How To Start A Business Without Quitting Your Job (My Strategy)

Let me guess. You're working a full time job, clocking 40 to 50 hours a week, maybe more. You've got bills to pay, you have family to take care of, and on top of that you've got this burning desire to start your own business. But there's just one problem. Where on earth do you find the time? Andy asks this question today. And trust me, Andy, you're not alone. I was in your exact shoes when I was a full time school teacher with a packed schedule with barely enough energy or time to get through the week. And yet I still managed to start my business and eventually start the $100 MBA and my software company, Webinar Ninja, which I was able to sell for a life changing exit. So in this episode I'm going to break down what's really stopping you from finding the time, the mindset shift. You absolutely need the tactical proven methods that I found to carve out time for yourself and what not to do in this process. And I'm going to show you how to get real results even if you have just a few hours here and there. Let's jump into it. Here's the truth. You already have time. You're just spending it on the wrong things. I know you don't want to hear this, but it's the truth. I know because I lived it. I know that sounds harsh, but I'm saying this with love because I want to see you get out of this phase. Let's look at reality. The average person spends about two and a half hours a day on their phone. Mostly on social apps, Netflix or streaming services. About an hour and a half a day on average per adult. Then you have random tasks and errands and just chill time. What if, even just temporarily, you took that time and poured it into building your business. I'm going to show you how I was able to unlock 10 to 12 hours per week instantly. You don't need more time. You need more focus. That's something I had to learn the hard way. Let me take it back. When I was a school teacher, I was teaching full time. I was grading papers, I was prepping lessons. I was in the classroom from 7am to 4pm But I made one non negotiable rule for myself. I. I must spend 12 hours a week minimum on my business. So how do I do this two days a week? During the week I spent three hours after work, I would go to a coworking space and work on my business for three hours solid. So that was two days a week. I did that so it was six hours. And then another six hours I would spend on Saturday to work on my business. Yes. This sounds brutal, right? Sounds like I'm having a one day weekend. And it's true, that's what it was. But I did it because I had a bigger vision. I knew I was building something that would get me out of the 9 to 5 loop. And I knew it was temporary. And I was excited about what I was building. This was fun for me. I was spending a full day on the weekend building my future. And that's exactly what happened. Those windows of work, those 12 hours a week helped me escape my 9 to 5 like I was Andy Dufresne escaping from Shawshank. Here's a strategy I recommend you start with. First, I want you to create a time budget. Time is worth more than money. But for the sake of the argument, today we're going to treat it like money. If you only had $168 in your bank account, would you just let $12 just disappear in the thin air? Of course not. $12 means a lot. Every dollar counts. Yet 168 is how many hours you get each week. So pull out a sheet of paper and break it down. How many hours are you sleeping? How many hours are you working at your job? How many hours are you eating meals? Commuting, hygiene, family obligations, free time. And be honest, I'm talking about all the little stuff in between too. Now look for your golden hours. The windows where you can carve out 90 minutes a day. A couple hours here, three hour blocks on the weekends. This could be before work, after work, even 10 hours a week is enough to build real momentum if you focus. Number two, choose your highest leverage activities. When you're only dealing with limited time, you can't do everything right. You can't spend hours tweaking a fancy logo. No endless research. No scrolling through Twitter for inspiration. Please no, don't do that. You need to build or sell every time you sit down to work. That means talking to potential customers. That means making your first offer. That means working on your product. That means delivering value and iterating on your product. Right? Progress beats perfection. Always. Number three, use the one work session a day rule. Don't think of your week as like, I'll work on my business when I have time. No, when will you sit down and work on your business? Treat it like a non negotiable appointment. Every 60 focused minutes can move the needle towards you. Being independent. The key is consistency. And the more you do it, the more consistent you'll become meaning the harder will be to break that cycle. Now, number four, front load or backload your week. If you can't carve out time every day, then block out some deep work sessions like a four hour block on Saturday or a five hour block on Sunday. That's how business gets built in, one block at a time. So if you can't carve out, you know, eight hours throughout the week, then just do eight hours in one day. Now let me say something a lot of people won't. You can't start a business and live like everyone else. There must be sacrifices. If you're going to gain something out of this, you have to let go of something. You have to give things up like TV time or sleeping in or lazy Sundays. But it's temporary. Starting a business while working full time, it's not easy. I know this firsthand. But it's not forever. And if you do it right, you might be able to be 12 to 18 months away from full time freedom. And that's an incredible deal. I would take that deal over and over and over. Before we wrap up today's lesson, I want to stress what not to do in this stage. Don't spend six months trying to come up with the perfect idea. No, just start building, start testing and let the market tell you. Don't get lost in 20 online courses or 15 business books. Use this time to implement. Don't build some sort of fancy flashy website before you made a single dollar. You can start off with something simple and validate your idea with a sale. You want to validate fast. You want to make offers quickly. You want to use your time like an investor, not a hobbyist. Okay. You want to get clarity, but by taking action, not by thinking harder. Andy and everyone else who's listening, I want to say this directly to you. You can do this. You don't need 40 hours a week. You need 7, 10, 12 consistent hours. You want to have those hours focused, no distractions. You want to work on the right things. You want to have the willingness to trade short term comfort for long term freedom. And that's it. Build momentum and your business will begin to earn back your time. Soon, you won't be asking, how do I find the time for my business? You'll be asking, how soon can I leave my job? That's exciting. One last tip. Once you decide when you're going to be dedicating time to build your business, whether it's a couple hours after work or, you know, six hours on Saturday, put it in your Google Calendar or whatever you use and make it an appointment you can't miss. Talk to your family. Tell them, hey, I'm working on my new business. These are the hours I'm working on. I can't be interrupted during this time. I have to focus. By getting in front of it, one. You're getting the support of the people that are close to you and that live with you. 2. You preempt having to say no. It's going to take some discipline. It's going to take some sacrifice. But boy, is it worth it. I'm telling you on the other side of it, it is worth it. And the only thing I regret is not starting sooner if you enjoyed today's episode, you're going to love my free newsletter. Every week I share all honest advice on what you need to hear. Plus I give you strategies and stories from inside my business. It's called the Three Things Newsletter because I give you three things every week. 1. Something to think about so that you're improving your mindset. Number two Something to do so that you're building every week. And number three, something to learn so you're scaling up. It's absolutely free. Just go to 100- MBA-NET, sign up for any of our guides or any of our freebies and you get added to our newsletter automatically. Thanks for tuning into the $100 MBA show and being a listener and being a subscriber. My job is to continue to deliver practical business lessons to you every single episode to help you build the business you want, the life you want. Because hey, one of the things I love doing is sharing to make people's lives a little easier. No need to keep it to myself. Thanks again and I'll check you next time.