You wouldn't ask a newborn baby or toddler to go out and earn an income would you? Instead you would nurture and care for them until they are old enough and mature enough to stand on their own two feet.
Starting a new business can be a bit like that.
I'm a firm believer that you need to let it grow a little before you start depending on it too heavily to meet your financial needs.
But what do you do if you have no other options, if you started your business because you were part of layoffs? Why you need to Balance your Financial Needs Trying to grow a business while depending on it to meet your financial needs can be very stressful.
You will be constantly juggling cash flow and trying to keep just one step ahead of paying bills.
Not everyone has a strong financial base when starting a new business.
In fact, most people don't.
But you need to find ways of earning a little extra income, even if it is working part-time, to take some of the financial burden off the business.
That stable income, no matter how small, can make a big difference in how you approach your business.
It can give you a huge psychological boost to know that you have your most important responsibilities covered.
Instead of stressing about where your next week's income is coming from you can start working on strategies that will consistently grow your business.
Then in time as your business becomes more successful, you can start to depend more on it for your income.
So much of it is about timing.
There will be a time when you quite literally have to burn bridges.
If you have a specific goal in mind with your business, such as working only three days a week, or taking it online, then at some point you have to take that leap of faith.
Sometimes it may mean turning away business and other sources of income and that can be scary.
But it also spurs you on to make a success of things.
Ideally your business should be well established and on track to meeting your goals before you take these kind of steps.
Helpful Tips for Balancing Financial Needs and a New Business • Draw up a budget so that you know what you need to make in order to meet your responsibilities.
• Try to establish how much time your new business will need out of your work day, and if there is a possibility that you can schedule in some part-time work.
• Have some sort of stable income - it needn't meet all of your financial needs but it should provide a base to work from that is greater than zero.
• Have a clear strategy in place so that as your business grows you can start to put plans in place that shift your focus away from part-time earnings and full-time into running your business.
• Be aware that timing can be key and is an important part of balancing financial needs with growing a business.
Starting or growing a business is not easy.
It requires a lot of determination, effort and investment.
Trying to balance all of that and at the same time depend on the business solely to meet your financial needs often just adds to the burden.
Earning part-time income to ease a bit of the financial burden is a good way to fast track the growth of your business.
It helps you to focus on growing your business rather than stress about how you are going to pay the bills.
Because of the time and discipline involved in balancing more than one job, when the time comes to implement bigger strategies in your business, you will have the confidence to take that leap of faith.