Is your job holding you back in life? Is it stopping you from starting your own business?For many people, the answer is yes.I just discovered the uplifting blog Leaving Work Behind and listened to an interview with writer and mom of five Ruth Zive. Ruth took a big risk when she decided to quit her job to pursue working as a freelance writer. She knew she had about six months before they would financially be in a tight spot….but she was a writer at heart and knew she would work hard to pursue clients. Her husband was also working on his own venture, so if things did go wrong, their was the mortgage to think about, as well as their 5 children.Ruth did what she called ‘ten before ten’ where she either cold called or emailed new companies whom she thought would benefit from her services. She started out charging 75 per hour and now, over 6 months later, charges around 150. She is a complete success, and she doesn’t think any of this would have happened if she had merely begun working while she was still at her 9 to 5. In the interview she expresses how she thinks the worry of having to provide an adequate income for her family served as the force to make her work hard every day to get new clients.

In other words, quitting her unfulfilling job was the key to her success.

I know from personal experience how hard it can be to become a digital nomad. I have ranted on here about our ups and downs and personal struggles. And I have worked hard-as hard as I could with the knowledge I had as to how to grow my own business, from the ground up and with ZERO financial assistance. It is a work in progress. But I think it wasn’t until recently that I really got the know how as to how to really start a business. Before, it was just guess work, roaming in the dark with a barely lit candle and hoping something would finally work.

I had to business plan. No marketing plan. Just a goal.

Ruth was different. She knew what to do: to get in contact with potential clients. And she pulled it off beautifully.

Not everyone can do that, in my opinion, but many of us can.

 

What I think we need are the following:

1.) A solid business model

2.) A decent understanding of marketing

3.) Good web design ( which doesn’t have to be expensive)

4.) A community of peers that help us when we are stuck

5.) A huge amount of determination

And quitting one’s job can certainly provide that last point. When you are nearly broke, you get focused.

For me I desperately needed 1,2 and 4. Our Milk Money as well as Digital Nomad Academy and Revolutionize Her offers such support to new entrepreneurs, and their are a number of groups on Facebook to network in and ask questions. Having solid business model is obviously a key point as well, but being a part of a community like the ones I just mentioned can help you with that. If you have these elements, then leaving your job could be that last push to send you over the cliff and into that unknown territory of financial freedom.

It can be scary.

Rodrigo, a fellow digital nomad student, decided to stay at his job while building his start up, which is doing well. He just got several more clients and he is thrilled. Living in South America, he doesn’t have the option to quit his job until his business is stable. But he is nearly there. Rodrigo is not alone, as several of the other students at my school still work at their 9 to 5.

It’s important to not be lead by fear. And one certainly needs a driving force in the world of business. Sheer determination. What works for you may not work for someone else. The key is to finding out just what does work for you, and to feel the fear and do it anyway.