The simple answer is to focus on growing my business, Bossingly. However, it is much more complex than that.
I was not one of those kids who always knew what they wanted to do growing up. My aunt picked my college major because she said that computer science was where the money was. I had a decent relationship with computers so, why not.
That didn’t last long. I wasn’t as interested in computers as I thought and changed my major a couple times until I landed on business and sociology. Two topics that I can talk about all day.
After bouncing back and forth between corporate to social services jobs, I found myself in an inner-city school standing in the front of a social studies class and I was the teacher.
By the end of my nine-year tenure, it was the hardest and most rewarding thing I had done. However, it was not to be my end of the road.
Halfway through my teaching career I was bit by the entrepreneur bug and started my first official business. It was an exciting time! I loved it! The idea that I could create something from nothing was intoxicating.
I received so many inquiries about starting a business during the process of building Carla James Interiors. Eventually, the teacher in me was awakened. I fought hard against the idea of being a business coach. Who was I to teach someone about this topic? Had my MBA prepared me for this? Would anyone trust me to do this? Would anyone PAY me to do this?
The universe opened after I said yes. I had purchased the Bossingly domain for another venture, but it was fitting, and I liked it for the coaching firm I was ready to start. So, I started Bossingly.
All of this was happening while I was working a full-time job and running Carla James Interiors. Eventually, I knew I had to decide. I was burned out from teaching at high risk schools. I could not work on my business the way I wanted to.
I decided it was time to make my side hustle my main hustle.
But how would I do that? I had to develop a plan. I spent the next couple months figuring out what it would take to ditch my 9-5. I developed a formula and tested it on myself. Six months later, I walked away from my job of nine years.
It was about so much more than being free to work on my business. It was about being free to take care of my aging parents, to take care of myself and to reconnect with my spirit.
Over those nine years my health had suffered, I had little time to feed my spirit and my dad had developed dementia.
Full-time entrepreneurship means that I am now free and in control of my time and my destiny.
I have my health back!
I have my peace back!
I have my center back!
Running my own business is just the icing on the cake. Being able to help other business owners’ transition into full-time entrepreneurship, that is the cake!
Feel stuck in your 9-5? Check out The Five Biggest Mistakes Side Hustlers Make That Keeps Them Stuck In A 9-5.
Carla Erskin is a business coach and consultant. Her mission is to help female business owners transition from side hustlers to full-time entrepreneurship.