Win Back Your Day: How to Build a Business While Working a 9 to 5

Do you have a deep desire to build the business of your dreams, but it feels like your 9 to 5 is in the way? You, like most people, have probably normalized the extra long commute, the living, the paycheck to paycheck.

But what if I told you that this didn't have to be your story anymore?

One thing that I have learned is that we cannot spend our lives and our time building someone else's dream while putting ours on the back burner. Today, what I want to do is I want to share five hacks that you can begin to incorporate to win back your day and build the business that you desire and deserve, even if you're still in your 9 to 5.

1. Determine Your “Why”

The first step is to determine your desire for this change and your "why". You see, your "why" is so powerful because when you don't know how you'll see something through, your "why" will make room for it.

I remember for me, when I was writing my very first book, I'm like, “I have no time to write a book as a busy single mom getting her doctorate, working a full-time job, and a part-time job.” But my why was to leave a legacy for my daughters. And so even when I didn't know how I would make it happen, my "why" stayed in the forefront of my mind, and it gave me that momentum to continue to write.

I took that same concept and applied it as I was building up my business. And so I'm going to ask you, what is your "why"? Why is this important? Why do you desire this change? And why now?

2. Come Up With a Plan

The second step is to come up with a plan that includes the desired time frame. You see a lot of coaches online. They're like, “Quit your job. Go into your business full-time.” And while that sounds amazing and it seems appealing based on what they're posting, it actually can create a physiological response if you don't feel calm and regulated in your body to do that right now.

So I'm one of those coaches that will tell you to come up with a plan. Write out what your Freedom Plan looks like.

So how long do you want to maintain being at your job?

How do you want your business model to be structured?

What type of sales do you need to be able to leave and to feel comfortable?

How long can you give yourself to be able to achieve that?

This is so powerful because a plan gives you a guideline and a framework to follow. Let's take New Year's, for example. Every January 1, people come up with their New Year's resolutions. And somewhere around mid-January, they've already thrown in that proverbial towel.

It's not because they don't want it, but it's because they don't have a plan. We are creatures of habits, and so it's easy to fall back into our old routine, it's easy to fall back into our old ways. And so a plan helps to remind us of things that we need to do and keeps us focused on the ultimate target. So what you want to do is reflect on some of those questions as you're beginning to develop your plan. But I'd like to add a little caveat here.

Give yourself grace.

Here's the thing. Things change all the time, but we don't change the goal. We may change the path to get there, but we're always keeping that goal in the forefront of our minds.

3. Maximize Your Time

I have also fallen victim to this, but it's easy when you're wearing all the hats and doing all of the things to get your attention pulled in a million different directions and forget about what the priority is. And this often happens because we don't have a plan for how our time should be spent, and we wait until the day happens and then we let our time be spent. However it happens, I don't want that for you.

So you want to think about how you can maximize your time. So this may look like taking time on your lunch break to work on some things in your business.

This may mean waking up earlier when necessary so that you can work on things in your business. This may mean staying up a little bit later if you're at night aisle to work on things in your business. One of the strategies that I have incorporated into my life that has been a total game changer for my productivity and my success is my “3 D System”: Delete, Delegate and Do. It has helped me to maximize my time.

Research says that the average American wastes over two hours every single day. And we know what that is. We're scrolling social media, watching Netflix, one too many shows, all the things. But with the Delete Delegate and do, it allows you to take your time back and own that time.

What you do with Delete, Delegate and Do is you look at how you're typically spending your time. You could look at the last 48 to 72 hours and consider how have you been spending your time. And as you watch that, I want you to notice what are the things on your calendar that don't need to be there that you could delete? What are the things that you could consider delegating? So maybe you're a mom and you're taking your kids to all these different practices and you can coordinate with another parent and say you do pick up, I do drop off, something like that. Or asking a spouse to help with cooking dinner, something like that.

And then there are things on your calendar that only you can do, right? Only you can go to your 9 to 5. Only you can create live videos for your business and things like that. But as you look at your calendar, what you want to do is you want to remove the things that need to be deleted, and delegate where possible, and that will free up time for you to do more of the things that only you can do.

And this is a game-changer when you're already on a tight schedule. It frees up time for you to do the things that you know you need to do to ultimately reach your big dream and your big vision.

4. Get Support

This now leads me to my fourth tip, which is all about getting support. This may shock you because a lot of people feel like you need to be making massive moves in your business or a ton of money before you hire on support. And here's what I know, and I learned this the hard way: when you let other people be in their zone of genius and you get their support in that area, you have more room to stay in yours.

I remember early on in my business, I had a discovery call with a lady that was going to be a client. I was so excited, and she wanted to see my website. She was like, “I just want to make sure you're legit, so I love to see your website.” So I was like, “Oh my gosh, I got to get a website up.” I spent two weeks Googling, and YouTubing trying to get a website up? And finally, after two long, gruesome weeks, I got my website up.

And it was awful. It was not user-friendly, meaning none of the links worked. It wasn't beautified, and it wasn't engaging. Long story short, she never converted.

But from that moment, I decided, okay, I need help with the website. And I also knew my limitations, so I hired someone to create a website for me. In that time frame that they spent creating a website in their zone of genius, I was able to start my YouTube channel and get that up and running.

Through this experience, I learned that when you try to save money, you can actually be wasting your most valuable resource, which is your time. So because of that realization, I stopped fearing the process of getting support, and I began to buy into the value of it.

My next hire was a VA who didn't work full-time. She just worked about 5 hours a week, but she posted each day while I was at work. This took the pressure off of me of feeling like I needed to always be present when I couldn't always be present.

As you think about your business model and your business goals, I want you to think about what are those little small things that you don't have the time for. But you also recognize that they're important for moving that needle forward. That maybe you could get some support with. And remember, this doesn't have to be some full team hire or a full-time employee hire. It can be small little things that you need support with that will make a massive difference.

5. Invest in Yourself

Finally, the fifth and final step is to invest in yourself. And this could look different.

It could be reading books, attending a workshop, taking a class, or hiring a coach. But ultimately, when you invest in yourself, what helps you to become a better entrepreneur and mentally prepare for the journey?

You see, if you try to piecemeal your way to success by googling and YouTubing and just throwing spaghetti at the wall watching what sticks, I promise you it'll take a lot longer. But if you begin to work with someone or you attend a workshop where you learn from someone who has already done what you're desiring to do, you essentially get to allow them to let their footprints become your blueprints. This streamlines your process to success and cuts your time in half, if not less.

So I want you to consider in what ways can you invest in yourself today that your future self will thank you for. The truth is, making the shift from an employee to an entrepreneur is a large feat. But with proper support, understanding, and proper planning, you can do it. If you have the desire to scale your business, but you feel like you're 9 to 5 is in the way, I have just the thing for you.

The Elevate Method is where you need to be. This is an unparalleled coaching certification program where you're not just going to become certified, but you're going to have an amazing and expansive community as well as the coaching that will help to see your vision through. Combined, these tools will help you to build your business even on a busy schedule. Trust me when I say this is the decision that your future self will thank you for.