Ten Things to Think About Before Quitting Your Job to Become an Entrepreneur.
Ten Things to Think About Before Quitting Your Job to Become an Entrepreneur.
In February 2019 I resigned from my full-time job as a Director of STEM at a college in the Lake District to pursue my dream of setting up my own business, serving a community of young people and finding satisfaction in working for myself.
The desire to do this started when I attended a course in July 2018 for Public Speaking Skills where I met an Entrepreneur and International Speaker called Andy Harrington. I attended his four day ‘Jet Set Speakers’ Course in London and was blown away by the man, his mindset and his mentoring and I knew as I sat there on Day 1 of the course that I had truly found my place in life. I signed up for a further course with an investment of £25,000, created a set of Leadership programmes, launched my own business and have never looked back since!
After leaving the college in May 2019, I have delivered my Leadership Launchpad programme to graduates as well as existing leaders in organisations and have had great feedback.
Over the last 6 months in the transition period from leaving my full-time job to starting my own business I’ve learned an awful lot. Some good, some not so good! Have I ever regretted my decision to leave – Never! It’s been at times exhilarating and exciting and even exhausting but it’s also been empowering. I finally now have control over what happens in my life and so can you!
Making the decision to leave wasn’t easy and it’s not something that you should do lightly. Below are ten things you should think about before you decide to take the leap of faith and leave your job!
1. If you don’t wake up every morning dreading the day ahead with a desire to do something different then don’t leave your job!
Leaving any job is not an easy decision to make but leaving a full-time job to set up your own business is even more difficult because instead of joining another organisation, you’re creating your own. Running your own business can be lonely, frustrating and frightening at times and you have to be incredibly motivated to keep going and passionate about your purpose. The reality is there will be days when you don’t see a person, don’t do a thing and more importantly don’t see a penny for the work that you do [in the early days] and you have to be patient and resilient enough to work through the lean times before you achieve success in the longer term . Some people believe they desperately want to leave an organisation because they are unhappy and unfulfilled, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into giving them enough courage to unpick their current situation and making the decision to leave. So, if you wake up and you’re not dreading the day ahead at work enough to make your desire become your dream then you’re probably not ready to leave your day job!
2. If you’ve not reached that point where failure is the norm and success is an unexpected surprise, then entrepreneurship is not for you.
Becoming an entrepreneur and working for yourself will require you to become comfortable with the fact you it will take more than one opportunity to find success. In fact, it will take many times and more often than not, you will fail more than you succeed. It’s essential that you network as much as possible to create leads or potential opportunities, recognizing that even these won’t guarantee you success or even business. What I’m not saying is that you should expect failure because I also believe; you are what you think and if you think failure then you’ll get failure. What I am saying is that you will quickly learn to recognize that in order to get one successful lead you might have to engage with 10 potential opportunities. You have to become comfortable that if things don’t work out and you don’t get the leads you need that this is normal and that you just need to keep going because eventually, you’ll get that one lead that you can convert into a successful business opportunity.
3. If you expect success straight away, then you’ll end up taking on activities that don’t enjoy and which take your energy and effort away from the enterprises that you should be focussing on.
Patience is very much a virtue when you work for yourself, which is a bit of a dichotomy because if there is one time when you can’t afford to be patient it’s when you work for yourself. Getting money into the business is critical and a lack of cashflow can be positively disastrous to a new business. It is this mindset which often clouds people’s thinking and behaviors and results in them agreeing to do work that they don’t enjoy or don’t even want to do. The problem with this is you end up being busy doing work that doesn’t provide a great return because you’re desperate to get money into the business and you lose the time and tenacity to work on the things that really engage and enhance your skills which typically bring in a higher return. So, you need to patient with yourself in your own abilities and with your business so that you focus on what you do well, and which will bring you the return you deserve and which the business needs.
4. Cash flow truly is king, so make sure you start with a strong reserve or be committed to chasing the money in!
Leaving a full-time job to set up your own business and going from having a regular wage to not knowing when you will next receive any money can be a disturbing and even frightening concept, never mind when you actually experience it! The one thing I've learned very quickly is how important it is to get money into your business. You can shout from the rooftops about how much income you've earned but if you're not getting money put into your bank account on a regular basis then not only does it make it difficult to survive personally but it can make continuing your business pretty much impossible. If you're considering leaving your job to start a business, you need to have reserves to keep you going over the first few months until you the money starts to roll in. When I first started I used to feel awkward submitting my invoices and reminding people about payment. I can assure you that feeling wears off pretty quickly, especially when you face the thought of not having any money to buy any food or to pay your bills and you soon get over yourself and the feeling of guilt when you ask people for money. I would like to remind you that actually - all you're asking for is to be paid for the value that you've delivered! If the thought of having to chase after money or put systems in place to ensure that regular payment is made to the business is too difficult, or the concern that you might have to cut your cloth to suit until you start making a stable amount is too much then you might want to think twice about trading your stable income for a startup in a new business.
5. You can’t hide in your own organisation so if you want an easy life DON’T start your own business!
If you’re looking for a happier and healthier life and one where you can find a balance, then working for yourself is one way to do that. However, don’t expect it to be easy and certainly don’t expect it to be a place where you can hide. You are not just the face of the organisation; you are everything and if you want it to be successful and to be solvent, then you’re going to have to get out there and show your face at every event you can and on social media. They say that your Net Worth is equal to your Network and I’ve certainly found this to be true. I don’t particularly find Networking easy as I’m an introvert at heart but if I don’t get out to networking events and meet potential clients then I know my business will suffer. I initially struggled to engage on social media but it’s just another way of enabling you to stand out from the crowds. So, if you’re not prepared to put in the time, the shoe leather and do the selfies then you might just struggle with developing a business.
6. Entrepreneurship requires you to exchange your comfort zone for an expansion zone!
Working for yourself will take you so far out of your comfort zone you will barely recognise where your boundaries originally were. You will be required to do things that you have never ever done before and never believed were possible for you but are necessary in order for the business to survive. It will expand your knowledge, your skills and the way that you see things and once you experience this, you will never be totally comfortable again. Entrepreneurship requires you to become comfortable with change as this is the catalyst for success in many new businesses. So, if you’re uncomfortable at the thought of becoming comfortable being uncomfortable, staying in an organisational setting may be a better option for you in the long term.
7. You will have to learn to specialise in 'everything' when you start your own business.
Even in most organisations nowadays, there is a need to be multi-disciplined. Long gone are the days where you could focus on one particular specialty and even specialist organisations still need individuals to be flexible enough to adapt to the changing needs of the business. Working in your own business though requires a much greater degree of flexibility, skills and knowledge and the reality is that in the early days of the business start-up, you might be the only resource that the organisation has. It’s therefore essential that you understand and prepare yourself for the fact that you will need to have a working knowledge of most things in your own business. As you develop the business more, you will then be able to invest in others to help you; but at the start, you will need to specialise in everything! It’s not easy but it is incredibly rewarding, as the satisfaction that you can gain from learning everything about your business is immeasurable.
8. Be prepared to be the pariah! Most people can’t contemplate the level of success that entrepreneurship can bring so it’s easier to poke fun at people and their passions.
I’ve found that although in the main most people have been very supportive of the change that I’ve made to my career and my life as they recognise that it was right for me, however there are a few individuals that believe that my decision to leave the fulltime job that I had; was stupid and downright selfish. They simply cannot comprehend that job fulfilment for one person is completely personal and may be entirely different to another’s. They struggle with the concept that I don’t work 9-5 every day and in some cases that I might only work 3 days a week and they believe that eventually I’ll end up back in employment. I’ve spent 25 years working unbelievably hard, sometimes in excess of 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, all the while creating profit for other people and I’d reached a point in my life where my quality of life was more important than the quantity of money I earned. That’s not to say I don’t want to earn a lot of money, just that my purpose is my primary focus. People will always mock and criticize what they don’t understand and leaving a well-paid senior job is incomprehensible to many; you have to be resilient enough to recognize that leaving your job might not be the only thing you leave behind.
9. Maintaining momentum is essential for success, so you need to be comfortable being on the move all of the time meeting people!
The key to success at running your own business is to create momentum through action and then to maintain it. Many people use social media to help them to create that momentum and it’s certainly one way of engaging with others. Over the last 6 months, I’ve increased my visibility on social media, spoke at a top university, and in three weeks’ time will deliver my very first TEDx Talk. I’ve won a short comedy speaking competition, attended an amazing course to help me engage on LinkedIn, all offering me opportunities to keep the momentum going.
Momentum is really difficult to get going but is incredibly easy to stop so once you start the ‘momentum machine’ then you need to make sure that you maintain its motion. It’s this motion that will see you be offered more opportunities and ultimately increase your business worth. So how do you do that? Well it’s really quite simple, keep engaging with your audience at every opportunity. Post on social media, attend networking events, accept opportunities to speak even if you’re not ready, and get your content out there, so that people can see you, benefit from your work and ideas and be given the opportunity to meet you and work with you.
10. If feeling safe and secure is more important than finding your strengths and feeding your soul, then don’t quit your job!
Most of us aspire to be safe and secure in both our personal and professional lives but there are degrees to which these levels can stifle us and our development and ultimately prevent us from taking risks and it is by taking risks that we as individuals are able to learn new skills and to grow. Many people want to lead a different life but are too scared to ‘give up’ what they have for something they perceive might be riskier or of less value than what they want. The trade-off is simply too great and as a result, individuals will even stay in organisational environments that are actually more harmful to them than to create their own.
The fear of loss is often too much for people to comprehend and it is this which keeps people ‘stuck’ in jobs that they are frustrated with and which do not fulfil them. Fear of losing their status, money, recognition, and of the unknown is what prevents people from leaving organisations and jobs they do not enjoy.
Working for yourself requires you to embrace risk and to redirect some of your resources to projects and opportunities that you know little about; let alone know if they will succeed and not everyone is prepared, committed or has the vision to be able to see what might be. This doesn’t make them bad people, just individuals who have not yet had the opportunity to truly understand their own strengths and to see that the capability they have can be so much more if they are willing to believe in themselves and to make things happen.
If you’re more afraid of losing something from your life, than finding the things that make your soul sing then working for yourself might simply be a step too far.
I hope you have enjoyed this article and found value in its content. If you want know hear more about 'Taking The Plunge' then contact me on jo@Jo-Corbishley.com.
