Janine Bolon: Hey, welcome to today’s episode. I am Janine Bolon and we are going to be discussing the Top Four Things You Need To Do when you start your own business. The reason I am going to go super basic here is that one of the things that I have learned as I started coaching business owners and solopreneurs is that, sometimes I would start coaching them on a process or a system and I realized, “Wow, you don’t have the basics down.” Until you get these basics, I cannot really help you launch your business.
So, one of the things I wanted to share today are The Top Four Things That You Need To Do to launch your business. Even if you have been running your business for a while, these are going to help you escalate or expand your business.
So, number one, for many business owners this is pretty basic but get a separate bank account. It is imperative that if you are going into business for yourself you set up the intention that you are going to have money coming in to you to your business. I have heard people say to me, “Yeah, but Janine, this is kind of a hobby.” It does not matter. I do not care if you are selling products or services. It is imperative that you allow money to come to you and it be differentiated from your personal bank account. It makes the bookkeeping easier. You will thank me later. When you start getting enough money, you have to pay taxes. Trust me what starts off as a hobby can blow up into a full out business. What is beautiful about that is some people start stressing and they are like, “But Janine, I don’t wanna make too much money. I just want to keep this my little hobby.” I am like, “Look, what if you made enough money that you can continue just to do your hobby and you made enough money to pay other people to do all that stuff you did not want?” Then all of a sudden you see their eyes light up. “You mean I could do this full-time?” Is what they say and I am like, “Yes, but you have to work into it.” That is why it is imperative that you start off, right off the bat separate, have a separate bank account for your money that is going to come to you through your business.
Okay. So, after you go to the bank and set up the account they will ask you, “Is this a personal bank account or is this a business bank account?” You want to say it is personal. You are not ready to build on a business bank account. You do not need all of the services that a bank has and you are going to be stating the money. So, what they are asking with the business versus personal bank account is, “Do you have an EIN number?” Which you get from the IRS when you start a business or, “Are you a solopreneur?” So, you can start off as a personal solopreneur. You can change all this later.
So, for right now just start a bank account. A separate personal bank account. Use your social security number for that if you so choos. But when you start actually making some significant money, then you are going to want to make it to start your business. But for starters, when you are first starting out, we all started at zero. We all start out with just an idea. Just get a bank account.
The second thing is set up a Venmo account and PayPal. Venmo spelled V as in Victor-E-N-M-O and PayPal are two ways that people want to pay you for small little products or services that you do. If I have anything that I am charging for that is under $20, I have a tendency to use Venmo because I tell people exactly how much money I do not get if they pay me through PayPal.
So, one of those things is, I let people know the expenses of business. When you start educating your clientele, it is amazing how many of them will be happy to pay for things in cash for you and they can do that through Venmo. That way you are tracking it.
One of the other things is after you have done those aspects, we are ready. You have your business account. You have your Venmo and PayPal set up.
The third thing is your Master Contact sheet. I do nto care if you are real techy or not. You can do a basic spreadsheet. What you want to do is take Excel. If you like using Google sheets use that. If you have a Mac and you have the numbers program use that. But this is what you are going to do. You are going to download every contact that you have in your phone. You are going to put it in your Master Contact sheet. You are going to download every Facebook friends you have into a CSV file. You are going to put that in your sheet. Then you are going to take every friend that you have either on Instagram or on LinkedIn or whatever social media. You are going to download your friends lists. You are going to do that and put it into your Master Contact sheet.
Then after you have done all that, you are going to start spending four hours a week contacting everybody on that list and letting them know that you are in for business. That you are open for business. Do not worry about all the fears that are going to pop up in your head. There is going to be a lot of excuses. There is going to be a lot of things since that your brain is going to tell you and all the excuses that you are going to come up with. This is going to be your answer, no matter what is said in your head, no matter how your brain will try to manifest fear to keep you from doing this contacting people that you are now in business. Instead of coming up with that excuse when that excuse hit your head of, “Well, nobody wants what I have.” You are going to say, “I’m gonna find a way.” Your answer to everything is going to be, “I’ll find a way. I’ll find a way. I’ll find a way. But nobody wants what I have. I’ll find a way. But there you don’t want me to talk to them about a business. I’ll find a way. But they’ll think I’m trying to sell them. I’ll find a way. Okay, I’ll find a way.” That is your answer to every fear or excuses that is going to be popping up into your head. Trust me. This is why being a business owner is self-development. You want the best self-help course on planet run your own business. You have to deal with every internal fear and demon and monster in your head. So, some people would say that why should I go into business? “Oh my gosh, I don’t think I should.” I would say, “Don’t run the other direction as fast as you can. Don’t be your own business owner.”
However, there are many of us that have items or things we love doing. We want to be able to keep creating. So, I highly encourage you to make it a business. That way it will pay for itself. It will at least pay for the cost to supplies. We are not talking about paying for your time or your value of what you are. But the thing is we want you to be able to make money so that you can keep creating. Eventually, if you want to make it a full-time gig make that happen for yourself. So, when you build this Master Contact sheet, you start contacting people. This is what you say, you call up your first person and you get on the phone. Yes, you get on the phone and speak to people. Okay. That is another thing. It is very difficult to have a conversation if you are not in a two way. I know some people are very good at texting and they prefer to text. I am like, “Okay, that’s good for starters.” But this is what you say to people, you should get on the phone and you say, “Hey, so and so, how are you?” And you really want to know because these people you may have not contacted in a while. Find out what has happened in this time. How are they doing? How is their family? What is going on with their cat? You know what those sorts of things. Just talk to them. Then eventually the conversation is going to come around to you. When they say, “So what’s going on with you? You are like, “Well, I started a new business and do you know of anybody that wants what I have?” And tell them a little bit about your business like one or two sentences. Like let us take for instance my business. I will say, “Yeah, I’ve just started a writing program and I’m getting writers together in a writers group. Do you know of anybody who’s struggling to finish their book in a year?” See if they answer yes or no. If they say, “Oh, yeah. I know somebody.” I said, “Do you have their name? Can I reach out to him?” “Well, I’ll have to ask her permission.” “That’s fine. That’s fine. No pressure.”
See this is not about selling anything. This is about letting people know. The whole purpose of this phone call is to let people know that you have the open sign above your head. You are open for business.
Okay. So these are things that are very important that are imperative. If you are going to start your own business. Number one, set up a separate banking account. Number two, it is important that you get a Venmo and PayPal account. Number three, you start your Master Contact sheet. Number four, you start calling people.
Now. I happen to have business boot camps that run well, once every four- of four times a year. I run these little boot camps. I hope you literally jump start your business. Ge it rocking and rolling for you. We can do that in four weeks. Where we teach you how to take this Master Contact sheets and really get it to work for you. Also set up the habits that are necessary so that you can be a thriving solopreneur.
If you have an interest in that visit my website, janinebolon.com/programs. You will see the different opportunities you have to work with me. We can get you up and running and making money in your business while you are still doing the things that you love. So, have a great day. Keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Do not ever stop reaching for those stars.
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