If you’ve ever been sitting at your desk and suddenly found yourself daydreaming about leaving your job and starting your own business, rest assured that you’re not alone. Research suggests that millions of workers in the UK dream of owning their own company, and a large percentage of Americans do as well. The reasons are obvious; you get to be your own boss, do what you love, and answer to nobody in the process.
There’s no reason that starting your own business has to remain a fantasy, of course. After all, a dream is just a dream in your head until you make it a reality. With that said, making the transition from a desk job to your own business isn’t easy, and there’s a lot you have to do if you want to make that transition real. Here’s how to ditch your current job and start your own business!
Don’t give up your day job straight away
It might feel like torture to continue at your job any longer, but believe us when we say that it will benefit you to do so. The longer you can stay at your current job and keep earning, the more money you’ll have to put toward your new business venture. It might not feel great to keep taking orders from your boss and working at something you don’t believe in, but you’ll thank yourself for doing so when you’ve put aside enough to give yourself a serious buffer when you start your business up.
Put away some cash
As part of keeping your day job, you should make sure you’re squirreling away some money every chance you get. As we’ve said, the more money you have, the better off you’ll be when you do eventually start your business. If you do have to spend some time without a job and you end up drawing benefits, then be sure you enquire into loans on benefits so that you can keep yourself afloat while you draw up business plans. The important thing is to keep yourself as financially solvent as possible while you dream.
Create your business plan early
Your business plans should be one of the first things you do when it comes to starting up your own business. Without a rock-solid, cast-iron business plan, you’ll find that you won’t be able to get off the ground. Not only will you struggle to know what direction to take your business in or how to action plans, but investors may also be turned off when they realize you don’t really have a plan. Write up a business plan as early as possible, and don’t be afraid to seek help from experienced entrepreneurs if you need it.
Start talking to investors as soon as you can
Most businesses require significant investment from outside investors in order to succeed. If you don’t have a lot of capital yourself and you don’t want to rely largely on business loans, then investors will be essential to the process, so it’s important to start talking to investors as soon as you can. Ideally, you should open up conversations with investors as soon as you have a business plan and you know how you want to make your business a reality.
Do as much research as possible
Before you leave your day job, you need to make sure that you know what niche your business will exist in. Every business has a niche; even huge companies like Amazon and Google can’t cater to every single person in the world, however much it might seem like they do. Think about what kind of product you offer, and research other businesses that offer the same product. Your niche is likely to be similar to theirs, but there will be differences that set your business apart.
Don’t leave things on a sour note
While you may dislike your day job – may hate it, even – it’s not a good idea to leave things on a sour note. Don’t sever the ties you might need in the future; your boss may be a valuable resource when it comes to references or networking, even if you don’t like the job you’re in anymore. The more resentment you foster in your current job, the harder you might find it to talk to the people you’ve left behind, and you never know when you might need to do so again.
Make sure you’re not just daydreaming
Naturally, it’s a good idea to make sure that the business you want to start up is a real dream for you and not just something you’re idly thinking about in your downtime. Many workers want to leave their jobs, but you need to make sure you don’t just want to move on to new employment. After all, if you start taking steps to leave your job and start up your own business, then find it’s not for you, then you may have burned more bridges than you wanted to.
Talk to other people in your position
If you’re struggling for something to do next, why not try talking to other people who’ve left 9 to 5 desk jobs and started up their own businesses? They might have unique experiences or advice that you can draw on; you never know where you might find that one piece of advice that changes your entire outlook on the world of business and convinces you to take a different direction. There are plenty of ways to reach out and connect with other business owners, and you’ve probably got more in common with them than you might think.