Start a blog in your spare time?
Thinking of starting a blog as a business? You’re in the perfect place to learn how.
So just how do you quit your paying job to start the blog of your dreams? Well, unless you really know you can take that risk, then you could! For those of us who like risk but like it manageable, we can’t just jump off the deep end – not just yet.
“Just do it, do it all, throw your house and everything you’ve got into it”! Resist that urge, even when you dislike your job right now! If you still rent, board, or feed a mortgage, and have family to support, you’ll set yourself up for worry and stress. And you could end up using all your savings ..why would you, if you can start your blog another way?!
Think of it as a side blog, a side job to start with.
I wished a lot of wanna be startups and well meaning enthusiasts took the advice here today: if you want to start up a business, even blogging, start it up in your spare time, while you’re working and earning a decent, steady income.
Believe me, if you throw all your time into a business you’re not even sure will succeed, you’re going to stay up all night wondering when your next dollar’s coming in while your debts pile up! Many successful startups do wisely navigate their way forwards and upwards, but generally a lot of failure is due to people putting all their eggs into one basket.
Low expenses but lots of passion? Great!
However, there are always exceptions, say, if you’re fortunate enough to stay with your parents or friends and have very little bills to pay, you could start up your blog fulltime – with goals and a plan in place, of course.
Do it in your spare time is really good advice.
Ideally, this is the set up you want: you have a plan and goals. You know your USP/niche. And what you have that’s more valuable than money is TIME – you’ll always make time for what you love. And you’re still working – that creative energy needs to kept active – and you can save. With your savings you can use it as backup investment/capital for your new blogging business.
However, if you’re too tired to put the work and focus into your new blog, you might want to ask yourself, are you really prepared to work your butt off, to invest yourself into this, to see it take off and grow? If the answer is no, then maybe starting a blog isn’t for you.
Maybe you lack passion or risk taking, cos there is the risk of failure, which we all shirk at. And the blog depends on your efforts entirely, to take off. Can you handle that? Maybe you’re best to keep on working for someone else. After all, not everyone’s wired for business.
Do you have what it takes?
I love to put people off, because it shows whether they really have that passion, and want to take on the risks or stop and just focus on their career – which isn’t a bad thing if they really love what they do.
Make spare time? After long, high pressured hours at work, you have your family and other commitments, and now a blog to work on. It can be long, lonely nights, even though you’re excited but it can be mentally, financially and physically exhausting.
Not giving up is key.
You’ll make progress if you don’t give up. Stay consistent, stick to your schedule. You have passion, plans, goals, and can push through resistance. Since you won’t be so financially pressured, which gets to a lot of people, you can focus more on launching, promoting and producing blog content. Hooray!
The mistake we newbie bloggers make is that we think we’ll be overnight millionaires! The fact is, a lot of bloggers give up after a few months when they see no growth in site visitors. And the reality is you could be making no profit for a long time too – hopefully it won’t take that long, but you must be mentally prepared for this:)
5 business basics to start with:
Now that you’re convinced to start up your blog in your spare time, here’s some simple foundational business basics you can put in place before you set up your blog:
- Stay in your full time job, keep working to earn and intentionally save to invest more into your business.
- Carve out your own work space (the garage, your bedroom, anywhere away from noise and distractions) so you can have a proper work space and be able to focus and concentrate.
- Invest in a decent, fast notebook, smartphone and fast wifi – this will save you $$$ of time, allowing you to be more efficient.
- Get professional tax and business structure advice. Do you want to be self employed, or be in a partnership or set up a company? Get this setup along with your IRD/IRS number, and business bank account, before you invest or spend any money. It’s best to start clean and separate all your personal income and expenses from the business’ ones.
- Record keeping – file away every receipt and record every $ invested or spent firstly on an excel spreadsheet. You can migrate to Xero or some other accounting software when your ready to and employ an accountant later on.
Now go here:
Ready to start your blog in your spare time? You can go here to find what your USP (unique selling position)/niche is and here to set up your blog from scratch.
Do you think it’s a good idea to start a blog in your spare time?
