Startup Counseling Royal Oak MI

Serial entrepreneur Asher Epstein rises at 6 a.m. every day to take two hours of conference calls with an Israeli company for which he’s a consultant. At 8, he heads to his job, where he works with 25 different startups all day long, guiding them on the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. At night, he works freelance again, this time with an East Coast company.

Epstein uses the same skill sets in his freelance consulting that he does during his day job -- helping companies grow. What he does – keeping a great day job while branching out on the side to feed his own entrepreneurial urgings – is far from uncommon, but it can be tough to juggle both.

“The key is to be unbelievably efficient with your time,” says Maryland-based Epstein. “Use nights and weekends for your second job, and make sure you’re staying focused on both opportunities.”

That’s exactly what Lesley Zwick did when she started Chocolate Impressions, a company that mounts photographs on chocolate as lagniappe at private events and corporate functions. Working full time as program director for a Detroit non-profit, Zwick made sales calls and printed chocolate before heading to the office at 10 a.m. After work, she’d do more for her side business.

“You’ve got to be real organized,” says Zwick, who juggled both jobs for a year and a half. “You’ve got to be able to manage your time and know what you’re getting into. I was fortunate that my boss knew what I was doing and was supportive of it.

Author: Lynne Meredith Schreiber

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