TAKING PERSONAL INVENTORY: LIFE AFTER BEING LAID OFF & HOW I WAS FORCED INTO FULL TIME ENTREPRENEURSHIP

August 29, 2017 by iamsummerterry

 

Most people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes of the highlight reels of your life because let’s face it, it’s not always pretty. So although capturing the perfectly staged but “don’t make it look staged” photos can be alluring there comes a point where you have to be transparent as well. If I really want to help or inspire someone telling my story is the best, most authentic, and genuine way.

Read more after the jump…

Why am I even sharing this? Well, we live in a time when everything is filtered from our pictures, to how we display our lives, to who we want people to think we are. And although I do love a good pretty snapchat filter, I wanted to be honest on what my life looks like after being laid off and it how it forced me into full time entrepreneurship. I’m no seasoned vet in entrepreneurship but I can speak to those who may recently been laid off and contemplating what to do next, or those who are newly entering or thinking about transitioning into entrepreneurship. For me I was forced into it and I’ll explain exactly what that means later.

I’ve always been the girl who knew how to make a coin outside of whatever job I was holding down at the moment. I guess you can say Hustlin is in my DNA. I would work my 9-5 job, go home then work on my side hustles whether it was putting in time to work on blog posts, conducting consultations for hair clients or booking hair appointments. At the time these were side hustles so I didn’t take it 100% as serious. Meaning I was not putting in the work to make them legit businesses. I can be honest and say that! Even though I knew the vision I wanted for my life I was not actively creating it. I was letting time go by doing the minimum because I had a steady paycheck at a job that I started pursing climibing the corporate latter so I wasn’t in any hurry. Once I became hip to the politics at that job, which I later correlated it to the politics all of Corporate America, I started getting serious about my life. I started working on my brand, revamped my blog, and taking my side hustles more serious. After battling some depression and leaving that job I landed another very good job some would say in Corporate America in the Finance district in Manhattan (I live in NY by the way). The salary was really good but eventually I grew bored, unchallenged, and creatively stiffiled. This was becoming a cycle and I knew I just needed to do my own thing. What got me through my days were focusing on my own projects any free moment I had and constantly praying to God saying there has to be more than this. Fast forward to 2015, and here I was making more money than my parents ever made and I was still searching for an out. At this time I ran, marketed and operated all of my side hustles solely online thru the power of social media. This has been my comfortable place for years. A place I can share my talents, be creative, be transparent and connect with other women like me. I learned about affiliate marketing and how millennials were making good money buy monetizing their life. It sounded good and initially I thought sadly to myself  “I wish I could do that”. Then I sat back did a reality check and followed that with an excited rebuttal stating to myself “I can do that, I have to just figure out how”!

It had been almost 2 years at the new job still unhappy but I balanced that by actively creating additional streams of income through affiliate marketing. For those of you who don’t know what affiliate marketing is it’s when you partner with a company as an independent business owner or distributor to market and distribute their products while generating income, like a franchise. I was balancing that and my 9-5 perfectly until it my job decided to do an organizational restructuring aka lay offs. At this point while my other co-workers were sad and wondering what they were going to do, some even cried, I on the other hand was elated. You see I knew my potential, and knew what I wanted for my life, and had been praying to God for freedom of time to pursue my businesses full time. That’s exactly what he did! He took away my job to give me the freedom to pursue what it is that I want to do with my life. So on March 16th 2017 when I was taken into that conference room to be told my job had been eliminated I walked out a Full Time Entrepreneur. Did I sulk, did I cry…NOPE! I went back to my desk grabbed a few items and told them they could ship the rest to me. I still have those 3 boxes of my life from that cube packed up at my front door as a reminder to never get comfortable. Never even went through them. I just dove into my work for my businesses and kept pushing forward. To be honest, within the first 2 months of being laid off I saw improvements in my businesses with increases sales and increased traffic to my blog. After all I had more time to run my businesses effectively and produce content on a more regular basis. I also traveled more without worrying about how was I going to find the time. I had all the time in the world now and could work from anywhere that had wifi.

The downside to being laid off is a financial clock of reality as to when the severance checks would stop. As a full time entrepreneur I have more pressure and responsibility. If I don’t produce I don’t eat, simple as that! I knew I had to create a schedule for myself and be accountable for myself. I had to do everything with the thought process of how does this help my business, how can I better serve my clients, what content do my readers want more of, what strategies will help align my business goals with my monthly financial goals. I make sure I spend most of my time doing income producing activities and keeping myself motivated even when I’m going through an emotional cluster fuck which happens more times than often. Because let’s have a truth moment, I knew after this severance money ran out I had to solely depend on my work ethic to generate income for myself to sustain my lifestyle and cover my monthly overhead. I learned to sacrifice on some things, I couldn’t make it to every event, girls night, happy hour, or celebration. I learned who my real friends were, I learned who really supported me and my happiness no matter what that looked liked. I learned to surround myself with positive energy and to take opportunities as they come and figure out the rest along the way. That’s all entrepreneurship is! Figuring out what it is that you want to do and then figuring out how to do it! It’s going at things blindly, taking a leap, trusting your instincts, doing some self development, and self educating yourself on whatever it is that sets your soul on fire. Do I have it all figured out, Heck No! Am I racking in the dough stacking up millions, Not Yet! Am I happier than I’ve ever been YES! I’m happier, healthier, and actually living life on my terms!

If I had never been laid off I probably wouldn’t be pursuing my dreams with such ferocity that I am now. I had too much doubt, fear and insecurity of if I would succeed. But who cares, at least I can say I’m  going for it and giving it my all.

Let’s have some girl talk below!

What are some things that are keeping you from pursuing your dreams?

 

xoxo – Summer Terry