Work From Home | How To Start Your Own Business In 2022 | Small Business 101 Episode 1
Are you tired of commuting to work and answering someone who doesn't appreciate you?
What if we could repackage your expertise this year and help you get paid to start your very own successful small business? One that allows you to work from home?
In this multi-part small business training series of The Online Business Clinic, you'll discover how to start your own work-from-home business in 8 simple steps.
This is the exact process I used to launch my own small business, and it's helped my fellow legacy leaders enjoy the freedom of being able to work from home as their boss.
1. Identify Your Monetizable Expertise
When I took the courageous leap of faith to kick my corporate gig to the curb in pursuit of building true wealth by working from home, I knew that I wanted to be my boss, but I didn't know where to start.
So the first thing I did was take an inventory of my currency knowledge, skills & ability, and then select the ones I thought I'd be interested in pursuing further AND that I could earn a living.
While I believe that you could monetize just about any skill, it's not always in your best interest to do so. Choose one that you can leverage now and build upon tomorrow, one that will hold your interest long-term. You can always change your mind later if need be.
2. Decide What Type of Business You'll Start
Will you sell a product or service, physical or digital, teach classes online live or pre-recorded, and who you'd like to serve?
The term 'passive income' was not in my lexicon at the time, and all I knew about earning money was to trade time for it by providing a service or a product.
For me, I landed on providing fitness training to my fellow brothers and sisters in arms to help them prep for their APFT.
Even though helping you build automated passive income streams is what I'm known for now, it's ok to start with what you know.
Just decide on a business model and get started. Remember, the creation process is messing; starting a business is no different—purpose + persistence over perfection.
3. Determine Your Small Business Goals
Are you wanting to replace your current income, cover your living expenses, start saving for retirement or achieve financial independence? How much will your small business need to earn for you to hit your goal? Take into consideration your lifestyle goals as well.
During the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, my husband and I had worked hard to become a debt-free household, and my basic living expenses were covered. So as far as business goals went, I wanted to challenge myself to earn the equivalent to my corporate salary, roughly $50k at the time.
However, I was able to hit that goal; I smashed it after properly implementing these eight success steps, so be sure to determine your small business goals.
Setting smart goals is crucial to the health of your life and business, so make it a priority to establish small business goals upfront. You can tweak and change them as you go.
Get the Get SMART Goals Guidebook FOR FREE!
4. Write A Plan
How will your minor business gain prospects and make money?
Now here's where you could learn from my mistakes? I skipped this step quite frankly because I didn't even know that business plans were a thing.
But like any grand quest, you might know where you want to go ($50k) and how you'll get there (sell services), but without a map without checkpoints, it'll take a lot longer.
Let's say, for example, that you want to drive from L.A. to New York. You know you'll take a car, and you'll go eastbound. You might make it there, but you WILL make it there and faster if you have a map that has your rest stops and gas fill-up pre-determined.
Your business plan is that map.
Don't worry it doesn't have to be complicated or cost THOUSANDS of dollars to write a business plan.
I've created a simple pdf action plan for you that you can download, plus I'll have a more in-depth episode covering this soon, so be sure to subscribe and tune into the entire Small Business 101 training series.
5. Prove Your Small Business Idea Is Profitable
Using the P.I.P. Method, when I first started my fitness business, I decided to do so on Sunday, and by that next Tuesday, I had my first two clients.
I didn't have a fancy website, logo, or business card.
Just an idea of who I'd like to serve, how I'd like to serve them, and how much I'd charge.
Then I focused on getting the word out.
For this P.I.P. offer, I told the only two people in my life my plan, and they immediately had a prospect come to mind.
Once I pivoted my fitness business to an online education business, I again used the P.I.P. Method. This time I not only got clear on who I was going to serve, how I was going to serve them, but I also packaged my service into a 1-pg pdf, landed on a price, and then took it to market, which netted me just under $12,000 in under 5-days.
Now, how's that for proof of concept.
With the P.I.P. Method, you don't have to get fancy; just be clear on your offer and courageous enough to tell others about it.
I'm a massive fan of first proving that your idea is profitable with the P.I.P. method before your pour your blood, sweat, tears, and hard-earned money into your small business.
[stock footage of happy entrepreneurs on a zoom call] *I host regular workshops on this; for your chance to join the next round, be sure to join my email list and MollyAnnLuna.com
6. Cover Your Assets
Becoming your boss comes with its fair share of responsibility; the most successful small business owners know that cash flow is the lifeblood of business. It's essential to separate your finances from your business finances to keep the cash flow flowing.
Establish your business as a legal entity
Now can, of course, choose to do this from the very beginning, but if you're asking my advice, I say wait until you've made a steady stream of income in your small business.
I'm a fan of genuinely starting businesses from scratch, proving to yourself that your small business idea is profitable BEFORE you invest your hard work and money into it.
It wasn't until I hit the 6-figure mark in my business that I then registered it as a legal business entity.
I would, however, highly suggest that you create separate business checking accounts or multiple checking accounts and keep your finances separate from your business endeavors.
In an upcoming episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of my business banking habits and share more specifically how you can also cover your business assets.
7. Build Your Marketing Sales Machine
What we're talking about here is outlining your customer journey experience. Defining how you'll take people from suspect to paying clients, how will your ideal clients find you, deliver you and become happy repeat client who loves to refer you to all of their friends. Still, the word of mouth marketing is terrific when you're just starting. I used to grow to my first 6-figures, but it isn't a sustainable or scalable marketing method long term.
I leverage intelligent online marketing sales strategies via a simple 7-step process designed to bring in a steady stream of new clients non-stop.
We'll take a deep dive into how to build highly effective, low-cost, online marketing sales funnels in episode 7 of this small business 101 training series.
8. Get The Word Out
Start marketing, let people know who you are and how you can help them; whether this via paid or organic marketing, you can use using email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, direct marketing, to name a few
Now that I knew who I wanted to help, how I wanted to help them, now it was time to put a plan in place as to how I'd let them know that I was standing by ready to serve.
I focused on my number in the circle, revered, engineered my plan, and got to work.
More on how to do this is coming soon!
Now I have a question for you? What type of small business have you started, or are you thinking about starting? Tell me in the comments below.