How to Build a Business When It’s Your Secondary Job

How do you build or grow a business when you have a second job or multiple businesses? This is a question that I get all the time, so I want to give you a few tips on how to handle this. First, if you have multiple businesses, understand that one of your businesses is what I call your bread and butter business, while the other businesses are your jelly businesses.

Your bread and butter business is the business with the potential to generate most money for you. Now, I don’t think by any means that money is everything – but it does touch everything that matters. And of course, most of us have practical needs that require money. 

Your jelly businesses are your sweet businesses – hobbies or passion projects that aren’t yet in a place to support you financially.

I see so many entrepreneurs giving too much focus to their jelly businesses and not enough focus to their bread and butter business. 

Take actions to ensure that you can live off of your bread and butter business. For most people, that will mean generating at least sixty thousand or upwards of a hundred thousand dollars to make sure your business meets both your needs and the needs of your family.

In order to make this happen, make sure that you dedicate sacred space in your calendar to your bread and butter business.

If you have a day job, even if you hate it, think of it as a business loan that supports the construction of your business. 

When I started my business, I was working full time for Viacom. Every weekday, I would come home from my day job and then work on building Revenue Breakthrough from 6 to 9pm. Every Saturday, I worked on RB from 10am to 2pm. 

The best gift I gave myself was staying committed to my schedule. I didn’t go out for brunch on Saturdays or after-work drinks on weekdays. Sure, it meant that I didn’t have much of a social life during that time – but it was so worth it. 

Today, Revenue Breakthrough allows me to stop work whenever I want to and take six weeks of vacation a year. The sacrifices I made at the start were well worth it. 

In short, here’s my invitation to you this week if you have multiple businesses or a day job:

  1. Choose which business is your bread and butter business and give it the attention it deserves. 
  2. If you have a day job, recognize that it is serving as a business loan for your business.  
  3. Make sacred time in your weekly schedule for your bread and butter business or the business that you are building and make sure that time is non-negotiable.  

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