Journey to Self-Employment: Lessons Learned and Challenges Faced

Transitioning to self-employment offers freedom, but requires careful planning and a focus on personal values.

### Embracing Self-Employment: A Journey of Growth and Learning
* 🚀 After quitting my job for a higher-paying opportunity, I achieved my **highest income yet**, but soon left again to pursue my dream of being **my own boss**.
* 💪 As someone who is immunocompromised, having **control over my time** is crucial, leading me to recommend **saving enough before quitting** or exploring freelancing to build **financial stability**.
* 📊 I meticulously tracked my side income for eight months to ensure I could sustain myself after leaving my job, emphasizing the **importance of planning and having a clear financial picture**.
* 🗓 Transitioning to self-employment required me to adopt a **business mindset**, managing my schedule and tasks with intention to avoid **aimless wandering** in my work.
* 🤔 Despite the freedom I gained, I faced challenges like self-doubt and income fluctuations, realizing that a **scarcity mindset can hinder growth and lead to unnecessary stress**.
* 💻 Connecting with other creators and dedicating time to learn new skills, such as backend coding, became possible after leaving my full-time job, highlighting the **importance of minimizing distractions for personal growth**.
* 🌱 My definition of success evolved during my journey, focusing on **gratitude for what I have** rather than constantly chasing unattainable goals, which aligns with the idea of **setting realistic, achievable objectives**.
* 📽 I hope my experiences resonate with others facing similar doubts, and I encourage viewers to **share their thoughts and explore the content** that can help them on their own paths.

So I quit my job, left for a higher-paying job, achieved my highest ever income, and then I left again. This video is about the entire journey and what I learned along the way. I've always dreamed about being my own boss. I'm immunocompromised; unlike when you have

a cough or a fever, my illnesses are invisible, which means that it's very hard for me to prove that I'm really sick. This is why I'm so determined to have freedom over my own time. If you're thinking of getting a job right now, I

recommend three things: If the thought of having an unstable income after quitting a job already gives you anxiety, save up enough runway before you quit, or start exploring freelancing or side gigs so that you could build up your financial runway faster before you quit your job.

Have stable side income for at least eight months. This is how my Excel sheet looked like while I was planning towards that transition into self-employment. Every month, I'll track all my side income and I'll average all this income by the number of months. This will help me

determine whether my past side income earnings would be consistent enough for me to sustain myself if I were to quit my job. I still fall into the trap of wanting more money and more businesses, but when I focus on what truly matters to me, I'm less likely to fall into it again. When

you get more businesses, it means that you're more busy unless you hire someone or delegate this task to someone else. Again, decide how much income every month is enough for you. Chasing more money isn't the answer. When you're an employee, your company covers expenses.

like design tools, books, and even your laptop. As a business owner, this is on us. Before I officially left my job, I registered a company in Malaysia one year before I quit. I started managing my schedule as if I were already running my own business. This mindset is really

important to prepare ourselves mentally and practically for this transition. Start thinking and acting like a business owner and not just an employee. I still remember the day when I finally submitted my resignation letter. While there was thrill, excitement, happiness, and joy inside me, I was afraid

of what might happen. What if I regretted this decision and went back to being a full-time employee? What would people think of me? And all these self-limiting thoughts came creeping in. I want to talk about those early days of being my own boss; how it's like my calendar is

empty again. I'm fully in control of my own time. No more random messages like, "Oh, can I pick your brain?" or "Can we hop on a quick call?" for something that could have been a message or an email. It's pure peace, and I no longer dread Mondays. When I'm sick, I

don't feel guilty anymore because I can take the day off whenever I want. And since I no longer need to check company messages all day, it's easier for me to focus because there are no interruptions and less context switching. However, after quitting my job, time passed by

really quickly. When you're working in a full-time job, your manager might give you hard deadlines, and you have other priorities to juggle. Without those things, I took things slowly and at my own pace. Tasks that usually take three days to complete would take me a week or

even longer because no one was pressuring me. I wasn't 100% focused, and that could be a problem. Even before quitting a job, set a strict routine on what you plan to do if you were to create a job, so that when you actually do that,

you won't go around mindlessly doing things that you never planned to do. Decide what time you want to wake up, go to sleep, and what daily routines you want to incorporate. Set break times and cut-off times for fun and relaxation before you go to sleep. Decide what you need to

complete by tomorrow, so the next day when you get to work you have a clear intention on how you want to structure a day to tackle those tasks. After you quit your job and become self-employed, is there still work-life balance? Sometimes I take a complete break for 2 weeks

without doing any work at all. Other times I work through weekends, like day and night, for a client project or a YouTube video. And I think this balance of rest and intense work periods is a normal and natural process. If you want a strict work-life balance, it's possible,

should I be a solo business owner or should I hire a team? Here are the key points that I kind of considered: Ask yourself what kind of lifestyle aligns with your values. You want to know if you prefer working alone or in a team.

If you have a team, you also need to ensure that everyone's being paid fairly and consistently. And not everyone wants the responsibility of hiring or managing a team; that could add up to stress. For me, I've decided I want to go solo. I'm fine working alone and do not want the

The stress of managing too many people, and hiring a big team that way, I could keep my expenses low, work from anywhere, and wake up anytime I want. As a solo business owner, I have the freedom to not worry about other people depending on me or my business. But isn't it more

scalable and sustainable if I hire a team? Isn't that better for business? Remember when we talked about deciding how much money you need to be happy? A person earning $5,000 each month might be happier and less stressed out than someone earning $100K each month.

There's no right or wrong answer here; it's up to you. Ever since I left my job, I also face self-doubt. When I go on LinkedIn, I see my ex-colleagues and friends getting promoted or moving on to better companies. I'm happy for

their achievements, but sometimes I can't help but wonder, would I have experienced the same if I stayed in my previous job? Every time these kinds of thoughts creep in, I ask myself: If a promotion and a higher salary is what I want, do I want to go back to a corporate

lifestyle? Everyone gets self-doubt once in a while, so I think it's normal to feel lost and confused sometimes. And even if you choose to be self-employed, it's not all good; there are some challenges that come with it. That's why

I made this video. And if you choose to be a full-time employee, that's also fine. A real challenge when I'm self-employed is income fluctuation. We all already expect that this is going to happen, but I realize that what I've been

Feeling this way all these years is called a scarcity mindset. This scarcity mindset makes me worry about missing out on opportunities if I say no to something. If you have a scarcity mindset like I do, you might believe that there are never enough resources, like time or money, when...

these resources are limited. Our survival instinct prioritizes our immediate needs over long-term planning, so even when I'm not in a threatening situation, my brain acts as if we're in a state of crisis. This is how I manage, and I hope this helps. I'll mentally prep myself and know

that income fluctuation is perfectly normal; there are high months and there are low months. It will happen. Each month I track and review my expenses and income in a Google Sheet. I split my expenses into personal and work, so I make sure that I don't subscribe to unnecessary stuff.

It's also important to forecast expenses in advance, like insurance bills, and allocate a specific percentage of your income for taxes. I calculate my financial runway based on my current cost of living and savings. This will help you understand how long your savings can sustain your current

lifestyle if your income were to stop today. High income doesn't matter if you don't save the money. After quitting and going all in on my own things, I became friends with other creators around the world. Find a way to meet new people. I hate to use the term 'networking,' but you

get the idea. You don't necessarily need to attend networking events; it could be something as simple as going on social media and telling someone that you appreciate their work a lot. And that's also why I believe in having a personal site: when you put out good work, people

are going to notice you, and that's how you attract like-minded people and get to know talented people like yourself.  Creating my job has also allowed me to dedicate time, focus, and energy to things that I like. I've always wanted to learn backend coding, but I

just couldn't find the time, focus, and energy to just sit down and learn about it. The best way to learn coding is always to build something, and that's why it led me to building Butter; a site where I craft free and premium icons, pixel by pixel. I spent a month diving

into these backend coding tutorials that are freely available. AI helps me to code better by giving immediate feedback as I code and helping me troubleshoot lines of code that I'm not sure about. Today, we have all these AI tools freely available to all of us; there's no excuse to say

that we don't know something. And I don't believe that AI is coming for us and taking all our jobs. I believe that we have the creative minds to think outside the box, use it to our advantage, and I guess the biggest lesson here is the

importance of focusing and dedicating the time to inch towards the little milestones that you set for yourself, day by day, little by little. Back when I was working a full-time job, there was so little energy left in me that I no longer had the time and energy to just

sit down and learn something from scratch. I believe that distractions are what stand between us and our goals; when you minimize your distractions, you maximize your growth. I want to also talk about why I took an extended 5-month break from YouTube: perfectionism got in the

Way, I didn't know what videos to make anymore. Every idea that I thought of was either not good enough, or I just worried that I didn't have any value to offer. In fact, I actually had three videos filmed and edited that got deleted eventually because I found that those videos weren't

authentic. After the break, my definition of success has evolved. I looked internally to appreciate and be grateful for the things I already have, instead of constantly chasing after things that I don't. It might sound counterproductive, like aren't you supposed to be aiming

for greater achievements? According to this goal-setting theory, the studies found that setting SMART goals helps us build confidence in actually achieving what we set out to achieve. By setting goals that are realistic, it makes us feel less overwhelmed, and therefore we are more likely to achieve those goals. So, yeah,

thank you for watching this video. I hope something in this video has helped you in some way. If you have a friend who's also experiencing these doubts, feel free to share this video with them. Let me know in the comment section what else you'd like to see next. If you enjoyed

this one, I think you'll enjoy my previous video, which I talk about how not to design a bad UI/UX. And I'll see you in that video. Bye.

700 days after quitting my job, i learnt this

Rachel How

Leaving a job for self-employment and initial planning

The speaker quit a high-paying job to pursue self-employment, driven by a desire for independence and control over their time, especially due to an immunocompromised condition.

Recommendation to save enough money or build side income before quitting a job.

Advice to have stable side income for at least eight months before transitioning to self-employment.

Tracking side income to assess its consistency for self-sufficiency.

Importance of determining sufficient income and avoiding the trap of wanting more businesses.

Considerations for expenses as a business owner compared to being an employee.

Registering a company and managing schedule as if already self-employed before quitting the job.

Early days of self-employment: Freedom and challenges

Initial feelings of thrill, excitement, but also fear and self-doubt after submitting resignation.

Enjoying control over time, no more interruptions, and reduced guilt when sick.

Time passing quickly without deadlines and external pressures, leading to slower task completion.

Importance of setting a strict routine before quitting to maintain productivity.

Planning daily routines, including work, breaks, and relaxation time.

Work-life balance and solo vs. team business model

Work-life balance varies, with periods of complete breaks and intense work.

Considering whether to remain a solo business owner or hire a team.

Aligning lifestyle with personal values and preferences for working alone or in a team.

Considerations of fair and consistent payment, stress of managing a team, and keeping expenses low.

Advantages of being a solo business owner: freedom, low expenses, flexibility.

Debating the scalability and sustainability of hiring a team versus prioritizing personal happiness and reduced stress.

Self-doubt, income fluctuation, and scarcity mindset

Experiencing self-doubt by comparing oneself to former colleagues' achievements.

Questioning whether returning to corporate life would be preferable.

Acknowledging that self-doubt is normal, even in self-employment.

Income fluctuation as a challenge, and addressing scarcity mindset.

Scarcity mindset explained as worrying about missing opportunities and limited resources.

Managing income fluctuation by mentally preparing for high and low months.

Financial management, networking, and personal projects

Tracking expenses and income, categorizing expenses, forecasting, and allocating for taxes.

Calculating financial runway to understand savings' sustainability.

Importance of networking and building relationships with other creators.

Using a personal website to showcase work and attract like-minded individuals.

Dedications of time to personal projects like learning backend coding and building a website.

Lessons learned, extended break, and redefined success

Minimizing distractions to maximize growth and overcome lack of time and energy for learning.

Reasons for a 5-month break from YouTube due to perfectionism and self-doubt.

Deleting previously filmed videos due to lack of authenticity.

Shifting definition of success from chasing external achievements to appreciating what one already has.

Importance of setting realistic SMART goals to build confidence and reduce overwhelm.