by Julia Catherine Lee

Created on: January 14, 2009

You often hear of people who are gainfully self-employed and you wish you could do the same. No bosses to report to, pursue projects you are passionate about and still be able to pay your mortgages and car loans. Well, it is really not quite that glorious and simple but it sure is very satisfying and rewarding once you are well on the road to a successful self employment. However, there is a lot of ground work that you need to do before you should tell your boss to go away.

First and foremost, take stock of your financial situations, and that means your savings, emergency funds, retirement assets and your monthly fixed and variable expenses. This is going to be a life changing event, so there is no getting around this very important first task. You need to start here, and that is evaluating your financial situation with all honesty.

Don't go out tomorrow and quit your job just yet and not for a while. Work on your projects during evenings or weekends. Remember Microsoft? Google? Facebook? Your garage could be just the right place. You notice I did not ask you if you are willing to work long hours, it comes with the territory. If you have a desire to be successfully self employed, you know willing to work long hours is part of that prerequisite.

Take stock of your skill sets; what are your strengths and weaknesses? This is a very important question and it is a question that you will be going over and fine-tuning your answers as time goes. Examine your past successes and failures, why didn't it work and what would you do differently this time around. What worked and why?

Take stock of your business contacts, who are your confidants, mentors? Who do you know and what do they do? Do you belong to professional networking groups or Chamber of commerce in your areas? LinkedIn is one of such business networking sites that comes to mind.

Don't plug an idea out of thin air. The business idea you have has to be a realistic one, one that has a good chance of success if you were to put your heart and soul into it. Ideally, it should be something you also enjoy doing, because you will be looking at 16-18 hour days, 7 days a week. Look around, pay attention to things around you, and research thoroughly on every idea you have. Look at every angle, every "what if", and bounce the ideas off people who may or may not necessary agree with you. An entrepreneur can be blindsided and fail to see the roadblock.

Write down your ideas. This helps you organize your thoughts. Make a list of them on a notepad or notebook. For me, it is simply a Word document titled "Ideas" on my computer and I would add to them as the ideas come to me. Leave big spaces between them so you can keep expanding on them in the days and weeks ahead.

Once you have identified a business idea and have researched it extensively, you are ready to put it into action. Start small, test your ideas out, ask for feedback and make lots of notes on your progress. Have some personal downtime, refresh, and revisit your original idea and goal, keep improving on them. Remember it is a business and not a charity so when you review your progress you have to view it through the business magnifying glass and ask yourself hard questions. Where are you in the time line and when will it bring you your first profit. Adjust your expenses based on your findings. Don't get carried away with big expenses until that new business of yours is able to produce a dependable income stream. Fine-tuning your ideas often, keep building and growing. One last point, think and act in baby steps, do the small things well and it will make reaching for the bigger goals easier. That was the most valuable lesson I learned from my wild ride during the dot com dog days.

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