For many people, quitting a day job to start a business is a lifelong dream.
The only problem is that most people leave their full-time jobs with nothing but a business idea. To be honest with you, having a great business idea isn’t much of an accomplishment. To turn the idea into something worthwhile, you need the action and follow through.
To have a smooth transition from a full-time job to your own business, consider doing the following things on the side while still holding down the job.
Before you take the action, conduct research on the idea. Study your target market, talk to prospective customers, learn about the competition, and so forth. Research helps you decide whether this something you want to do or not.
With the internet, this is something you can do during your free time while still holding down your full-time job.
Most businesses require money to get off the ground. To raise the required capital, save some money while holding down a full time job. You should be able to accumulate a few months’ worth of savings – enough money to free you up to do months of unpaid work.
Regardless of whether you want to build the business alone or with partners, you need to build a team. You need a team of quality employees (if necessary), partners (if necessary), and suppliers. You need suppliers of raw materials and services like legal services, tax services, accounting services etc.
Getting suppliers of services in advance will save you from the unnecessary rush (and associated costs) when you finally need legal incorporation, trademark protection, accounting services and tax services. Sorry for the shameless plug.
You don’t have to quit your day-job to develop the product – you can do it during your free time (evenings, weekends and holidays) or hire someone to do it.
Even if you are hiring someone to develop the product, you need time to guide him or her to specifications.
Make sure you get a handful of customers before quitting your job. Your first customers could be your friends, family members or colleagues.
Another easy and economical way to get your first customers is through social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest etc), search engine marketing (Google, Bing, MSN, etc). Again, this is something you can do during your free time.
Getting the above done while holding down a job is a lot of work, but it's worth it for your dream.
While doing the above on the side, make sure you don’t compromise your current job. Do your stuff during your free time and don’t use your employer’s resources to your advantage.
Good luck out there and happy business building!
