The Two P's of Starting Your Own Business

It’s more important now than ever for women to have a side hustle. What exactly do I mean by this? Quite simply, a side hustle refers to a means of making extra money in addition to what you already make at your day job.

Think about it for a second. Women are already more fiscally responsible than ever, and despite the recent recession and uncertain economic times women have a come a very long way career wise. Our mothers and grandmothers paved the way for us to take control of our own professional and financial lives; now we can do them one better by not only rocking it in the board room, we can also rock it as our own bosses.

Pretty sweet, right?

Now, before we get into specifics of staring a side hustle there are two fundamental pillars that you will need in order to succeed. I call them The Two Ps, and they won’t just help you with your career or business, they’ll help you with life in general.  Seriously, without these two you’ve pretty much got nothing.

Patience

There’s a reason why they say patience is a virtue – especially when it comes to huge projects like starting your own side business. Starting your own business is a huge learning process, one that will probably last a life time as you figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Before you get all excited about being your own boss, there are some things you have to realize so you won’t have a very rude awakening later on. Among them are the following: You won’t know what to do right off the bat. You may not even know where you’re going or how to get there.  Problems you didn’t even think about will arise and you’ll have to learn how to deal with them when they happen. Lastly, sometimes even work you actually enjoy will just feel like work.

But like I said, it’s all a huge learning process. If you’re willing to be patient with yourself and your business then you’ll surely succeed. And besides, everyone starts at the same place: at the bottom with very little knowledge.

Perseverance

Perseverance is just as important as patience. In fact, consider it the second half of the whole. If you have the two on your side then you have got some very powerful tools that can make your virtually unstoppable.

When you are running your own business you will inevitably get curve balls thrown at you – that’s just the way it is. Deals may fall through and clients may not want to pay you, just to name a couple. The difference between a success and a failure is simply how much perseverance you’ve got. If you let yourself get thrown off by less than desirable occurrences you will unfortunately not make it very far as an entrepreneur.

Once you think you’ve got a good understanding of the Two P's I fervently believe any woman can start a side business. It allows you to cultivate a passion on the side, allows for extra income (which is always great during an uncertain economy), and lastly, puts you in the driver’s seat. Of course, it isn’t easy, but believe me, the benefits far outweigh the bumps in the road.

Millenial career-guru Amanda Abella is a recruiter-by-day, author and regular contributor to several career-related sites. You can read more from Amanda on her site, Grad Meets World, and on Twitter @AmandaAbella.