Juggling a 9-to-5 and Your Business Dreams: Tips to Balancing Both

Ever feel like you’re teetering on the edge when it comes to managing your 9-to-5 job while nurturing your entrepreneurial dreams? You're not alone! As a first-generation Mexican immigrant, I've faced the same struggle and have come out on the other side with a wealth of knowledge on this balancing act. 

Tune in as I take you through my journey, revealing the strategies I've used to successfully juggle my full-time job and business dreams. From time management tips using powerful tools like Notion and Excel, to my insights on the Pomodoro Method that has revolutionized how I work and take breaks, this episode promises to hand you the keys to a balanced work-life combo.

I also cover how you can leverage your day job to develop skills beneficial to your business. I'll help you understand the importance of valuing your time and investing in the right tools to streamline your workflow. And what about those days when you need a little extra push? I'll share how having a coach or joining a supportive group can guide you towards success. Get ready to discover how to turn your 9-to-5 into a launching pad for your entrepreneurial aspirations. Welcome to the Money Chisme podcast – let’s build wealth and chase dreams together!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Trying to build a business while also still having that nine-to-five job is Very stressful, like I'm doing it currently and juggling your day job while chasing your entrepreneur dreams, like it's challenging you Lego. If you have like a family on top of that, it is like Stressful. So like, what can we do to help balance that out so that way you could still, you know, provide for your family but also build that business? Oh la, welcome to the money cheese man podcast. I am your host, violetta, a first-generation Mexican immigrant. I am a real estate investor and business owner.

Speaker 1: 0:40

But oh, let me tell you, just like other first-gen's, I was not taught much about personal finance, and I mean, needless to say, I was being perrida. I was so lost and I struggled a lot in my personal finance journey and that's why I created the money cheese my podcast where each week, I bring you the cheese man on how to manage and grow your money and Other money talks to help you to kick ass with your finances. Alright, so let's get into this week's money cheese man. Hola, hola, welcome back to another episode of the money cheese my podcast, ii. This week I want to get into the struggle if Trying to like start a business and trying to grow that business While also still having your nine-of-five job, like it is a big struggle and this is something that I definitely have dealt with as I build my business Money, cheese man, you know and trying to grow this podcast, trying to, you know, grow my blog and my social media. And I'm still active duty Navy and let me tell you that's been like rough and even though right now my Current duty station where I work at right now it's, you know, nine or five hours and they're pretty, you know, relaxed, it's still a struggle to have like that day job and those responsibilities and then come home and, you know, try to find that energy and stuff to Continue growing my business. So, if you're thinking about starting a business on the side or currently, you know, trying to Start one, like I get it. It's rough but, you know, don't get it twisted it's still very rewarding and, over all, like it's going to benefit you in the long run. I mean you are building something that will one day, hopefully, run itself and generate you income so you can build financial freedom and build wealth and maybe even leave a legacy for future generations.

Speaker 1: 2:51

So in this episode I want to get into some tips and you know just things I've learned throughout my time that I've been trying to grow this business and you know I'm still learning some of these things and making sure that I am consistent with these habits and following my own Advice right, because you know where we love to give out advice, promises we don't even follow our own. You know Freakin advice, but you know I've been working on them and I've found that it has helped me have an easier and a more efficient time growing my business. And you know I want to share them with you of what my experience has been so far as well, now that I've been, you know, working on growing money-cheeseman for, I think, about a year now, a little bit over a year. So first up, before you even start your business, you want to make sure it is something that you are truly passionate about, because, I mean, you're going to work long hours on this business, so you want to spend that time on something that you, you know, truly care about, that are passionate about, because you know, I know like eventually you're going to get to the point where, like you, don't work as many hours, but the reality is, when you're growing a business, like it's you doing the work and everything you you're wearing a lot of hats, so you're going to put in some long hours, so you want to make sure that it's something that you care about and you know it's going to help you, especially like right now that you know sometimes you have that long day at work and you know, or a stressful day, or you're kind of like a little bit burnt out, like you want to have something that motivates you to actually, you know, create your content, or you know do the admin side of the business, or you know, just working on your business, because that's really, you know, going to help you actually continue working on growing your business.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Because if it's something that you're not passionate about, you're just going to let it slide, because you're going to, you know, want to relax. You're going to, you know, have, you know want to do more family time, like you're just going to let it slide and eventually you're just going to fall off the wagon. So, for example, with money cheese man, I'm very passionate about teaching you know real estate, investing for sure, that's my really huge passion. But also, you know teaching, you know personal finance, teaching financial literacy and just you know like money management and, you know, teaching my community how to manage and grow their money. So when I do have those long days at work, like you know, I'll take like a little break, obviously when I get home to eat or whatever and but you know I'm more motivated to create stuff and work on my business because I'm passionate about it and I know I'm doing something good for the community.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Not only that, but you also want to start business where you you know your current skill sets that you have, you know it goes along with that business because, again, you are going to have limited time because of because you have a nine of five, you're working during the day, so in the evenings you're not going to have so much extra time to learn too many new skills, Not to say that you won't spend time learning new things, because I've definitely have spent a lot of time learning. But you know it's going to be even more difficult and take even longer time if, like you have a huge you know gap in that skills. Like you have a huge learning curve to reach, like, for example, like if you want to start like a woodworking business but you never even held a saw. Like that's a huge learning curve that you know it's going to prolong how, you know how fast your business grows and everything, because you are having to learn as you go and learn skills and stuff like that. But you know, and that might hold you back. But like, if you're passionate about starting woodworking as a business, I mean you can do it and everything like that. You could just work on, you know, like, building your skill sets, taking courses or whatever woodshop classes, whatever it may be, and then start your business.

Speaker 1: 7:12

The problem that I guess the thing I'm trying to say is that you know, don't you know, try to do it both at the same time, because it's just even harder when you're already limited with time because you have a day job. All right, so let's get into the tips to help you build a business with that nine of five. And the first tip that I have is learning time management. And I know this may sound easy or like a no brainer, but like, let me tell you, kid, like I thought that was the case, but I still found myself scrambling and trying to, you know, fulfill deadlines for, like, launches, or, you know, trying to fulfill deadlines for my podcast and setting time to make them and stuff like that. So you know all these things would come up real quick. And then I guess it's you know I would miss a week where I didn't upload a podcast because I wasn't as good as I thought with time management, and you know I got humbled real quick.

Speaker 1: 8:20

And the truth is, to be transparent, I'm still working on it as well, like I was saying, but one thing that I am finding that is starting to work for me is to schedule out all my tasks and to set priorities to them. I also even have started to use like statuses and I check on them daily. So you know, originally I was using like a to-do list. I like just writing it on paper and be like I got to do this, this and this, but you know I wasn't really setting priorities, I wasn't putting deadlines of when to I needed it done or whatever, and you know so it was just still. You know it helped me track stuff, but it really wasn't helping me get stuff done in a timely manner. So right now I have started using Notion for this and, like I've been enjoying it and I'm still working on it, on setting it up how I like and how, and as I work with it, I find other ways that would help me, you know, do my workflow better and stuff like that. But it's still helping me. It's, you know. You know helping me like do that priorities. It's helping me do like checking it off, setting due dates and all that stuff. And so I've been enjoying it.

Speaker 1: 9:43

And you know, if you don't want to use, like you know, applications like Notion or whatever, you can even create an Excel and you could do the same thing where you have like a column that says like due date and a column that says you know the status and check marks and stuff like that, so you could get really fancy with it. On Excel, if you're like Excel, an Excel pro, but there's other you know systems and software that can do this for you. I just use Notion because right now it's free and just for yourself, like for one person it's free. So I use it because it's one less cost for my business, and you know I'm trying to keep costs low right now as I grow.

Speaker 1: 10:25

And then the second thing I started doing for like time management is setting specific blocks of time to work and this way you ensure that you make consistent progress but also not hyper fixate on them to where you find yourself working for long hours because, like, not gonna lie, that is me. I'm really bad with this. I hyper fixate on a task and you know, next thing, you know, like it's close to bedtime and my hub has to come down here and be like, hey, it's time to go to bed because it's like 12am, and you know like I just tend to like hyper fixate on it, and then, next thing, you know, it burns me out and it makes me tired. So, you know, then it makes it harder for the next day to, you know, get back and start working on the same task. So don't be like me.

Speaker 1: 11:20

So you can use timers, and you know, one that I started using was the Pomodoro method, I guess, but basically, as you work for like 25 minutes or so and then you take five minute breaks and then it's just a cycle for up to like I don't know, three hours or so. But the important thing is the time frames, because you could do like, hey, work for an hour, then take like a 10 minute break. There's one that I do, that's that way as well, and so it really depends how, like what I feel that day, if I want to do like 25 minute works or 30 minutes or an hour, but the point is to help break up your time and force you to take breaks. And you know, especially like with your eyes and you're working on the computer like you want to give your eyes a break sometimes and YouTube has a bunch of, you know, pomodoro style videos with calming music or like just lo-fi. I'm really into like the lo-fi music right now when I'm working, especially when I have to think about stuff. And you know they have timers for several different time frames of work blogs, like I was saying. There's one for one hour and the video is like five hours and then it'll give you like 10. Minute breaks or 15 or whatever it may be. But yeah, youtube is a great free resource to find timers with music. So I've been enjoying that and it's been helping me as well.

Speaker 1: 12:54

So my next tip is to leverage that nine of five job and it could either help you develop more skills that you could practice Like maybe you're not good at Excel, but your job has that, like maybe some trainings or whatever it may be and then you could just like work on those skills, um, and you know, just figuring out what your nine of five has, that could possibly, you know, help you. It could even be just like customer service, it could even just be talking Like, yeah, you know, all those are also skills and you might not think that it would benefit you with your business, but lots of these little things can, and so, you know, for example, with mine, I mean it's kind of like a no-brainer for me because, um, with the military, we have trainings for everything and, like you know, we have some courses and stuff like that that we have access to. And, matter of fact, one new one that the Navy is coming out with is coaching, and so I'm like trying to sign up for that as well. So I could get, you know, more trained up on coaching and, you know, work on those skills and you know, you just never know what might be available at your nine of five. So just keep an eye out on that, and you know, another thing is I know some of us we might not like our coworkers or whatever, or not interact, but you don't know who knows who right, cause you know how that saying is that you're only like seven people away from each other or something like that. So you know, someone in your nine of five might know someone that either needs your service or can help you with your business in some way or form, or maybe just to network, okay. So this next tip is going to be a little bit more difficult to actually implement because you know we're if you're a first gen or someone that likes to you know, do things on your own, um, you might not be too keen of delegating and outsourcing tasks, and it's definitely difficult for us who have that pride of doing things ourselves, like you know, first generation, um, because we are so used to doing that we're the trailblazers, we're the one that are like leading our families into, uh, new things and learning, and you know, doing all these things.

Speaker 1: 15:25

We're learning personal finance, we're learning how to heal generational trauma, all that stuff. So you know, when it comes to delegating, it's kind of hard because this is our business, right, this is our baby, and it's sometimes hard to let go to someone else to. You know, help you do things in your business, right. But the the thing is we have to learn how to delegate and outsource things, um, because our role in our business is to be the CEO and be focused on growing our business, not to be, you know the, the worker in it. You know, um, because otherwise you're just creating a job for yourself, not necessarily a business. So once you have like started setting up your business and you see that you're starting to like grow or, you know, starting to get spread, then especially with having a nine-of-five job, this is even more important because it is nearly impossible to do all these things yourselves.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Like you know, when I decided to start money cheese was like, oh, I could write a blog and, you know, put out a few social media posts, whatever, and do the podcast, whatever. It didn't sound that hard but like it's so much more that goes into it of like thinking about, like email marketing and the way you post on social media, like when and how or whatever. You know like showing up on social media and, like you know, I started getting so overwhelmed. So I'm finally having to admit to myself that you know what it is time to hire help. You know it could be a freelancer. You know virtual assistants or maybe you could do interns right, and really the the goal is for them to handle all the smaller but still important things.

Speaker 1: 17:22

You know day-to-day tasks, like you know answering my emails, scheduling guests. You know invoicing and, you know, like helping me edit or whatever it may be, schedule my social media posts, whatever. So I just, you know, signed up and hired someone from like Fiverr and to help me with my social media posts because like I'm starting to get too much and like I'm struggling to try to like do all the admin stuff and, you know, getting people on the podcast and all that stuff and it's just so much that I'm finding myself, you know, spending so much time on these easy tasks that I could just pay somebody else to do for me so I can just focus on, you know, putting out content that's you know I could educate people with and that I could help and, you know, help grow the my social media and my business. So with that, now that so, now that I have come to terms that you know I need to hire someone and I took the first step with my social media management now I could focus on trying to find, like a virtual assistant. So right now I am working on like my procedures, writing down all my tasks and going like step-by-step like you know, how do I reach out to people for my emails, how do I manage my emails, how do I do my email marketing, all that stuff. I'm writing down all that so when I start looking for someone towards the end of the year, I could be able to train them on exactly how I like things to get done. And not to say that I won't be open to like feedback, because, hey, you know, if they have better ideas to better get things done like, I'm all for it. But you know you do want to have your procedures and everything you know written down so it's easier to train somebody and then that way you feel more comfortable to give those tasks to somebody else. But yeah, you have to learn how to delegate.

Speaker 1: 19:27

The next tip is to automate, automate, automate. Like we are in a great time where there are so many tools and software and stuff that can automate repetitive tasks, like you know. Back to my social media like there's things that you have those social media scheduling apps or whatever. You have automatic email marketing where you could create like a workflow so you don't actually have to manually send emails. Like you still create all the emails but it automatically sends for you. And even bookkeeping. Like you could automate some of that stuff. Like there's, like there's so much and now with like AI, like chat, gpt and all the other ones, like it's even easier. So like right now having a business, I think it's we're in a great time because there's so many ways we can automate and easier ways, like I said, to delegate and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 20:23

So definitely look for ways and things that you can do to automate some of your tasks. So, for example, I pay the 10 extra bucks for an AI to automatically create chapters for my podcast. It creates the description, it creates the transcript and even creates a blog post for each podcast episode and it's awesome because then all I have to do is go back and edit the description and the blog to my voice and how I like it to flow. So like more of how I speak and stuff like that. But the majority the chunk of time that it would have taken me to do those things on my own it's way less time and it takes me maybe 30 minutes just to like skim through and change and edit what's already there and to be able to post that, and so it takes me so much less time and you know, and I get it like sometimes you know, $10 or here and $5 there it might be like, oh my god, I don't want to spend the money on these things because I can do it. I can write my own blog posts, I can write my own podcast description. But really, how much is your free time worth? Would you rather spend that time writing your blog posts and stuff like that? Or would you rather spend time with your family relaxing outside, drinking a cup of coffee or just hanging out watching your favorite show or whatever? Those $10 saved me so much time to where I can enjoy sitting outside with chickens, spending time with my stepson or with my husband or whatever, or binging the show. That's worth it to me to have that time back.

Speaker 1: 22:21

And my last tip is to find a mentor or join a community of like-minded people who can give you guidance and support. And yeah, some may be paid or some may be free, like if you join a Facebook group or you hire a coach or something like that. The point is that you want to have somebody to guide you or support you or just be there rooting you on and picking you up when you feel like it's not going well, because with the business it is rough, like especially with the nine of five it is rough and luckily I had, if you don't know her, wendy Levingling-Bode, her mastermind, the group that I was in, like man, we supported it and I really needed that this whole year and it has helped me, expand my mind and motivated me even more and just having that support as I'm doing this and has helped me a lot. And so I want you to make sure that you find some support group. There's some free ones out there, there's some paid ones, whatever you feel comfortable doing, and you don't even have to go in person. Especially right now.

Speaker 1: 23:50

A lot of people are working from home and stuff like that. There's one that I'm kind of signed up for. It doesn't work with my schedule because it's on Wednesdays at 11, and I'm at work so I can't really participate in them, but sometimes when I tell a work, I try to go on the Zoom and it's nice because you are on the Zoom call and everybody's working on their own tasks and there's just music and it's just calm and you work for an hour and then another 30 minutes. Everybody can socialize and it's just nice to work with other people that are also trying to grow their business and have that support. So make sure that you find that community and so you're not doing this by yourself, not to mention being part of these communities or support groups or whatever. You find lots of great ideas. People find ways that helps them, that they can share or help balance ideas, but in one of these groups, the Mastermind that's where I found out about Notion and the Pomodoro technique of using YouTube and putting those timers with the music, and so it's helpful. You never know what these groups can help.

Speaker 1: 25:07

So balancing your nine to five job and your business is definitely like I was saying, it's challenging, it's rough, sometimes you want to pull your hair out bit old. It really is. Just having the right strategies and the tools, plus, obviously, your determination and motivation, and you can make it and be able to grow your business enough to finally leave that nine to five and be able to go full time with your business, and that's the goal for all of us, right? And so hopefully some of these tips that I've picked up along the way are helpful to you and help you be more productive and growing your business and just having that work-life balance better with, because now you have two jobs basically, and so let me know if you have any tips or tricks that have worked for you that I didn't mention about. That I could try to use Because, like I said, I am open to suggestions.

Speaker 1: 26:09

Anything that can help me I will use, for sure, and of course I'll come on and share it, maybe in an updated episode or just on my social media. But other than that, thank you for tuning in. Hasta la próxima bye. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and share so others may find this podcast. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can email me at infomoneycheesemay at gmailcom. And don't forget to follow me on all my social medias that are listed below. Hasta la próxima bye.