Episode 197: 5 signs it’s time to branch out with your own business

In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about five signs that it’s time to branch out with your own business.

Here for the links referenced in the show notes? 

Fast-Track Your Start-Up free training: tashcorbin.com/fasttrack

Let’s dive into this juicy episode!

Before we talk about the signs that it might be time to branch out and start your own business, I want to make it clear that the motivating factor of wanting to run away from something isn’t always enough.

For example, a lot of people would say that if you’re peeved with your job and you don’t love your boss, then it’s a sign that you should branch out with your own business…

I actually think that’s often not enough for sustainability.

Running away from something and not having something you’re running towards can be a good motivator to start you off… but it doesn’t necessarily help you keep that momentum and sustain what it takes to really grow a thriving business.

However, if you are peeved with your boss, you are on maternity leave, you don’t want to go back to work, you’ve got financial issues, you don’t want to be lining the pockets of someone else with your efforts… or any other reason for wanting to start your own business right now, then that’s a great motivator to get you started.

But we want to make sure we’re also tapping into what’s going to sustain you long term, so here are five signs that it might be time to branch out with your own business.

1. You have an epic vision

This was definitely one of the big things for me – my epic vision.  When I first started my business, it was being able to make enough money to live an amazing life of luxury, and have a giant beach house and travel a lot. And also run a not-for-profit that I had a very specific vision about at that particular point in time.

My desires and goals and what my vision is has changed a little, not a lot, but it has changed a little, and that epic vision really motivated me, even when I was first starting out in my business. And it allowed me to really tap into the bigger goals of wanting to start a business.

I didn’t want to just start a business and make the same salary I was making in my day job, which was a very handsome six figure salary at the time.  I didn’t want to just replace that income. I wanted to have a million dollar business and a multi million dollar a year business from when I first started my business.

Part of the reason was that big epic vision that I had. I had a vision of wanting to change lives, influence people, and really help those who wouldn’t otherwise get help and support that they need. And I was sick of relying on the government to do the right thing, to be 100% honest with you.  Young Tash had political aspirations, and business-starting Tash had already decided politics was not the way that I was going to enact the change that I wanted to enact.

I started to see entrepreneurship as a pathway for me to create that change. And so that is what really drove me to get my business off the ground. It drove me in those times when I was feeling like, “well, maybe I could just take my foot off the accelerator and just be happy with $75,000 a year,” and then I’d remember, “no, my big vision is epic.”  And I want to make sure that I stay aligned with that vision.

2. You have transferable skills and knowledge

This one is really interesting because a lot of people assume that the skills and knowledge they’ve developed through their career or through their job or through university or wherever, would be thrown away in order for them to start a business because it’s completely different or in a completely different space.

But if you actually sit down and do an assessment of the transferable skills and knowledge that you have, chances are, there’s a lot more that you have to bring to the table than you’re giving yourself credit for.

Something that I did before I started my business was use Marcus Buckingham’s Strengths Finder. And I also did a transferable skills assessment when I worked in a consulting firm – we had a recruitment week and we actually had a transferable skills assessment that I did. I looked at some of the skills that I wanted to develop and some of the skills that I already had, and I could see that I actually did have a lot to offer already. Granted, I was working in business consulting at the time, and I was moving into business coaching and consulting, so it wasn’t a big jump for me.

A lot of people may think that the skills that they have actually aren’t critical to what they’re doing. But think about the transferable ones, like maybe you’re someone who’s really good at following through on projects, or you’re really good at generating lots of different ideas, or finding creative solutions to things. Maybe you’re tenacious, great with customers, or have really strong empathy.

All of these things will serve you in your business when you start it up.  If you’ve got a really good understanding of what your transferable skills are, and you are really looking at them through the lens of “oh my gosh, I could do all of these things. I’m really good at all of these things,” then that usually says that you are ready to branch out and have your own business.

So have a look through your experiences, your personal history, your professional history, and look at all of those strengths that you bring to the table. And look at it through this lens of it not necessarily having be applied in exactly the same way.

For example, customer service skills that were normally used in retail can absolutely transfer into the online space. You just need to learn the platforms and the ways that you get to have those sales conversations and those customer service conversations. And it’s done quite differently, but the same principles apply. And if you already have those skills, you already have that knowledge, that’s going to really hold you in good stead for starting your own business online.

3. You have a nagging and consistent idea

This was definitely one for me – for a long time I denied the nagging, consistent idea of “you should have your own business Tash” because I had some personal, family-of-origin stories around what it means to have your own business and how unreliable the income is and how unreliable you become, and all of those sorts of things.

But I did have the really nagging consistent idea of having my own business. And once I got into a coaching model working in the consulting world, and I saw what coaching brought into the consulting package, then I really did start to have this nagging idea that I should be doing this on my own.

When I first started my business, I thought I’d be a career coach because I thought that’s where I would have the best impact and it would be the easiest transition for me because I’d done quite a lot of career coaching in my in my corporate job, and it was something I really love doing.

But thankfully I was very open to what my business was going to look like, because after working with just three career coaching clients which I did for free – I did target market research interviews with them and then I did a free session in return – I realised that I had left the corporate world for a reason.

I didn’t want to have these conversations about your numpty mansplaining Boss, I really didn’t. I didn’t want to help people thrive in that environment, I wanted to help them escape that environment.

And so that’s where I transitioned into working with entrepreneurs, because I really could see that’s what I was more passionate about – bringing people into this beautiful world, because you don’t have to ask for permission from anyone and you get to be your own boss, and you get to create an environment that you will thrive in. You get to reap the rewards of your own work as well, and that’s a really beautiful thing for me.

So if you’ve got this nagging, consistent idea, even if you’re not 100% clear on what the business would be, but you’ve had this nagging, consistent idea of “I really should start my business, oh, I really could do this myself” – pay attention to that. That’s usually a good sign that it might be time for you to at least dabble, at least have a little play.

4. People keep telling you to turn something into a business

I would have had 100 different things that people told me I should turn into a business!

It was – Oh my gosh, you should make novelty cakes as a business.  And – Oh my gosh, you should do career advice as a business.  Or – Oh my gosh, you should be a coach with business.  And – Oh my gosh, you should sell crochet blankets (because I love crochet and I’m into arts and crafts).

And all everyone was really saying is: You should have a business.

Now, I wouldn’t necessarily pay attention to what people tell you to have a business in. But if a lot of people are telling you that you should have a business in something or another, listen to that “you should have a business” part of it. Because often that just taps on the on the shoulder of, “Hey, have you thought about having your own business?”

A lot of people won’t understand what you actually end up doing. Not one of the people who’d initially told me I should have a business, when they heard the business I was actually launching said, “Oh that’s exactly the business I thought you should have.”  Instead they were all saying, “What do you mean? I don’t understand – selling online? What? Social media? Isn’t that just when you share photos of your food?”

They weren’t necessarily across what it was that I was going to do. But they all thought I should start a business. They definitely saw that coming.  So if people keep telling you, you should have a business, maybe it’s time.

5. You’ve already taken some action

So do you hoard URL addresses? Have you already set up a faux website, but you’ve never sent it live? Do you own a bunch of different Facebook pages or you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve been playing with in the background?

Start written on post-it notes – time to branch out in business start-up

Chances are your entrepreneurial brain is already fast at work, and if that’s a sign, then you are definitely ready to start going deeper and start your own business.

Now I’ve given you five signs that it’s time to branch out with your own business. But I see a lot of people when they first start a business get all wrapped up in comparing their beginning with someone else’s middle or end point, or with someone else’s mature business model.

It can be very easy to believe that the pathway from startup to there is not a treacherous or rocky one and that it’s just simply going straight into working in this space.

Yes, when you come behind people who have already gone before you and they’ve already paved the way, there are some things that you can leapfrog.  For example, things that I did that you would never have to do when you started a business.

Back when I started my business, we didn’t have prolific numbers of Facebook groups. We didn’t have Zoom – it didn’t exist.  We didn’t have opportunities to run webinars without using $200 to $300 a month platforms. We didn’t have platforms like Kartra, an all-in-one.  We had to tie a bunch of different technology platforms together.  You don’t have to do all that stuff, you get to make the leap frog.

But there are certain parts of the startup journey that you really want to nail effectively, so that you can get to profitability quickly and you can get to the point where you’ve proven this is a sustainable business model as quickly and easily as possible.

Are you ready?

Is it time to branch out with your own business?

Free resource: Fast-Track your Start-Up

In this free training I show you how to get to profitability quickly when starting a business, and how to get it up and running with the quick and simple steps you need, and none of the steps you don’t.

Grab it here: tashcorbin.com/fasttrack

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.