Knowing When to Leave Your Job- Part 2

This is part two of last week’s post about knowing when it is time to leave your job. I hope that the first post got you excited and thinking about all the possibilities and mindset changes you can cultivate to be ready to make that jump into your dream of private practice. In this post, we are going to continue with the same ideas of getting you focused on building your private practice into your full time job.

Boundaries to Build Your Dream Job

Keep in mind you are going to be working double; your day job and building up your private practice on the side. Also remember you are doing this because you want a better life and to help others on deeper more long term level. As we tell patients the magic of self care, having good boundaries for yourself in these beginning stages can help you to not feel burnt out. There are numerous ways to have boundaries around self care and for me, having one day a week where I do absolutely no work, not even open up email has been a great way to turn off my work brain and take care of my soul. Remember you will have more time for self care and family once you do quit your day job and focusing only on your practice.

Another way to set some boundaries, in the beginning, is to pick a date! Don’t keep having this dream and you wake up 10 years down the road wishing you turned it into a reality. Choose the date you will leave your day job.  You can choose what you need in order to feel safe transitioning –  a certain level of success or number of clients that would make you feel safe to quite. Pull out your calendar right now and set the date.  For me, it helped to work backward. I knew I needed to have so many clients per week to quit my day job and so I would set weekly goals to get there. For example, if my date was June’s first and I needed 15 clients, maybe the two weeks prior I had the goal of scheduling and maintaining 15, and the two weeks prior have 14 clients, and so on.

Make your priority your dream job!

Line up your Finances

Getting your money in line to leave your day job I feel is one of the biggest reason a lot of y’all have not left yet or felt overly fearful of leaving. I know for me this was what kept me working 3 jobs all at once. I want you to have a plan of what you need and how long it will take to make the money you need to move fully to your private practice. Carve out time and sit down with your budget and create a plan.  In our Building Your Private Practice Basic course, I walk you through an exact spreadsheet with the count down and everything.

Something to keep in the back of your mind is that this transition is not terminate If something happens and you are not able to keep your private practice going forever you can always go back to your full time job or even find a new one. When you do leave always leave on good terms so there is always doors open to you.

 

Support & Community

Cultivate your team, meaning knowing who has your back and know who can help support you along the way so you don’t feel alone. While I was interviewing a lot of dietitians who have been in private practice f or a while, some of them mentioned how being alone was a huge obstacle they needed to get past in order to truly feel successful. Having a group of people going through the same type of day to day stress and emotional ups and downs can help you feel supported. I remember when I first started my practice I leaned on my community of entrepreneurial dietitians to help answer just random questions and to support each other.

Knowing that you have people in it with you is really powerful for taking such a big scary leap into private practice. Friends, family, and those who support you for starting this practice and being able to know that they may not understand all the crazy things you will do and yet knowing they are still a part of this journey with you is powerful! Bring them along on this journey so they can understand and support you along each step. Don’t forget your support can also come from online support from list servers and groups. For my that is one of the tings that I loved about our Academy closed group, we are all in it together and supporting each other during this scary and exciting time. Relationships are everything!

Take Action

Creating an action plan for leaving your day job will help you feel safe and more motivated to make it happen. First, make sure you are talking with everyone about why you are wanting to start this practice and follow your dreams. Get on the same page with family, friends, partner, your people and have an action plan outlined with them.  How much money to have in savings, how much money you need to be pulling in your side practice before you can jump are the two biggest numbers to talk about and to be on the same page with. It is important to have these number defined and written out before you leave so you know exactly when that point comes.

Also, get this side practice like a real business. Even though you are only seeing a few clients start treating like it is legit and has the legal stuff set and ready to go. Start building in systems and process so when you are full into your practice it is not a shock. Being practical and having a strategic plan worked for me. Put in the work now, own the responsibility you are jumping into and know you will have support!

 

I do hope this two-part series helps you to really take the steps towards turning your side private practice into you full time work. Please reach out anytime if there is anything I can do to best support you on this journey.