Do you know there are some obstacles holding you from starting your own business and escape the RAT race of 9-5 job?
You will never get a kind of FREEDOM only from the job.
Since years and years, you have been doing a job for bread n butter, to fulfill the dreams and paying bills. You work hard every single year to get good salary hike but that a GOOD salary hike will not be fulfilling your all dreams in the longer run.
Like YOU, most of others are also running in the RAT race of 9-5 job and you never realized that you are stuck in the RAT race.
Typical Rat Race of 9 to 5 Job life looks like below –
Do you love to stay in such a life?
I guess the answer is No.
You may be thinking that I am forcing you to think about it, but do you know that you can live job free life by starting your own business while working and be your own boss?
There are lots of best money making business ideas for starting your own business that you may or may not searched already.
But you are not taking any actions to try out those because most of you have fear of failure, fear of losing money, etc.
Not only fear, but there are also other obstacles holding you back from starting your own business and you have to overcome those in order to ditch 9-5 job life.
So today I am revealing the obstacles holding you back from starting your own business and how to overcome it.
I am damn sure at the end of this post you will overcome the fear of starting a business and will be planning to build an online business.
Let’s jump in….
Obstacles Holding You From Starting Your Own Business
The common problem I have seen, most of you guys are asking and searching on the internet “I want to start my own business but I have fear of starting my own business.”
You’re scared of failure, scared to start own business but have you ever taken any action, did you search for how to overcome the fear of failure, what are the obstacles in starting a business, etc.?
If not then you must…
And the more problematic questions hitting daily to your mind are-
- I’m not ready yet.
- I don’t have enough experience to run and start a business.
- Should I leave the current job to start a business?
- I don’t have enough resources, money, background.
- I’m not qualified.
- No one has any done any business in my family.
- I don’t know how to build a business.
Ohh, is it enough.?
NO, really not.
Such questions and their n number of answers are endless.
But there is a common solution to all of these questions.
Solution – you have to conquer all below obstacles which are holding you from starting your own business.
- Fear
- Knowledge
- Time
- Money
- Business Ideas
- Direction
- Comfort Zone
That’s it?
No, there are two more hidden obstacles that I am going to reveal at the end of this post so stayed tuned….
Recently I ran below campaign via Growthfunda Facebook Page and email marketing to check the response on What is holding to start a business and escape 9-5 job?
And the answers were surprising.
Let’s look at below snapshots of the campaign response which I got.
Image-Facebook Campaign Results
Image-Email Marketing Campaign Results
The most killing obstacle is COMFORT ZONE…..
So how to overcome such obstacles, start side hustle and live job-free life
Let’s jump into to see what the obstacles in starting your own business & how to overcome those 🙂
#9.Time
To enjoy life, you don’t need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren’t as serious as you make them out to be. ― Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Frankly speaking, TIME should not be in the list but I am hearing this from many of others –
If you are giving this reason today then that TIME will never come.
If you have the correct Mindset and burning desire then I am sure anyone can kill the Time crunch and start a business.
Do you know I launched a Growthfunda while running into the RAT race of 9-5 job? But then you may ask how I was able to manage, to start a side hustle journey?
It’s all due to self-realization, correct mindset, consistent efforts, and a burning desire to start the side hustle.
My correct mindset was not born since childhood but it’s being developed by TIME itself.
- Many organizations fired good employees during the recession period.
- Most of my friends have struggled to buy their first home because they don’t have sufficient money (Salary doesn’t fulfill their dream) and yearly salary is not growing like Inflation.
- Also including me, most of my friends were living in 9-5 DONKEY life as the job is our main source of daily BREAD n BUTTER.
This is how my mindset has been prepared for entrepreneurship and I have started developing, learning the skills which are necessary to build side hustle…
Prior to Growthfunda, I failed in 4 business attempts but still today I am standing in front of you.
In terms of the TIME, I’m adding daily 30-60 mins post the 9-5 job to build and grow side business.
What about you?
Think of where is your TIME?
I have seen many of my dear friends spending 6-7 hrs watching full Cricket match than watching highlight? But they don’t know they are making cricketer rich by talking, sharing about them. Why don’t you consider Cricketers example even though they are earning good and have a busy schedule than us, still they are running multiple side business apart from their primary income source from Cricket.
I recall a famous quote here,
Focus on being productive instead of busy. ― Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
If you want to take a leap then REMOVE poisonous time from your daily routine.
It’s a digital era, you can run the business on fingertips. Today technology is so advance hence you need not have to worry much about the physical presence of yours in business.
- You need to spend 30-60 min daily to work on the side business, so prepare ToDo list according to it using apps like TODO list, Trello, Workyflow.
- Automate and manage your business with the help of tools like PromoRepublic, SocailBee, Plutio, ActiveCampaign.
- Refine, prioritize your daily tasks and try to finish some of them on the same day. Make a habit of it.
- Reduce the task backlog by doing some task or admin work itself in the office. I know NO one is working for all 9 hrs. If I can able to steal some office time they can also.
- Remove\reduce a poisonous time from poisonous things like TV, gossiping. Add that time to your TODO list bucket and in the end, you can see you have lots of extra TIME.
- Use Pomodoro Technique.
#8.Money
After Time, Money is the major obstacle in business and do you know there are lots of myths about Money, especially while starting a business?
Let’s look at those –
- To start a business, you require lots of money.
- There are so many financial risks involved in running a business, and I can’t afford that.
- I don’t have sponsors, VC to fund my business, how can I start a business.
- I don’t have much money to start a business.
All the above myths are incorrect – as Money comes in second place while starting a side business.
You must not think that I don’t have money how should I start an online business instead you must think that I can run a business to make money.
To start and run a business you simply require knowledge, skills and corrective mindset and then Money.
You can earn money by turning skills into an online business and following steps to start an online business.
I got the confidence after getting good responses, appreciation from fellow readers like you hence I moved to some paid tools and resources to scale up the business further and launched a new version of Growthfunda on which your currently reading this post.
The final version of Growthfunda has been developed under $100 and today I am proud of that, Growthfunda is successfully running & impacting the lives. That’s the beauty of an online business.
Start first, see the result and if you have enough confidence then invest more money in premium tools, technology. This is how you can save the cost and start an online business within as low as $0-$100.
You can develop website\blog on the free platform like WordPress.com, grow it and then move to the premium platform. Choose pocket-friendly best WordPress themes like GeneratePress and starter hosting plan from SiteGround to develop your new brand Website and business identity.
Once you have Website\Blog, you can launch any services like eBooks, Podcast, Courses, Mastermind class, Product reviews and earn lots of money with Affiliate Marketing.
Money must not hold you back to run side hustle as
There are lots of avenues to earn money online but for that, you must ride on the correct bike.
So remove the mental block that “I don’t have much money how should I start an online business”
Let’s look at below how you can make decent money with your skills so that you can invest start a new business.
- Do Freelancing with your skills on platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer.in order to start a business. Think of a long-term goal. (Fiverr is one the best platform to start with small skills like logo design, proofreading, etc)
- Do Online Consulting and generate money. It only requires an Internet connection and strong skills. Sign Up as a consultant on a freelancing platform like Fiverr, Upwork, & Freelancer. Generate some revenue and invest that money to launch a million-dollar business. (Note: You must be master in the subject for which you doing consultancy else you won’t be to generate even single buck)
- Launch Online Courses on popular marketplace platforms like Udemy.
- Flaunt Your Skills & Talent via Blogging, YouTube, Workshops, Meetups and earn decent money.
- Guest Writing,Proofreading,Content Marketing etc.
#7.Knowledge
“I don’t have knowledge of business, how I can start a business?”
“I don’t have enough experience.”
“I’m not qualified.”
Are you constantly nagging like this?
If yes then you must think of below
Do you have knowledge of speaking, eating, reading, writing, talking, walking when you born on this earth?
NO, you don’t have it.
Then how did you learn these things?
You learn these with time and practice. The same way you have to dig it out the path to start a business.
You don't need a formal degree or education to run and start the side business, even none of the education system in the WORLD will teach you 'How to Start a Business', it's not defined in the education system or college.
You have to learn, learn, learn and take actions to start a new hustle by OWN.
Don't be afraid of the failures as those are good for learning and growth.
But then you may ask where and how to learn?
- YouTube (Free) – You know about it.
- Udemy (Free and Premium) – One of the World’s Largest online courses provider.
- Skillshare (Free and Premium) – One of the best platform for targeted courses with a huge collection. You can watch any course, learn and even teach courses. You can upgrade to the premium version of SkillShare with as little as 10$\month to watch unlimited courses.
- Teachable (Free and Premium, Customized)- You can watch and create own courses as per your own pricing.
- Online Courses from experts, bloggers, brands, and influencers – This is also the best way to gain knowledge.
You can convert these learning into business. 🙂
#6.Business Ideas
Can you please ask below questions to yourself before reading further?
- Do I have some skills?
- Do I have a hobby?
- Do I know something different which you can showcase to the world?
- Do I have a passion for something?
- Am I educated?
- Am I ready to flaunt my skills?
If the answer of any one of above is YES then I bet you can also launch your next, business.
What are you waiting and looking for?
You just need to identify it...
Wonder, How?
Pro Steps: Here are some steps to identify your business idea from your skills\hobby\passion.
- Seat relax. Take a pen & paper.
- Make two columns on paper – Primary skills\hobby\passion and Secondary skills\hobby\passion
- List primary and secondary core skills\hobby\passion into respective columns.
- Think of which skills\hobby\passion you are master at or achieved success from the primary list. (It could be anything like small writing skills, drawing skills, painting)
- Identify business idea around those skills\hobby\passion. If you are not much confident about primary skills then jump to secondary.
- Identify Market Need, Problem, Gap, and Demand for which you can give the solution. This is how you can check the potential and growth of the business
- Sharpen your knowledge Check if you need more expertise to launch a business on the selected item. Then invest in your self-development. (Learn, Learn, Learn)
- Build a Website to launch a business and increase brand value. (Best website should be stunning, simple, easy to understand and navigate)
Below is the best business plan idea to work on -
- Suppose you have the best writing skill\drawing skill then you can think of business around it. Conduct 1-2 days to few hrs seminar\workshops on any topic like “Effective Writing”, “Improve Handwriting in 30 days”, “Learn Drawing in 7 days” over the weekend while working full time.
- Charge fees as little as from Rs500 -Rs1000 (Depends on you).
- Books a conference room from a service provider like BreathingRooms to target your initial 10-20 customers and deliver your workshop.
- List your workshops to events sites like Allevents.in, Explara, 10Times, etc.
- Promote your event on social media.
- You can further scale this business idea to the next level by Building a Website to showcase your past\future event and increase the brand value.
- Gradually grow it and one day you can think of escaping RAT race 9-5 job.
Sounds good, then go and launch your side hustle now. This is one of the best business ideas to work upon.
This is how you can build a business around passion, skills, hobby.
The best example of this is Sumit Bansal a man making money blogging by turning his passion for MS Excel into online business via Trumpexcel.com
People are dying to pay for the learning but you must add value to your audience else you won’t be able to scale and run it.
Add value, don’t think of only earning money at and do any business, which is the only blundering mistake I can see that eventually will kill your business presence overnight.
#5.Direction
I don’t think so I need to write much more about it if you have read all the above points (Time, Money, Knowledge, Business Idea) carefully.
But I got one response on my facebook campaign about “What's holding you back to from starting a business and escape the RAT race of 9-5 job?” as below
So adding little bits about Direction as well.
Famous American actor-singer Jimmy Dean said,
I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.― Jimmy Dean
What do you want in the life RAT race 9-5 job or business or both or nothing?
It’s upto YOU
Note: Feel free to share your thoughts, challenges around direction in the comments section, I would love to answer your queries.
#4.Fear
After comfort zone, fear is on the 2nd topmost, a common problem among most of us.
Let's look at below snapshot and understand what's the fear, how to overcome the fear of starting, how you can define that here?
Image-Email Marketing Campaign Results
After reading the above response, you can say that it varies from person to person but still if I categorize it like this -
People unable to escape RAT race because they don’t have a backup, rather they forgot to create an alternative backup of 9-5 job life & financial backup along with the job.
Hence everyone has a different fear that can be categories as below
- Fear of losing a job.
- Fear of losing money due to unemployment.
- Fear of stability.
- Fear of paying the heavy bill and heavy loans. (Thanks to my reader Swapnil who has mentioned this point)
- Fear of what society and family will say.
- Fear of thinking about life without a job, etc.
- Fear of a dependent family, how the family will survive in case of no job.
And most importantly they never tried to overcome the fear of starting a business
We are a human being, once you caught up in the job, you are not thinking beyond that and the DARK circle of RAT Race started creating around you from the first day.
For most of us, the job is the ultimate goal and bread butter for life.
Your organization may fire you at any time; it’s just a matter of second.
Do you remember the 2008-9 recession period which I witnessed.?
No, then let me remind you -
Due to bad market conditions, the economy was badly suffered, big organizations fired TOP performing employees, everyone was begging for the job, and it was even worst conditioned for fresher.
So the point is, don't only depend on the JOB, take corrective actions and lunch your own legacy. Overcome the fear of starting out. You must kill the fear first then everything will work out slowly.
Kill fear which is inside you TODAY.
How?
Pro Steps: How to overcome fear of starting side hustle
- Start reading some good motivational,business,startup,entrepreneurship books.Here are the lists of my recommended books to read
- Read startup, entrepreneurship stories. The best source for this is YourStory.com
- Improve your skills which you can turn into a business.
- Surround yourself with like-minded people.
- Start attending city level useful workshops\seminar on any topic ranging from business, motivation, entrepreneurship, etc.
- Listen to motivational Podcasts.
- Read motivational, productivity hacks blog like Refinedlife
=> Related Read:
Once you're confident enough then follow the below steps to start a side hustle (OR mentioned in the above point no. 5 Business ideas)
- Identify side business opportunities along with your day job. (Don’t think of money at this stage else you will never be able to convert profitable business and chances that you may lose potential money, the customer.)
- Work on it daily by laying the foundation for it.
- Work hard and smart to monetize the business.
- Check if you can able to pay the bills from this side business revenue.
- Grow that revenue up to your current salary level(Which is your exact current need)
- Think twice before leaving the job. Wait for 2-3 months and check if your earning from side business is consistent and you can grow it further.
#3.Comfort Zone
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. - Neale Donald Walsch
Comfort zone is one of the hottest, biggest problems hence I got major responses to it and also there are dozens of unBACKED articles on moving out of comfort zone.
But,
What does it mean to be in the comfort zone?
-The answer varies from person to person. If you are not doing anything apart from your daily routine for longer duration says a year to year, then you are in the comfort zone.
I have many IT,non-IT friends out there who are currently earning a decent salary but this CORPORATE world sucking out their creative thinking and ability.
They are not able to think beyond the daily JOB routine because of the comfort zone.
Not only my friends there are so many others who are just doing to and fro office, living a structured life and running into the RAT race of 9-5 job.
Let see, what are the benefits of moving out of comfort zone and how to kill Comfort zone trap
Benefits of stepping out of the comfort zone
★ You'll be more thoughtful and productive.
★ You'll be able to find the shift in mindset.
★ You’ll become more creative and can convert that creativity into a business.
★ You’ll have more organized and free time to do more things.
★ You'll find it easier to push your boundaries in the future.
★ You'll find it easier to brainstorm and harness your creativity.
Pro Tips: How to move out of your comfort zone
- Start your day as early as possible. Early morning is the best time to do productive and important work, hence most successful people in this world are spending an early morning on an important task. Early morning 1-2 hrs are equal to 4-5 hrs of the day.
- If you are physically fit then your inner mindset also fresh to generate more fruitful ideas. So wake up early, have workout daily. This will kill your unexpected sleeping habits.
- Do time management. Invest free time into self-learning and development.
- Add daily 30 – 60 min for learning, developing important business skills i.e Digital Marketing, Sales, Blogging, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Graphics Designing, Public Speaking.
- Connect to like-minded peoples\influencers who are resonating with your business.
- Books are the best friends of successful people. Read some good startup, entrepreneurs books that always add value. Here is the list of recommended books to read
- Attend city level seminars and workshops on business. It will help you with networking and understand the current demand in the market. Who knows? you may find some good business ideas.
- Keep a habit of reading media and business blogs like YourStory, Growthfunda, Inc42. Check out growth stories and entrepreneurship journeys.
- If you feel more stress throughout the day, then do meditation. This will keep the mind fresh and ultimately open ups more avenue to success.
Every good thing requires time so don’t expect a result from the first day. You have to be dedicated, disciplined and spend some time to get a good result.
It took me a year to reach this stage even though I was always consistent.
#2.Family
Do you know your family, society is holding you back from starting a business?
We are Indian, and we are still living in those back aged traditional concept,
Get good education >> Bring good Marks >> Get a Good Job
In our society, most of the parents forcing their child's to go for higher education >> get a good job >>settle in life.
But they don’t know they are killing their child future, as their children will be paying heavy bills and EMI by doing a job for a lifetime.
Who knows someday your kids will become Steve Jobs, Bill Gates of India?
I have also witnessed this situation.
Since childhood, I have been told to do good studies to get a good job and settle in life. It’s not my family fault but they have been living into that traditional Indian culture & society wherein JOB is the first and final source of BREAD & BUTTER.
I fulfilled every expectation of my family and landed into a typical IT job that sucking out my creativity, burning desire to do something.
But somehow one day I have killed all my hurdles and landed into entrepreneurship. I left a high paying job of 80K per month in pursuits of my happiness. I also lived a job-free life.
You can read more about how I am on the entrepreneurship journey and lived job-free life here escape the 9-5
I am not forcing you that you must not listen to your family but saying that there are n numbers of an online business that you can do while working full-time 9-5 job. Start with a small side hustle and grow it step by step.
Some other day that side business will pay your heavy bills, EMI and you can sustain without having any job.
- Do thorough research about a business that you are going to start before conveying about it to your family.
- Don’t directly jump into business without any prior knowledge or backup plan. This is the blunder mistake that I did in the past.
- Convey & convince your family members about your side business plan. You must do a detailed discussion on profit, loss, and opportunity of business. How you are going to manage it while working in a full-time job.
- Convey the potential future growth of an online business, digital world, and technology.
- Show them results, income reports of other bloggers boost motivation.
I hope this will work out in your case either way if you fill it will not work out then start your business silently and show the early results of a side hustle to your family.
Note:- As mentioned, I have witnessed these FAMILY obstacles but I have always listened to my heart and taken a decision. I always care and respect what parents are saying but after showing the results of others I am able to end up the discussion in a fruitful manner.
You never realized that this YOU is also holding you back from starting your own business and YOU consist of
-- Laziness--
-- Will do it later--
--Negative mindset--
-- Non-action taking mind--
You have to work on these YOU obstacles which are stopping your growth.
- Laziness – Train your body and mind to wake up early. Be a Morning Person. If you see all successful personalities in the world are Morning Person. I usually do morning walks, some physical body stretching activities.
- Will do it later – Time and opportunities are never waiting for anyone so whatever good opportunities, the time you are getting, take the benefit of it right now. Don’t postpone important things ‘later‘ because that later will never come.
- Negative mindset – Starting your own business requires lots of energy and a positive mindset. You will face challenges at every other step. So train your mind to be positive & surround yourself with positive mindset communities. Yoga, meditation can help you to concentrate and stay focused.
- Non-action taking mindset – You are clever, you know everything, you are able to overcome all these above obstacles but what the use of it if you are a non-action taker. So take corrective action at the right time once you see opportunity.
To start a business you have to invest your own assets -Your time, Your money and Your knowledge.
Conclusion
In order to succeed, you have to remove these obstacles which are holding you back from starting a business. Also, you need to take the CORRECTIVE ACTIONS.
There are lots of business ideas to make money and live a job free life.
I hope you got some pointers to your biggest problem through this blog post.
I damn sure this will help you to take the leap towards entrepreneurship & overcome the fear of failure.
And I would love to hear your thoughts on
- What are other things holding you back from starting a business and escape RAT race 9-5 job?
- Are there any other obstacles holding you back from starting the business?
- How did you overcome the fear of starting a business?
- Do you have these YOU obstacles?
Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving comments below as I read and reply to every comment. Also, don't forget to share it on social media.
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Wow! This is such an extensive post – it literally covers everything I went through before I took the leap to start my own business. It’s like you are removing all excuses for people – that’s amazing.
Now guys, what are you waiting for?
Thanks, Liz. Readers like you always motivate me to write more. Yes, I tried to cover as much as I can.