Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Starting a Business Abroad: The First Question You Need to Ask Yourself

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

We’re back with Christine Job, an American business strategist in Spain and host of “Flourish in the Foreign,” a podcast that celebrates and elevates the voices Black women who are thriving abroad.In this mini-episode, Christine shares the first steps to consider if you want to build a business abroad.We’re jumping right into the conversation, where Christine is discussing how her own business has evolved and how entrepreneurship is a form of self-actualization. Enjoy!Hello! I'm your host, Sarah Mikutel. But the real question is, who are you? Where are you now and where do you want to be? Can I help you get there?Visit sarahmikutel.com to learn how we can work together to help you achieve more peace, happiness, and positive transformation in your life.Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to Live Without Borders, a travel and wellness show for expats, the expat curious, and globally minded citizens of the world. We are the travelers, the culturally curious, the experiences and not things kind of people. And we know that freedom is about more than getting on a plane. It's about becoming the most heroic versions of ourselves, which is why on this podcast, you will hear insider travel secrets, inspiring expat stories and advice on how to live abroad. but you will also hear episodes that will help give you the clarity, focus, and skills you need to create a life that will set your soul on fire. I am your host, Sarah Micatel, a certified clarity coach trained in the Enneagram, and I first moved abroad on my own at age 18, and I have been permanently enjoying life in Europe since 2010. If you are ready to make some big moves in your life

and want my help moving from someday to seize the day, visit live without borderspodcast.com. We are back with Christine Job, an American business strategist in Spain, and host of Flourge in the Foreign, which is a podcast that celebrates and elevates the voices of black women who are thriving abroad. In this mini episode, Christine shares the first steps to consider if you want to start building a business abroad. We're jumping right into the conversation where Christine is discussing how her own business has evolved and how entrepreneurship is a form of self-actualization. Enjoy the show. So you were working on like rebooting your business. So tell us more about that. Yeah. So I started to reboot my business at the beginning of January of 2020. And honestly, I don't know. I guess it's the universe. It's how everything kind of lined up. Because of the pandemic, I had a lot of great opportunities to meet more people for my business and get a little bit more exposure. But what really helped and what really helped. And what really. really changed my business from just being, I'm a business strategist. I can help you. You know,

I really specialize in ideation. I'm really great at, you know, product, development, really strategy and implementation in that kind of front. And I was like, I could do it all because I've always done it all. You know, I started out doing it when I was in law school, actually, as a way to escape the law school. I actually was a legal fellow for our incubator on campus. And I was like, Yeah, something not with law, which was obviously a telltale sign that I should be at law school, but that's neither here nor there. And so I was used to having like everyone in their whole world come and talk to me and help strategize with them. But in 2020 was when I launched my podcast, flourished in the foreign. And that changed everything.

Really. I mean, my podcast changed my life, which sounds crazy because I'm an indie podcaster and I have a small podcast. But it really did because it really clarified what I wanted to do, like what my service was really about. You know, people would ask me a lot, like, what are you doing in Spain? How are you able to be there? And I would tell people, you know, I came with an auxiliary program, but then I flipped it. I networked. And I wanted to go back into my wheelhouse.

And I really believe in the beauty of your experience and your skills. you don't have to cut off your corporate or your past work life if you become an entrepreneur. Like, why? No, I believe that you can utilize that experience and make it work for you as an entrepreneur. And I'm really passionate about it, especially for my clients who are particularly black women and women of color. You know, a lot of my clients are American, though not all I do have. I've had British clients. But it's a systemic issue in which, you know, you are taught to achieve and to earn and to get all the degrees.

And yet in professional settings, still undervalued and undermined. And then also in a society that, you know, doesn't really value that much past whatever contributions you can make to the economy. And I really firmly believe in the self-actualization that comes from entrepreneurs. but also paired with really the wellness that can be achieved through living abroad. And I think it's really powerful for anyone, but I will speak for my point. If you as a black woman, utilizing entrepreneurship as a form of self-actualization, I'm becoming more of myself as I serve. What is my service?

What is my purpose? And I get to choose my service. I get to choose my impact, especially when we're thinking about commerce and money and, you know, economy. I get to choose how I participate. I get to choose who I decide to elevate and I help and who I give my small business dollars to. I get to do that and I get to affect change in that way. So what would you say to somebody who comes to you like a client, a new client, and like I want to move abroad and build a business, but I've always worked for somebody else.

Like what do I do? Like what are the first steps? Yeah, the first steps I always tell everyone are. things that they don't want to hear. But I love saying it to them because I think it's honest. One, please make sure that you want to start a business. A lot of times people think starting a business is, I don't know, an alternative to finding employment. Now, in a lot of different societies and different historical contexts, that's definitely true. But I think for the majority of us who are going abroad, that doesn't necessarily, that's not necessarily the case. You may not

want to work on the local economy for, you know, whatever reasons, or you may not have, you know, the specific industry or what have you that your expertise is in, but you can definitely find employment abroad. You may need to hire a recruiter. But I make a, I make a big fuss about it because too many people think entrepreneurship is like, oh, okay, I'll just be an entrepreneur. I'll just have a business. And I'm like, no, no, no. Like, you got to really want to. And it's not for everyone. And that's okay. So first thing is, please make sure. that you actually want to start a business. The second thing is, is that I always tell my clients to really think about their number, actually. And I think it's something because women, and I'm

going to be general with this, and people can come from me if they want. But in general, I think, like, women are deterred from numbers or, you know, there's a lot of that social programming about math. And a lot of women, entrepreneurs are, like, afraid of, like, saying how much money they want to make. And I'm like, that's actually the biggest part of this puzzle, because it dictates what type of business we're going to create, right? It depends on, you know, depending on what your number is. And the number, and I always tell them, to itemize it. So utilize your expenses or your retirement. Like, what is your take-home money that you want to take, you know, you want to make? What is it that you want to do. It's important that you understand those numbers because they become real. And then they

dictate the types of services that you will monetize or how you may package it. And definitely, it'll affect your pricing because oftentimes most women entrepreneurs are crazily underpriced. It's crazy. It's like insane. I have to get so many women to not only up their prices, but to stop giving stuff away for free. Like over delivery is. Right. intense with women entrepreneurs. They're like, but I need to make sure that they like it. And I got to do that. And it's like, no, they paid for A. Give them A. Stop giving them the entire alphabet. And then being like, I hope you like me. And it's like, no. Right. So the number is really important. And the number is not six figures. Because what does that mean? It's $100,000 to what,

$9,000? Like very specific. And that makes people uncomfortable. And it's meant to. It's meant for you to really think about your why, like, why this money? And it takes it out of like, I think sometimes people think it, you know, evil capitalism and stuff like that. It's like, when you have your own personal why, you recognize you're not like, oh, yes, I want this money so I can be Scrooge McDuck and swimming like gold coins. Like, that's not your reason. You know, like, oh, so I can subjugate people. Like, that's not your reason. So that also helps to take that off, like, because that can be self-sabotaging. Like, I shouldn't make money because it's bad. It's like, no, I actually want to make this money for these specific reasons. This is what I'm going to do with this money. I'm going

to do this good with this money. I'm going to help my community, my family, myself, whatever, with this money. That is so important. Once you have that number and you're very clear, is to really do a skills assessment. And I tell women to do this and they roll their eyes at me, But then they recognize that I am usually right about this, I'll just say. And I tell them to go back into their, you know, past resumes from the past five years. Look at their job descriptions. But actually think about what did you actually do, right? What did you day to day do?

Which is oftentimes way more than your job description because you do something that everyone likes. And they're like, no, we want you to do it. We don't want anyone else to do it. It's not my job. Yeah, but we would prefer you to do it because you're just good at it, right? whether that be party planning or managing vendors or what have you. That was not a part of your job description that you're just great at. I want them to write that all down.

One, because that is an automatic confidence boost. Because a lot of times women will come in and they'll say, oh, yeah, I have 20 years of HR experience, but I'm not really sure if I could be an entrepreneur and be a consultant. And I'm like, what? What? Yes, you can. Of course you can.

So it's a way for the women to reaffirm themselves and say, okay, I actually know what I'm talking about. Like, yes, I could do this. And then it helps you to identify the things that you like doing and that people kept on asking you to do. Because, of course, we may have experience in a plethora of things. We could do it all. But you can really start identify it. And when you see it on paper, instead of thinking about it in your head, you can see it and say, oh, I really did like being the party planner. or I really liked being the vendor manager.

Then you can start seeing the things that you enjoy and that people came to you for as, like, that's the clue as to possibly the business or part of the business that you can monetize. What that also does is that it makes you think about your network. You don't have to cut off everyone that you used to know because you started a business. You can utilize them as your first clients. Like, you can say, oh yeah, Jim, I'm not with them anymore. I'm doing this by myself. So if you want me to manage the vendors, we can just contract, you know, between you and I. And they'll be like, oh, oh, yeah. Because I, I mean, I worked with your company, but I liked you. I trust you. So I think that is really important. So you want to do that market, like, you want to do your marketable skills assessment. You want to look at your network to see, you know, who are the people that you enjoy working with, with the types of people. And go there because it doesn't have to be a sluble.

log. Like it doesn't have, you don't just start from zero. You just, you just don't. You can, you know, practice and experiment with people that you already know and see what works, what doesn't work, what feels good. I think that is really, really important. But then, you know, I think also, I think what else is really important when you're starting a business is to give yourself that grace to be a beginner. I also find that women are included. incredibly hard on themselves, crippling so, almost self-sabotaging about like perfectionism and things like that. And I tell all my clients, look, it's going to be janky because you just started and they can't handle it. And I'm like, but the great thing is that you get to iterate,

but it's always, it's going to be janky. It just is what it is. So if you learn how to give yourself grace and you also understand that we are continuously iterating, businesses are always changing, You get to fix it. Don't worry. A typo on your website will not kill you, you know? You know, I've come to like appreciate typos in people's emails because I'm like, you know what? You have a life. You have a life. I could bring you for actually doing the thing and sending it out. And then also to understand that with any, you know, goal or what have you, it is step by step. It's never, you know, it's not, it's not. It's not. beautiful. It's not graceful, but give yourself the grace to be a beginner. You will be way more successful faster. That's all for now. Go ahead and follow the show or hit subscribe so you can hear

more episodes like this. And if you would like my help taking bold action on your own dreams, like living abroad, changing careers and other life transitions, visit live without borderspodcast.com. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot. I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.