Reluctant entrepreneurship

I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur.

In my mind, The Entrepreneur is first and foremost, a good gambler. They're good at all kinds of maths and can calculate both odds and profit margins in a little abacus inside their heads. They are outgoing, energetic, and extroverted.

Entrepreneurs are loud, affable go-getters who have no trouble making eye contact with strangers and turning them into bosom buddies in the span of a conversation.

I didn't think of myself as an entrepreneur.

So how the heck did we get here? 😂

I finally registered my freelance practice this year, officially making me a "business owner".

I wish there was an inspiring way to explain this life choice. I wish I could say I'm really passionate about building businesses, or that I want to make lives better through my various capitalist ventures.

I wish I could identify with the version of the entrepreneur that I've built up in my mind.

But here's the truth:

I only ever wanted freedom.

After spending a huge chunk of my adult life in very regimented industries (hello nursing, hello BPO), I just desperately wanted to pursue my interests, own my time, do engaging work, and be paid for my trouble.

And in my quest to be free — financially, creatively, and schedule-wise — I ended up here, deep in the trenches of unexpected, reluctant entrepreneurship. I didn't intend for it to happen. It's just that all roads led here.

How's it going so far?

Sa true?

I'm thankful for it. Self-employment affords me many luxuries I didn't know I could take. For example, I can go on brunch with my parents when they're not too busy. I can run errands on a weekday. I can work from home, have time to exercise, and cook meals. And on top of that, I can earn a decent living without working myself to the bone — or leaving the country.

Self-employment has also been a gateway to self-improvement.

I don't want to sound like a self-important guru, but being self-employed also comes with many lessons I don't think I could learn in a traditional office setting. For one, these lessons can be applied in many aspects of my life. Resilience is a good example. Through self-employment, I realized that I am capable of doing difficult things — and that I can do them well.

Other things that I've been learning:

• Building processes for myself
• How to be a better service provider
• How to mentor others
• How to give and receive feedback
• Financial literacy and preparing for retirement
• Marketing and selling
• Creating and shipping offers
• Consistency
• Human psychology
• Communication
• Building relationships
• Balancing all this

Beyond technical skill, self-employment is teaching me how to be a better human. ❤️

Finding community

Perhaps the only downside to this journey is that it can sometimes feel lonely. I've spent a huge chunk of this year craving real human interactions, converting my online friendships into IRL ones.

What do you know? This entrepreneurship thing may have turned me into an extrovert after all. 😂

Kidding aside, it really has been a struggle to find community. Again, I don't want to sound like a prat, but self-employment has somehow changed my perspective and approach to life. Finding like-minded people who share the same sentiments, goals, and challenges has been — well, challenging.

A few online communities have helped me in the past. The Freelance Movement Tribe, Superpath, as well as other groups for local Cebuano freelancers have been essential in helping me build strong foundations. But in terms of deeper friendships with other self-employed girlies, I realized that I had to go out of the way and make them myself.

What I've been doing so far

I am thankful to have found friendships with other self-employed women here in my area. We don't meet as often as I'd like in real life, but the chats have been free-flowing and very supportive. 

I also created a dedicated chat group for LinkedIn accountability buddies. We've all yet to meet in real life or in a Zoom call (I am working on healing my Zoom pandemic trauma! LOL), but we've been supporting each other's visibility on the platform. It's making "showing up on social" more joyful and lighthearted.

Speaking of showing up, being more intentional with my presence on Linkedin, Threads, and Instagram has allowed me to meet a lot of awesome people who are on the same journey. Now, I just have to nurture these online acquaintances into IRL friendships!

Planning for the future

This year, I want to have time and energy to form a brunch club with fellow self-employed women here in Cebu. There has been some interest, but I feel like I should start slow — like meeting up with two or three folks at a time. Organizing things is not my strong suit, so I might have to call for reinforcements on this. I hope to share good updates on this endeavor soon!

I also want to revive the engagements on my Facebook community for writers. I'm collaborating with my sisters to fix up the branding and help me post consistently, so I'm really excited about re-engaging this community. We're so close to hitting 1k members, and I want to show up for them! In this fast-paced world (lol) powered by AI and transactional relationships, I feel like we need real human communities now more than ever.

So mao to siya

Wala ra gyud damha nga maabot tag ingun-ani nga kahimtang, but I am thankful either way. I am thankful that we have this choice. I'm thankful for making it.

I don't think I'll ever be "the entrepreneur" I've previously envisioned, but if there's one thing I've learned, this whole entrepreneurship is a fluid thing. There's no one way to approach it or to succeed in it. I can mold it into whatever fits my goals, values, and personality.

I know it's a long journey ahead. It will be full of starts and stops. But I'm excited.

Maybe I'm not so reluctant about entrepreneurship after all.