Business
How to Start a Business While Working a 9-5
You don't need a free year or a savings pile to begin. You need one small idea, a protected block of time, and a way to find out if anyone wants it.
, 3 min read
From 9-5 to entrepreneur. A community, not a course.
A real community for working professionals building a business alongside their 9-5. Not a course. Not a highlight reel.
Who is Riselium for?
You don't need to have a business already.
You don't need to have everything figured out.
You do need to be willing to build.
Thinking about starting
You've got an idea, or just the itch. Nothing is built yet, and that's a fine place to be.
Building on evenings and weekends
The business lives in the hours around your job. Progress is real, but slow.
Started, still figuring it out
Something exists. Now you're working out what matters and what you can drop.
Growing while still working
It's moving. The 9-5 is still there, and you're balancing both.
The five pillars
Not a syllabus. Five areas the community keeps coming back to.
Mindset
A stronger you
The doubts and the identity shift, talked about directly instead of pushed aside.
Goals
A clear direction
One next step instead of ten conflicting ones from ten different creators.
Skills
Learn and improve
Picked up from people who used them last month, not a certificate on a wall.
Progress
Small steps, big results
Tracked in public, at whatever pace is honest, not a highlight-reel timeline.
Business
Turn ideas into freedom
The part that actually pays, worked on alongside a full-time job, not instead of it.
Real people, real struggles, real progress, not a highlight reel.
What actually happens here
Only things that are true today. Anything still planned is marked as planned.
Happening now
Community
Five pillars, seven rules, one small group actually paying attention to each other.
Real conversations
Wins and losses both get posted. No highlight-reel voice, no fake certainty.
Sharing what you're learning
What worked, what didn't, which habit or tool is actually helping. Give before you take.
Accountability
Say what you're going to do this week. Come back and say how it went.
On the way, not here yet
Interviews
Recorded conversations with people who are building something. The first ones are on the way. Nothing is published yet.
Amsterdam meetups
In-person meetups are planned. There is no date yet. Members hear first when there is one.
Early, on purpose
Small by design.
Riselium is being kept intentionally small rather than optimized for size, so it stays a place where people actually connect and help each other, not just another feed to scroll.
We're early, and that's intentional. You're not joining a crowd. You're joining near the start, when the people who show up still help decide what this becomes.
On the way
Real conversations. Real journeys.
Conversations with people actually building something.
We'll be sitting down with people who are building, learning, changing direction and still figuring things out. Not the highlight reel. We're interested in the part people usually leave out.
Kablan runs the YouTube channel and does the filming. Dominik is in the conversations.
First conversations are on the way. Nothing is published yet.
Two founders, still climbing.
Not two gurus looking down.
We've each been building our own businesses for 2-3 years, alongside full-time jobs. Not investors. Not instructors. We started Riselium because we know how confusing the early stage is, and we're still working through parts of it ourselves.
Read the full storyDominik Sikora
Co-founder
Appears in the Riselium interviews.
LinkedInprofile of Dominik Sikora (opens in a new tab)Kablan Kadjo
Co-founder
Runs the YouTube channel and films the interviews.
LinkedInprofile of Kablan Kadjo (opens in a new tab)A community with real rules
Seven stated rules, not vibes. They set the tone before you join.
Rules on their own page01: Be committed
Don't join just to watch from the sidelines. If you're here, participate, learn and take action.
02: Respect everyone
Everyone is at a different stage of their journey. No ego. No judgment. No unnecessary negativity.
03: Give before you take
Share your knowledge, experiences, resources and connections. Help others rise while you rise.
04: No spam
No unsolicited promotions, random links, or aggressive selling. Build relationships first.
05: Keep it real
Entrepreneurship isn't always wins and success stories. Talk about the struggles, failures, doubts and lessons too.
06: Progress over perfection
You don't need to have everything figured out. You just need to keep moving forward.
07: Build together
Riselium isn't about competing with each other.
Latest writing
Practical and honest, from two people still building.
Mindset
The Identity Shift From Employee to Entrepreneur
The hard part isn't the tactics. It's getting used to being the person who decides what happens next.
, 3 min read
Progress
Why Progress Feels Invisible at the Beginning
Weeks of work, and from the outside nothing has changed. That's normal, and it's the stage where most people quietly stop.
, 2 min read
Before you ask
No. It's a real community, not a course or a get-rich-quick pitch. There's no curriculum. It's people building things and helping each other.
People going from a 9-5 to entrepreneur: thinking about starting, building on evenings and weekends, already started and figuring it out, or growing while still working. You don't need a business yet.
No. Riselium is primarily NL-based for now (Alkmaar, Amsterdam, broader NL), with room to grow internationally.
Through the WhatsApp or Facebook links on this site. That's the only step.
On purpose. We'd rather have a place where people know each other and help each other than a feed nobody reads. It's early, and that means members can still shape how it works.
The first conversations are on the way. Nothing is published yet, and we'd rather say so than pretend otherwise. Once it is, it will be linked on this site.
Join Riselium
You don't have to quit the 9-5 tomorrow.
You just have to start building toward something else.
Resilience today. Freedom tomorrow.