The Complete Guide: Start A Business While You Work

Joe Popper shares his personal story of starting four businesses and three brands, teaching how thinking like an entrepreneur unlocks diverse paths and purpose.

Discover seven essential entrepreneurial skills, from decision making and forming strategies to balancing time and delegating tasks, helping working entrepreneurs grow their business.

Explore the fourth through seventh essential entrepreneurial skills, including leveraging other people's resources, mastering marketing and sales, leading projects and teams, and forging win-win partnerships.

Master the essential skill of making decisions and forming strategies to start a business, using a three-step process: gather info, decide, and revise with new information.

Decide within 24 hours on a long-avoided choice, gather information, weigh options and impact, and commit for 30 days while keeping the option to revisit.

Master time with Parkinson's Law and the four-to-one block system—four-hour, two-hour, and one-hour blocks—set 30-day deadlines, minimize email, and focus on one project.

Undertake a seven-day challenge by scheduling four-hour blocks to focus on your business, minimize distractions, and progress tasks from research to outlining a course or project.

Master the essential skill of delegating tasks to multiply your results as an entrepreneur. Choose when and whom to delegate—virtual assistants, employees, outsourcers, barters, or services—focusing on goal-driven work.

Take the next challenge by delegating a regular home task, such as laundry, to a wash-and-fold service to learn the process of delegation and its impact.

Learn to leverage other people's resources, including facilities, staff, and capital, without big upfront expenses by sharing space, outsourcing, and proving concept before seeking investment.

Explore how to start a landscaping or service business by leveraging others' equipment, networks, and outsourced partners, including leasing, borrowing, and affiliate product opportunities to drive growth.

Master marketing and sales as a working entrepreneur by identifying a target audience, uncovering their needs, and communicating your distinct value to build a business that fits your job.

Build audience rapport by sharing your story and offering value, then present timely offers with clear benefits, urgency, and a strong call to action.

Lead projects and teams by defining the project, breaking it into tasks, sequencing work, assigning roles, setting milestones, and regularly reviewing progress to stay focused and productive.

Develop partnerships by pursuing win-win value, offering value first, and being genuinely curious and interesting. Follow up, celebrate, and collaborate to grow your business through strategic partnerships.

Develop partnerships by reaching out to a local business you admire and offering to help promote their products via email or call, with no return expected.

Choose the right business by adopting an entrepreneur mindset, set yourself up to win, and start now to develop skills and income.

Explore the top six business types for working entrepreneurs, including online stores, teaching or coaching, and local experience ventures, with tips to balance a job and start a side business.

Explore six business models you can start while working: online store, teaching or coaching, local experience, professional services, matchmaking or marketing, and technology, with practical examples and growth tips.

Identify your top three ideas, rate each on income, lifestyle, distinction, and legacy with a simple 1–10 tool, then pick one to focus on and test for six months.

Launch and grow a business by applying crucial tools to start quickly, choose your first business type, and take action to get your venture off the ground.

Write down your excuses on paper and decide to overcome them; if you are passionate, you will start a business with little money by bootstrapping and working.

Learn a 30-day plan to start a business, define your x y z method, and launch with one product, plus a simple brand and website.

Establish a professional business presence in 30 days by setting up a domain email, printing business cards and signage, and securing a legal entity, tax ID, and registration.

Use the profit dashboard to grow a profitable business while working full-time, focusing on product, marketing, and point of sale, reinvesting profits to scale from day one.

Use the profit dashboard to grow from a single product to a scalable business by strengthening systems, building relationships with customers, partners, staff, and ensuring cash flow through pre-sell strategies.

Embrace the working entrepreneur's promise to stay accountable, stay focused, and stay hungry, turning ideas into action as you start your business and pursue real results.