© 2015 Rosetta Thurman All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other,—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Disclaimer and Terms of Use: The Author and Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this book, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, the Author and Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional. In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made. Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their individual circumstances to act accordingly. This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, medical, health, business, accounting or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek the services of competent professionals in legal, medical, health, business, accounting, and finance fields. Publisher: Jesse Krieger If you are interested in being published through Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press, Please email: TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1: Get Focused Chapter 2: Get Clarity. Find Your Sweet Spot and Identify Your Ideal Clients Chapter 3: Get Paid Chapter 4: Get Online Chapter 5: Get Out There Ready to Launch Your Business? About the Author INTRODUCTION Welcome to Launch Your Business! I’m Rosetta Thurman, and I’m excited to be with you through the process of getting your business off the ground. Your business idea may be something you’ve been thinking about for a long time but have never fleshed out, or you may be relaunching something that you started a while back but never really brought to fruition. You may be starting from scratch, or you may already have a business that’s doing all right but not growing as quickly as you’d like. Whether you need to launch, relaunch, or grow your business, you’re in the right place! Wherever you fall in any of those categories, I welcome you. Launching a business is a big decision. It will change your life. I wrote this book because I want to help you become CEO of your life and use your business to craft your ideal life. A few years ago, I was where you may be now. By all accounts, I had a “good” job. I had a good salary, health insurance, employer contributions to my retirement plan, five weeks of paid time off, money for professional development, flexible hours, the ability to work from home, and even my very own parking spot. I was successful by most measures, but something was missing. I was haunted by a question attributed to Robert H. Schuller: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? My answer: work for myself. Write for a living. Travel. Write more. I had wanted to write a book for a few years, but I could never seem to find the time to do it. Although I liked my job, I couldn’t wait to get home each night and work on my own projects. I didn’t want to work myself to death and wait until my 60s to finally start living the life I wanted. My life was good, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to it be great. So in 2007, I began blogging about leadership issues in my industry. People started reading my blog and inviting me to speak at events and run workshops. That’s how I got my start as a consultant. In 2008, I announced the opening of Thurman Consulting, even though I was still working a full-time job and had no intentions of leaving anytime soon. I did that to let people know that I was available for speaking and consulting, which became my side hustle—something I did on the side in addition to working my full-time job. By the end of that first year, I had earned $10,000 by speaking and consulting. That was enough for me to see the potential for actually making a living this way. I kept building my business, and two years later I quit my job to work for myself full-time. In my first year of working for myself, I earned the same amount of money I had been making at my day job. That’s when I knew that I could build a successful business doing what I love. Over time, my business evolved from nonprofit consulting to helping women achieve big goals and beautiful dreams for their lives. My business, Happy Black Woman, reaches thousands of women every month through weekly articles, books, courses, workshops, social events, retreats, and coaching programs. It’s been an amazing journey to be able to do what I love and get paid for it! Best of all, it’s on my own terms. That’s my goal for you, too. I’ve written this book to help you make that happen. I want to commend you for being here. You’re embarking on a journey, and this is just the beginning of something that’s going to be really amazing for you. Starting a business can be intimidating, but I’ll walk you through the steps you’ll need to take to start and build a successful business. I’ll show you how to take your idea, start earning money from it as quickly as possible, and keep building on it until it’s ready to support the life of your dreams. The best time to start is right now, so let’s dive in. I invite you to visit: www.LaunchYourBusinessBook.com for free resources and training to live life on your own terms To your success, Rosetta Thurman Creator of www.HappyBlackWoman.com CHAPTER 1: GET FOCUSED In this chapter, we’ll talk about how to transform your mindset and make time for your business. These steps will be crucial to making your business a success. The first thing we’ll talk about is the mindset shift that you’ll need to make as an entrepreneur. That’s really important to your success in your business. We’ll also talk about setting an income goal that will help you focus your efforts on the most important revenue-generating activities in your business. Identifying your goal will help you plan out everything you’ll need to do to get there. We’ll also cover three powerful strategies to help you remove any negative energy that may be holding you back from achieving success in your business. A successful business isn’t just tactics, strategies, and the right to-do list. For many people, the number-one thing holding them back from building a successful business is negative energy. We’ll talk about how to deal with that and all the energy-sapping things in our lives that have no business being there. Finally, we’ll talk about how you can create a consistent weekly schedule. This is important. Even if you have a demanding full-time job, kids, and a husband at home, you need to make time for your business. Every entrepreneur needs to create some type of schedule and stick to it. I’ll also give you some time- management tips to help you make progress in your business goals every single day. I know how hard it is to build a business when you have a full-time job and a life full of responsibilities. My business started as a side hustle, and for most people that’s the best way to start. That way, you have time to build your business while you still have the security of a full-time job. I’ll show you how to find the time and make it work. All of these pieces come from my own experiences in building my business for two years on the side while I still had a full-time job, as well as the work that I’ve done with clients over the past few years to help them to build their own businesses. We start with getting focused, because this is one of the biggest challenges to making progress. Once you have that down, everything else flows. Shifting Your Mindset The first mindset shift you’ll need to make is to begin viewing your endeavor not as a hobby, but as a business. If your business is something you love, chances are it started as a hobby for you. But if you want to build a successful business, you need to treat your business more seriously: as a business, not a hobby. It starts with realizing that you can have it all—but not all at the same time. There are some choices you’ll have to make in support of your business. You’re not going to be able to have the same lifestyle that you’ve had. You’re not going to be able to do all the things that you’ve been doing. That’s not always a bad thing. It just means that you have to tell some people no. In some cases, you’ve probably been dying to say no anyway. Well, now you have a really good reason: you’re building a business. You don’t have time to be overextending yourself and saying yes to everybody. You have to make choices about how you spend your time. Some of those choices will be hard, and some will come as a relief as you make more time for what’s most important to you. Some people think of this as a sacrifice, but I don’t like to think of it that way. I just think of it as making choices. Some people are not willing to make those choices. They see it as sacrificing time with their friends, and they’re not willing to do that. But really, it’s a choice to work on their businesses. Ultimately, it’s an investment. If you work on your business and keep building it, you can produce some incredible results. If you give up too soon, you’ll miss out on all of those things you could have. As you make your choices, keep the long-term view in mind. Some people get impatient and want to quit their full-time jobs immediately, but that wouldn’t have worked for me. I had to build a foundation and a brand, and the more I did that, the more clients I attracted and the more money I made. It’s worth taking the time to do it right. As you work through this book, you’ll start to see results. The more you work at it, the more results you’ll see. Most business owners start to see a significant return around the three-to five-year mark. At that point, you’ve been through a launch before, so you know how to put your product or service out there so that people will buy it. You start to build momentum. The money starts coming more easily. Everything starts to flow. This book will guide you through building the foundation that will see you through those first few years and help you build success. The key is to treat your business like a business, not a hobby. What’s the difference? With a hobby, you work on your passion only when you feel inspired. Have you ever tried to write a book that way? It never gets finished, because you don’t make time to work on it when you don’t feel inspired. When it’s your business, you have to work on it. Taking it seriously means that you sit down at your desk and work on it, even when you don’t feel like it. And in that way, you get it done. You end up having something to sell sooner rather than later. Motivation To keep yourself going when things get tough, it’s important to remember why you’re doing this. Why do you want a business? What would it mean for your lifestyle and for your family? It’s important to answer that question for yourself so you know what you’re working toward. To get clear on this, I want you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine what it will be like when your business is successful. I want you to fill in the rest of this sentence: When my business is successful, I will be able to _____________________. What’s in that blank for you? When your business is successful, what will you be able to do? I want you to write it down and get very clear on your vision of