If there’s one thing Rochelle Dallas likes, it’s an acronym. Whether it’s about how to R.A.I.S.E your game or making your processes R.E.D, they all serve a purpose: to help you learn and remember the key points to grow and start a profitable business at home.
She has done this herself several times over. From selling personalised onesies and hoodies straight out of school, to owning a Virtual Assistant agency, to helping mums with websites, to running a baby gift company, Rochelle has always had a ‘side hustle’.
Despite having a successful career in operations, she says, “I can’t just do 9-5.” But in many ways, that’s what makes her the perfect coach and mentor to those who take her programme, The Side-Hustle Startup School. She says it’s ideal for those in a full time job but who want to monetise a side project, or for somebody who’s been made redundant and needs to start a new business at home, or who needs to transition from one business to another.
Her ability to go from idea to out there in a short space of time, is admirable. When we speak, it is her endless energy, enthusiasm, and no-nonsense approach which come across. Her mission is to “help entrepreneurial women get to their first consistent 5k months without burnout.”
She specifies the 5-figure income because she believes it’s realistic and achievable for any service-based business. “I’m sick of the 6-7k fiction,” she says. “It’s killing creativity, [makes people] feel overwhelmed because they’re not there, they feel not good enough. It’s not having a positive impact on motivation… They’re often over-egging the results, it’s unethical.”
“Start at the very beginning with growth in mind. If a process works for one person, I want it to work for 1000 people.”
The Golden Trifecta
For any business to get off the ground, she says it requires the “golden trifecta”.
• Love what you do: You need to have passion and enthusiasm for what you do or you won’t sustain momentum and stamina when you need it.
• Be good at what you do: You need to be able to stand out and showcase quality. In a crowded marketplace, somebody with the skills and talent is going to rise.
• Ensure it has commercial viability: To be successful as a business, there needs to be a market for your product and you need the potential to make a profit.
“You can’t just do something you love and are good at if there’s no market for it,” she says. “You can’t just do things that you are good at and make you money because the passion isn’t there and your soul is destroyed.”
These are the principles she works through in her free challenges which are designed to help people gain clarity about their business idea and equip them with the tools to move forwards with it.
Growth Mindset
We have talked about how to nurture a Growth Mindset in The Homeworker magazine. Rochelle also believes a mindset for growth is key if you want to start a business from home.
Her experience in the corporate world and e-commerce has given her plenty of knowledge that she shares with those who work with her. “It’s about “having that understanding of and respect for the process and operations behind something,” she says, believing in creating effective processes that are scalable. “Start at the very beginning with growth in mind. If a process works for one person, I want it to work for 1000 people.”
She highlights a point from her programme and suggests asking yourself if your processes are RED?
Recorded: Are they documented somehow for others to be able to follow?
Efficient: Are you using five steps when one will do? How much time are they taking and have you prioritised them correctly?
Delegatable: Can you hand them over to somebody else to deal with? If not, how could you adapt the process so that you aren’t the only person who understands or deals with it?
“Can anyone pick up your business if you got hit by a bus tomorrow?” Rochelle asks. “Often, the answer is no because we’re too busy being busy and being in the business.”
She recommends recording your processes and doing so without risk of misinterpretation. “You might start making a couple of notes but you can escalate that to recording your screen so they can follow the steps in a video.”
Raise your game
Included in her programme, Rochelle runs an accountability group called ‘RAISE Your Game’.
Another acronym, and one that gives you the framework to take action.
Reviewing
Achieving
Identifying the obstacles
Scheduling it in your diary
Executing task
“I’m really good at hyping people up and motivating them to get on track,” says Rochelle.
“People come away feeling motivated, charged, empowered, lighter, because they feel everything is possible because they have an actionable plan in place from the overwhelming to-do list in their head.”
Work with Rochelle
Side Hustle Start-Up School: six-week course, with six months’ support. Lifetime access, includes access to the accountability club, 4 x zoom calls a week which you can attend as often or as little as you like.
Raise Your Game Accountability Club
1-1 sessions
www.rochelledallas.com
hello@rochelledallas.com
In collaboration with Rochelle Dallas
Dedicated to helping you thrive when you work from home, The Homeworker publishes articles that are designed to keep you healthy, happy, and more productive in work and life.
