It’s been a while since I last wrote a newsletter and a lot has happened. You probably already know that I have a daughter now, and the last couple of months have been a season of transition for me, but also a time of trying to figure out what I’m going to do next with my life.
This is going to be a life update post and I must warn you, this email is a tad bit long, so brace up 😅. I’m at a point that I’ve been calling my transition season. I’m trying to decide whether to fully focus on my creator business, make it my full-time thing and put my time and energy into growing it OR whether to take up a job because of the stability it gives with a guaranteed income every month.
And honestly, I’m still at a crossroads, so let me explain my thinking.
With my creator business, the test that most people would probably tell you to do before going full-time is to make sure you have consistent months of earnings. This year, I’ve actually earned consistent five figures for more than four months, which shows me that there is potential here.
I think what I’ve been waiting for, although I’m now questioning whether this is even the right approach, is to grow the money in my business to £100,000 before I take that leap. Mind you, I’m not talking about revenue here. Yes, there’s been a lot of revenue, but I’m talking about profit. I want to have at least £100,000 profit in the business so I know I have enough runway to cover my salary, pay my video editors and pay for all the tools I use to keep the business running. Right now, the tools and things I use to run the business alone come up to almost £500 a month 🫠.
But then there’s also this question: do I want to trade off starting my business now for stability? Because I’ve actually made this trade-off before.
In 2022, I took up my first full-time employment in the UK. At the time, I had built a community of over 30,000 international students, which was very demanding. The problem was that I hadn’t figured out how to properly monetise it or build a sustainable business model around it. If you don’t know the community I’m talking about, search CP Community on YouTube or Instagram and you’ll see some snippets of what it looked like.
At the time, I was literally thinking, “Okay, what do I do next?” Then I got a job offer and chose the stability of the job instead of taking a bet on myself and trying to figure out how to scale the CP Community. To be fair, perhaps that wasn’t the best time to take the risk anyway. I had just moved back to the UK after getting married, and we were trying to figure out our finances.
The funny thing is that before I moved back, my husband and I had actually agreed that I would give myself at least six months to focus on my own thing. If it didn’t work out, then maybe I could get a job. Guess what? I got a job within two months of moving back 😭. So maybe I never actually gave myself enough time to experiment and figure out whether I could build a proper business out of what I had created.
And now, here I am again, at another crossroads.
Do I choose stability again, or do I actually push my business full-time and take a chance on myself?
When I really think about it, the worst-case scenario is that I fail. Like, really fail 🫣. But even if I fail, I can always go back to paid employment. The downside might be that after taking a career gap, I may not immediately get the salary I want when I return. On the other hand, it could work out really well. I could build the creator business properly, take on consulting gigs where I help companies with marketing strategy and growing their SaaS businesses (which I already do now btw 👀), and who knows what else could come from it? And then there’s the best-case scenario: the business booms and performs way better than I could ever imagine.
You might be wondering how I even ended up at this crossroads. I recently quit my job a couple of months ago, so I’ve really just been in this in-between season, trying to figure out what comes next.
So, that’s pretty much where my head is at right now.
What would you do if you were me? Take the stability of a job or finally take the chance on the business? Hit reply and tell me because, clearly, I could use the help 😅.
And finally, about this newsletter…
I want to be more consistent with writing to you, but the truth is, given what my life looks like right now, I don’t think I can commit to writing a weekly newsletter. I need to be real with myself about that. Maybe some months I’ll write twice. Maybe three times. Maybe even four if I have a lot to say and the time to say it. But my goal is simply to make an effort to show up here at least once every month.
Thank you so much for sticking with me despite the silence. Hopefully, you’ll be hearing from me a lot more going forward ❤️.
Until next time, please stay hydrated and drink lots of water.
XOXO,
Chidera
Hmmmm I guess you will have to take the leap you never know what's on the other side. Give yourself a timeline and if one thing doesn't work out you pivot to the next. It's scary but believe that you've got this and you will do great things.
With love,
Someone who is at a cross road too but has never not been in a structural 9-5 role and doesn't even know if she will survive if she left.
One thing I'm learning is sometimes, we need to take a leap. I heard somewhere that faith is a map for the called. I think you should do things differently and take a bet on your business🙂↔️