Quitting your full-time job to start a business venture can be a thrilling experience. You have a lot of steps to consider, many plans to make, and many risks to keep in mind.
It definitely isn’t a piece of cake, and you’ll need to face a lot of turbulence ahead. To help you decide, we have covered six things that you should consider before quitting your job to start a business.
But remember, move forward with your business only when you’re sure that it’ll be a more worthwhile and fulfilling path than your current career.
1. Explore Start-up Paths
Before you jump into starting a business, explore the start-up options that have the potential to grow well. You can initially start them as your side venture besides your full-time job to see how it performs and take it to a good position.
However, be careful not to start a business similar to your ex-employer. Otherwise, you’ll become their competitor, and you may need to face a lawsuit under the non-compete agreement you may have already signed.
So, before you venture into start-up ideas, you need to understand what a non-compete agreement is, how it works, how long it can last, and the consequences you’ll face if you violate it.
2. See if You Have the Required Skills
You’ve decided on the type of business you want to start, and you’ve definitely gained some experience in certain processes while at your job. Now, you need to see if you have the essential skills to manage the business and properly provide what you’re offering.
If you’re not skilled enough, take the required courses to learn the required skills. There are many courses available online nowadays, so choose from them the one that suits you the best.
3. Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis
When quitting your job to start your own business, you’re putting a lot on the line. You’ll face challenges like funding, finding employees, and competition, which is why you should first test out your business as a side hustle.
Apart from these, you have to sacrifice a lot when it comes to your family, health, time, your private life, and your friendships. There will be times when you’ll face losses, and your mental health will also be tested.
Analyze the financial risks and all the opportunity costs, and prepare yourself mentally and physically before starting your business.
4. Create a Strategic Growth Plan
A strategic growth plan will help you line out your business growth over a certain amount of time. Create a business model first, determine your mission and vision, and determine what steps you need to take to grow and how long each step will take.
Planning your business growth plan strategically is a good way of determining what you want to achieve by a given time and what alternatives you can take if the plan doesn’t work out. It’ll also help you determine how long the incubation period is.
5. Save Up Enough to Start a Business
Planning out the finances should get you a good start. List out all the cost items and the low-cost alternatives that’ll give you the same or better results, prepare a budget against that list and analyze the returns.
Start saving with the goal of surpassing your budget and keep it flexible. You’ll have enough capital by the time you quit your job and start your business properly.
One tip: create a substantial emergency fund before you leave your job.
6. Build Up a Supportive Network
Starting a business is hard. You’ll face a lot of ups and downs, which is why you should focus on creating a supportive circle around you.
Prepare your family for what’s about to come, and surround yourself with friends who will support you and your dream.
With the right people around you, even if you fail or start losing hope, they’ll push you to get back up, help you financially, alleviate other responsibilities from your head, and help you start everything from scratch.
Conclusion
Quitting a job to start a business isn’t easy, and there’s always a risk of everything falling apart. But with the right calculations, proper planning, and a supportive network, you can always take calculated risks and overcome any obstacle in this field.
Start your business after quitting your job with these six things in mind, and you’ll be able to succeed with the sweet fruit of any sacrifice that you need to bear.
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