Becoming successfully self-employed is no easy feat. Take advantage of the opportunity to tap into the power of the OWN IT community to help you successfully make the leap to self-employment. Whether you want to hone your skills as an independent contractor, kick off freelance work, work from home or sell on Etsy, your fellow OWN IT members and their stories enable all of us to learn faster and realize success sooner with fewer mistakes along the way. As an easy way to get started, we've put together a series to capture some of the most important stories and ideas throughout our community. Enjoy, and we can't wait to have you share your own story on the way to becoming a secret weapon in achieving everything you want to achieve. You can find this section of the handbook in its entirety at the following link. https://www.ownit.com/communities/ownit/posts/649795

1. Part One:
Taking the Leap
and Setting Goals
OWN IT
Handbook for
How To Be Self-Employed

2. CREATE YOUR JOB AND SET YOUR GOALS
In this presentation adapted from the
OWN IT series The Handbook for How to
Be Self-Employed, we'll be covering
some of the basics of starting your own
business - such as discovering your
personal mission, setting goals and
knowing when it’s time to quit the day
job.

3. Create Your Job
Becoming successfully self-
employed isn't about finding
a job, it's about creating one.

4. Create Your Job
For many, it starts with a main goal or
personal mission. We recommend
using a Morning Ritual to reflect on
your strengths back when you worked
for someone else, or the things you
loved doing when you were a kid.

5. Create Your Job
Do you have a knack for marketing?
Catering? Consulting? Yoga? Design?
Counseling? Back massages?
Choose something that you could
imagine doing for 20 out of 24 hours
every day, and commit to it.

6. Create Your Job
It can be tempting to try out a few options
simultaneously or offer a long list of services to your
potential customers, but the most successful
members of our self-employed community at OWN IT
have a clear, descriptive personal brand that makes it
easier to get new business as well as generate
enough demand for them to deliver a great product
or service to happy customers.

7. “We realized that we could make more
money just selling our photographs, instead
of also working as event photographers.
Despite our passion for the theater industry,
we seized this opportunity to profit from
pursuing our shared hobby full-time.”
Jordana and Cassius Wright
Freelance Photographers

8. Define Your Main Goal
A Main Goal is a three year vision of
what success looks like for your work.
The clearer it is, the easier it will be to
achieve.

9. Define Your Main Goal
What one great thing would you dare to
dream if you knew you could not fail?

10. Define Your Main Goal
1. A successful Main Goal is something that you really want. You
have permission to be selfish in this exercise.
2. It must be written, clear and specific. You don't have a Main
Goal if it isn't on paper.
3. It must be measurable.
4. It must have a believable and reasonable probability of
success.
5. It must be consistent with your other goals. Think about it this
way. Relaxing on the beach and tripling your income cancel
each other out.

11. Define Your Main Goal
Learn more about defining your main goal.
https://www.ownit.com/communities/ownit/posts/633510

12. The Morning Ritual
Setting aside twenty or thirty minutes
every single morning to focus on specific
goals can be an effective way to discover
what is most important to you, and to
integrate it into your life.

13. The Morning Ritual
Make a daily list of 10 goals you'd like to
accomplish in the near future. Write them in the
present tense with a general target date. Start
with your Main Goal at the top. Then add other
specific, supporting goals in the same format.
Supporting goals are best as a mix of business,
financial goals, family/relationship and health
targets.

14. The Morning Ritual
• Every morning write down ten goals.
• They can be the same or different for
each day.
• The important things are that they be
specific, active and have a target date.

15. The Morning Ritual
Present Tense Action
add
launch
employ
close
celebrate
One Thing
3 new customers
Specific Date
December 2015

16. The Morning Ritual
As simple as it is, this technique seems to attract
the people, opportunities, ideas and resources
to you that help you achieve your goals faster.
The old saying is true. Wherever your attention
goes, your life goes as well.

17. The Morning Ritual
More info at the following URL.
https://www.ownit.com/communities/ownit/posts/633509

18. Turning a Skill or Hobby Into a Business
• Identify the mission.
• Do the math.
• Break it down.

19. Turning a Skill or Hobby Into a Business
Identify the mission.
What is your main goal? What's the end goal? Where
will your business ultimately go? How much money do
you want to make? Write this on a post-it and put it on
your desk. And on your bed frame. And your bathroom
mirror. And on the milk carton in your fridge!

20. Turning a Skill or Hobby Into a Business
Do the math.
Where do you want to be financially 30 days or 12
months after you become self-employed? Focus
on what it's going to take to successfully land your
first customer, then move on to what you want to
accomplish during the following 30 days.

21. Turning a Skill or Hobby Into a Business
Break it down.
Break it down to short-term projects or goals. What do you
need to accomplish every day in order to hit your monthly
milestones? How many hours will you spend serving one
customer? 2 hours? 200 hours? Start a morning ritual, and
stick to it for at least a month. Keep in mind that your daily
goals might include personal objectives as well: staying fit,
being a parent or getting a full night's sleep.

22. “At a point, I thought to myself: if I could
impact 10 kids a month on my own, then
what could happen if I hired 1,000 people to
teach cooking classes? I set a goal to make a
business plan that was profitable, scalable
and appealing to me so that I could grow my
business.”
Jan Pinnington
Self-Employed Cooking Instructor

23. When should I quit my day job?
If you aren't working full-time right now,
congratulations! You can skip this step. :-)
If you are, have no fear. You aren't the first
person to quit their day job in order to pursue
their self-employed dreams, and it doesn't have
to be painful. It just needs to be timed right.

24. When should I quit my day job?
Make sure you give yourself a few months to think
about how to approach leaving your job and what
kind of savings you need to have in the bank first
in order to live comfortably while you transition to
self-employment. Spend a little time doing the
math and figure out your After Tax Income once
you become self-employed, so that you know how
much you will need to have stored away.

25. When should I quit my day job?
Set a date to resign so that you have
time to reflect on your goals and plan
for what you'll be doing once you leave.
Make sure you've identified what your
new career in self-employment will be
and you're ready to commit to it 100%.

26. When should I quit my day job?
With this preparation in place, talk to
your company. Give plenty of notice
and avoid severing ties or ending
relationships. You never know when
they may need your consulting
services once you're out on your own!

27. “I realized that I could either spend my energy
on negativity after a bad day at work or funnel
my frustration towards a more positive goal. I
wrote down 'September 2012' on a post-it note
and put it up in my cubicle. That was my
personal deadline to finally take the leap and
start my own business.”
Theresa Chu
Founder of Barely Labs

28. Okay, so I’m self-employed. Now What?
• Congratulations! Now it's time to network,
network, network.
• Find someone in your field who is willing to be a
mentor and answer your questions.
• Join a local group, or a small business association.
• The personal network you build will be where you
learn the real tricks of the trade in being self-
employed.

29. “Once I found a mentor, she identified my
talents and strengths before I could see them. I
owe her both for my practical skills and business
knowledge. 10 years later, she's still a huge
advocate for me.”
Jihyun Kim
Self-Employed Makeup Artist

30. Okay, so I’m self-employed. Now What?
We're guessing you might have more than
just four questions about becoming self-
employed. So where do we go next? Check
out Part Two of The Handbook for How To
Be Self-Employed.
Also, take a look at our Slideshare of Part 3.

31. FIND MORE INFORMATION on OWN IT
• Visit OWNIT.com for our full guide on How To
Be Self Employed Part One including
additional information and links.
• Check out the rest of our helpful series.
• Join the Network Dedicated to Small
Business Success.
• Connect with thousands of small business
owners like you with our free app.

32. https://www.ownit.com/communities/ownit/posts/649795
Get more information for your small business on OWN IT.

33. OWN IT is a trusted network of small business owners and
the self-employed supporting each other in growing our
businesses. Join us to make better, more informed decisions
via the experiences of experts and professionals like you.
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