10 Steps to Starting a Business While Keeping Your Full-Time Job

A practical guide to minimizing risk and maximizing success while living the entrepreneurial dream.

A few years ago, I published a post on starting a business while keeping your full-time job. I listed a number of reasons why this makes sense. I even included some practical steps.

But I didn’t go far enough.

So here’s a guest post from Ryan Robinson, an entrepreneur and marketer who teaches people how to create meaningful self-employed careers. (His online courses “Launching a Business While Working” and “Writing a Winning Freelance Proposal” can teach you how to start and grow your own business while working a full-time job.)

Here’s Ryan:

Never before have we experienced such a rapid growth in the number of young entrepreneurs who have begun working for themselves. From app developers to freelance content marketers, business consultants, writers, and startup founders, there's no shortage of people willing to take large, calculated risks in the name of creating their own self-employed dream careers.

What's more, many of these solopreneurs are very quickly growing their small businesses into the millions.

In a recent study at Bentley University, over 66 percent of Millennials said they have a desire to start their own businesses. Yet, as of 2013, only 3.6 percent of businesses in the U.S. were owned by people under the age of 30. Clearly, there's a large disparity between the number of young people wanting to be their own bosses and those who are actually managing to pull it off.

It's not for lack of education. Global access to free and inexpensive online education resources on platforms such as CreativeLive, Lynda.com, General Assembly, and others, have helped drastically cut the learning curves and barriers to entry in many industries. With valuable online learning opportunities as readily available as an internet connection, there's no excuse for not picking up new concepts and building powerful skills, if you're motivated enough.

Through my work, I've found the three most common reasons people don't follow through on starting their own businesses: a lack of confidence in themselves, a perceived lack of necessary resources, and, most of all, a lack of motivation.

Starting and growing a successful business is very difficult. Pulling it off while you're still employed full-time and bringing in an income for yourself is even more trying. (I should know; I've done it four times.)

Starting a business while you're still working full-time can also afford you many luxuries and securities that go straight out the window when you quit your job to pursue a business idea. From the obvious advantage of having a steady income to fund your new venture to additional benefits, such as being forced to focus only on what delivers the highest impact and lessening the pressure on yourself, I've personally experienced positive benefits from launching while working.

But to do that you need a plan. Here are my 10 steps to starting your own businesswhile you keep your full-time job.

1. Ask yourself how badly you want it.

Starting a business will be difficult, will strain your relationships, and will continually force you to make tough decisions.

Write down a list of all the activities and commitments you have in your life, with the amounts of time you devote to each during a week. Take note of the ones you can afford to lessen your involvement with, and let people know you are stepping back a bit to focus on a new project that means a lot to you. Think of the easy stuff first: time spent watching TV, playing video games, or surfing Facebook and Instagram.

The more time you can free up, the quicker you’ll be able to start seeing results.

2. Inventory your skills, abilities, and weaknesses.

Which skill sets does your new business idea require? You likely possess at least some of the necessary skills to make your business happen, but if you don’t, you’re faced with a tough decision. Spend time learning a new skill or outsource to someone else who can help.

In this Skill Assessment, you’ll list out every asset and skill your business idea requires and map those needs to what you can or cannot do for yourself right now.

3. Validate your business idea.

Fortune magazine recently conducted an intensive study of 101 failed startups, looking at the question of why startups fail according to their founders. The No. 1 reason most businesses fail, Fortune found, is a lack of market need for their product (this was cited by over 42 percent of the failed companies).

This really highlights the need to fully validate your idea and get honest feedback from potential customers before you start building, creating, and spending money. It’s human nature to think that we’re right and that our ideas are always amazing.

Unfortunately, our business concepts and product ideas are often not fully thought out, useful, or even properly researched.

4. Write down your competitive advantage.

A competitive advantage is defined as a unique advantage that allows you, as a business, to generate greater sales or margins and/or acquire and retain more customers than competitors. It’s what makes your business your business.

This can be in the form of your cost structure, product offering, distribution network, customer support, or elsewhere in the business.

5. Set detailed, measurable, and realistic goals.

Without setting attainable goals and realistic deadlines for yourself, you’re going to spend a lot of time spinning your wheels. It’s hard to get anywhere if you don’t know exactly where you’re going. In my experience, it works best to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for myself. It helps me to stick with both the short-term and long-term objectives.

In the beginning, your daily goals are most likely small wins or to-do list type of items, then you'll gradually start hitting milestones as you get closer to launching your business.

6. Map your gameplan to launch date and beyond.

It’s one thing to set your goals and an entirely different activity to map out exactly how you’re going to get to point B, C, D, and beyond. You need to be particularly proactive with this step. Nobody can do this for you, but you won’t be able to do it all on your own, either.

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann is a strong advocate of "always knowing your plan B." It's how he's adapted his co-working space communities into a multi-billion dollar business.

Your ability to problem-solve and navigate around your obstacles will determine the level of success of your business.

7. Outsource everything you can.

This is all about focus. Look for opportunities to outsource every possible part of your business creation that you can.

Obviously, you don’t want someone else planning your goals, roadmap, or telling you 100 percent what your product or service should look like. The real point here is that you need to be doing only what you do best. While it would be great if you could code your own website to test out your online service idea, if you don’t already command a knowledge of developing, you’re looking at a few months of dedicated learning time just to get to the point where you’ll be able to understand the basics.

8. Actively seek feedback.

Your goal is to build a product or service that provides value to people. It does no good to build something that nobody wants. It’s important that you seek unbiased, outside feedback to make sure you’re building something that’s actually marketable.

Do this from day one and never stop. To find your early feedback group, you want to target people you know will give you only an honest opinion. Reach out to them personally. My go-to group consists of a handful of close entrepreneurial friends and a few mentors I regularly keep in touch with.

From here, you can start to widen your scope for feedback and begin incorporating Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, Reddit, ProductHunt, GrowthHackers, and your local Starbucks.

9. Don't blur the lines between personal projects and work.

It may seem tempting to create a “better version of Company You Work At,” but unless your employer missed some major lessons along the way, your contract probably clearly stipulates that you’ve agreed not to do just that. Plus, that’s just bad practice and it can (will) destroy a lot of relationships that could instead be very helpful for you one day.

If you’re under any non-compete clauses, assignment of invention clauses, or non-disclosure agreements, then it’s best to consult your attorney for personalized advice on this matter.

It may seem obvious, but don’t work on your project during company time.

You’ll also need to refrain from using company resources on your personal project, no matter how tempting that may be. This includes not using your work computer or any online tools, software, subscriptions, or notebooks, as well as not seeking the assistance of other employees.

10. Reach critical mass before quitting your day job.

Having the time to continue thinking things through and seeking the advice of others will greatly benefit your new business.Don’t get me wrong, I’m an advocate of only doing things that I’m passionate about, and doing those things with 100 percent of my energy. That said, I’m willing to take my time in fully vetting an idea, discovering my target market, and testing that idea with them, before making the solo decision that “this must be great!”

Even more importantly, unless you’re working on a high-growth startup and can secure investor funding (or you’re able to self-fund), you’re realistically going to need some form of sustainable income before your new project is able to be that sole source of sustenance for you.

Starting your business while working a full-time job will undoubtedly be difficult, but it’s doable. There are as many paths to entrepreneurship as there are entrepreneurs in this world. Take these steps into account, and you’ll be well on your way to being your own boss.

Imagine that awesome feeling.

10 Things the Smartest Email Users Never Do

These are the things to avoid if you want to be an email expert.

We all make mistakes. However, when you've been using email for a couple of decades, you tend to have perfected your craft. (I still tell people I'm a Professional Email Processor.) These are the mistakes more seasoned email users avoid at all costs.

1. Hit reply all

Few people who have been around tech for a while still make this mistake. You get into the habit of confirming who is getting your message. It's rare that you need to send a message back to all of the original recipients.

2. Forget to blind copy

Another thing technophiles rarely (if ever) do is forget to blind copy. It's a newbie mistake. You also get into the habit of confirming the recipients for every single email.

3. Send an email to the wrong person

There are a lot of people named John. There's only one person with my email address. That's why it's best not to just type a first name and search. If you have processed a lot of email, you know you have to always confirm the recipient's name. Twice.

4. Permanently delete a message

We're living in an age of almost unlimited and cheap storage. I have at least 2TB right now in my Gmail account, and I haven't deleted a single email in at least six to seven years (really). If you want to make an archive, just create another email address and keep all of the old messages.

5. Use Outlook on the desktop

It's a waste of time to use the desktop client. Plus, if you switch between computers constantly, it means you probably have messages downloaded to one of the systems and not the others. I don't ever use Outlook, because it's so time consuming and not as accessible.

6. Try to send large files as attachments

New email users get an "oops" moment when they send a file that's too big for the recipient. Eventually, you realize there is a much better way. For example, you can upload the file to Google Drive and then just send the link.

7. Forward without explanation

This is more of a best practice, but there is a tech angle here, too. When you forward a message without any explanation, it means the recipient has to figure out why you sent it. (Full disclosure: I sometimes forget this rule.) Add a quick comment--it's not like it takes up extra bandwidth.

8. Have tons of customizations in your signature line

You might not realize this, but not every recipient can see the blinking animated cursor next to your name. On my phone especially, I read most messages as basic text. It's best to use a simple signature you know anyone can read on any device.

9. Send an email to dozens of recipients

This is a mistake people make when they accidentally hit "select all" in their email program and hit send. If you have a legitimate email to send to many people, it's far better to use an app like MailChimp.

10. Spam people

Here's one last mistake new users make. They don't quite realize that there are lawsagainst sending hundreds and hundreds of unsolicited emails to people who did not request the message.

How Anyone Can Avoid the Basic Social Selling Mistakes

People don't do business with companies. People do business with people, and that's why social selling, the process of building stronger relationships with potential customers based on truly understanding their needs and problems -- in short, better knowing the people you hope to do business with -- is so important.

And that's why social selling is important to get right.

Recently I talked with Diana Kucer, the director of global product marketing at LinkedIn, about mistakes people typically make when trying to build a productive -- and revenue-producing -- network.

Here's Diana:

You wouldn't go to a big industry conference and just sit in a corner without talking to anyone, would you? Nor would you go up to random strangers at a conference, hand them your business card without saying anything, and walk away. Either way, this would be strange at best, and off-putting at worst.

It's easy to make network-building mistakes in social selling, and it's easy to slip up because your mistakes are not as obvious as they would be in the real world. But it's also easy to avoid these mistakes with some straightforward social selling smarts.

Here are some of the most common mistakes that are made by social selling newbies, and ideas on how to turn these mistakes into successes.

Don't ask to make a connection too soon. Let's go back to our hypothetical trade show where a salesperson is handing business cards to people as if he were playing a game of blackjack. This scenario gets repeated all the time in social selling, where people ask others to connect without introducing themselves or explaining who they are or why the invitee would possibly want to accept the invitation.

Think about how this looks from the recipient's point of view, who knows that saying yes and accepting you as a connection means you'll be able to see all of his or her own connections and have greater access to his or her networks. So this potential connection will naturally wonder if it's worth the risk.

The right way: If you have a connection in common, ask that person to introduce the two of you--LinkedIn has an introduction feature. Our own research finds that buyers have 22 times more favorable impressions of sales professionals whom they meet through a warm introduction, compared with a cold outreach.

Alternately, you can send LinkedIn InMail messages to the desired connection--they're attention-getting, and they give you more space to explain how you can be of service to a prospect.

But don't forget to do your research first and customize the message.

Don't treat your profile like a resume. Your prospects and potential connections don't need to know that you're a high-performing salesperson--in fact, a profile that goes overboard on your sales prowess will scare them away.

Sure, your profile should highlight your experience, but if you're not looking for a new job at the moment, it should devote much more space to what you bring to the table when it comes to your prospects' business challenges.

The right way: Highlight your value-add to connections. Show off your industry knowledge or content that you or your sales org have created. Our LinkedIn survey shows that 86 percent of buyers are willing engage with sales professionals if they provide insights or knowledge about the industry.

Don't forget to do your research. Some salespeople think that building a social-selling network happens by magic: if you simply hang out your online shingle, prospects will come running. For example, you might be inclined to skip reading a would-be connection's profile because you think the person's title tells you everything you need to know.

The right way: Your prospects' profiles can be a gold mine of information that can help you start friendly conversations--like colleges they attended and nonprofits they support.

Gleaning such tidbits from profiles helps you bring the personal touch to the process of building your network.

Don't forget the human aspect of social selling. Your prospects aren't just names in a database--they're part of a living, breathing network that needs to be nurtured. If you treat your network as just a numbers game, and shoot for getting more connections than anyone else, you're going about it all wrong.

The right way: Instead of spending time on churning out invitations, get strategic--double down your efforts on building the most impactful relationships, and putting the time into understanding who they are and what they might need from you.

That way you'll grow a stronger network that will pay dividends over time.

Don't make social selling an occasional effort. Social selling doesn't need to take a huge amount of time, but it works best when you can commit to it on a daily basis. Simply dipping a toe in the water--and assuming people will seek you out--won't net you the connections that will lead to sales success.

The right way: Be a participant, not just an observer. Watch your social news feed to see what connections and companies are up to, and take part in conversations. If you use a tool like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you'll get real-time updates on what connections are doing, so you can comment on their status updates.

Think of social selling as a natural extension of what you do in your day-to-day selling world: You keep your eyes open for opportunities to make a new connection, you strengthen relationships by showing you care and adding value, and you go to events where you can get to know your prospects better. It's the same in the social selling milieu -- so avoid the common mistakes by refining your social skills every day.

15 Insider Tips to Improve your Email Marketing Subject Lines

Why are email marketing subject lines so important? Like it or not, your subscribers will judge your emails by their subject lines.

Even though email marketing subject lines are just a small part of the message, most prospects don’t even bother checking the rest of the email if the subject line isn’t interesting or alluring enough.

So follow the 15 insider tips given here to improve your email marketing subject lines. Here’s how to take your e-mail marketing a few notches higher.

Tip #1. What’s the goal behind the email? You should be clear about your goals and objectives. Clarity is at a premium in e-mail marketing. Your subject lines should be clear and focused and not use any complex or flowery language.

Tip #2. Add a personal touch to the subject lines such as personalization tokens. People like it when someone addresses them by their first name. So write your email marketing subject lines as, “Dear Michael, we wanted to share….” You get the idea!

Tip #3. One of the things you may want to do is to add preview texts to the email. Preview text tells your viewers what the email is all about. This would increase your open rate by quite a lot.

Tip #4. Keep your email marketing subject lines short and sweet, not more than 50 characters. Get your point across in as few words as possible.

Tip #5.   The key to email marketing is to make your subscribers feel good about themselves. Create subject lines such as “For our top customers only…”

Tip #6.   Avoid overusing capitalization. People are put off when someone overuses capitalization in the subject line and generally don’t open such emails.

Tip #7.   Urgency is the key to effective email marketing subject lines. Use a deadline such as “just for 48 hours!” or “Only this week!” This would create a sense of urgency and encourage your readers to act now rather than put off until much later. When they put off taking action, they are likely to forget all about it.

Tip #8.   Be clear about the benefits. If your readers have to open the email, the subject line should emphasize the benefits clearly to them. Essentially, it should make clear as to what’s in it for them, such as, “Make $1,200 a month starting today!”

Tip #9.   Avoid any boring detail. For example, “Your order is confirmed” sounds so much better when you are sending an order confirmation than “Order #73647354 is confirmed”.

Tip #10.   Send the right email at the right time with an appropriate subject line. For example, if you’re sending the email on a Saturday, the subject line should be about a weekend special.

Tip #11.   Engage your readers and arouse their interest by asking a question in the subject line, such as “Are you satisfied with your job or would you like something better?”

Tip #12.   Never make any false promises to get your email opened. This would only cause your audience to get angry at you and cause them to hit the unsubscribe button.

Tip #13.   You may want to try split testing of your email marketing subject lines or A/B testing. In fact, you may use these tests for most of your content, not just the subject line.

Tip #14.   If you can’t use personalization tokens in the email subject line, simply use “you” or “your,” so that it looks like you are addressing your subscribers directly.

Tip #15.   The last tip is to construct the subject lines so that they reflect the location of your subscriber. Location-specific subject lines do wonders for your open rate.