When starting a business, it can be very tempting to quit your full-time job as soon as possible. Balancing the upstart you are so passionate about with a full-time job that can be less than fulfilling is a very difficult balance. Ideally, you don’t want one to affect the other while you still need to hold on to what is your primary source of income. Before you have steady revenue and traction with your new project, it may be important to hold on to what still affords you food, shelter, and hopefully occasional enjoyment. Although you may have put money aside in savings, that can lead to a lot of unnecessary pressure put upon you, which does not leave your mental capacity and emotional status at the prime it needs to be.
Here are some tips to follow to get yourself through this challenging time:
- Make sure you want it. This process will be difficult, will ensure a strain on your relationships, and will cause a great amount of distress due to the difficult decisions you are forced to make daily. However, it will also be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done. Once you accept this, make a list of ground rules in order to get started. This involves prioritizing your life and finding a good balance of what is important to you, what you should be spending time on and in what you can afford to cut back as to put more time into your business.
- Inventory Your Assets. What are your skills and abilities and of which does your new business require? What can you do and what do you need to outsource? To keep costs down, you may need to learn a few new skills, but for timing’s sake, outsourcing is a must.
- Ensure Your Product Has a Need in the Market. Do not become one of the many businesses that fail simply because there is no demand for what you are supplying. Ensure your product is fully thought-out, researched and always have a comprehensive competitive advantage thoroughly researched and outlined.
- Set Realistic Goals. Make these goals detailed, measurable and more importantly, realistic. Set daily, weekly and even monthly goals. However, the further out you start planning, the more difficult it will become to make them realistic. Allow some flexibility to avoid unnecessary stress, but keep deadlines and set dates to keep you on track and moving forward. Go further, set a launch date, add milestones. Always be proactive, solve problems and move to the next goal.
- Get Help. Whether it is outsourcing to agencies, using freelancers, or even getting friends or family involved, you can’t do it all. While you still have the full-time job and the pesky need to sleep, it is important to take advantage of the resources around you. Also, be sure to utilize unbiased feedback as an honest opinion is extremely important before taking next steps.
- Be 100% Positive It is Time to Quit. Yes, you could get so much more done if you quit right now and could work full time on your company. But having the time to ensure everything is where it should be while continuing to have a solid income is important in order to not hurry through the process simply because you need to. The stress of worrying about your wallet early on while still getting things in order is a mistake. We are all used to a certain lifestyle, and though it may be liberating to finally be working for yourself, always remember – good things come to those who wait.