Unless you’ve been in the entrepreneurial game for a long enough time or have had a proper education in business building, it can take a long time to set one self up with a fine-tuned system that pays you what you need on a monthly basis. Building your business is going to take time and you will be learning, as you go along, what works and what doesn’t specific to your business and industry.

Some times you can may use of decent existing systems, like franchise opportunities and other “paint-by-numbers” style of business systems. Other times you need to figure it out for yourself. You may even be given guidelines on what you need to do to succeed but the actual hows are left up to you. After all, you’re an entrepreneur, you think out of the box.

Sadly, people who are coming out of the job mindset don’t think out the box. Certainly not in a way that will make their business an instant success. There are exceptions, of course, and they are few. For the majority who need to learn a new system, tweak it to work for them, and still shift their mindset from employee to entrepreneur, it could be many months or years of sweat and slog before their business truly kicks off.

In all that time, it is important to still have a steady supply of money to handle the month to month expenses. This is where a job, or some other form of active income, comes into play. You want to be able to position yourself in a job situation that doesn’t totally drain you while still paying you enough to survive. It can sometimes be a fine balance.

A half-day or freelance job is the most ideal if you can find one that pays an adequate wage. The alternative is a full day job with a flexi-time option. You may be able to organise an arrangement with your current employment. If not, consider finding something that will suit your needs.

You will need the time not only to work on your business but also on yourself. An employee mindset will not create a successful passive income generating system, so upping your financial intelligence and shifting your mindset is a key activity during this period. If your regular job is already draining you of energy and hours, the chances that you will ever be free of it is second to none.

How you handle this is specific to your situation, of course. The important thing is being able to balance the time and effort needed to build your business without running out of living funds. Never forget that.