On May 15, 1997 I walked away from my full-time job and onto a plane for my first National Speakers Association workshop. That was my first full day of job-freedom.
This was not a last-minute decision. I had decided several months before that I was leaving on that day. My contract was set for renewal on June 1 and I didn’t want to sign the non-compete clause they were adding. Since I knew I wanted to attend that workshop, I knew that May 15 was it.
I also didn’t leave unprepared. I had already planned my next six months. I purchased five Macintosh laptops and five PC laptops, plus a server and an LCD Projector – while I still had a job to guarantee the purchase. The plan was to pack up, travel to a city, teach a workshop for teachers on How to Publish Your School Website for three days, then go to the next city.
I also didn’t leave without laying the groundwork for sales. With my employer’s permission (they were not going to teach anything that competed with my workshops), I made a list of every school district and teacher I had worked with in the prior four years.
So on May 15, I mailed hundreds of personal notes and invitations to attend one of my pre-scheduled workshops. I also invited them to contact me for consulting.
By the time I returned home after the weekend, I had business waiting for me. And that made all the difference!
Was it a lot of double-work to plan all of this and make all of the arrangements for multiple workshops, hotels, and events while I was still working full-time? Yes.
But I knew I didn’t want to wake up my first day of “freedom” and realize I had to get out there and invent a business! That was downright scary.
So are YOU planning your Freedom Day? If you are, you’ll want to get a copy of Plan Your Online Business. These are the very tools I use to plan and update my business today. I sure wish I had had them in 1997!
