Still Have A Day Job? Don’t Leave It Just Yet

Thousands of people crave the day they’d happily walk out of their jobs to start, run, and grow successful businesses of their own. They anticipate the thrill of entrepreneurship, the glory that comes with success, and the number of fancy cars and houses they’d acquire in the process.

While these thoughts can be amazing, many people miss the point surrounding the true reality entrepreneurs face on a daily basis, and how it is far different from what they see in the lives of some successful people.

Behind every success are many hours of failures, depression, re-trials, discouragements, and somewhere towards the end, an eventual small success that then starts to build up over several years to become something remarkable.

Quitting your job to start a business without going through critical checks and balances may leave you disappointed and depressed in the end. If you can’t wait to quit your job so you can become the entrepreneur you’ve always wanted to be, here are 6 important steps you must cover:

See Also: How To Leave Your Job And Follow Your Dreams Without Going Broke

Step 1: Have A Good Plan

Jumping right out of a job to start a business is a dangerous move to make if you don’t have a plan. Planning ensures you know what needs to be done to get the business running fine.

Before you quit your job to start a business, first study the terrain, find out what works and doesn’t, then structure a plan around what you’d need to do to have a chance at succeeding.

Step 2: Understand Marketing And Sales

Sales are the lifeblood of every business. Without it, the company would literally earn nothing, since it would find it difficult to acquire clients, whose payments could have generated some revenue to keep the business running.

The I.T department always loves to emphasize how their absence could mean the end of a business, especially internet businesses, but still, forget they actually need experienced sales people to get them paying customers.

In retrospect, a technical person without a salesman or woman—preferrably an expert—on their team is almost bound for failure.

If you’re tech inclined and are looking to start your own business, either get a sales person on the founding team or take an in-depth course on marketing and sales, and in the process, ensure you also learn how to make connections and build a valuable brand.

See Also: How To Build An Effective Sales Team From Scratch

Step 3: Structure Your Finances Carefully

Before leaving your job to start your own business, first set aside money that would keep you going even if your business remains unprofitable for the first few months or even years.

Asides planning your personal finances, you should open a business bank account, so you can be very certain your business income and expenditures are separate and well accounted for.

Step 4: Know The Industry Rate

Before setting your product or service charge, you need to know what the average industry rates are, so you don’t overcharge or undercharge your clients.

Creating a price based on your own personal convictions may cause you to have very little or no sales, because potential clients would either view your pricing as too low, and so, probably not worth their time and money, or too high, and leave in annoyance.

Once you get the pricing right, you can go ahead to secure your first client.

See Also: 10 Businesses You Can Start & Grow Every day After 5 P.M

Step 5: Try To Get A Few Clients

Now here’s one of the most important steps you must cover. Before you quit your job completely to start a business, ensure you have at least one valuable paying client.

Having a client that’s willing to part with their money for your product or service, validates what you’ve set out to do, especially if they’re willing to pay so much for it.

Next, you should try to quantify the potential market size of prospects like your single paying client, and then try to get even more of them to patronize your service.

Step 6: Quit Your Job And Focus Fully On Your Business

After successfully going through the previous 5 steps, you would now be more confident and certain that whatever you want to quit your job to start is absolutely worth it.

At this point, you’re probably getting more clients than you can handle, and have a strong need to have even more time to focus fully on your business.

See Also: Should You Follow Your Dreams Or Simply Follow The Money?

What are your thoughts on these 6 steps to follow before your quit your job to start your own business? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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