If you’re sitting at your day job banging your head on your desk, then I might have the podcast for you.
Tom Ewer from LeavingWorkBehind.com left the comfort of his 9 to 5 job to chase his dream.
“Chasing your dream” always sounds cool, but it’s not as simple as it sounds.
Tom had a good-paying job and to many had no reason to do anything different.
But he knew deep down he needed a change. Here’s his story.
GF¢ Podcast Sponsor
Big thanks to Betterment for being the official sponsor of the GF¢ podcast! You can learn more about how Betterment is changing the way you invest here.
Tom’s Background:
- Tom Ewer is an entrepreneur and blogger from a town in the U.K. called Rugby.
- He is the man behind http://www.leavingworkbehind.com
- Always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but was never very academically minded.
- After graduating college at 21, he realized he didn’t know how to do much of anything, so he began working for his father, an entrepreneur in his own right.
- After 5 years of working for his father with a good salary and benefits, Tom realized that he had been waiting for something to work out; instead, he needed to MAKE something happen.
- In May 2011, Tom decided to start his online business. He gave his leave notice in November 2011.
- The blog and business Tom created didn’t replace his income right away; in fact, for several months Tom was losing money.
- In order to succeed, you must have a backup plan. Tom had $15,000 in savings before he left his job so that he would have money to sustain him while he built his business.
- If you create a business today, blogging shouldn’t be the star but rather a means of demonstrating/advertising the main business, simply because it’s difficult to get started and monetize a blog.
- Tom began learning new skills to help him on the web and found like-minded people to help as he was quite lonely when he first started.
- Freelance blogging was Tom’s greatest source of income.
- To freelance, Tom was paid to write blog posts for others.
- As his business became bigger, the business model had to be adapted to become scalable. Instead of writing all the freelance blog posts himself, Tom hires others to write for him.
- If you want to freelance blog, you should improve your writing skills. This is done by simplifying your writing rather than complicating it.
Tom’s Business:
- The blog and business Tom created didn’t replace his income right away; in fact, for several months Tom was losing money.
- In order to succeed, you must have a backup plan. Tom had $15,000 in savings before he left his job so that he would have money to sustain him while he built his business.
- If you create a business today, blogging shouldn’t be the star but rather a means of demonstrating/advertising the main business, simply because it’s difficult to get started and monetize a blog.
- Tom began learning new skills to help him on the web and found like-minded people to help as he was quite lonely when he first started.
- Freelance blogging was Tom’s greatest source of income.
- To freelance, Tom was paid to write blog posts for others.
- As his business became bigger, the business model had to be adapted to become scalable. Instead of writing all the freelance blog posts himself, Tom hires others to write for him.
- If you want to freelance blog, you should improve your writing skills. This is done by simplifying your writing rather than complicating it.
Tom’s Best Investment:
- The best investment Tom made was in himself, increasing his skill set and his experience.
- This allowed him to create another revenue stream with an online course, teaching others how to get started making money by freelance blogging.
If you want to leave the 9-5 grind, keep in mind that you will still have to put in real work, oftentimes more than what you were putting in at your day job. But if it’s something you love, you may not mind. Of course, before you make any kind of big decision like leaving your steady source of income, make sure your finances are in order. Check out the free money-dominating toolkit to help you do just that.
I love hearing stories about people leaving the grind behind that is not meant for them. As someone working on her own business that is not ‘there’ yet financially it’s so easy to start listening to the voices about settling as running your own business is HARD work, but in the long run it’s so worth it!
I have been a real estate agent for 13 years. I never made it big until I started treating it as a business instead of a job. Once I put my heart into it and starting planning my future, things took off.
Starting your own business has so many benefits. Yes it will take a lot of time and effort, but once you get over that initial hump you can start hiring and relaxing a little.
I have to agree with Tom on building your skill set. As a professional actress, I’ve been doing a combination of chasing and living my dream for the past 6 years. I was lucky enough to get a dream job right after graduation that set me up with a $10,000 cushion by the time it was over. But since then it’s been a lot of up and down. I always wish I had developed a more specialized skill set- like web coding or sewing/tailoring- something I could charge for and do on my own time, rather than the typical “survival work” like waiting tables or babysitting which anyone can do and therefore is not flexible or good paying.
Ditching that 9 to 5 job comes with a lot of benefits, but a lot of challenges too. Anyone who thinks its the easy way out is mistaken. It takes a lot of hard work, but chances are you will be working at something you are passionate about, which makes it way more enjoyable. Thanks for the interesting post!