When Should You Quit Your Day Job For Your Business?
You have a job working 8 to 12 hours a day, but it has always been your deep desire to own your business and take control of your life. You have identified a business idea you think would succeed and make you loads of money and now you are about to make the decision to quit your job and start up the business.
Hold on … read my opinion first.
It is very tempting for many aspiring entrepreneurs to believe they would immediately begin to make big money when they start up their own businesses. So with strong passion for their business ideas, that it would quickly generate income, they turn in their resignation, quitting their day job to become their own bosses.
There is definitely nothing wrong with believing or been passionate about your business idea, that it would make you money, in fact, you have to strongly believe in your business idea in the first place if you will ever make a success of it.
But belief or passion alone is not enough to consider before making that vital decision to quit your day job. You must get the timing to exit from your job right otherwise it might lead to severe difficulty or even frustration when you realize the business isn’t making money as you expected. In such state, you may not have the motivation to continue anymore to work it to success.
Again, I ask the question: “When is the right time to quit your day job to run your business?
I will give you my answer in the form of a guide line to follow while still on your day job that will enable you to gradually move to your business fully and successfully, thereby avoiding the pains that could result from quitting ones job at the wrong time.
Have a business plan written for the business
As is commonly said, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.†This is equally true in business endeavors. The first thing to do in your desire to eventually quit your day job and work out your business idea is to prepare a business plan for the business.
A business plan is a road map that shows you step-by-step how the business would be executed, the possible pitfalls to expect and how to surmount them. Your business plan will help you to evolve strategies to be competitive in the market place. A business plan contains other features, and its focus is to enable one to run their businesses successfully.
Begin to implement your business plan
After you have prepared your business plan, you should begin to implement it gradually even while still on your day job. You should find time to create and fine tune your product or service and establish a customer base.
Seek your first customers from your friends, relations, colleagues at the office, neighbors, locations close to you, etc. You can get quality feedback from these people, which could help you understand more what the consumer really need from your product or service.
Still on implementing your business plan, you should also be putting in place the basic structures or machinery that your business need to operate, while you are still on your paid job.
For instance, let’s say you have an idea to run a publishing business. To start up a publishing business you need to have an office space, one or two computer systems, a digital camera, a tape recorder, a scanner machine, and a printer.
Before you quit your job, it will be better to have these things in place first. Knowing how much you need these items to run your business will help you to be able to save towards buying them each time you receive your salary or wage from your day job.
Start making money from the business
After you have made a plan for your business, created and fine tuned your product or service to offer your customers, put in place the structures or machinery to operate the business and gone out to build your customer base, then the business should start making money.
It doesn’t have to be big money, but the response from the few early users of your product or service should be encouraging. It should indicate you will succeed in the business if you quit your job to give the business more time to reach more people.
In fact, this stage can be an accurate pointer to whether the business idea will be hot in the market or not. If the product or service is not readily received by your early customers, don’t quit your job yet. From the feedback you will receive, you might have to fix certain things in the business, which might be your pricing, target market, product fine tuning, etc.
Can you survive 6 months without the business making any money?
Lastly, this is a question you have to ask yourself before quitting your day job to run your business fully. The point this question is trying to drive home is that it might take some time before the business starts making real money. You will need time to cultivate your market and establish a relationship with your customers.
Therefore, if you are right now in your life where you are hard up for cash or where you need steady income to meet up with, especially the basic things of life, and your job is your only source of income, please don’t quit your job yet, no matter how promising your business plan might seem. If you do, your young business may not survive the financial pressure you will be putting on it, and this could eventually lead to frustration.