs. You can find both of those here.
Private Practice Consultant
If you are a service-based small business owner, like a therapist, psychiatrist, acupuncturist, dietician, etc and you are looking to rewrite your relationship with money, set and adhere to a sustainable fee, and learn the foundations of sustainable marketing, consider joining me in my signature small group coaching program, Grow a Profitable Practice From the Inside Out. My fifth cohort has been extended from three months to five months, giving participants extra implementation time. If you join my waitlist, you’ll get access to an extended payment plan with no markup, a discount, and first access to the application when it goes live. Joining the waitlist doesn’t obligate you in any way to apply or join, so if you are on the fence, I strongly recommend adding your name to the list! Learn more and join the list here.
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Tis the season friends. Tis the season where there is a lot of noise about hustling to the finish line getting ready for big goals in 2022. And I love goal setting, planning, mapping out a sustainable business and profit. But the key word sustainable. I am not about the grind and hustle and burn yourself out. If you are new here and that's your jam, you may kindly find your way to the exit. But if you're about sustainable relationships with money, specifically, if you are a therapist or service based small business owner, today's episode is definitely for you. Because if you're a small business owner or a therapist in private practice, there are so many voices this time of year (always, but it's really intense this time of year) that are all about, "Go big or go home," "Jump in, a net will appear," or some other similarly pukey phrase that asks you to push past your comfort zone as the only way of succeeding of telling you the only reason you haven't succeeded in small business is because of your quote unquote, limiting beliefs or quote unquote scarcity mindset. I am rolling my eyes. They are all about telling you that if you worked harder, things would be better if you worked harder, you would have a good business. And I think it is so heartbreaking that so many of us as we have turned to entrepreneurship or small business because we didn't like the toxicity of traditional employment. We kind of believe this thing that it's either or. So here's the shocker for me, a small business owner who loves it 80% of the time. It's okay to not to be an entrepreneur. Mmhmm. In this episode, I'll talk to you about why it's okay to not be an entrepreneur, signs you might be hitting founder burnout or entrepreneur bound up, and if you want to start a business or potentially restart a business, how to use your nine to five or how to get a nine to five to fund your business. Okay, let's hack that job and make it into something that feels good for you. Stay tuned.
If you couldn't tell from today's intro, I am so sick of people acting morally superior because they have their own business. My journey to entrepreneurship was slow and steady, and was very calculated. Meaning I started out in private practice on the side in January of 2017. In August of 2017, I moved full time into a group practice. In May of 2018, I got my certificate and financial social work. In June or July of 2018, I got my first financial therapy client, and in the winter of 2018 heading into 2019 I got on Instagram. And I did not go full time in private practice under the Mind Money Balance umbrella until drumroll please... April of 2020. So my journey from on the side to full time really was three years and I know that a lot of people don't want to hear that. I know a lot of people want to tell me that I waited too long or that I could have made more money if I was in private practice on my own the whole time or if I had just jumped ship and trusted myself that I could have been in private practice earlier on and to you I want to say a very generous fuck off, because you are not me, I am not you and nobody knows what you need more than you. In the US where I am based health insurance, paid time off, mental health days, FMLA, live retirement contributions, dental vision coverage, health savings account--they are all tied to employment. And I think we undervalue how important it is for our mental health to have a reliable paycheck. So as I break down today, why it's okay to not be an entrepreneur. I also want to say to you, if you do want to be an entrepreneur, I love it. I really do. Like I mentioned, I love it about 80% of the time. I think that's pretty damn good in any job. Okay. And if you want to move into private practice, if you want to move into entrepreneurship and you are currently full time employed or part time employed. Use that job as a way to craft yourself a safe exit strategy. Okay.
So when I talk about having a job that might make you think, "It's.. you know.. I need to leave, I need to become an entrepreneur," I want you to first kind of revisit your current job, and be clear about where it is bad or where it is not serving you. That said, a bad job is pretty vague. Obviously, if it's an abusive job or toxic job, definitely get out of there as soon as is safely possible. But if you're finding yourself saying things like, "You know, if __ could change at my current job, I would stay," or "If I could do __ at my current job, I would stay or if I could earn more, I would stay". If those x and y variables are potentially changeable at your job, see if you can do that first. Ask yourself, "Can I switch departments, teams, get different job responsibilities, have I negotiated a raise for myself, have I thought about a move? If I'm in a big corporate setting--to a different location?" You know, there are a lot of things culturally, that change in different parts of the country, or that might change at different branch locations. So think about that. If __ could change and it actually is changeable, then give it a go, meaning, talk to your manager, talk to your colleagues, talk to somebody about what those possibilities are to make that job work for you. Now, if the changeable things are not able to be changed at your job, like if you know, it's not possible to earn more than a certain amount of dollars, I think a lot of government jobs are like that they have a band, a pay band where they won't pay you over X amount of dollars. If you're in that particular pay grade, then yeah, it's probably time to look for a new job. Or if you're at a super small startup, and there's only five people on the team. And you know, there's really no other department to go to, then yes, definitely look for something else. Now, if you've already quit, and you have a business, but you're experiencing founder or entrepreneur burnout, it's okay to get a nine to five, or a five to nine or whatever you need. When I'm talking about burnout, I am talking about chronic, meaning lasting more than a day usually lasting about two weeks. Chronic things like fatigue, feeling, being super tired feeling like you can't get enough sleep or feeling like you've slept but you just don't feel rested, dreading going to work, dreading working with your clients or working on your projects, doing less than your version of optimal work. I don't think it's possible to hold all of us to the same standard, but if you're doing less than your optimal work, that's probably a sign of burnout. On the opposite side or maybe aligned with fatigue is insomnia, having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. And then physically getting sick often catching colds, catching viruses, having an immune system that is telling you, "Hey, you're under chronic stress." Work symptoms of burnout as an entrepreneur, but also, you know, if you're employed at a nine to five, include doubting yourself, consuming more than creating, distrusting your ability to market yourself. And just like I talked about last time, if you're experiencing some of these symptoms of burnout, it's always worth double checking with your primary care provider or with your therapist about getting screened for something like depression or for some other health condition. I am not here to diagnose any sort of mental illness, but if you're experiencing any of these things, and you've taken time off work, you've practice self care, you've changed some things in your routine, and you're still having that dread and insomnia and getting sick all the time and not being able to get things done. Definitely talk to your primary care provider about getting assessed for something like depression or another health condition. So if you are a founder or entrepreneur and you're experiencing this burnout, and your business is not generating enough money, then it might be time to use a nine to five or as I mentioned earlier, a five to nine or whatever your work industry's standards hours are, to fund your business. Going back in traditional employment is not giving up. Okay? It is not, you know, telling the universe that you don't want to succeed. If you are going to leave a small business and move into your nine to five. Make sure that you have a business or I'm sorry--making sure that you have plan for your business before you leave, think about using that nine to five as a way to create sustainable income as a way to maybe max out your retirement accounts or to get the health care that you weren't able to afford earlier. Again, I'm speaking from the lens of a person who lives in the US where our healthcare is tied to our employment. Take advantage of those things that a bigger traditional job can offer you that maybe as a solopreneur, you don't have access to just yet. Okay? Again, being practical and having a plan does not mean you're telling the universe you don't want to succeed. On the contrary, I think that being practical and having a plan tells the universe, "Hey, I'm taking steps that are smart and her wise, and I will leave when it feels aligned for me. And when I feel mostly ready to go." I can't tell you how many times I've heard of somebody quitting a traditional job without any income stream lined up because they thought that it was the only option they had and they felt so financially stressed after they left, and they were consuming all of this information about the importance of trusting the universe and leaping without a net. That is not okay stuff to tell people and then to berate them for not making it when they blame it on the individual. So I digress. So let's say you go back to a nine to five, you are telling yourself, "I'm here for a year, or I'm here for 18 months," there's nothing wrong with that, particularly right now, when we are amidst the Great Recession. Traditional jobs are hungry for quality workers, they just are. So keep in your mind that you're going to be leaving in 18 months, or that you're going to be leaving in 24 months or 12 months, whatever you need to start building up some safety and security so you can safely exit is key. So when you are employed, I want you to make sure that you have an emergency fund. I want you to start crunching the numbers on how much paying for health insurance will cost if you pay if you purchase a plan off of the exchange slash what you qualify for, start getting some numbers together. How much will your business overhead or expenses be each month? Meaning how much does it cost to have a website in a domain? And how much does it cost if you are a therapist? Do you have an electronic health record? So start kind of generating the potential expenses of a business and slowly start working towards becoming full time self employed.
And asterisk also if not, it's okay to keep something on the side, if that feels good to you. If you're like, "You know what, I work 32 hours a week in a system or an organization that feels mostly good. And I see, you know, clients on that extra day a week or every other week," or you know, maybe you're a maker you like to make things maybe twice a month you do a big batch of napkins and you make these beautifully sewn cloth napkins. That's fine. I'm so sick of all this, like "follow your passion" shit, because it's often like really, really hollow advice. Okay? Meaning, if I, Lindsay, followed my passion, I'd be baking approximately six to eight loaves of sourdough bread once a week in the afternoons because your girl does not wake up early in the morning. And that is not a sustainable business model. Okay, let me rewind for one second. Okay, making sure you have something in place so you can safely leave your nine to five or slowly dial down the hours at your nine to five is really, really beautiful. And I like to think about setting kind, soft, or gentle goals for yourself. I love a SMART goal, obviously (if anybody's attended my goal planning workshop) but I also think about setting goals in alignment with not just our financial needs and a time bound need, but also our energetic needs. What's the type of energy we need to be using or achieving or moving toward in order to make our leave from traditional employment work for us? Okay. Now, how can we find a business model that works for us that likely will have a lower risk of founder burnout or entrepreneurial burnout? I like to look towards the social enterprise model. The social enterprise model is this venn diagram of three circles consisting of: what you are good at, what is in alignment with your values, and what you can be paid well to do. Whatever that thing is in the middle there, that is a good idea to move toward, because as I mentioned earlier, baking bread is something I'm good at. I'd say it's mostly in alignment with my values of being, you know, community based. I like to drop off loaves to my neighbors I like to buy my flour from a local farm on, it feels very in alignment with my values. But when it comes to that third category in that venn diagram being paid well to do this just not going to happen for me, I mean, I imagine I would have to bake like 100 loaves of bread to actually see profit. And that just is not going to be something that makes sense for me to have a type of commercial oven in space to bake that much bread is so much overhead, it just does not make sense for me. So I cannot be paid well to do that. Okay. So that is not a good option for me. Conversely, what I'm doing right now, I am really good at helping people cultivate a healthy relationship with money in alignment with their values, which in turn is in alignment with my values, and in turn is something I am paid well to do. This checks all of those boxes. So think about that, as you move toward your business model. What are you good at what is in alignment with your values? And what can you be paid? Well to do? So to recap today, it's okay to not be an entrepreneur, it is perfectly fine to have a job that you clock in and clock out of (so long as it's not making you a zombie or is toxic or is abusive, then definitely leave a find something else.) And if you are an entrepreneur, and you have consumed a lot of the content, no shade to you, let me be very clear, it is very, very noisy out there and it is very hard not to be pulled in to self empowerment that is really just hustle culture disguised in millennial pink sparkles.
If you have moved into self employment, and you're realizing "Oh my gosh, I can't pay my fucking bills," or "I'm stressed out of my mind," or "Wow, I have taken on so much debt because people have told me that I have to spend money to make money and I'm losing it," go back to your nine to five. Go back to traditional employment, there is no failure in generating consistent money. There's nothing wrong with catching your breath with getting health insurance, with having some of those benefits available to you that might not be available in traditional employment for a little while, get those things back, for you let your nervous system recover. Then, once your nervous system feels safe again, once you have reduced those signs of burnout, you are sleeping again, you are eating again, you are taking care of yourself, your confidence has increased, your immune system response has become robust again, you're not getting sick all the time. Then it might be time to think about," How and when can I leave my nine to five to sustainably create a business?" Start thinking about a business plan, start thinking about what you're good at and how you can be paid to do that and what's in alignment with your values, and then you can move into entrepreneurship. And again, for the millionth time, it's okay to not be an entrepreneur. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm gonna take a big inhale and exhale. Because I've been extra soap boxy today. That's not a word. That's okay. I'm going to take a beat here. And I'm going to invite you to two different workshops that you might be interested in if today's podcast resonated with you. And if you are a small business owner, if you go to mindmoneybalanced.com/products there is a workshop on how to take your private practice from on the side to full time sustainably and there is a workshop there on how to plan for 2022 in alignment with not just your financial needs, but also your energetic needs. So again, those can be found at mindmoneybalanced.com/products. And something that's in alignment with my energetic needs coming up here is bringing back some of my favorite podcast episodes over the next few weeks. It's a nice rewind, if you have been here a minute and could stand to hear some of these these episodes again, and it's a fun little sampler platter, if you will of some of the past conversations that I've had on this podcast and it serves as a way to support my energetic needs as we move towards the end of the year and that end of the year hustle and grind and business happens. So the next few weeks you will hear replays or if you are new here, they will be new to you and you don't have to go scrolling through your podcast player to get to them and you will get to take a listen to those which is going to be super, super fun. We are going to we it's me. I don't know why I said we I'm going to be bringing you back a conversation of a live coaching call I had with a couple who was struggling with a new financial goal post that they wanted to hit. I'm going to be bringing a replaying a conversation with Jasmine Reed Clark, who is a career coach and Enneagram expert, who shared how to understand the Enneagram can help you cultivate a better relationship with your money. And I'm replaying my conversation with Danny Schuessler of the rebel therapist podcast on how they create money rituals for themselves, which I thought was a fun thing to bring into the new year, the year of 2022. Before we go, if you are a service based small business owner, like an acupuncturist, a therapist, a coach, etc. and you are looking to rewrite your relationship with money, set and adhere to a sustainable fee, and learn the foundations of sustainable marketing, I would like you to consider joining me in my signature small group coaching program Grow a Profitable Practice From the Inside Out. My fifth cohort is kicking off in early 2022 and a has been extended from three months to four months. It's not about cramming and more stuff, it's actually about giving participants extra time and space to implement because a lot of the concepts and a lot of the things that we talked about, can bring up some stuff, you know, talking about your relationship to money and talking about putting boundaries in your paperwork can be hard for us, and that is perfectly fine. So what I want to invite you to do (if that sounds good to you) is to join my waitlist because if you join my waitlist, you'll get access to an extended payment plan with no markup, a discount, and first dibs to the application when it goes live. Because it's a small group coaching program, I cap it at a certain number of participants and once that number is fold, then that is it.
It is to preserve the space that I have created and I like to do it in a small group setting. I personally don't like to be in a giant Facebook group without hundreds or 1000s or 10s of 1000s of people. I personally like to see who's on the other side of zoom, get to know them and have a little bit more intimacy in a time where, you know, it can feel like you're screaming into a void--I think most of us are craving more connectedness. Or maybe I'm just speaking through my lens of what I'm craving and therefore, that's what I'm doing. Anyway, joining the waitlist does not obligate you in any way to apply or have to join. So if you're thinking about it, I strongly recommend just adding your name and email to the list. Again, that will give you first access to the application when it goes live plus access to an extended payment plan, a discount, and first dibs when that application goes live. So to add your name to the list if I haven't been rambling on enough, go to mindmoneybalance.com/profitablepractice that's mindmoneybalanced.com/profitablepractice (all one word) to get on the waitlist. And coming up in the coming weeks you will hear some of my favorite podcasts replayed. I hope you enjoy it and I hope that you are enjoying the the slowdown during the end of the calendar year. Take good care.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai