My First 30 Days as My Own Boss | #First90Days

ByMichelle Garrett

Well, Divas, I survived my first 30 days of full-time divapreneurship! In my head, there’s a balloon drop, band playing, just all sorts of fanfare. It’s been a great month and I’ve learned a lot personally and professionally.

I will be honest. The biggest adjustment for me has been the lack of face-to-face interaction with co-workers. I spent the summer home with my youngest two children, so they kept me very occupied. Once school started, I kicked off a #BackToYou challenge and the first week breezed by. I was extremely productive and began setting a routine to ensure I was prepared to stop working once my youngest son got home from school. The second week I found myself “finding” errands to run so I could see other people during the day and have adult interaction. I had lunch with a co-worker and it clicked. I missed people! Of course, I have worked in customer service based positions all my life. I have always had someone close by to interact with if I needed to. I am about to do quite a bit of traveling over the next couple of months, so that will help. Once November gets here and my travel slows down a bit, I will tackle this issue again.

Divapreneurship: The First 90 Days | Divas With A Purpose

This month I have, also, focused on increasing my knowledge in areas through webinars and e-courses and deciding what will and will not be delegated to others.

I am currently taking a Kauffman FastTrac® program through a local college and connecting with some wonderful divapreneurs that are in different stages of building their businesses. (This, also, helps with my need for adult interaction throughout the week!) Through this course I realized just how much of a resource my local library is and I am going to look into working out of one of their branches at least one day a week to take advantage of all the great courses and information available to me as a resident.

Delegation has always been hard for me to do, but it is necessary and needed. I have spent the past two weeks cataloging where I spend my time and see that there are tasks that I can afford to let go to give me the opportunity to focus on other more pressing and income-producing tasks.

Income Goals and Accountability

Of course, we cannot discuss working for myself full-time without mentioning finances. For the remainder of the year, I have set an income goal equal to 75% of my previous take-home salary.

My income comes from the following sources:

  • Sponsored posts and advertisements on this blog and my social media outlets
  • Virtual Assistant Work
  • Sales from my eBooks and Empowerment Tools
  • Sales from The Divatude Collection (our t-shirt line)
  • S.M.A.R.T. Goal Coaching and Accountability
  • My Direct Sales Business

I surpassed my income goals in every area except my sponsored posts and my Direct Sales business. Honestly, I did not give my direct sales business any attention this month. The income I received were from recurring customers that typically stalk my site for new products and accessories and my commission from my downline. As for sponsored posts, I have been more focused on promoting my initiatives and not that of others. I may look at decreasing my income goal for sponsored posts and reallocating that amount to other areas.

August 2015 Income Goals

Throughout this transition I have relied heavily on my S.M.A.R.T. goals and action items to keep me focuses and on task. Having coaches and accountability partners makes a difference! A coach will give you direction and guidance and accountability partners ensure you’re staying true to the goals you set for yourself and your business.

The Divapreneur Chronicles:
Irene Krasnof of Aspiring Mompreneur

Each month I will introduce you to a new divapreneur. The purpose of the DIVApreneur Chronicles is to share the successes and struggles of fellow DIVApreneurs to inspire, encourage, empower and motivate others in their respective journeys.

Irene Krasnof of Aspiring Mompreneur is a beautiful person inside and out. She is a wealth of information and knowledge and I’m thankful that she took the time to speak with us on her transition to being a full-time work from home mother. Aspiring Mompreneur initially was a blog detailing her experience trying to find work at home opportunities after her daughter was born. She used her IBM business consulting experience & MBA to strategize ways to find work from home opportunities. She was inspired to start Aspiring Mompreneur – a business designed to help moms & moms-to-be to find the right work-at-home opportunity, including starting their own business.