Has the idea to work for yourself ever crossed your mind? But before we begin, here’s the ultimate disclaimer: the point of this isn’t to sell you anything. It’s just our story. 

In the world of blogs and the internet, pretty much the only reason people tell you about their work is to sell you a course on how to do what they do.

This isn’t that.

We’re both pretty entrepreneurial. As a kid, Jonathan sold cookies to his church directory to raise the funds to buy a plane ticket to visit his grandparents. I sold sparkling lemonade to the golfers passing by my backyard as a kid and ran my own babysitting club as a teenager.

When we met, though, we were waiting tables in Hollywood. Jonathan had side hustles here and there, but I didn’t. I was a one-income gal and pretty stressed all the time since restaurant life in Hollywood could be horribly inconsistent. …Think, show up and the restaurant’s closed down inconsistent.

After we worked together at FOUR different restaurants, we decided we could go into business together. We selected real estate because it seemed pretty obvious. Halfway into our exams, we ended up at a network marketing party and signed up on the spot. We hadn’t tried the product (skincare) but figured that more people we knew had skin than needed to buy or sell a home, so we went with that.

We liked what we were doing, but when I got pregnant with Lauren, I had knock-me-out morning sickness. I couldn’t chase around bottles of products or go to marketing parties or any of that. I also lost my job. It was stressful, but it showed us that what we wanted was something online based. We’re not selling you anything here because the right fit for each person and family is different, and it’s best you do your own due diligence and design the life and career you want, vs based on what you find on some blog.

That’s true entrepreneurship: finding what you can do and doing it, not finding what someone else is doing and copying them or buying their course, you know?

Besides, in our early months of entrepreneurship, we knew we’d found the thing for us. …And we didn’t yet understand that it wasn’t for everyone. So we were pretty obnoxious. Now, we know that what we do isn’t for most people at all.

Most people would rather hate their job and collect that consistent paycheck than try entrepreneurship. We get that. You can have a lame job, but if it pays the bills and maybe you have people you like to work with, then you can live for the nights, weekends, and vacation time. That’s reasonable enough.

There’s something about our personality types that don’t allow it for either of us. Jonathan would get bored or complacent or just plain poorly behaved and would get himself fired from jobs, and I have a ridiculously low threshold for inefficiency, ineptitude, or unethical behavior, that I’d find a new job and quit when I didn’t like what was going on in the workplace. We spent a lot of time hopping around, which meant less time to focus on our acting pursuit.

Work for Yourself – It Might Be a Good Idea

So, we figured working for ourselves was a better idea. We work well with each other, so it was a natural idea for us.

If you want to work for yourself, here are the top things we wish we knew…
1. Have a stable income or good nest egg before you quit any job you have. Risks based on faith alone are a recipe for financial disaster. Trust us, we know.

2. Don’t expect quick results or for the first thing, you pick to be the thing that works out. Be open to change. The first company we landed with wasn’t the right fit.

3. Keep your mindset right. Connect with other entrepreneurs. Follow successful entrepreneurs on social media. Listen to great podcasts.

4. Find a great business or faith-growing devotionals. Constantly make sure you’re getting great quality inspiration in your head to keep you on track. Otherwise, it’s easy to get disheartened or discouraged.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but it’s right for us. Hope these ideas inspire you, too!