7 months ago I left my day job. It wasn’t really planned and not quite expected either. My husband and I had just bought a house, I’d been working to build Ruby and Sass enough that I could run it full time but I didn’t know I was really there yet. I remember that day feeling surreal. I was shocked, nervous and a little hurt, a little scared. I wondered if I had made the right decisions to have lead myself to this point. Since we had just purchased a house, my business had been on hold while we painted, packed, renovated, unpacked and I had a plan of starting back with it full force when that craziness was over. But here was a new crazy that wasn’t happening according to plan. Underneath all these scary feelings though was this surge of hope and newness and excitement for what was happening.

I know running a full time business happens differently for everyone, some venture into it after motherhood, others have set a quit date for their day job and resign on their own and then there’s those who fall into it after losing their day job. While they all take nerve and audacity, I think the hardest of these transitions can be the ones you weren’t expecting. I’ve seen quite a few posts in Facebook groups of about this topic lately and I thought I’d share my story and how I dealt with it and hopefully be an encouragement to those in that situation now or will be in the future.

GIVE YOURSELF TIME
(laugh, cry, scream, stare at the wall, whatever you do )

When it happened and after I got over the shock, I wanted to cry, I wanted to be upset, I didn’t want to have to do anything. I just wanted to be and let this new normal set in. This was exactly the opposite of what I thought I should be doing. I thought I should be hitting the ground running and getting back to work on growing my business and that made everything I was feeling even more overwhelming. So instead of doing something right away, I gave myself that time to just be. I allotted myself about a week to settle in. Of course I still worked a bit, but I didn’t push myself. It helped that my husband was home at the time (he’s a teacher and works part time in the summer) to hang out with. We went out to lunch one afternoon and on another went shopping for a few things we needed for our new house (probably like a faucet or something really boring, like caulk). But that was just what I needed. Give yourself some grace, and pay attention to how you’re feeling. If you’re like me and just needed some time, give it to yourself. If you’re totally motivated and ready to work feel free to skip this step, but don’t skip it just because you feel like you should!

MAKE A PLAN

I think the biggest reason why the first step worked so well for me is because I gave myself a time limit. I had about a week to get used everything and then I had to start doing something. Then, I knew I needed a new plan, one that fit my new full time business. Luckily, I had been working with Anna Long-Stokes as my business coach for since the end of 2014 and she was right there with me to help me make a new strategy. I cannot recommend a business coach enough! I scheduled my next call with her about a week after I lost my job. She was encouraging and ready to jump in with me and create a new plan to up my income. After our call, I was ready to go with a plan for the rest of the month.

If you don’t have a business coach and are making a plan on your own, I think the important thing is to create actionable tasks to complete and give yourself deadlines to complete them. You can create an overall plan, but make sure to separate them into monthly to-dos or else they’re likely to get lost. Figure out what you’ll do first and then do it without getting sidetracked by the rest of the list (or am I the only one with this problem??)

DO THE WORK

This step is just as important as making the plan. I know it’s easy to get side-tracked with all of the other things you’ve got going around your house if you’re working from home now, but your business won’t grow without doing the work that you’ve planned to do.

CREATE A NEW SCHEDULE FOR YOURSELF

I found that I had so much extra time once I was only working one job (go figure, right?! This is coming from a girl that spent a season working a full time job, a part time job and building a business all at the same time). But in the beginning I struggled to use all that extra time productively. The solution I found to this is to test out different daily schedules and see what worked. Since my husband was home at 5 everyday, I wanted to avoid constantly doing all my work in the evening (which would happen if I procrastinated all day), but I’m also not a morning person and rarely feel productive until at least 10am. I also liked taking a break to walk a mile or 2 before lunch. I tried several different schedules- not starting work until noon, waking up at different times, working as soon as I woke up and taking a longer break in the middle of the day, until I finally settled into a good rhythm. Waking up around 8:30, casually waking up and eating breakfast and then try to be at the computer and ready to work around 10am. But if you’re a morning person, your day probably looks drastically different than mine, and that’s totally okay! One of the best parts of running your own business is schedule flexibility. The important part is to create times when you know you’ll be working so that you know those are you productive times and also so that your clients know when they can expect to hear from you.

REMEMBER TO RELAX, TAKE A BREAK, GO TO LUNCH, ETC.

This week, my husband had an all day conference where they got an hour break for lunch. He asked if I wanted to come have lunch with him and I was able to drive out to spend his lunch break with him. It’s days like that make me love what I do even more. Being able to spontaneously leave my work for an hour to meet a friend for lunch or even just take a break altogether in the middle of the day to watch an episode on Netflix or take a nap to recharge. Remember to allow yourself that time! I especially do this on Monday mornings, I like to take my Mondays slower and ease into the rest of the week. It makes Monday such a happier day altogether! Think about some breaks you’d like to incorporate into your week if you tend to get to the end of the day so stressed out and uptight. They really, really help!

APPRECIATE HOW FAR YOU’VE COME

This was one thing I needed my business coach to tell me because I obviously wasn’t doing it on my own! She reminded me that I’ve been working so hard on my business for years to get to this point and I’ve put in so much hard work along the way and all of that work is paying off right now. Sometimes I forget to give myself a pat on the back because I’m onto the next thing on my to-do list. Remember to occasionally take a step back and appreciate where you are and where you’ve come from.

FURTHER ENCOURAGEMENT

I know a lot of you were in the same spot as me and worried about how your business was going to make up that extra income from your day job. Everyone’s situation was different, but for me, working full time on my business (and during actual business hours) allowed me to say yes to so many things I wouldn’t have even had the opportunity for while working another job. All your work and connections and projects start to snowball and I hit my best month ever in September last year, only to be topped by October, then November, then December. January dipped a bit from December, but February is shaping up really well!

At the beginning of 2015, I lettered this bible verse and taped it in my planner as a reminder that where I’m at is where I’m meant to be, and where I’m going is part of a bigger plan I just don’t know about yet.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
-Jeremiah 29:11-12

When I left my job, I didn’t know where I was going or what was going to happen but I can’t help but be completely awestruck and grateful for every single day since then. I am so thankful for the amazing clients and projects I’ve gotten to be a part of in the past 7 months. If you’re one of them YOU’RE AWESOME (and THANK YOU). All the kissy face emojis to you!

What’s your story? I’d love to hear it in the comments!