Before Leaving Your Job

Keep your job and start build your business gradually Or abandon your job completely and dedicate yourself 100% to your new project.

Many entrepreneurs in a quest to achieve their dreams opt for the second option experiencing unnecessary pressures that could be avoided if they act with greater temperance and wisdom.

If you consider it better, your job is surely one of the most powerful weapons in your hand to start your company.

And it is not for less to feel tremendously excited when you finally make the decision: “I’m going to become independent, I’m going to start my own business“.

However, there are some negative factors that you can face as a result of the blindness that emotion, anxiety and even excess optimism can produce.

And the headaches many times start with giving up and abruptly leaving your job.

• Your job represents a useful income to invest. One of the great advantages of having a job at time to start a business is that a percentage of the income you receive can be invested directly in your new project and help it start to take off.
• Your job will help you load less on your personal budget. Another aspect in your favor is that while your business begins to bear the first fruits, you can recharge your personal or family budget less since you do not depend totally on your business but you have your salary. It is a mistake of many entrepreneurs to pretend to depend immediately on the income of their new business when it has not even taken off.
• Your current job can have important benefits that your company surely cannot offer you. Without going into detail in the variety of existing jobs, it is very common that you have additional benefits such as medical insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, Christmas bonuses, vacations, benefits and legal bonuses, etc. All this represents an incalculable value that your company surely cannot yet afford. Take advantage of these benefits until you can fly alone.
• Your work activity is an opportunity to learn business know-how. Whether your business is related to your current job or not, surely there are many things that can be learned. Experience is priceless and if you currently work for a company with years of experience in the business, this will be your best university to be successful in your own right. Never underestimate what you have learned in your job.
• Your current job is a source of contacts. In any business or company, one of the most important assets is strategic contacts. Suppliers, clients, influencers, collaborators, colleagues, etc. are just some of the valuable contacts that you should have to use them for the good of your own business. Make sure you meet people and make friends with them so that they can be your advisors and suppliers when building your business.
• Your job is an opportunity to prove yourself. What quality of employee are you? I hope you don’t hate me for asking this question but … your own business will require 10 times more work and a better attitude than what your current job (whatever it may be) requires of you today. Your work is a unique opportunity to develop character, self-esteem, quality interpersonal relationships and temperance for conflict resolution. If you are not yet the best at what you do, this is a golden opportunity to be. The business world is a jungle where only the best, the most creative, and the hardest-working survive. Before you jump on the adventure of starting your business, make sure you have the courage to survive.
• Your company is an opportunity to learn culture. All companies have flaws, but they also have very good qualities in terms of administration, sales, human resource management or customer service. All this is called corporate culture And it is something that you should train in your own company and better if it is from the beginning. Punctuality, seriousness in payments, handling of meetings and the managerial atmosphere to name just a few are those aspects that you can take advantage of to learn while you are at your job. (And remember it’s free)

“The business world is a jungle where only the best, the most creative and the hard-working survive.” [twitéalo]

As a final recommendation I suggest you change the way you see your job. Far from seeing it as a nuisance, a burden or a place where you are exploited, visualize it as the university where you are training for your own success (and also … they pay you!).

A important business principle it says we reap what we sow. If you are unfaithful and dishonest towards your employers, surely tomorrow, someone will be with you in your own company.

When to quit your job?

Well, maybe the answer cannot be given in terms of days, deadlines or dates. But the unequivocal signal to know when you are ready can be summarized in 2 aspects:

• That your company has at least 6 months of operating with stability and that it generates income (salary) equivalent to the minimum of your family budget.
• That you are willing to work harder than ever and be the leader with the character that your own collaborators (even just your wife or children) are willing to follow

In the meantime I wish you the best of success. Haven’t you subscribed to 1000 Business Ideas yet? Do it right now (here).

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