Should You Keep Your Side Business A Secret?

It’s Q and A Tuesday! Yeah Yo! Can you say Yeah-ya?

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“Yeah-ya!”

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Q: Today Chelsea writes: “Marie, I love you girl! If I had not already met the love of my life and you didn’t have Josh and we both swung the other way, I’d be pulling all my ninja pick-up artist skills out to look for a date with you. Creepy stalker perfusion aside, I do have a serious question.”

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Okay then.

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“My goal is to transition from a full-time job in the tech industry over my wanna-be full-time job as a holistic health coach in six months. I want to know how to make the transition without alarming my current boss and my coworkers. I feel like telling them about it would make them wonder how committed I really am but keeping it from them is tough and makes it even tougher to grow my business. Am I just getting in on my own way here?”

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Great question Chelsea. We’re gonna do this Chels! Not our date, your question.

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A: First thing Chelsea, you’ve got to be clear with your work contract. Are you allowed to have a job on the side when you are working full-time? For the purposes of this video, we are gonna assume it is totally cool with your current employer that you have side businesses.

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So here is the deal, Chelsea, there are many shades of grey when it comes to spilling the beans at your current full-time job and your side business. Meaning, there is not one right answer. But thankfully, there are some guidelines to follow.

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So whether you choose to tell people about your side business or you want to keep it a secret, you have to make sure that you are fully committed to your full-time job while you are there. In honor of thanksgiving, you want to be thankful for that job you got and what that means is you got to give 110% of your effort to that job while you’re there. Specifically, don’t take calls, don’t do marketing, don’t grow your side business while you’re on the job because honestly, that’s stealing girl and you don’t want to do it.

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Think about it, when your business starts to take off you don’t want your employees working on their side business when you are paying them to work for you. When it comes to marketing your new business, do that outside of work hours which means in the mornings, in the evenings, or even on weekends.

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I would not recommend marketing to your coworkers. It just does not feel right and honestly, you may come across like a turkey. Now I know your core question was whether or not you would spill the beans about your side business to your coworkers and honestly, I can’t answer that. Every company culture is different. Some are really encouraging their people to do their own thing and some are not.

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But here’s a thing, if you are fully committed to your job and giving it a 110% of your effort while you’re there, nobody can fault you for being a go-getter on your own time. That is my A to your Q Chelsea, thank you so much for asking. Now, I want to hear from you.

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I want your feedback specifically about a time have you ever dealt with the situation? Have you ever snuck around when you’ve got a full-time job and you got a business on the other side? Or inversely, are you an employer who has employees who are sneaking around with their own business on the side? I would love to hear your comments and specifically, leave a video response.

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I’m so interested to hear what you would say and see your beautiful face in your video. So the instructions to leave a video response are right here and remember if you are watching this on a mobile device or an iPad, you can’t see this but you can see the instructions to leave a video response right below. Please name your video response “Job On The Side” so it will be easy to find and watch.

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If you like this video, hit the like button. That means you like it and share it with your friends all on social media and I would be so very appreciative. Of course, if you are not yet on my newsletter, you got to come on over at marieforleo.com. Put your name and e-mail in the upper-right hand corner so you can get even more awesome tips for your business and your life.

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Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time.

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