Think baby steps when planning a business while still employed One of the biggest frustrations faced by aspiring entrepreneurs who work in full-time jobs is figuring out how to make progress on their creative venture when the daily demands of work, errands, family and an occasional moment of free time eat up most of the hours of the day. The volume of new things to learn and do can be overwhelming and has squelched the best intentions of many passionate wannabe entrepreneurs. Don't let yourself become one of these tragic casualties! Here are a few ways you can take baby steps towards your business goals: Create a master task list or mindmap of your project One of the biggest sources of overwhelm is the wild mish-mosh of ideas, tasks and concerns about your new venture floating around in your brain. The simple solution is to take a piece of paper, title it: My new business (or your business name if you have one) and write down every single thing you can think of that you need to do accomplish to bring it to life. Include things like: research the market, buy accounting software, learn how to sell, find a lawyer that doesn't charge an arm and a leg, register my domain name, etc. If you are slightly nerdy, you may use an Excel spreadsheet to capture all your tasks, and then divide them into categories. If you are solidly nerdy, you may use project management software to define all the tasks and set up all the dependencies and timelines. (Sidenote: I always feel more overwhelmed with a complicated project plan rather than an old fashioned list. But that is just me, others love it.) If you want to impress your friends with your nerdiness, use some of the amazing mind-mapping software available on the market. But be careful - you could invest an exorbitant amount of time researching and learning the right tool. I only recommend this for my very technical readers who do things like create new programming languages for fun. Once you have your list, make sure that you cross off, delete or mark as "complete" finished tasks. Place this list in a visible location where you can see that you are making slow but steady progress. Remove one non-essential task from your week and replace it with "startup only time" If you look hard enough, you will see that not all of the hours of your day are devoted to maximum value tasks. You must be able to free up at least one hour a week to devote to your new endeavor. Do whatever you must to make this time sacred and untouchable. Turn off your email, phone and other gadgets, get out of the office or home environment and only work on tasks that are on your master list. Pay attention to the time of day that you have the most energy and clarity of thought and use this time to work on your startup plans. Make sure that you alternate "must do" tasks with "want to do" tasks Not every element of starting a business is fun and games. There is lots of paperwork, legal mumbo jumbo, accounting processes and financial organizing essential to get your business moving. So if these tasks are not motivating to you, make sure that you alternate mundane tasks with exciting, creative ones like designing the label on your specialty pickle jars or selecting sample fabrics for your quilting business. Get a "mastermind partner." This Star Trek-like term was new to me before I got into the world of coaching. A mastermind partner is basically someone who is in a similar place in their business who you meet with on a regular basis to share information and resources and discuss your progress towards goals. I met one of my mastermind partners, Philippa Kennealy, through a class. We have met by phone every two weeks for the last 6 months. She is an incredibly smart and motivated coach, former medical doctor and executive who just launched a cool and carefully niched practice called The Entrepreneurial MD. We are perfect partners since we do similar things (help people become entrepreneurs) but we deal in different markets (she works with doctors and I work with corporate employees). Take a class where you have specific assignments that will force you to accomplish tasks on your list I took a class last year on increasing visibility and exposure in the media. One of the assignments was to begin writing a blog. Had I not invested money in the class, I may not have taken my assignment so seriously and I probably would still be choosing which blogging platform to use. There are classes on every topic possible for starting a business. To maximize accountability, I suggest that you select a high-quality paid class with a true subject matter expert. In addition to learning from those who you consider the best in your new field, you will feel a positive pressure to get your money's worth by completing your assignments. Get assistance from an outside agency or coach I often feel more motivated to complete something if someone else is working on my plan with me. There are some great free mentoring resources available from organizations like SCORE as well as a host of business coaches that can help you stay on track with your goals. If you fit one of many categories of minority entrepreneurs, you may find that there are resources to help start or grow your business. My husband is a Native American business owner who is expanding his construction company, and we have recently found some excellent agencies in our area who offer free consulting. Check with the Small Business Administration (U.S.) in your local area for a list of affiliated agencies. If small steps don't work, take a chunk of time off to work on your project For some people, it is too hard to get into the flow of a new project if they just work on it for small increments of time. So if you have a little bit of spare vacation time (I would say sick time too, but I may get in trouble), take a few days off and focus exclusively on your business plans. The momentum and excitement you get from accomplishing some significant steps can be just what you need to sustain the momentum required to complete everything on your list. Starting a business takes a lot of time, energy and effort. But the rewards are tremendous! So keep the faith, chip away one task at a time, and before you know it, you will be hanging the "OPEN" sign outside your door. If you have other ideas, please share them at the blog! In Escape from Cubicle Nation, I write about 5 entries a week on topics related to helping people in corporate jobs break out and start their own business. Here are some recent posts from the month of August: Is there a sure-fire way to know if your new business will be a success? The reality of working from home I need to get out more Who are you writing for? Here is a picture of my 10 million dollar yacht If you want to be notified of new posts, you can sign up in the box in upper right corner that says "Sign up here - and I'll let you know when I post." Or if you are savvy about RSS, just click on my feed button right below the sign-up box. Not a Get a Life Subscriber yet? Click here to subscribe. Welcome new subscribers! I am so happy that you have joined the Get a Life subscriber list. You are in good company! Get a Life readers are smart, funny, ambitious, compassionate and interested in the world around them. 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