Samantha Meeker

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#1: Saving to leave your job, here’s what to focus on.

January 4, 2016 by Samantha Meeker Leave a Comment

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How much money do you need to save in order to leave your day job to focus on your business full time?

Saving to leave your job by Samantha MeekerThis is a question every person asks themselves when they think about leaving their job to pursue their dream life as an entrepreneur.
I know I Googled this question when I was making my plans and could never seem to get the answer I was looking for. It seems that most articles I read said to save at least one year’s worth of my current salary. But that, my friends, seemed near impossible and I thought there must be a better way at looking at this.

1. Save 12 months worth of expenses NOT 12 months of your salary.

This is a much more realistic number to be focusing on.

2. List out ALL your expenses in a spreadsheet.

I listed ALL of my expenses for ONE month in a spreadsheet which included the following:
Mortgage, car payments, car insurance, electric bill, water bill, cable/internet bill, credit cards, eating out, entertainment (movies, etc), children’s activities (swimming, ballet, etc.), Netflix, gym membership, groceries, etc.

You can download my free spreadsheet by clicking below.

This spreadsheet will help you track expenses through an entire year. I use this simple method to track my personal expenses.

3. Have a close look at expenses to eliminate what you can live without.

I eliminated eating out, entertainment, gym membership and removed the cable portion of my cable/internet bill.
I knew I had Netflix, could workout and cook at home.
How bad do you want to leave the corporate world for your dream lifestyle? Then cut it out for a year!

4. It will be a challenge but you can do it!

Eliminating these items would mean I could save money faster and bring my monthly budget down.

  • This reduced the amount I would have to save to leave my job.
  • Increased the amount of money I could put towards my savings goal.
  • Lowered my monthly expenses for when I leave my job.

How awesome is that?!

Focus on your EXPENSES not your salary.

5. Here’s how I figured how much I would have to save.

When I considered my savings, I also considered my spouses income in my budget. It will inevitably take a person with one income longer, which I will review, but for now I’m going to review how I figured out how much to save with my husband’s income in mind.

Here is a reflection of one month:
Samantha's personal expense budget

Ok, so at the end of the month we have a positive amount of $82 dollars left. That is NOT much but it is a good place to start.

Now, this DOES NOT include any expenses I would need to run my online business like hosting, online storage, email management, GoToWebinar, etc. Those would cost approximately an additional $160 per month so now we’re in the hole.

So the way I figure it, to make sure we have a little emergency money and a little low budget entertainment money, I’ll want to save $800/month, which would mean a nest egg of about $9,600. Living frugally, this would definitely get us through 12 months worth of living if I brought in $0.

Now, you may have noticed my grocery bill is quite low at $500. I am sort of a low level extreme couponer which means I’m not a hoarding couponer but rather a practical one. I’ll go into that in another post because it really requires its own but is definitely worth speaking about.

6. Now, if I was single I think my expenses would look more like this:

Single person's sample expenses

Focus on your EXPENSES not your salary. Meaning, in this scenario of a single person situation, you would focus on saving $2,083 (expenses) X 12 months = $24,996. This is a much more realistic number than trying to save up $48,000. In the example above, a person could save the money in just over a year.

If you’re single, you can also try to fast track it by finding a roommate to split your expenses while saving your money for your business.

The main lesson here is to focus on saving for 12 months of your expenses rather than 12 months of your salary. Saving for your expenses is MUCH more realistic than trying to save for your salary.

How are you budgeting to leave your current job? Or if you are already a full time entrepreneur, how did you plan your budget? I would LOVE to hear your story. Please comment below or post a comment on my social media site.

Filed Under: Entrepreneur

Sitting too much? Take a Stand.

September 15, 2015 by Samantha Meeker Leave a Comment

What a difference a stand up desk has made for me.

Sitting too much? Take a stand. By Samantha MeekerIf you’re like me and spend a lot of your workday sitting at a computer, then you should really consider a stand-up option for your desk. It will make a huge difference in your everyday, as it did mine. Here is my story of why I bought a stand-up desk and how it made a difference.

Each workday, literally about five minutes after sitting down I would get a nagging pain in my back right below my rib cage. It was terrible and it seemed that no matter how I positioned myself it would not go away. So thinking it was a pulled muscle, I took ibuprofen to alleviate the pain.

The pain didn’t go away and almost got to the point where I was about to make an appointment with a doctor when I listened to a podcast by Michael Hyatt talking about the benefits of a standup desk. So I wondered how much I was sitting throughout my work week and took a look at the real picture of how much I was sitting.

Here’s what I saw when I took a hard look at my sedentary life:

Task Stand Time Sit Time
Get up and ready for work 45 min
Drive to work 30 min
Walk from car to office 15 min
Sitting at my desk to work 20 min 7 hrs 40 min
Drive home 30 min
Walk on treadmill 2-3 days/week 30 min
At home after work 1 hr 3 + hrs
Bedtime laydown/sleep 8+ hrs

I must say, that I was mortified at how much I was sitting and/or being sedentary. This was HORRIBLE when I looked at the number of hours I was sitting EACH workday. On the weekend I was much more active but FIVE out of the SEVEN days, I was sitting around like a SLUG. No wonder my back was killing me and I was tired all week long.

After seeing my inactive work lifestyle, I thought, why don’t I try standing more during my work days to see if it will help my back? So I made a small make-shift platform with a computer monitor stand, a tissue box and a pad of paper. I put the tissue box on the monitor stand and set the pad of paper on it to meet the right height for mousing with my wrist otherwise it was really sore.

I noticed my back pain decreased and my energy level went up in the first 24 hours. Wow! After a couple days of this, I shared the great news with my husband and we decided it would be best for the health of my body to invest in a standup desk. I knew it wouldn’t be good for me to stand ALL day with no sitting breaks so we decided to get a hydraulic standup desk that sits on top of my desk. This allowed me to have cycles of standing for one hour and sitting for 15 minutes through my work day.

I went with the Veridesk and I bought their floor mat to go with it. I want to say that I DO NOT get money from them to endorse their product. They had what I wanted and I ordered it through Amazon. The shipping was fast and I literally took it out of the box and began using it. No assembly required. A+++ I’ve been using it over a month now and LOVE it and their floor mat. I generally stand on the mat bare foot while working and have not used shoes with it.

I’ve also decided to take it a step further and create a DIY desk for my treadmill with a board, two eyelets and a bungee cord. Click here to see how this works. I keep my pace slow while working (around 2 mph) but the point is that I’m not sitting and I’m keeping my body moving. My goal is to have two 30 minute sessions per work day on my treadmill when I’m working from home.

So in wrapping up:

  • Do a quick evaluation of your typical work day – stand vs. sit time.
  • Before investing in a stand up desk, make a simple make shift one to test it out for a couple days.
  • Build up your stand up time slowly. Start with 15 min standing per hour. Then gradually increase your stand time and decrease your sit time to a balance that works for you.
  • Don’t forget the floor pad to stand on. Don’t skimp on this or you’ll regret it. This pad will help decrease the impact on your feet and you don’t want to be super sore.

Did you notice a difference when you increased your stand time when working?

How many hours were you inactive when you did your self evaluation?

Any questions you want to ask me about my Stand Up desk experience?
(I welcome your response in the comments.)

Filed Under: Resources

Week 16 – My top FOUR favorite podcasts

August 24, 2015 by Samantha Meeker Leave a Comment

Top four favorite podcasts by Samantha MeekerThis is an amazing topic and a fickle one with regards to me and my business. I love to listen to podcasts because they’re inspiring and if done right, can be almost like a mini-course.

When I say “fickle,” I meant it because if in the first 15 minutes of listening to a new podcast, I don’t connect with the speaker, I tend to shut it off and move on. It can be the sound of their voice or they’re just rattling on with non-sense (which is usually brought on by the annoyance of their voice). It can be a vicious cycle. Sounds crazy right? But it’s true.

Also, I find the most important thing I need from Podcasts is value. Now mind you these are generally business podcasts. But in thinking about it, the same can be true for when I listen to something based on Marvel or a comedy because I’m expecting some sort of value from them as well. Bottom line, don’t waste my time with a bunch of boring gibberish.

Which bring me to when I publish my podcasts. I will need to focus on bringing valuable content and hope that my voice isn’t annoying to people like me. But, perhaps my content will be SO great that it will win people over EVEN if they think my voice is annoying.

Now that leads me to my TOP FOUR favorite podcasts that I listen to right now. I say “right now” because I believe this list will be ever growing and changing. I will also say that some of these listed, in the beginning, I had to get over their voices because they made me sleepy or I didn’t connect with the tone. BUT they ALL offer such amazing, valuable content that out weigh voice tone and sleepiness. My advice to you, just listen in the morning and NOT at bedtime.

Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield

Amazing content provider. Wow, she is something to inspire too and I hope I can bring as much value to my audience as she does.

Podcast Answer Man with Cliff Ravenscraft

Very transparent and uplifting. I guess that’s what I love about all these podcasters, is their transparency. Cliff gives great content, tips and information.

Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn

I love the questions Pat asks on his podcasts when he interviews people. It’s amazing and very direct. He’s a really nice guy and people respect him for that. Pat is very positive, inspiring and genuinely cares about his audience.

This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt

Besides his wonderful speaking voice, Michael gives great advice and has great topics he talks about. I really like the format of the podcast. Instead of him simply speaking, he has a host to ask him questions and lead the conversation for him. Great content to walk away with, integrating your business and personal life.

These are probably some very popular podcasts and there’s a very good reason for it. I think what I will do is start listing my top favorites I’m listening to in the sidebar of my website for you to reference and maybe consider if you’re starting your business like me.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and hope you have a wonderful week!

Samantha

Filed Under: Podcasts

Week 15 – Taking Back Time

August 10, 2015 by Samantha Meeker Leave a Comment

Taking back time by Samantha MeekerThe NEW branding on my website is complete! As I’m sure you may have noticed, most of it was complete before this post went to press. It was a lot of hard work on my part, working on it in every spare moment while not wanting my family to feel the sting of my absence, but well worth it. I love it and finally feel that I have a “brand.”

These past few weeks was about “finding time” to not only work on my business but fit in family time. I decided that I was going to be firm with keeping my Saturday family time and not work during that time. It was a hard decision but I am SO thankful I did. I feel that I was able to enjoy my work more because I wasn’t angry at it for taking me away from my family. Crazy right? But absolutely true.

It’s all about mindset.

First and foremost, be in it for the LONG haul and not “get rich quick!”.

If you think of your business journey as your future, you’ll slow down and do a much better job on all the components of your business.

Take time for you!

This is a really important for a successful business and it’s hard because inside, I wanted to focus ALL my time on my business. This is not good for me or for my loved ones. Yeah, I may be a success but what damage am I going to cause along the way? One of the pillars for me having my own business was to have the flexibility to spend more quality time with family.

Use your time wisely.

Because I work full time, this can be my biggest challenge. It’s SO tempting to be sucked into the infinite drama and memes on Facebook that can easily suck your time away. That darn little red alert, with a number above my Facebook icon on my iPhone can simply be irresistible.

How I manage my time to work on my business:

  • I do my writing early in the morning (otherwise, I’d be face down on my laptop at night).
  • I set an hour or two of uninterrupted time each work night to work on my business.
  • I bring a notebook to work and throughout the day, I make notes of my ideas of things I want to accomplish on my business (or put it in your smart phone). This ensures I will use my night time wisely. Make sure to keep a visual checklist and cross them off when you’re done. By the way, this is an awesome feeling….check…check…check! Every check is one step closer to your dream.
  • I’ve made a plan with my family for household chores and errands, so I’m not taking on the burden myself. Consider hiring help as well for yard work and housework as well. I hired someone to maintain my yard because of the hours it would take for my husband and I to do the yard compared to the one hour the hired team to do it. It was more valuable for me to hire someone. Many hands make work light and give me MORE time!

Those are my most impactful time management strategies. There are more and I’ll break those down in weeks to come.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my journey! 🙂

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Week 14 – Ready to Launch

August 3, 2015 by Samantha Meeker Leave a Comment

Ready to launch by Samantha MeekerAnother week down and I finished reading the book “Launch” by Jeff Walker. I will say, without a doubt, it’s an awesome book that I highly recommend to others to read.

After reading this book, I had some great takeaways:

  • The importance of having my own email list and how to grow it.
  • Creating and marketing a product and the “Launch” process. It’s truly ingenious.
  • I don’t need to have lots of money to get started. This is always a plus.
  • I was truly amazed at HOW MANY PRODUCTS his process applied to. And it is a step by step process, which he explains and is NOT a theory.
  • I can’t wait to launch my own product.

This week, I’ve been working hard on the new website which will be launching soon (maybe even before this post goes live). It’s going well but a lot of work. I’m looking forward to the launch to share with all of you.

Major milestones in my personal life, my oldest daughter (about to be 20) got her driver’s license. I know…almost 20….and just getting her license seems unimaginable, right? For me, I was at the DMV on my 16th birthday for my permit and 90 days later (that was the minimum time that had to pass before taking drivers test to get my license) to take my test. But my daughter just wasn’t interested because we live within walking distance to many things. It wasn’t until she thought about road trips and more freedom that she decided to take action. THEN, it was time to go car shopping….OMGosh….did I mention I didn’t like going car shopping in 95+ degree weather plus humidity? We found one, thank goodness for Autotrader.com and patience.

I ended the week with a visit to the waterpark with my family. It was hot and perfect for being in the water. That is something I make a priority and Saturday’s is my designated family day. So far, this has worked out really well. Yes, I’m sure there will be times when I need to switch it with another day BUT I will do my best to always have at least ONE day per week to completely focus on my family.

Here’s my recap for this week:

  • Completed Jeff Walker’s book “Launch.”
  • Completed most of the restructuring of new website.
  • Completed rebranding of social media header images.

Although this list is short, there was A LOT involved with it with the restructuring of the newly branded website. Lots of website development, design, branding, web customization and content creation, so I’m feeling VERY accomplished as I reflect back. And most important, I fit in awesome time with my family (no device day).

Thanks for connecting and I’ll talk to you next week.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Branding

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