Guest blogger Erika Rachel is a full time artist, spanning her career between her hometown of Milford NJ and the big cities that surround her (NYC and Philadelphia). She shares her story and journey in the hopes of inspiring others to follow their dreams and appreciate the creative process.

Is Entrepreneurship for you?

We all want to sleep in and have longer lunch breaks, but there are also hurdles and challenges to being your own boss.

Lets take a look at

a few steps to becoming an entrepreneur…

1) Know what you’re good at:

If you want to start your own business you have to first look at what it is you love doing.

Maybe its makeup, doing hair, or helping your friends with their technology. Is it taking pictures? Do you love being with little kids? Whatever it is, you’ll know it because it’s the thing you need to be pulled away from. It’s that thing you could spend hours doing.

2) Be Ready to Commit to it.

If you want to be your own boss its going to take discipline. Giving up your “free time” to work on your project is going to become your FULL-TIME JOB. Remember, you are working for yourself, but you’re still WORKING. Schedules and to-do lists are going to become your friend.

3) Take Constructive Criticism.

Be ready for experts to give you feedback. Find people who you can watch or ask questions of. If you want to turn something you love doing AND into something you get PAID to do, then you have to be willing to learn more about it and grow.

4) Ignore the Skeptics.

Plenty of people are uncomfortable living “Outside-The-Box.” If you are surrounded by people that think the only way to make a living is by working for someone else, then you are going to hear a lot of naysaying. Thank those people for expressing their concern for you, and then go call one of your expert mentors for advice.

5) Don’t Give Up!

Its hard sometimes to see the light at the end of the tunnel. There are plenty of times when things seem bad and you’ll want to quit. But don’t you already feel that way sometimes working for someone else? When the low moments happen call someone for support, advice or encouragement. Remember to KEEP WORKING. Which brings us to our last point…

6) Do The Work!

Its impossible for something to get accomplished

if you just sit down and wish for it. You have to take the actions. Say you wish for money while sitting at your desk, and a magic fairy plops $10,000 into your bank account. You’re never even going to know its there while sitting at your desk. You’d need to leave your desk, go to the bank, look at your bank account, and then take the money out. All those things are actions not thoughts or wishes.

If you can keep all these things in mind you’ll have a better chance of succeeding at being your own boss. Good Luck!

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