How To Replace Your Corporate Salary Working Only 8 Hours A Week

Article Summary

Want to ditch your corporate job and go all-in on entrepreneurship? It's a fantastic dream but it can be scary to take steps to make that dream become a reality. In this article, Holly Haynes shares how she navigated the self-doubt and created a 7-figure business over the course of a few years. While it didn't happen overnight, it only took 18 months for her to leave her corporate job and retire her husband from his job too! She's proof that you don't need all day to create your dream business, you just need commitment, a very strong sense of why you want to be an entrepreneur and a clear financial understanding of needs.

Takeaways

Balancing work and personal life requires communication and understanding with your partner or family members.
When considering leaving a job, it's important to create a concrete plan and set financial goals.
Replacing income may take time, and it's important to have a backup plan or financial cushion.
Joining communities can provide support and guidance in the journey of leaving a job and starting a business.
Podcasting can be a great platform for connecting with others and sharing valuable insights and stories.

**This was also a podcast episode (episode #225). If you'd like to listen to this conversation, use the link below.

Listen To The Podcast

Ep225 - She Replaced Her Corporate Salary Working Only 8 Hours A Week

Balancing Work & Personal Life As An Entrepreneur

Holly came up with her "bus stop dream" because financial goals don't really motivate her. Instead of starting a business with only a financial goal, she understood why it was important to her.

"Our family came up with what we call the bus stop dream. And that was, how can I figure out how I can put my kids on the bus and get them off the bus?" - Holly Haynes

"At first I didn't think replacing my corporate salary was possible but what motivated me was that I wanted to control my own schedule so I started to talk about it. Saying it out loud to other people made a big impact." - Holly Haynes

Once you've said you want to start a business out loud to someone else, you can then take takes to make it happen. But you don't have to have all the steps figured out but instead focus on knowing WHY you want that goal, you can take it one step at a time.

Holly took it one step at a time and tried different offerings before she found what worked best for her. The key was that she constantly asked "why is this working for me" or "why isn't this working for me" and then adjusted.

"You are typically your best client, two or three steps behind where you are." - Holly Haynes

"What do you like to do and where do you perform the best?" - Holly Haynes

"Sometimes you have to put it out there and see what happens." - Holly Haynes

Creating A Plan To Replace Your Corporate Salary To Be An Entrepreneur

Once you've started the process of exploring starting your business, it's time to put pen to paper and get some tactical decisions made. For Holly, it looked like:

Where will we get benefits from?
How much do we need in savings?
How much revenue do we need to bring in?

Understanding the finances behind the dream is what makes it actually possible. Holly created her "20 Monday Project" which helped her create a timeline to make it happen. Everything was written on a whiteboard so she could see how it was possible and commit to taking the action to make it happen.

"When we put it on the (white)board, I'm not joking, I put in my 2-week notice in 2 weeks later." - Holly Haynes

Holly emphasizes the importance of understanding your finances and what you need to be financially stable because it can become stressful if this isn't understood.

"If you put an income goal on your business AND your life, it will get really stressful, really fast." - Holly Haynes

Replacing Your Corporate Salary By Working On Your Business Only 8-10 Hours A Week

"Ask yourself, 'When can I be consistent?' Sit down and map out your business hours. Not scrolling Instagram but hands on keyboard and actually working." - Holly Haynes

"Even if you don't like plans, at a minimum identify the times you'll work on your business." - Holly Haynes

Holly's 8-10 Work Schedule:

Sunday - 1 hour planning time for the business week
Monday through Friday - work from 6-7:30am
Saturday - Creative time 6-8:30am

"As busy women entrepreneurs, we can multitask and do twenty minutes here and twenty minutes there and for the most part that works but you have to have some strategic time where you're really looking at your business and what's working, what's not working and what do you need to be successful. I do that on Saturday mornings because I wouldn't get interrupted." - Holly Haynes

In order to stay focused and be productive during her 8-10 hours a week, Holly created themed days because it allowed her to not think during the week.

Holly's Themed Day Example:

Monday - content day
Tuesday/Thursdays - client day
Wednesday - podcast day
Friday - catch up/special project day

"I still use the themed days even though I have more time to work on my business because it helps me stay focused." - Holly Haynes

Want to know more about creating your 8-10 hour work schedule, sign up to go through Holly's Free 5 Day CEO Challenge.

>> Click HERE to access the free challenge

Take Away Message / Action

You don't have to run yourself into the ground when you're starting or growing your business. Set a schedule that works for you and ensure that it centers around and supports WHY you want your own business because entrepreneurship is hard but rewarding if you set your schedule to support what you truly want.

Until next time give yourself permission to enjoy building your business and grace along the way. I'll talk to you soon.

About Holly:

Holly helps female entrepreneurs create simple scaleable offers and systems to grow to multiple 6-figures without relying on the social algorithm. An industry expert and featured Thrive and Entrepreneur.com author with a 20-year business consulting background with Fortune 500 companies, Holly runs her strategic coaching business, the Crush the Rush Planner company, and hosts the top 100 Crush the Rush podcast while raising her twin daughters with her husband in Columbus, Ohio.