70 DAYS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP — THE UGLY HUSTLE
It has been 70 days since I quit my perfectly safe and good corporate gig. A job that gave me enough to live my life well. But if you are reading this, you probably understand that annoying and nagging voice constantly telling you to start your own thing, chase that dream, live on your own terms.
I have always exhibited extreme entrepreneurial tendencies at every job. Yes, I am that person who starts things for companies that definitely aren’t part of my JD. But this time, the voice won. I quit after my idea was tested and took life. Because, 30 years old = responsibilities.
This short time in the world of wannabe entrepreneurship has been quite a revelation.
WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Every newbie entrepreneur is fuelled by the ‘you can make it’ feel good, Nike-like content online. While I love the high energy, what they don’t tell you is that that doesn’t last long. What is left behind is your willingness to put in the hours. And that’s hard. Really hard.
The only way you can train your monkey mind to focus and not be distracted by the many animal videos, stand-up comedy and Netflix (damn them) is basically a series of experiments run on self. Thank you Tim Ferriss.
I PRINTED A BUSINESS CARD. NOW WHERE’S MY D ROCK?
In this short time, I learnt one thing — there are two types of hustle. The GaryVee style that most of us assume comes with the self appointed title of an entrepreneur. And then there’s what I’d like to call the ugly hustle. Ugly because my husband finds me in that state most mornings — head on the desk, cold tea, puddle of drool and half-baked ideas on post it notes around. It ain’t pretty.
Here’s my unfiltered reality –
· While I would love to believe that listening to Logic on loop makes me super productive (cause swag), in reality Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux are better partners in my journey. They make me work harder
· I now keep a notepad and pencil next to my bed to write down ideas that keep me awake at night
· I have swapped my high heels for sneakers because right now I need sensible more than sexy. The heels will come back when I get my own D Rock (a girl can hope!)
· My usually calm, confident nature has been replaced by this anxious woman whose favorite app is Calm for meditation
· Uber Pool and walking are my two new best friends
· Cost of one spa session = promoting my next post on Facebook and increasing engagement. So screw the spa
· Who needs an expensive co-working space when all you really need is a plug point, wifi and a place to seat your ass (Read: floor)
These are just few adjustments that basically happened by design. I’m sure there are many more to come.
IS IT REALLY THAT MUCH WORK?
Let me break that down for you. In my almost a decade of working in advertising, I realized travel makes me truly happy (like duh!). But I took travel to a level of obsession. In the past 6 years I have backpacked across 25+ countries, learnt a couple of languages, read history and culture with a renewed interest and became that person who people would approach for conversations around these subjects. So I’m setting up a digital magazine on travel, history and culture. The business plan has many extensions leading from this. But let’s just get this brand up and running first, okay?
The product is a website along with all mandatory social channels. To test the appetite for this idea, I have been putting out content on social media for the past few months (while I still had the job) and the engagement, fan base has hit a more than substantial following (25k+). So it’s time to build the website.
BUILDING THE PRODUCT
When I quit my job, I had a website that was very quickly rubbished by the many people I met in hopes of making it big. Apparently it looked bad and sucked shit! So, back to square one. No biggie. It’s a marathon, isn’t it? But there is one problem. I quit my job. Which loosely translates to no income. If you are a trust fund baby with mommy and daddy giving you access to their fat bank accounts, you are going to be fine. Just hire people to do everything. But if you are like the rest of us, you have to figure shit out yourself.
But I still needed a designer and a coder. Turns out tears and begging with designers and coders work better than yelling, as a negotiating power. I now have a wonderful team of two people, who are putting in a lot of effort to make this come alive. How do you pay them you ask? By taking up consulting gigs on the side that goes back into the business.
Setting up the website is just step 1. You can’t launch a digital magazine without at least 200 pieces of content. I can’t hire writers because I’d rather invest those funds to promote posts on social channels. So, hello insomnia! Let’s create 200 pieces of content in 3 weeks, shall we?
WRITING, VIDEOS, GIFS, SKETCHING … DAMN THE WORLD OF CONTENT
I prefer writing. But that means nothing to the world, does it? People and algorithms want videos (Thank you Mark Zuckerberg). A magazine needs to have everything. I couldn’t sketch or shoot videos. But I did have the world’s greatest tutor at my disposal — YouTube. After a bunch of free tutorials, we were good to go. Not pro, but good to go.
WHAT COMES AFTER THIS?
The next two weeks will still be about creating a massive amount of content. But all in the comfort of my home and free public parks. After the launch come promotions. Which means meeting at least 3 to 5 people every week, talking about the company, shake hands, and spread the word. Oh and continue creating content at the same time. As a closet introvert who very carefully avoids meeting anybody face to face, I can tell you that it’s going to be a wild ride. But hey, I let the annoying voice take over, didn’t I?
As GaryVee puts it, ‘WORK. That’s how you get it.’
I’m experimenting with Tim Ferriss’ time blocking technique to boost productivity. See you next week with new learning, updates on this very scary, weird, potentially life changing journey! If you are on the same path, drop in a comment. We might need a support group soon :)
