Balancing the work I enjoy with the money I need. Why entrepreneurialism is so hard – and so worth it!

I was in between clients today – one from my official, part-time ”paying” world (as an Outplacement Consultant) and one from my official, still-waiting-to-hit-the-mother-lode ”I-own-my-own-business” world. While transitioning from one to the other (all in the span of a cup of good coffee) I was answering emails and catching up on Twitter. ‘Got a tweet from a friend who asked me what I was doing and my reply was the first half of my post title: “Balancing the work I enjoy with the money I need.” Her response? “A-freekin-men, sister!”

Indeed. It’s this in-the-middle space that makes entrepreneurialism so hard. I have passion. I have drive. I have ideas. I have brilliant (if I do say so myself) service to provide. And, oh yeah, I have a mortgage to pay, kids to support, a car that strangely continues to need gas, and bills: groceries, braces, credit, insurance…on and on it goes! On top of that, now that Fall is officially here, my furnace decided to stop working and will need to be repaired before our electric bills go through the roof because of space-heater use. For those of you who are attempting entrepreneurialism, I know I’m preaching to the choir. It’s hard!

And…there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. When I spend two or three hours straight on my computer (and that’s a restrained estimate of time), writing blog posts or sending Tweets, thinking about how to develop my business or talking to people about why Blog Coaching matters, or, for that matter, telling people why they ought to be blogging in the first place, I am totally in my element. Time slips away. My energy level stays high. I find more to do…and I actually want to do it! It’s so worth it!

It’s this crazy middle-ground that keeps me off-balance, swirling around a bit, and longing to land. There are days where I actually think I should go back to work fulltime – get a “regular” job that provides benefits and retirement and vacation. There are other days when the idea of being in one place for 8+ hours vs. having the flexibility to see clients over coffee, drive from place to place, or just camp at my desk all day makes my hair stand on end. One of my coaches said to me, “Ronna, you’re experiencing the ambivalence of what it means to be an independent contractor. You have to decide if this is the life you really want to live.”

Here’s the thing: I don’t feel ANY ambivalence. I already know the kind of life I want to live. It’s this one! I just want to get paid!!!

I don’t think I’m asking too much. And I KNOW that I’m not asking anything that many other amazing, brilliant, intelligent, creative, and hope-filled entrepreneurs ask every single day. I’m definitely not alone. Maybe we could all get together, form a non-profit, and hire a development director (you game for some gratis work JPaul?) who could write the grants that would enable us to live the lives we want – doing the work we love – and frankly, though it sounds a bit sappy to say, making the world a better place!

A-freekin-men!

Tagged as: balance, blog coaching, blogging, entrepreneur, entrepreneurialism, passion, pay

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