Last updated on October 7th, 2020 at 12:16 pm
“I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man… let me handle my business, damn.”
— Jay-Z on Kanye West’s “Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)”, Late Registration (2005)
When is a hobby not a hobby? When it becomes a full-time job.
I can’t honestly tell you I planned for the blog to blow up into something requiring my effort and attention every night to keep it sorted—when I started writing all those years ago, I didn’t know what I was doing; I just liked telling stories, and a blog presented a perfect way to do it.
But somewhere along the way, something happened. Maybe it was the change in approach from a casual endeavour to something a little more intentional, aiming to take my life’s stories and package them into something anyone could digest—not just the person who lived it. Maybe it was the realization that in a global digital world besieging us with so much noise every moment, there’s a demand for content with real heart behind it—stuff you can see someone investing the time to perfect, not just creators trying to hit some quota.
I don’t know what it was, but it eventually dawned on me that with the continual learning, the time and energy poured into work I was proud of, and the relationships being built with other brands and bloggers because of my site, my blog was growing into something that could finally stand on its own two legs—something growing far beyond anything I’d expected!
So, with all this hustle turning into something very real—something very tangible I was started to see the shape of—I decided I didn’t just want to talk the talk; it was time to strap my walking shoes on, too.
Learning to Walk as a Businessman
I did a course with the Toronto Public Library called Business Inc., 8 weeks designed to give you everything you need to take a business from an idea to a revenue-generating entity. On one hand, I want to say that a number of the topics were fairly elementary and I’d rank it at beginner- to intermediate-level… but on the other, I haven’t managed to get my act together and write my business case, so who am I to talk?
I started investing in myself more often, realizing there were certain things I’d need to truly realize my vision. Scheduling tools like Schedugram and CoSchedule to make sure I’m consistently giving my audience great content without it being phony. Tools like my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and creative assets from InkyDeals to speed my workflow up when working on more complex visual projects. You learn better ways to do everything the longer you chip away, but there’s no such thing as a free meal—you’ve got to pay to play, and I need to build a revenue model that’ll let me do just that.
But perhaps what was one of the most important things I decided to do as a business-minded individual was invest in accounting software that’d help me understand whether this hustle was even viable.
And that’s where Sage comes in with the Sage 50 Accounting solution!
Why Sage 50 Accounting?
It’s all too easy to get so lost in a new venture that you lose track of the important details that help ensure you can keep going. Especially with us creative types, we can often keep so busy creating that we forget to handle our business. Bills need paying, orders need fulfilling, and those emails cluttering your inbox aren’t about to answer themselves! This is why you need the people and tools that can help keep your affairs in order—tools like Sage 50 Accounting!
As a business owner, the number of transactions you’ll need to keep afloat will be ridiculous. And when you’re on the top, responsible for running everything, ain’t nobody got time to keep on top of all that when you already put it all into creating the stuff that gets you money! CEOs of large companies have entire accounting departments that handle this stuff. But you, you small business owner you—you’ll going to need something a little smaller.
Sage 50 Accounting—not only is it the #1 choice of small businesses in Canada, not only is it easy-to-use Windows desktop software that’ll help you keep on top with vendors, sales and expenses—connected to the cloud, no less… if you’re lucky enough, you could win a copy of the software for yourself, right here, right now—and it’s a $250 value! A valid email address and a mouse click are all you’ll need to enter, and with more of the world taking on side gigs to take control of their destinies, what do you have to lose??? Enter using the widget below, and feel free to use any of the additional entry options if you feel so inclined to get extra chances to win!
So if you have an idea you think good enough to market to the world, work at it. Get the right things you need around you to make it real, and hustle away for all it’s worth!
When my days come to an end and I look back on the life I led, I don’t want to think for a second that I didn’t do everything possible to create amazing lives for myself and everyone that I care about—and getting business in order is just the first step of many to come.
Good luck and may everything you do become successful,
–case p.
