What makes a person quit their job and start a business, then later quit their business and go back to their old job? Back in 2010 or 2011; I met a real estate agent who told me that he has attempted 13 times to run his own real estate business and always found himself going back to his old job. 13 times he quit his job trying to run his own company and 13 times he found himself back working for someone else. Little did I know that soon I will see more and more of people like him, who try to follow their dreams of being entrepreneurs and find themselves going back to being someone’s employee.
I have seen a number of people follow this path and have always wondered why they all give up and go back to being employees. Whenever I spoke to them and asked why; their answers would differ but all their answers had one thing in common. The only reason why and the answer was and is always MONEY. Bills, bills, and bills. People who try running their own businesses and later find themselves seeking employment do it because of the lack of money. Income is the biggest factor. Sooner or later they have bills to pay and must take care of their needs. This also happens to people with savings; sooner the savings account is depleted and they have to find a way to survive. This is how money plays a big role.
So how can this be avoided? Can this be avoided at all? The answer is YES. I talk about this in my book “Starting Up” and provide two critical reasons why this happen and also advice on how to avoid this.
The key is to quit your job assured of the following:
- Guaranteed income; have a client/s who can inject some money into your company and help sustain your business. This can be on a retainer or contract. You can also be on the lookout for tenders or to subcontract with a company that has been awarded a tender. Cash flow or guaranteed income will make sure you don’t have to worry about your bills and needs.
- Commit to getting clients; make sure that your number 1 priority is sales and focusing on getting clients. You must find a way to get clients and make sure you get paying clients. Because it is one thing to find clients, but it’s another thing to find paying clients.
Just like I said in the book ‘Starting Up’, if you can survive your business will survive too. Keep going and don’t look back. The most important thing is to make sure that there’s enough income for you and your business to survive. The other important thing to consider is proper planning. You must have a plan before you jump ship. You need to know exactly how you are going to find new clients and how your service and products will be delivered. There are some paper work you will need to prepare as well such as contracts or SLA’s, invoices and quotations, company profiles and business cards for networking and many other things to take into consideration.
In conclusion; it is easy to assume that you can run your own business just by simply looking at what skills and value you offer to your employer, however ignore all the other processes that goes through behind the scenes in a business. As an employee, it won’t be easy to see everything that happens in the company you work for; and if you can see everything, experience and strategies could be your biggest problem for you.
