I'm trying to put together these boy band names, seeing if they work, you know. Tony, Tony worked. I don't know, Jake, Jake, Jake. Yo, y'all made fun of that. Maybe cow, cow. Keep going, you let us know. Moving on to Kyle's question. He says, "I'm taking my side gig to full time. I've done my 3D plan and built up the emergency reserves. Is there anything else that I should do to prepare to take that leap?"
So, for somebody who's just now hearing this, you heard the question like, "Oh, 3D, what's that?" And okay, this guy chose to do a side gig. The side gig must have done well enough that now a side gig can become his primary gig. I think a lot of people have that question, "Hey, I want to do the side gig, the side gig has gone so well, I want to make the leap." And now he already alluded to two things we say, but for everyone else, I think we ought to talk about saving up for an emergency, saving up for the powder money to get you through, and then of course, the 3D Plan before you go to make that jump. Yeah, I mean, I think by the way, Kyle, super exciting, and it sounds like you've done a lot of the homework, so let's just review this course. When I talk about putting on your 3D glasses, what we're talking about is creating a kind of mini business plan where you think about the three scenarios that this could go. This could go the dream, holy cow, we're gonna be rich. This is the down-to-earth, what we actually think will happen. And then we have the doo-doo plan, which is, oh my goodness, we are going to be poor, this is a disaster, how do we recover from this? Now, I want to make sure, Kyle, that I was - I reviewed the 3D glasses. I know when I did this for myself, I did a three to five-year plan. So I don't want you to just figure out the first 12 months. I want you to figure out the first three to five years from through each of these three perspectives because I will tell you it took me three years for the cash reserves had to make it through that three-year period. So those two - when you talk about the cash reserves, because that's what you're going to do once you do the 3D plan, you will make sure you have enough liquid capital to get you through whatever scenario you think is going to be playing out for you. Because that's the part where when I hear about entrepreneurs and the high percentage that fail, I think it's not the passion, it's not even all the times the aptitude or the ability to do this where you can find clients. A lot of times it's just people run out of money. They can't stick with it. It runs out of fuel and then it kind of implodes upon itself. So the cash reserves are super important, Kyle, so make sure that those two are integrated and connected because you do want to have some connections there. And then the third thing I had written down was just communication. I mean, this is one - I don't know if you're married, if you're single, I had a significant other when I went through my journey, and I just had to structure the mindset not just for me because it's easy for us financial mutants to get ourselves in super-focused territory and we think we're all, you know, we're going to make this happen. But if you're not doing a good job of communicating this with other loved ones and people in your life to kind of work on this, you might be setting yourself up for really - because you need to have buy-in from everyone. And then I'll put a bonus because while we're talking about communication, I think if you're about to make this jump, one of the best things I did - now, it didn't bear a ton of fruit at the time, but it did in the long term because people gave me feedback. I wrote pretty much everyone that I felt like cared about me and could potentially in the long term be a part of my business process. I wrote them a letter just letting them know what I was, the why, and what I was attempting to do. And maybe that's an email now because I'm old, but I did. And I think I look back on that letter and then I did updates for like the first two years because you do want to get some buy-in. So also, this could help because you're trying to prime the pump. I know when you're starting a new endeavor, it sounds like you since your side gig has turned to full time, it's going well for you, but I needed a little extra boost. And why not use that love as a powerful consideration of just sharing with people the journey you're on? So in case you never know who might be listening or hear it and be like, "Hey, I'd love to be a part of that too," and then maybe they become a customer or they become something that helps bear fruit for you as well.
The only thing that I would add to that is when you are making this decision to go from a side gig to it being your full-time thing, I mean, entrepreneurship is one of the greatest things in the world, it's so fun, it's an exciting journey, but it can be all-encompassing. And so make sure you understand going into this what really is your why. I've got a dear, dear friend of mine. He said, "Man, I had to leave the corporate world. I wanted to make an impact in the world, so I started this food company, and it's just blown up and it's really, really successful, super awesome food company." I was talking with him a few months ago, and I was like, "Man, I love what I do so much, but I've become a slave to it. The whole reason that I became an entrepreneur was so I'd have all the freedom in the world, and now I have all the success, I've got no freedom at all." So make sure that you understand, "Okay, what is it that I'm building? How am I going to build it? And what's the why behind the reason that I'm doing it?" so that you don't just replace one full-time job you're trying to escape from to a full-time job where you're the boss that you still try to escape from. Try to structure it in a way that's conducive for the life that you ultimately want to live. I mean, I feel like we have to create a lot of content, but don't you feel like we love what we do so much, the camera wasn't on, we'd be talking about this stuff? I mean, that's what - that's what I feel, so I think it's okay. That's one more reason. Don't do it just for the money. Do it for the passion and love, but just make sure all the things are aligned. I think so many people - because our world we live in just says, "Follow your heart." I'm telling you, there's a lot more planning, and you're doing that, Kyle, but you're going to have success. You've checked a lot of the boxes. You're not taking it just for passion to carry the be the jet fuel. You're actually counting on having resources and planning. Kudos to you! For more information, check out our
free resources.
