What if you aren’t stuck? What if you just need different scaffolding.
You’ve been working for other people for years. Now you want something different. You want a side hustle. Or maybe you want to start your own full-time business. You’ve taken the first steps. You’ve got a plan. A domain. Social handles. You’ve even done some work. But, then things slowed down. And now you’re finding it difficult to move forward. It doesn’t make sense. You are great at your job. You also know you could be great at building a business. So, why isn’t it happening?
You blame yourself. It must be a ‘you’ problem. You read books about motivation. Listen to podcasts about willpower. Scroll through social media where everyone’s preaching discipline like it’s the answer. But discipline is vague. Motivation is unreliable. Willpower depletes by lunchtime. And none of these solve the problem.
If you’re blaming the wrong things, what should you be blaming. Well, it’s not actually a blame game. It’s a system game. A system is a series of actions that move you forward. Practical. Actionable. Not a feeling. Not emotional. But it could be the wrong system. It’s like trying to run Mac software on Windows. Fundamentally incompatible. If you’re trying to run your business using the same approach you use in your 9-5 job, that’s the problem.
I’ve been on this journey. Some of my recent roles lacked direction, objectives, andaccountability. So, I approached my side hustle the same way. Made very little progress. My side hustle became my main hustle. Same approach. Same problem. Same progress.
Now I’ve put these four ways into practice. And I’m seeing the difference:
1. Self-generated clarity
At work, your role is clear. You are a cog in a machine. You know exactly what you need to do. And you do it well.
In your own business, that clarity must come from you. No-one tells you why you’re doing what you’re doing. There’s no role definition. In fact, there are multiple roles and some of them you’ve never done before.
I found it useful to create a mission statement. Something that drives me. Acts like a compass, pulling me back on track whenever decisions threaten to take me on a different road. But that’s only part of it. The harder part? Working out which role you ‘should’ be doing at each stage as you build and learn.
Write your mission statement. Don’t worry about making it sound good. Put it somewhere you can see it. When you feel lost or start procrastinating, ask yourself what would take you one tiny step closer to that mission? That’s your focus. My mission statement was undefined. Unclear. I had a sense of what it was. Now I have it on the wall in front of my desk. It’s there every time I look up. My decision making has improved. I still get inspired by things I research. I still have shiny object syndrome. But I find it easier to stop and take a moment before getting distracted.
2. Success measures
In paid employment there are many measures of success. Personal, team, business, financial. Usually it comes down to revenue, but it can be other things. You might have a role in defining success, but more often it’s communicated to you. You understand what you need to do to achieve it.
In your own business? No-one defines it for you. No-one tells you when you need to achieve it by. There might be indicators in your life that help – a timeline, a financial goal, a reason – but you have to spot them yourself.
Set some goals. Do you want to earn enough side hustle money to pay for something? A holiday? A new house? Leave your paid role? How much do you need to earn to do this? Set a date you want to achieve this by. Then extend it by a third. If you want to achieve it in 12 months, set your goal at 16 months. We overestimate our capabilities and there will be unknown. Now, break the goal into steps until you have weekly goals.
I continually changed my goals. I think I was searching for something that would focus me. That’s changed now I’m focused on replacing my income. It’s a single, clear goal. Now I realise my main problem was the time frame I was working to. It was based on no insight, virtually no common sense and was completely unrealistic. Now I have monthly goals, and I review them regularly, so I keep them realistic and stretchy.
3. Momentum
Momentum is a funny thing. When you’ve got it, you feel like you’re winning. But it is unsustainable over longer periods. And, when you lose it, it’s hard to get back. In a paid role, the ebbs and flows are established. You can see when things will be busy. You can plan holidays and time off to recharge.
In your own business things are unknown. You don’t know when your busy periods will be. You can’t plan for time off. You find some momentum and push forward, taking advantage for as long as you can. But then it dips and you’re back to figuring out what to do next.
Momentum carries you and you forget to pause and look at what you’ve achieved. You constantly look forward and measure yourself against your last success. But building a business isn’t linear. It’s messy and squiggly.
When your momentum dips, take a moment. Reflect on what you’ve achieved. What worked well? Can you spot patterns? Anything repeatable? Write it down. Then take a day off. Do something fun. Nothing to do with your business or your day job. When you come back, review your notes and plan your next task. Momentum can’t be sustained for long but can be maximised in short bursts.
Momentum is very satisfying. But I feel I spend more time chasing it than I do experiencing it. The key is reflection. I’ve been working for myself for a month. I went for a long walk and used the fresh air and incredible scenery to help me reflect on the month and what I’ve achieved. I’m hard on myself. I’ve achieved a lot. A lot more than I expected to. I’m not where I wanted to be, but that brings me back to my unrealistic goals and inappropriate system.
4. Accountability
For me, this is the big one. If you’ve read Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies, you’ll know most of us are obligers. This means that we work well with external accountability but find internal accountability hard. That’s OK. It’s fixable.
You might find yourself isolated from the rest of the business. Or you might feel part of a team. Either way, there’s a sense of being in it together, working towards the same goals.
In your own business, you are the team. You are all the functions. There’s no-one to give you the accountability you need.
Find co-working days or a group of people at a similar place on their journey. Share your goal for the day. Ask them to check in with you later. Better yet, find a group that meets regularly and get an accountability buddy. Someone who’ll check in with you and challenge you when you don’t follow through.
I must admit, this is the one I’m still working on. I have calls with people, I know I have people in my corner, but I haven’t defined what I need from them. So, I haven’t asked them for what I need. But that’s OK. I’m moving forward. I’m making connections. I’ll find my accountability.
Running Mac software on Windows
Employee systems are designed for employee work. They require external structure – bosses, deadlines, teams. Take that away and the system collapses.
Side hustles require different infrastructure. Internal structure. Self-generated clarity. Personal accountability. Momentum without external pressure.
You can’t force employee systems to work for entrepreneur work. They’re fundamentally different. Once you see the blind spot, you can choose to build something different. Infrastructure designed for your life, your energy patterns, your constraints.
Want help building a side hustle system that fits your life? Book a free discovery call and let’s talk.
