Nobody Panic - How To Be Your Own Boss: Careers Week Special (with iZettle)

Episode Date: June 18, 2019

Want to go freelance? Set up your own business? Make your side hustle your main hustle? Stevie and Tessa are doing four bonus episodes all this week chock-full of advice to help you go it alone with thanks to wonderful sponsors iZettle. Tip one: don't use phrases like "chock-full" because it's lame. This first episode focuses on what they, has freelancers, have learned about navigating the world of work alone. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Did you panic? I'm Stevie Martin.

I'm Tessa. And this week, we're talking about how to be your own boss, which is something that lots of people email is about. We, I'd say it's our highest rated one. It probably is, isn't it? Other than How to Be a Legend like you. I get quite a lot. Tessa doesn't get so much, but I get quite a lot.

I get loads, actually. I get loads, but thank you. I'd be a queen like Tessa. So if you're thinking, this was my one. Yes, it's for you. It's for you. And it's also brought to you by Our Lovely Spree. sponsors for this series that is going to be kicking off careers week at Nobody Panic.

It's brought to you by Isettle, who basically support small independent businesses. They have an amazing blog called The Business Owner Blog, which if you feel like you've listened, but then you're like, I'd like to read, you know, you know. It's got some really fantastic articles on that. It's blog.isettl.com, but if you just Google Izzettle, it comes up. It's like, organize your small business in three steps. Yes, one of the three steps. Increase your profit. Yes, please.

How to stay chill when they don't pay their bill. Oh, it rhymes as well. That's good. And it's crucial. It is also crucial. Invoicing tips to keep you saying. Yes, please. They have a podcast as well called Bean There Done That and it's getting really great advice.

How is the bean spelled? Oh, like a coffee bean. Oh, shut up. Because a lot about like, you know, people that have started their own cafes and coffee companies and things at that, they really focus on. But, you know, all of these things are helpful for whatever small business you're thinking of starting up. Or just being your own boss.

So, yeah, this is the first of four. And this is way more helpful than my actual Careers Week, which was, we had to do a quiz. And I think I was supposed to be a PE teacher. Careers Week really became a thing when we were at school. And everybody got, I got a golf court. Golf Court. You got a golf court. I won a golf court.

No, I got golf course attendant. It was like 18 pages and you had to like mark it off on a little pencil mark and then it was put through the computer and then you got a little printout. I remember. Golf course attendant. I remember the editor of the sadly RIP, the debrief. Rebecca Holman, she got Shepard. Shepard.

I wonder if you in any way ticked want to work outside, which I obviously did. But what I mean by that is like, I actually just mean be out. side. A bit. A bit. Yeah. Have the option. Access to a garden. But so I guess if you could take that, it just, the computer was automatic just like shepherd. Shepard or golf attendant, or garden. Yeah. I think you're going to have to be a garden. Shepard. That's really fantastic. It is great, isn't it? Because I just, also, I just don't think about shepherding in this day and age, but of course. Are you joking? Do you not watch Lambing Live? Do you not watch Springwatch with Kate Humble? Do you not watch the Yorkshire Shepherdess on I TV2? I mean, this is really bowling me over. Yeah, these are, I am not even

searching for these titles. No, they come in through natural. They come in quick and fast. If you two would like to be a shepherd or a Scandinavian reindeer herder. Listen to careers wait. This is for you.

Get involved. But yeah, we're doing how to be your own boss and this episode is going to basically be the sort of umbrella episode and then we're going to go in detail with various elements of it throughout the other episodes. But this one is just going to be like an intro

I guess using our own experience. It's how to go freelance, which I think is something that it's a, what a buzzword, you know? It's a buzzword, it's a hot word everyone's talking about it. Absolutely, everyone's talking back and forth. Some people, I mean, some people absolutely love that kind of, you know, set routine and being part of a company that you're not the own of. But before we get into being your own boss, what adult thing have you done this week? Mine is actually quite good. I've got a personal trainer.

I mean, that's not an adult thing. That's like a queen thing. Well done. Thank you. I'm really thrilled with it. Is this part of the journey that we've been following that you don't have long running journey about how there's not a single working muscle between my hip and my shoulder? Okay.

And I'm out my one big leg, my dragging, my dragging leg. Anyway, it occurred to me that I did not know what I was doing. Understood. And I would like to. I was like I'm old now. I'd like all these, I'd like to be firing on all cylinders. I'd like all the muscles to be doing something rather. than one guy pulling all the way.

One of your legs. One big leg and everyone else has been like, you're doing a good job, carry on. I'll just watch, I'm just gonna watch, let me see this one out. Looks good from here, I'm like, you do it as well. Yes. And I just know that I'm just doing it all wrong.

I go to these classes and I'm like, I'm not doing it. How, have you seen the personal trainer yet? Yes. How was it? It was wonderful. Great. Yes, I'm going once a week and I have to also write down my food schedule.

and which I was initially like, boring, I don't want to do it, but then actually being made to look at the irregularity and sheer volume of my meals has thrown a lot into, it's thrown into stark relief. Food for thought. When you see like breakfast, 2pm,

miniature bag of Harry Botanthastic, you're like, you know what? You can't ignore that. You can't ignore, it's here in black and white and it's saying this is, come on girl, get it together. Get some vitamins and you. Get some goddamn vitamins. His muscles, because the muscles can't do anything on their tankfastics,

they get quite excited, I'm sure, for a bit. For a bit to sleep. And they're like, what did you give us that for? Understood, yeah. So thank you very sincerely. I put a message out on Twitter saying I was looking for one and that I had the mind of a pro athlete and the body of Neo when he comes out of the Matrix and has never used his muscles before.

But he has no eyebrows. Yeah, literally that's me. And he's like, so doy. And then he's like, why am I so weak? And the man's like, the man, Morpheus is like, you've never used your muscles before. you've just been living in that pot that's me, baby? That's you.

Anyway, and so many of you replied, so thank you so much and send me in the direction of good people and I've got one. That's so great. Mine's less impressive but it is, if you've ever been near me when this has happened before.

I was put on hold for an hour and a half. Wow, that feels too long. Oh, it was. Beyond half an hour, I was absolutely raging and normally what would happen is no matter how much I try, I can't keep the venom out of my voice. when I'm talking to the person

when I finally get through because I'm so furious at the system and the worst thing was I was on hold for 45 minutes and then they hung up on me and then I had to be on hold for it and then I had to call back and I was like number 40 in the queue again

so I had to wait all over again I've spent the entire morning on hold who was it too? The doctors, the NHS having a hard time so basically when she picked it up I was like it's not your fault and I was just really nice and just really like yeah fine it's sort of great

thanks so much and then I finished it and I was like this is so great because every other time that's happened, even if it's like 15 minutes. I'm like, you were just taking my moment. Or it's like an 033 number and you're like, oh, you're doing this on purpose. It really gets me.

Yeah, that's very good of you. I think the reason I've done it is because, and this is like, I'd say the first time I've ever done an adult thing part two, I've downloaded the Calm app, which is 34 pounds a year. My sister got it for me for my birthday, a free subscription, which is so great. And you meditate, and it's all like lots of water sounds

and it's really great and I've been going to sleep listening to like sleep and I'm just a bit more calm and I think when it was something I was like this is a really good thing for me to practice observing and not judging so I observed being on hold but I did not judge

wow doesn't work for everything well done you but congratulations because I have seen it certainly of God the eye of sauron yes I become the eye of sauron I've certainly seen it and oh I felt it's glare Oh, it's turned on you sometimes.

Yes, and I've also attempted to shield members of the public from it. Absolutely. I'm so sorry to all the ring bearers that I have scorched. Occasionally, I'll give you a wink. Oh, wow. Well, I think we all, I speak for all of us when I say, I much we look forward to this new phase of Middle Earth, where Sarah on is a benevolent lord.

I'm just winking or blinking. Only one eye, you can't tell. Is he to say? Is he just refreshing? Or has he got something to tell us? who knows great now I've got that out of the way what about being our own

boss Tessa you're your own boss how have you found it I didn't ever mind that lack of routine but I will come out at the top and be like it's not the lack of routine is not for everyone

that was actually like literally my first point which is going to be like if you decide to be your own boss you have to look if you need routine and if you don't because some people are like Yeah, fine, bitch, got up at 2pm, loved it. And then some people are like, got up at 2pm, oh my God. Yeah.

And I think there's a perspective shift that comes. So, like, I've been freelance for five years or four years now. And I wait, I can't work in an office and have a boss. I mean, I can. And I'm not horrible, but I just don't like it. Like, I find the bureaucracy. I'm not horrible. I'm not a bad guy.

I'm just a mountain eye. I'm just trying to build more. off and the ground up. Just because there are storm clouds and I'm red and fiery doesn't mean it's evil, okay? No, I just, I mean like, it was never my boss that I had a problem with.

It was always, you know, like the wider concerns of the company cuts and not giving the thing, like the magazines that I worked for enough resources and it would just be, you'd feel that you were constantly at the mercy of something that you didn't have anything to do with

and like it wasn't your fault. And I find that quite tricky. And also then there's, you know, obviously there's a ceiling of how much you can earn and how much you can do because you were there for eight hours every single day. And I wanted to do more stuff, and I wanted to earn more,

and I wanted, because the sort of positions that I was working at as a journalist, I mean, it's difficult to kind of push that 20,000, do you know what I mean? So I was like, maybe I'll one day earn 20,000 pounds in a year. That would be nice. Age 30.

And I thought... Oh, you were saying you were below 20,000 pounds. Oh, is that not clear? Absolutely. My first job was 15,000 pounds. I was on that for two years. And then 18,000. And then they were like,

surprise surprise we got you a little payraz 19 that was like absolutely not i'm 26 i can't do this so um i made the decision to try and like see if i could expand it myself and it was really frightening and i was genuinely like poised to go and work in a restaurant whenever i need to do and i think that's but i've gone on a tangent i'm sorry but like what i meant to say was that the routine thing um i'll come back to the having a backup but like the routine thing is it has been the hardest thing, I think, for me to work out. And it's only recently that I've figured it out, which is that it's all about your own perspective of your routine. So if you're somebody that gets up at like, I've got friends who are genuinely like, I love the mornings. I get up earlier than I have to leave,

just to potter around and then I go to work. I'm like, I don't understand that. I get up quite late. And I also work really late. And I spent ages fighting against that. I'm feeling like I'm weird. And I've recently just been like, so like last night I couldn't sleep. So I worked until about four. and then I got up at midday today and I'm just like yeah fine that's just how my day was it I don't feel guilty because I did the work because I'm fine

but then I will try and balance that out obviously because I can't live like that because often I'll be like 10 am meetings and you're like hello I make sure that I don't stray too far until like you know I've become a bat but the point is not being not beating yourself up for doing that and being aware

that when you go freelance you might act in ways that you probably wouldn't be able to anticipate Like you might get up late and you're like, oh God, I thought it was like an early person, but actually that was just because of my job. And that's fine. You just have to realize that it might not be

what you thought it was going to be. And it is harder than you think to get out of your pajamas. Yes, I think when people imagine freelancing, they're always excited by no commute, working from home, being in their pajamas. Cereal again? Like I can eat whenever I... And it's fantastic.

For a bit. For a bit. And then there's a lot of baths and a lot of sort of... Growing. entertaining yourself and a lot of binge watching a lot of sort of doing anything anything else than your job yeah and so i think if you can get in the habit of like you get up at your normal time you commit to when it's like be your own boss ever we only ever think about the excitement of like oh ha ha and i don't have a boss and but you also have to be your own employee and so try and make that employee do its job

absolutely otherwise you've just got an employee in their pajamas all day yeah which is not helpful I like to organise meetings for like 10am. So I know, well, for at least three days of this five-day week, I'm going to be out and up and somewhere for 10 a.m. So then that kind of, you know, means I go to bed earlier that night or whatever. So you have to like constantly be, but that's just, I'm just talking about my experience. Other people might have completely different ways of working.

But you have to be prepared to really look at how you're working and not fight against it and kind of try and maximize your time. because the nine to five working day literally was just invented because of one man looking at his particular workers going, how can we make sure they don't die? Because they appear to be dying on these 18 hour days. And then they just arbitrarily chose nine to five. So that wasn't the best thing for everyone necessarily. No.

But just by definition, it will be for some. It won't be for others. So if you are your own boss, that is something that, yeah, you do. And especially if you are running a company, you're going to have to be operating on the same hours as you were in the office. the lack of commute is excellent and that is something that you have to look at all the positives when you're like, oh but I'm working on my own again and I wish I could talk to someone

and I'm just like going mental on my own in my house you have to like keep track of the positives like what at least you're not in Russia yeah but equally if you do basically before you begin it's important to be like why am I making this choice what do I love about whatever it is I'm doing as this business whether that be

scoring music for the movies from your home office or felling trees on a tree by tree. Two very relatable businesses. Could be. Could be. Opening a cafe.

Opening a cafe. Opening a small brewery. Running a bakery. Whatever it is, your deciding to do. What is it? Why do I love it? And what is it?

Who am I as a person and what kind of things do I need? And if it's like I need to be surrounded by people every day then consider getting like a hot desk somewhere. Yeah. You don't have to work with these people. You just like around them.

So there's like some to talk to or if you're like I love being by myself I can't wait to just work in my shed at the end of the garden fantastic you know who you are build a shed build a shed um and there's a halfway house of like if you are your own boss and some friends in the shed yeah exactly like have a team so you don't have to work do this all by yourself and a lot of people think that you do but richard branson doesn't didn't create all that stuff just him like you had a team of people he had a secondhand person. I don't know if it's a woman or a man. I just in my head it's a man, but I'm sure it's not. You will have strengths and weaknesses. You need to find people who

fill in those weaknesses with their strengths. So if you're, for example, like me, and a dreadful at your own finances or numbers and things like that, then you need to get somebody who, so I have an accountant who I talk to, I'd say too much. And she sorts everything out. So now I don't, when like people ask me questions about stuff, like admin, that's the sightings. I literally don't know how to answer it. I just tell, I just ask her and she just goes, it's this. And I'm like, I don't need to know why. Thank you.

And I think that's just like me, but you might be going, I'm really great at numbers, but I don't know about things like, I don't know, a location for the business. Like our friend set up a theatre and he didn't, and like he's not somebody that. He did like, I think he did English, didn't he orly at uni. He's not somebody that. and he's an actor, like he's not somebody that has a business experience, but he coupled up with, like, this guy who does know about that, and then they, like, really figured it out.

And, like, they've got this beautiful theatre in Streatham now. And, you know, he helps run it. And it's amazing. And he brings the kind of knowledge of shows in, and then his friend brings in the kind of financial backing. And it's just, it's a, once you work with other people, I think you can achieve a lot more than you being, like, I would like to run a bakery.

You're like, well, can you bake bread as well? Yes. Do you have it? I want to run this bakery. Be like, what are the things I enjoy? And if it's like, oh, I would love to make a spreadsheet. Be like, then you know yourself. If it's like, I just want to be covered in flour and have this apron on every day and talk to passes by.

Then be like, be aware that you're going to need to couple up with somebody who does like the spreadsheets because you can't escape that the spreadsheets are a large, large amount of the business. Yeah, you can't cover the spreadsheets in flour and be like, And don't try and kill yourself trying to do all of the things. This is actually a fact that I genuinely just read on the business owner blog on Izzettled.com that 11.7 million days go missing due to stress in the UK every year. So you have to work to maximise all your time. And obviously if you're doing things that you, like it's all about preparation, isn't it?

So obviously that comes into play before you decide to be your own boss. But even it's a journey you don't finish your job and you're like, no I'm a boss like you have to, you'll be constantly learning about yourself and about the chosen kind of field

that you've decided to go in. I always bring her up but one of our listeners listened to one of our first ever episodes in like opened a vegan chicken business which is like a food truck that pops up all over like Manchester called vegan fried chicken.

Go and follow them on Instagram vegan fried chicken. Or in real life just follow the truck Just follow the truck around. But that's something that, like, she didn't know how to do that, but then she just kind of learn and is still learning and is still. And I think, yeah, that's like taking a hobby and making it into something really fun. It takes a lot more work than just being like, love it.

Off I go. Off you go. Yeah. And something that is a genuine phenomenon that will happen to you is the phenomenon of people starting a business followed immediately by, intense crisis. As in you open a shop, a truck runs into it. You start a company, you immediately get sued.

You start to do something. Everyone quit. Everyone quits. You start running a farm, foot and mouth hits. Again, relatable content. The classic stuff. And that is a genuine thing that is, any sort of business book that you read,

people discuss this phenomenon that's like the universe trying to like throw stuff at you. And I think the thing to remember is like those things were going to happen anyway. You just have to sort of plow, be ready for them and crest seamlessly through them. Being like, I'm ready, universe. Like, I've got this under control.

This does not mean I need to like go running for the hills. Like, I can do this thing. Yeah, absolutely, which is why I'm like, knowing where you are, like when I went freelance, I had three months rent, saved up. So I was like, well, I've got three months to see if something will happen. And if nothing, literally nothing is happening three months, then I'll just try and get a job again. or I'll work in a restaurant, but that's on a small scale,

but if you're deciding to start your own business or make a kind of a hobby, a more of a serious thing, then you also have to be realistic. You have to be earning money and you have to put money aside. And you have to, if you don't know how much to put aside, you have to talk to people who've done it. We will talk more about that in the admin 101 episode. But, yeah, you need to project how much you are going to need

in order to give yourself the time and the space to do it. And when best to do that than when you're actually earning a salad, because you can just strip, it's not going to actually, like, impact your life that much, whereas it really will down the line. It's one of those boring things, but boring things work. The money thing is that, like, you will, when you go freelance, there will, it will be feast and famine. And when you are feasting, it's important not to feast yourself sick, like, just remember...

Timney roast potatoes, for example. Exactly. Remember that, like, famine is coming. And when it's famine, you have to be like, remember how it was feast not very long, ago and that will come back again. It's very easy in both of those mindsets, as it is with almost anything in your life, when you're in it, to be like, well, it's this now forever. And where that's like, it's feast day till the end of time.

Yes, I will buy that Cartier watch. Yes, I will. Like, it's very, and then when it's famine, it's very easy to be like, I will never work again. Yes. I will die on this baron sand dune, whereas really you just have to like take a step back and be like, come now. Yes, I think psychologically there are people. who are able to cope with that and people who can't.

And also, if you are somebody that you start and you're like, I can't cope with this, then it's time to enlist the help of other people who do do that sort of stuff. And then, you know, then you have accountability to other people because you are meeting then with that person and you can't let them down. So you have to, you need to create a working environment around you

that is almost like cheating your brain into being like, I've got a salary job. I know a lot of people that have their own businesses, they will pay themselves a little fee and then they'll like pop some in savings or whatever, but they'll try and make it as much like they have a salary job as possible. Humans do need some sense of like security.

Yeah. And if you can give yourself that, obviously it's so hard when you're starting out, but if you can at least give you to that with the people around you and get as much advice as possible, you know, blogs and online and also going out and speaking to people who you know who've had a go at that or, you know,

because there's always like someone's got like a friend of a friend who's like running a really successful chair company. You're like, great. And don't only speak to people who do the same thing as you because there's stuff that's useful across the board. Everyone needs to know about the admini boring stuff and everyone needs to know about finance and everyone needs to know about a good work life balance and everyone needs to know branding. But I've really found in the last few years that I just know so many talented friends that

you're like, oh well so and so does that and you're like, they do that for a job. So get them to do it. Yes. And like, people will also help you out for cut price and for mates rates or you can, you know, if you know the person, it's so much easy to be easy to be like, I can't pay you now, but I will definitely pay you, you know, the first moment I get my first paycheck. Oh, you know what, you know I mean? Like, it's so much nicer to work with people that you know because they're not, like, frightened of and they're going to be like, you are closed or whatever. Absolutely. I think an actual business has hundreds of different departments for a reason. Yeah. When you're freaking out about doing your accounts, whatever, remember that like the accounts department used to be somebody's full-time job. So of course you're going to find that a tricky thing to do.

And so just be aware of like, you are not an island and you cannot steer this ship alone. Alone, no. Pirates didn't sell alone. The main thing about being a boss is realizing that you need a team. Absolutely. And also, you will need a team because tax will be really annoying now. Lean into the tax. Lean into the tax.

Do you mean it will be annoying to do you? your tax or we're going to pay the tax. Annoying to do it and not going to pay it. Both than are annoying. Right, I see. Because you're like, oh, I got paid this money. And then there's a little voice being like, no, you didn't. You got paid this money

because that goes to the government. And then also like, you know, as you earn more money than that apparently changes. That's some things we all learn late. You will get, of all the things you make 10,000 pounds, that's yours to keep. And then after that, every pound you make 20%, 20p belongs

to the man. Not she's gone, baby. God. It belongs to the government. It pays to the NHS. It pays for the roads. It pays for the start. It's so great.

Consider it. Unless you're paying it. And then it's a pain in the ass. But every time you get a paycheck, just move 20% immediately into another account. You can call it smart money, if you like. That's maybe what mine's called. Maybe mine's called you're doing really well, Stevie.

Who's to say what yours is good? I don't know. You just automatically move that 20% of... Sometimes I make a noise like this. whenever I do it, but it really helps to get that tension out. And then round comes January 31st. Oh, you feel good.

And you've got to give that money away, but you're ready to do it. And also June and July. Every single thing that is a possible business expense is that can come out of that money now. Yeah. And that includes also like if you have an accountant and by the way, like accountant's on expensive.

Mine's 150 quid. So ask people. I only got mine because I like asked people who do similar jobs to me because I do loads of different jobs. And they were like, oh yeah, this business is, and I just chose like the cheapest one, and she's amazing. And in my head, I was like, well, I could never have one

because it would obviously, I'd have to put her on a salary. I'd have to give her 75,000 pounds a year. But you don't. There are lots of people that do it on the side of their normal jobs. And because it's really easy for them, and this is the thing. Like, I've been like, but how I can't pay you that amount for all of this? And she's like, it takes me an afternoon. It's fine.

And also their tax deductible. so you can take however much money you pay for your accountant and you can write that off in your next tax thing. So it's very difficult because you have to see long term. And this is also about being your own boss as well. You have to sort through opportunities and ideas and you have to look through like, okay, so what will be good short term

and what will be good long term? You have to start seeing this like a big picture. And things like as simple as, I don't want to pay money to, I'll just do the tax myself, that'll save some money. And then you spend loads of time stressing and crunch. it's potentially not right. You will be paying more money.

And then also you're just doing that because you can't visualize the fact that in a year's time that money won't exit. Like you can write it off. So there's little kids that when they're given like a square of that experiment and they're given like a square of chocolate and told if you don't eat it, you'll get a whole bar but if you do eat it now you won't get anything

and they all at it now because they're like well the chocolate's there and I can't actually compute long term. Yeah. You have to start thinking. So that's always a thing as well like have you don't have like a plan exactly because that can be quite daunting because you're like people like what's your five-year plan you're like ah I don't know have a chicken um but like snickers in the fridge maybe that's our half our five five year plans maybe um but like you have to have some

idea of where you're because if you just hanging about the seat of your pants you're not going to work you unfortunately every day will be a great stress it'll be a great stress and the more that you can even though your instinct is like boring I don't want to make the plan but like make the plan it's also it's the most adult thing you'll ever do making your own business It's like making a baby. Yeah, and it also means being very sincere about like, where will the money be coming from? Who will my clients be?

Who will I be, who's going to be paying for what I've got to sell here? Who will buy my something strawberries? What does she say? Sweet red roses. I didn't know there any strawberries to sell. I didn't have any strawberries. And of course, Who will buy my sweet red roses?

Who will buy these eggs? I feel like it's not sweet red roses now. Okay. I'm just going to quietly just Google Who will buy sweet red roses? Yes God, this is blame my mind And then someone says

Will you buy milk today, mistress? Great. Just this sort of like On the job learning Is very important Any milk today Two blooms for a penny Oh here you go

Ripe, strawberries ripe That's where it was But the who will buy Only belongs to the red roses girl I'm so shocked Everyone else is just shouting milk Oh, knives, knives.

Okay. Guns for sale. Oh no, he's asking if anyone's got any knives to grind. So he's not selling his knives. He's going to sharpen them for it. Any knives to grind them down into other knives? No, he's here to grind your knives for you. Oh, I love that about him.

So that's fantastic. As long as somebody wants you to grind their knives. Yes. If you don't, you're just a man shouting, knives to yourself on the street alone yeah don't be that you're like but that sounds fun sure it sounds fun does anyone want it mr knife can you pay your rent off shouting knives alone no you can't no unless you're like holy shit there's so many people desperate for me to grind their knives which goes like fantastic get out there in which case when's the best time to be selling the knives

do you need to be working in the weekday do you need to be working on the weekends when do people want to bring you the knives there's so much of that isn't there and I think that's what we'll be talking more about in know how to know when to take the leap episode but I think such a thing about like is the thing that I want to do is that will people everything is so saturated all the time so like even with things like podcast or things like anything like I've got an idea for oh someone else has probably done it no one ever feels often like their idea is good enough or their idea is like well it's too similar to this what's too similar to but I think isn't it like a balance being like it's very unlikely you'll find something that nobody has ever done or is doing but you have to like find the spin on that

So it's like, even things like there's like a little donut shop that's opened up near me. And there's actually weirdly another, there's two donut shops quite close to me. And one of them, but one of them offers vegan. So you're like, well, you've found your niche now. I'm going to that one. And or like, you know, like a cafe. Yeah, there's loads of cafes, but this one's got so many plugs and so much, like, strong Wi-Fi. And like, so then you found your little extra thing that you look around and go, okay, so yes, okay, obviously everyone has this.

or this is a thing, but I can add this to it, and this will be the twist. And I remember there's like a thing that I learned when I was doing my journalism, M.A. There's weirdly specific, but also weirdly translates to other stuff, is that if you can't say the headline and you can't say the subheading, you don't have an article, your article isn't focused enough. And that works for everything creative. If you can't describe in one sentence what you're doing, it doesn't, it's not focused enough.

And I think that's the same with like a business. If you can't go, it's a cafe. but the thing is it's got loads of plugs, like too many plugs, and amazing Wi-Fi, and that's what we're going to really sell it on. Then if you're like, it's a cafe, but it's like, so it's like health food, but it's not all health food. And it's like you get some things. And you can work there, but this just sounds like it's not going to work.

Or it might work, but you're not giving it the best shot. So it's same if you're... Because you haven't made it clear in your mind what it is exactly that you're trying to do. Yeah, and you can obviously like branch out and stuff, but you need to have that core, core one line kind of thing. Also, it makes you so much clearer. when you're pitching it to people or when you're trying to get people involved in it, they're not confused as well.

Being like, what? Because talking about being your own boss and going freelance, you can have it in your brain what that means, like, oh, you start a company or a cafe or something. But it is, yeah, it can be anything. It can be like you go, I'd like to start a podcast or I'd like to start doing this more. And as long as you have some sort of revenue idea, it could be absolutely anything.

A friend of mine moved back home just to go self-employed. And she had a real, like, journey with it because she did not want to move home. she's like 32 and she was just like I don't I can't want to that such a step back but it was the only way she was going to be able to afford to set up a business and now she's absolutely fine because often rent is such a problem and it's such a vortex when you're like I only didn't have to pay rent then I'd be able to actually do stuff that would help me pay rent look at big changes you can make temporarily and don't see them as steps back because you're doing a step back to go like 10 steps forward as well sometimes when you make that big leap

you want to keep several irons on the hoof. I have many ions, arguably too many ions in too quiet an ember. Like those fires are not raging. Just quite cool, cool ions. Yeah, some of them are stone coals. But they're there. Like, I still teach English as a foreign language. Like, that is still there as things for me.

Like, I can still tutor. I can still do all of this stuff. So it never feels like, oh no. It's always like, some of my fires are always, my fires are, I've got fires. You've got fires going on. So fine, that's fine. Sounds like a great...

If you've got the potential for fire, you can never be truly cold. Oh, wow, that's excellent. Is that a quote that you've learned? No, I've just made it up. My God! The hairs on the back of my neck. Wow. Thank you.

I'm on fire. Thank you. The final thing I was going to say, on my end is, it's again more of a kind of, well, your own boss lifestyle-wise. I think you should try, and have weekdays and sick days and holidays and it sounds very easy and when people said that to me

when I left I was like, of course I'm not, come on. That's the whole point. I'm going to only have weekends and then you forget and then you're like, well, you know, I'm not doing anything. And then I think you have to, and I suppose it's part of the routine things. Maybe it's not a great point to say. No, it's such an important point. I think it's the most important point. Oh my God. Go on. Back yourself and carry on. I'm all back now. You have to. make sure that, and again, we'll talk about this more in the work-life balance one, but you have to admit to make sure that you do know when to stop working.

I found it very interesting because I live with somebody that is very good at work-life balance, arguably too much life, and seeing my own kind of natural habits through someone else's eyes being like, oh yeah, this isn't great. I can't just watch a film, I'm like, I'm just going to do it like, what are you doing? And so I think you have to, when you start the day, be like, right, I'm going to work until this, point. There's this horrible thing. I went away with my sister to Margate. It was lovely. At the well residence genuinely look it up. It's amazing. And we just basically just like hung around and had an eye time. The whole point was that we weren't on our phones. We weren't doing anything.

And Gina put her out of office on and she's her own boss. But she has some people that kept emailing her with things being like, I know you're away. But do you mind if I? And she was like, what was the point of that then? Because now I am going to reply because yeah, that is quite important. but the point of the out of office is that I don't see those things so that I don't even have the guilt that I haven't replied. I come back and go, right, okay, I have to get on that. You know what I mean? It was literally a day and a half that we were away

and they still were like, I know, yeah, but is it? So things like out of offices and then that's not really enough. You have to just not look. You have to turn your email notifications off and not look at your phone beyond 5.30, say, or whenever point you're like, nah. And like bank holidays as well, I'm so guilty of doing the thing where I email when I think of it

because I'm scared that I'm going to forget. So many people have told me, like, I've started doing it a little bit now, but you might occasionally get an email at 3am. But there's an app called Boomerang, and you can schedule when you send emails. So if it's like, you know, obviously we all have two in the morning, but that's an extreme example.

If it's like 9pm or something, and you're like, oh, God, that thing, I will forget, then you can use Boomerang and then it will send it at like 9 a.m. the next day? If I may, the new Gmail update has that in build. Are you joking? I am not joking. Oh my God, I'm such a grandma. This is so

exciting. Send an email later. Okay, great. Just get a Gmail. Yeah, if you don't have Gmail, maybe download, but yeah. Get Gmail for God's sake. What are you on Yahoo or something? Yeah, fine. What on have business on Yahoo? No, please. Live your life. Go on Yahoo. For the Lord's sake. On Gmail as well, it has that. The new update includes

the undo button. Oh, I've used that once, yeah. ascend in the crisis and then you but then you can take it back I signed a business email and then I decided to put a kiss I don't know why I did it and then my my computer

sent it to sex and then could you retract it? Then I undid it and all the noise came out of my mouth I once sent an email thank you so much for considering me my CV as attached was a picture of a moose and and

that time I I worked at the start. And I got the job. It was a moose farm. I got the job. It was great. It was a moose that I'd raised from birth and they said that does look good. The job is yours.

Worked at the sun briefly. Sent that email that said it was for shift work and I said, I'd absolutely love to come in and do a shit. I didn't know. I'd love to come in and do a shit at the sun. A friend, a PR that I was emailing. I'd have taken a sick day, but it was a sneaky one. because I was doing something else,

and I just pretended it was sick. The people were meant to put, hello, poor you, but she'd obviously press sent too soon so just said hello poo. And then she just never emailed back, and she clearly was like, just leave it.

There's so much, but anyway, the under, again, tangent, but the undies of the undo, great, that's, yeah, that's amazing. The fact that you can send a delayed email and Gmail is just, oh. Because then when you do have those ideas and then you're like,

why am I sending this at midnight, but the minute it's like, schedule for 9 a.m. It's beautiful. Or half past 9 a. It looks like you just got it to the office. 9-17. Yeah, that's true.

That's good, yeah, yeah. Because then it's, if it's 900 hours, you're like, all right. When I received an email that was sent at 7 a.m, I always, I'm like, come on. Yeah, what you're trying to prove? Were you on the loo when you sent that? And they were as well. They got up, had a wait, and then sent that email while they're having a wait, and then left the house at half seven. That's what's happening.

It might not have been a person who could do a sit-down week. Oh, my God, so they were standing and wig. So, yeah. I'm really excited for careers week. I'm excited for careers week. Hopefully that gave you a little bit of a taste of a, that'll be your own boss. But if you wanted to do a fucking deep dive, then continue listening with us. Get your scuba gear on, meet us here tomorrow.

Oh my God, we are going to be going deep. We're going to go look in some caves. We're going snorkeling. It's all about, sorry, yeah, it's how to be your own boss when you're a scuba diver. Sorry, that was all it's about. Yeah. Or if you're finished. It's an audio tour of the deep.

Disappointing for everyone. Actually, I think, quite exciting. No, it wouldn't. Imagine it. The novelty would wear off after five seconds. And you'd just be like, I can't see anything. And also the microphone would break immediately when we went into the water. It would be awful. There's a little bit of deep from Tessa.

So yeah, continue listening this week. And big thanks to I Zettle. And check out business owner blog and been there, done that podcast. And also, you know, if you need to take money at any point for anything, people don't have cash money anymore. You've got to get yourself an Isettle and then you go boop and it's the best thing in the world. And everybody who uses them, including us now that we're Isettle converts, people like, oh, it's great.

It was just recently the art fair in our village, of course. Of course. In which various local artists. I sort of missed that. So sorry. It was noted that you weren't there. Various local artists display their various wares of various quality. No, not true.

The village was repin. We had some good stuff. But everyone had an eye settle. And I really wanted to like vox pop and be like, do you want to tell me about your eyesettle? But I thought it would be too weird. But I really could hear people saying, what's that? And people go, oh my God, it's an eye settle.

And you just do this and it means it's attached to your phone. Like people were really raving about them. Yeah, it's small and it's also very quick and easy. And it sounds like we want to both have sex with eyesets. It wasn't called when something is intuitive. Intuitive. Hopefully that helped. And you're like, yeah, I will be my own boss.

Or, you know, it helps people that. you know. Or help you realize the things that you like and the things that you need to make choices about to be like, I need to get people in to help me with this. Absolutely. Do follow us at Nobody PanicPot. And on me at StevieM the S is a five. Me at Tessa Cote's. Yes. Do email us, Nobody Panic Podcast at gmail.com. And yeah, thank you so much for your lovely support. We would really appreciate some love around this careers week. We want it to reach as many people who need it. And we're where that maybe not all of the business owners listen. So we want to get all them business owners and helping them.

People thinking about businesses, people already in business who want to take it to the next level. People under businesses. Under the business. Friends with the business. Looking at the business from a distance. Not just anyone near a business. Or even you're just so high up in your own business

that you can listen to this in a jacuzzi with a cigar. And just laugh away. And be like, ho, ho, oh, I remember those days. Good luck to you. See you this week for Korea's week. See you there. Bye.