How I Started Virtual COO (and 3 Things to Think About Before Going on Your Own)

It’s my 2-year quit-iversary!

It’s been two years since I quit my job of 9 years without a plan. I wanted to go on my own for a long time, but I ended up leaving my last full-time role without anything lined up.   

While it’s not the way I’d recommend leaving a job, it worked out for me and I’m glad I did it.  

Here’s what happened…

For several years we dreamt of traveling full time. The first domino to fall for us was that we realized in 2021, outside of our dreams of travel, that we wanted to sell our home. At that point the only thing holding us back from road life was my very in-person job. Our son was two at the time and we saw a window where we could travel full time before he started school… if only I could work remotely.

Our house sold fast and things started happening quickly. Before I knew it, it was time to leave my job if we were going to start traveling… and I didn’t have anything lined up!

After a lot of back and forth, I did it. It was insane, scary and liberating all at once. 

The week I left that role, a friend introduced me to a business owner who needed operational work on her business. She had a few projects she wanted completed and agreed to bring me on for 15 hours a week for a few months.

After the meeting with that business owner, I drove home on a high – I knew the business model I’d been considering for a while had legs.

While it’s a little crazy to start a solopreneur journey with only 15 hours of guaranteed work, I just knew it was what I wanted to do next. I don’t have those moments often in life, but sometimes you just know.

I’ve now been a on my own for two years and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. If I could talk to anyone who is thinking about making the leap from a full-time role to entrepreneurship, I would tell them three things:

Work from home but road life edition - finding a spot in our Airbnbs to collect snacks, wear blankets just below the Zoom screen window and get things done 🤣 Though I consider myself a pretty serious person (and work with serious business owners), I love that I can be professional AND casual at the same time.

1.     Start by accident

To quote the famous Bob Ross, you have to start looking for your own happy little accidents. What are the things you find yourself telling people you could help with because they’re so easy for you? Do you have a skill that a busy person or business owner would pay to have someone handle? That’s your accident. Lean into that.

All you need is one person who is willing to pay you for your work and you can start figuring out your product offerings.

2.     Make a financial plan before you make the leap

The main reason I was able to quit my job without a plan was because we’d been doing small, boring, intentional financial things for years. We paid off our debt, had a good savings account and had created a ‘wartime’ budget – meaning, we had a plan to live off only one income in case I couldn’t find work for a while.

I knew that if I could find just one client, I could buy myself some buffer to outline my service offerings and start taking on networking meetings. Making the leap without those safety nets would have felt significantly scarier – and it’s hard to be creative and relational when it’s that scary. Sometimes you have to, but it’s better to have a plan and start before you get to that point.

3.     Put yourself out there, even though it will feel scary, silly and a million other things

If you want to go out on your own, you’re going to have to put yourself out there. You will probably feel ridiculous at first and like an imposter. That’s normal, it happens to all of us. Normalize that feeling – it’ll lessen over time but honestly it doesn’t ever go away. Who cares. Who cares what your friend from high school thinks? Who cares if people think your LinkedIn posts are cheesy? You’re doing you and you should feel proud of that! One day you’ll cringe at your early work, too. Don’t let that stop you. Just go for it. You have to get through the cringey stuff to get good.

My WFH views when we were in downtown Vancouver last summer - things like this are some of the biggest rewards of going out on my own!

I’d love to hear your story of leaving a full time job to start your own thing! There’s a whole world of us out here supporting each other, and meeting other folks in this area has been one of the best things about it.