7 Tips for Building a Business While Working a Full Time Job
Introduction:
I celebrated two years of being a business owner back in January. It’s been fun to reflect on how far I’ve come– long gone are the days of wondering if I would ever find my first client or make a reasonable income.
A question I get asked by fellow online business owners is: “How did you build your business while working a full time job?” This may seem like a question that should be pretty easy to answer, but it’s taken me a while to determine which steps were most effective in allowing me to balance both.
If you don’t know my story, I started my business in 2021 while I was also working as a full time teacher. At this point, I had been teaching for 18 years and had been suffering from burnout for a good 3-4 years leading up to me starting a business.
As I started researching more about jobs you could do from your own home, I kept circling back to being a virtual assistant (VA). I’m organized and can catch on to technology pretty fast, so I figured that becoming a VA would be a relatively easy transition.
After spending months trying to get my first client, I decided to build my skill set and take a few online courses so that I could stand out from the crowd. One such course was the Digital Business Manager (DBM) Bootcamp, where I learned how I could go beyond being a VA, and move more into project management. You can read more about my experience with the DBM Bootcamp here.
I eventually took on a few clients who needed a project manager or OBM for their business – two of these clients were teacher entrepreneurs who were thrilled with my previous teaching experience.
At this present time,I still continue to work full-time as a teacher. I usually maintain two or three clients on a monthly retainer and also take on more short term projects occasionally.
While my schedule can get hectic at times, I’ve learned to balance both. My tips for starting a business while working full time are:
- Be okay with your business not growing at the same rate as people who run their business full-time.
- Create a consistent schedule for yourself each day.
- In the beginning of your journey, use the money you make from your business to invest back into your business.
- Set boundaries around your full time job.
- Outsource tasks in your personal life to free up time.
- Use nontraditional work time to get ahead in your business.
- Make time for fun.
1. Be okay with your business not growing at the same rate as people who run their business full time.
Let’s face it, if you’re working a full time job, eight hours of your day are already going to be accounted for. If you have additional responsibilities beyond a full time job, like taking care of kids or an elderly parent, there will be very little time to commit to your business.
The online space is full of business owners who will readily discuss how they built a multiple six figure business in 6 months or became a millionaire business owner practically overnight.
While a lot of these claims are greatly exaggerated, it can be easy to get down on yourself for not being able to build a wildly successful business in a short period of time.
One of the most important things I learned when I was just starting out is that because so much of my day was already accounted for, my business wasn’t going to grow as fast. I didn’t have as much time to market my business or network with potential clients to bring in new customers.
Being realistic about how much you will be able to accomplish with a full time job is my best piece of advice for anyone who starts their business as a side hustle.
2. Create a consistent schedule for yourself.
When I first started my business, I really didn’t have a set schedule outside of the hours required for my full time job. Working on client work and marketing efforts took place whenever the mood hit me.
Having a schedule like this was pretty chaotic, and didn’t allow me to make the best use of my time. I also couldn’t get a clear picture of where I was spending my time and if it was realistic for me to take on more work.
When I started planning and goal setting for 2023, I knew that I had to start doing things differently. I was going to have to start treating my side hustle like more of a profitable business if I wanted more impact.
I sat down and created a schedule for myself that would take into account my full time job, and establish actual working hours for my business. I assigned myself 30 minutes of administrative time in the morning, worked 8 hours at my job and got home around 3:15pm. I then worked on stuff from my clients from 6:00-7:30 pm. I also would work on the weekends 1-2 hours, depending on how much I had to do.
Once I implemented this schedule, I felt much more focused and productive. I was able to get so much more done each week than working without a consistent schedule.
3. Use the money you make to invest back into your business.
This tip greatly depends on your financial situation, but can make a big difference when it comes to long term growth.
When you’re first starting your business, there will be a lot of startup costs. A lot of the startup costs are small, but over time it all adds up.
One of the best things I did the first year of my business was to use any money earned to invest back into my business. I found someone who could put together a website cheaply, I enrolled in online courses to sharpen my skills, and signed up for some group coaching programs.
Not only did it provide credibility for business owners who were seeking my services, but it also gave me more confidence in my skills. The more that I was able to learn about online business, the more I felt I was able to provide to the clients I worked with.
4. Set boundaries around your full time job.
Once I started working with clients in my business, I made the decision to set boundaries around what I was doing in my full time job.
The teaching profession is notorious for being time consuming, and I will be the first to admit that it can be hard to fit all of the required duties and responsibilities in an 8-hour day. But with a little prep work before the start of the school year, I was able to do just that.
I used my planning time wisely, a teammate and I planned together and shared resources, I used time off to plan ahead, and I only volunteered for events that I really enjoyed.
While this may not sound like a lot, it really did go a long way towards freeing up time in the afternoons.
5. Outsource personal tasks when you can.
One of my favorite recommendations to free up time for you to run your business is to outsource some of the tasks and errands that need to be done for your household.
I find that this one is pretty easy to implement, and can usually be done without a lot of added expense.
Some of the outsourcing that I do include Walmart grocery pickup (free), mobile car washes, doggy daycare for my dog once a week, and weekly lawn care. Outsourcing these tasks saved me loads of time and the stress of trying to do it all myself.
6. Use time off from your full time job to get ahead in your business.
My full time teaching job afforded me a pretty good amount of time off during the year. During some of the longer school breaks, I usually spent 2-3 days working to get ahead in my business.
I would work on creating content for my social media channels and email newsletters. I would also use this time to network and build relationships with other business owners. If a client had a huge project coming up, I would also sometimes work on getting ahead with some of the tasks that needed to be done.
Working ahead relieved a lot of the stress of having to get a lot done on a tight schedule. It also allowed me to have a little more whitespace on my to-do list and calendar during the times when I was teaching and running a business simultaneously.
7. Make time for fun!
I have never been the type of business owner that subscribed to hustle culture. You’ll never find me working from sun up to sun down in an effort to grow my business.
A typical day allowed me to work my full time job, come home and do one to one and a half hours of client work. I still had time each afternoon to walk my dog, watch a little TV, and relax as needed.
When I was on break during the school year, I would often travel or host visiting family members at my home. I would also use this time to tackle home improvement projects, another fun hobby of mine.
Additional Resources:
[BLOG] My Review of the Digital Business Manager (DBM) Bootcamp
[BLOG] What does an OBM actually do?
[IG] Do you ever feel like you’re running on empty?
Conclusion:
For many people wanting to start a business, doing so while working full time is a common starting point. While starting a business can be filled with excitement in the first few months, once your business starts to get traction, it can be hard to fit everything in.
The tips listed above are the biggest changes I made so that I could run my business effectively while staying on top of the duties and responsibilities at my full time job. These tips are effective when looked at individually, but you will see a better effect when several of them are combined together.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about working full time while starting a business. If you have taken this journey of starting a business having other large responsibilities, let me know how you survived dealing with both.