It's Linda Rainer of linda rainer dot com, guiding you to a career in life you'll truly enjoy now, as someone who has successfully transitioned from working in the corporate world a corporate job to then becoming my own boss as an entrepreneur running my own online business, I have been able Thio learn quite a few things on what it is that you should do and what you shouldn't dio in order to start your own business.

And if this is something that's been on your mind lately and you've been wanting to learn more about that, I definitely want to share that with you.

Here are my best nine tips on what you should do and what you shouldn't do when it comes to starting your own business.

So let's get into it now if you want to start your own business.

But you also are looking for a job at the same time, and you want some more guidance in that area.

I can share more details about my coaching programs as well as my online courses later at the end of this video.

So if you don't know my story, I have a video all about how I grew up and how I got into the work that I do now.

And it's in a video called Who Am I?

Who is Linda Rainer and what do I do?

So I'm gonna link that video down below if you want to check that out.

But long story short, I started off my career working at a Big Four accounting firm.

I was an accountant.

I was a C p.

A.

And then from there I transitioned and became a headhunter, a recruiter for 3.5 years, where I placed hundreds of people into full time jobs, full time careers in big companies, big and small.

And then from there I became a career strategist, which is the work that I do now.

So I've had a lot of you guys asked me recently.

How did I get into it?

What did I do?

What are my best tips and advice?

So I want to be able to share that with you right here, right now, and so let's get into it now before I dive into my nine do's and don't of starting your own online business.

One thing I really want to say is that you really want to make sure that you have a strong sense of self belief.

Before you start this business, you have to believe in yourself, even just a little bit.

You have to believe that you do have some sort of service offering product that you know is going to serve, help, assist or he'll others in some way, shape or form.

Okay, so if you have something like that already within you that you can offer to others, then that's the right place to be.

That's the right place to start.

This is the right video for you.

So now let's start off with your top.

Do not when it comes to starting your own online business, my first do not, is to do not quit before dabbling.

Before I ever quit my corporate job, I already gained experience with coaching.

What I mean by that is I was helping people for free on the side when I had the time with their careers, with figuring out what it is that they wanted and just giving them coaching advice and people were getting results from that, and I was doing all of this while I was still working my 9 to 5 job.

So what I mean by that for you is that you should not quit before you dabble into whatever work it is that you want to dio.

So if it's also coaching, then you should be coaching while you're still working your 9 to 5 job.

And if you have to do it for free, do it.

Do whatever you need to do to get your hands and feet wet just a little bit, just enough so that you feel confident that when you quit your full time job, you can really go all in.

If you don't do that and you decide to quit your job fully and then dive into the work that you want to do, you might find yourself losing confidence in yourself fairly quickly because you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself and you're having no income come in.

At the same time, you need to be able to cover your basis.

Pay your bills, so that means keep your day job while working the job that you really love.

You need to be able to balance both for a little while, and then you can fully transition once you feel good about the job that you do love.

Tip number two is to do not quit without savings.

Majority of the time.

You're not going to be able to make money right away after quitting your job.

It just doesn't necessarily work that way.

There's always a little bit of a leg period where you really need to get things going, and during that time you are going to need to live off of your savings for me.

For example, I had a period of six months after quitting my job, where I literally didn't do much and I didn't make much money at all.

Instead, I spent money.

I ended up signing up for a yoga teacher training program just to get myself into a new headspace.

And I knew in the program that I was never gonna become a yoga teacher because I can tell you right now I would be the worst yoga teacher you'll have.

So I knew I didn't want to do that.

But I invested in myself, and I took the time to just learn about yoga and learn about the different techniques of teaching yoga and that just opened myself up to a whole new way of thinking and I didn't make any money during that time.

And then after that, I went traveling.

I went to the UK I traveled all over Europe, and I didn't make money during that time either.

So you need to make sure that you have savings enough savings at least for a year, I would say so that you can feel safe and secure while you're still figuring things out at the beginning while you're still taking a break.

My third tip is to do not quit without doing your research.

Now, when I say research, I don't mean go start looking at all the competitors that are out there for the potential business that you want to do and look at what they're doing now.

Don't even bother looking at your competitors right now.

That's not what you should be focusing on, because that's only going to stress you out, and that's gonna put pressure on you and you're not gonna be able to come up with what you are meant to do and what you're meant to offer the world.

When I say research, I mean, find out what your potential customer is needing.

What do they want?

What are there gaps in the market place right now that are not being filled?

What can you offer them?

Focus on you and your potential customer and focus on what it is that you can do to serve him or her.

That's what's required in terms of research.

Don't go looking at your competitors.

Don't go looking at their websites.

That's just going to stress you out.

Tip number four is to do not expect that it's going toe work right away.

This is really important for me to say this, and maybe it's a little bit self explanatory and obvious, but you really need to be realistic that your business isn't necessarily going to make money.

Starting from day one, you're likely not going to make money for a little while because you're still getting the ball rolling.

You're still figuring things out, and so instead of focusing on the money right away, focus on what you need to do to get there step by step.

Like I said, I started off my business by giving away my services for free.

So if that's something that you can do Give away your services for free, Then from there you can charge for what you're worth.

But at the beginning, you want to give what you can and see what feedback you get back if you think it's viable.

If you think you can charge for it afterwards, go ahead and charge for it.

But you want to take it step by step.

Don't start charging premium prices at the beginning when you don't even know if what you have to offer is valuable.

My fifth tip and last do not is to do not just do it for the money.

Running your own business is something that gives you such a sense of freedom because you have the power inability to decide what that business is about.

You get to decide what you offer.

You get to decide how you offer it and the type of people that you wanna work with and the type of people you want to serve.

So don't just do or sell something for the money.

You wanna have a deeper purpose behind it.

You want to make sure that you're doing the work that you're meant to dio that it's serving your purpose that you are offering your talents, your gifts, your services to people in the best way that you can.

So just make sure that money aside you focused on yourself.

You focus on making sure that it fulfills you, and that's what's going to ensure.

That your business becomes successful is if you are focusing in on your talents, your gifts, and you are offering it to someone who needs it Now moving on to the dues I have four dues for you when it comes to starting your own online business.

Do Number one is to figure out what your true talent is and how that can translate to a product or service that you can offer.

This takes time.

This takes reflection.

You really need to ask yourself really hard questions to figure out what is my gift.

What is my talent?

What is it that I know?

I can offer the world?

That's what you wanna ask yourself.

Okay, so you really want to take that time before you run off and start Offering your services is to ask yourself what it is that I'm good at.

What can I offer?

What can I provide?

And you wanna make sure that it's going to help.

He'll assist, serve people in some way, shape or form.

It doesn't matter what it is if it's a service or product, but that it does those things do.

Number two is to feel your way through the process of your research.

Don't just use your mind now.

That may sound a little complicated, but what I mean by that is don't just think.

Don't just analyze and look at the numbers and make your business decisions purely on Lee on that you have tow.

Also, trust your gut.

You have to also trust your intuition, your inner voice through that inner guide within you.

You wanna feel your way.

So when you're researching, when you're looking into this business idea, when you're looking into this ideal customer that you want to work with, you want to make sure that you feel your way through it as well.

Use your heart.

Ask yourself, Does this feel good to me?

Do I wanna walk this path?

Does this type of customer or this type of service or product that I wanna offer?

Does that feel good to me?

It's not just doesn't make logical sense.

You also want to incorporate your heart into it, and you want to trust what comes to you from there, because I'll be honest with you if I didn't trust my gut when I started this business, and even to this day, every decision that I make, I rely on my own gut.

I asked myself, How do I feel about it?

If I'm getting the right feeling, then that's when I know that it's the right decision for me.

If I don't get the right feeling, I don't move forward with that idea.

Even if logically, it seems like it makes sense.

I just go with what feels right and that has worked for me, and hopefully that'll work for you as well Do.

Number three is to offer your product or service for free at first.

Now, I've already said this a couple of times, and I really, truly believe in this, especially at the beginning of your business.

You really want to put yourself out there and don't hold yourself back.

So that means offer what it is that you can offer for free if you can offer it for free just for a short time period and get feedback from people that's going to help you to improve that product or service.

So it's always easier to offer something for free and get that feedback rather than trying to charge for it and then noticing that people aren't buying it because it's already just a mediocre product or service.

You want to make sure that you improve on it at the beginning.

You wanna make sure you can do whatever you can to refine it.

Now, if you have to charge, then find charge.

But don't charge too expensively.

You wanna make sure that it's within a certain range that's affordable for people, so that again you can get the right feedback and you can refine it, you can improve on it.

And then from there you can charge the rates that you do wanna charge.

And lastly, my last do is to get testimonials.

This goes hand in hand with offering your product or service for free.

But when it comes to getting feedback and getting positive testimonials, that is going to help lay the foundation for your business, especially if you're gonna have a website which hopefully you will you will develop your website, and some of the first things that you're gonna be putting on your website are your testimonials.

You want to show and prove to other people who are then going to come to see your website.

That what you have to offer works and you want this to come from riel.

People don't make up testimonials.

That's not something I suggest if you can get it from people that you don't really know too well, that's the best, because they're going to give you their raw feedback.

And if they really are raving about it, you know that that's completely honest.

And it's not because they're your brother or your sister, and they're just saying good things about your business for you.

So there you have it.

Those are my nine dues and dotes when it comes to starting your own business.

If you like these types of videos where I'm talking about business advice, starting your own business, that sort of thing and you want to see more videos on this topic, then leave me a comment below so that I can prepare more videos for you all about this.

Now, if you're someone who is not yet ready to start your business.

You want to still keep looking for a job and you haven't been getting much luck.

Then I wanna be able to help you with that.

I offer free advice from me through my online workshops.

You can visit my interview Strategy Workshop.

You can also visit my resume mastery workshop.

You can sign up there, and from there you can see if you want to enroll in my online courses.

Top notch interview and top notch resume.

Otherwise, if you'd like to work with me one on one, you can head on over to my website.