Right or Wrong…
I quit my corporate job at the end of December 2013.
Wow, was it exhilarating! Freedom! Now I could be my own boss and be as creative as I want. I had dreams of challenging myself and rising to the top, or whatever I thought the top was.
I gave myself a week off for the holidays before delving in to my new business.
New life
When January 2014 came around, I met up with one of my mentors who suggested that I get out and about and network and get to know people; this isn’t easy for me, but went for it anyway. Before I knew it, and to my amazement, people were recognizing me and seeking me out.
Done! Marked that off my list–that wasn’t so bad.
At that point I had two clients, one of which was pro-bono, leaving very little moola coming in. I met with my clients and conjured up a game plan for the following month. That felt good; freedom!
My next step was get organized and create a…
To-do list
- Banking: I set up a business account at my bank. They were great at explaining the ins-outs of managing a business account versus a personal account
- Business registration: I worked with my tax planner to get my business name filed with the state and get a tax id number.
- Expense tracking: I started out using an Excel spreadsheet and quickly went to FreshBooks.
- Social media pages: Updated the content for all media channels in order to bring consistency to my brand. I also started posting routinely.
- Training: I signed up for as much online training as I could and continue to refer back to resources from previous classes.
- Volunteer: I post various updates to my social media pages for a local crowd-funding festival.
- Web hosting: I changed hosting provider, which started out to be an easy task and ended up being a huge mess.
- Website: I modified the content and simplified the navigation
At this point, I felt pretty good and started getting into a groove. I was attracting new clients and things seemed to be moving forward pretty good.
And then…
I got the crazies
As the month went on, I started feeling a little overwhelmed and emotional, something I never expected. I started crying a lot. Not sure why or what was going on. I chalked it up to the huge change in my life and the unknown and of course, not making much money. I started to feel very lonely. I missed my co-workers, my BFF, my busy lifestyle and PEOPLE! Yes, the same person that is not comfortable networking. I found that I still liked to be around people and activity. I missed collaborating and bouncing ideas off my team; that was gone.
I started to wonder if I completely screwed up by quitting my corporate job. That job was something I could count on every day and I got a regular paycheck. What was I thinking? I then snapped out of it!
I had to remember what I left behind:
- Unchallenged
- Cube life
- Dark office with no windows
- Dysfunctional corporate culture
- Two-hour round-trip commute in rush hour traffic
It’s not like I was making a quick irrational decision, I had been planning my departure for three years.
Hope
Then something amazing happened! I was able to get out of my humble abode and take advantage of a free co-working day at a local co-working venue. It happened to be on International Collaboration Day. It was great being with people in a creative environment. It made me feel rejuvenated, refreshed and it motivated me to get back on track and get back to my to-do list.
Now
My networking is starting to pay off. I now have friends and mentors who support me. I’m challenged and completely in over my head, for the most part. I’m having fun creating and building my own business. I love the freedom. I love to learn and I enjoy passing that information along to others. I’m not where I want to be and that’s ok.
If I did screw up, it’s the best mistake I’ve ever made!
