5 Steps To Take Before Quitting Your Day Job
The million-dollar question these days is “when do I know it’s time to quit my job and leap into self employment?"
“What do I need to do to make sure this is a successful leap, and not a Wiley Coyote-esque fall to my proverbial career death?”
This has been on my mind a lot lately, as I’ve had several people ask, (maybe it’s the new year energy having all of you ready to take the leap?) so here it is. Everyone’s circumstances are different, whether you’re married with a spouse who can cover the household finances for a bit, single and without another paycheck covering your bills, or like most of us, somewhere in between. While there is no definite right answer, I can share what I did, what advice I was given, and what I would tell my former self.
Prove That Your Product Works
Think like a Shark for a minute, and be really critical: do you have a product or service that there is demand for, that you have customers for, and are you able to differentiate yourself in the market? Until all three of these boxes are checked, I would keep working on the side, without quitting my day job. Have a great idea but no customer base? Spend time building that list. Have a customer base with a problem you can solve, but your product currently has no margin, so no profit? Work on fixing that first. You should be in love with your product/service, but you also should be able to prove to yourself that there is a true market ready to hand over cash for it.
Have a safety net & Know Your Numbers
This was the advice I hated to hear, and a total sticking point in my constant conversations with my husband Josh before I quit corporate. However, it was valuable. Before I was able to hand in my notice, we paid off our credit cards and stocked away cash in our savings accounts. We also cut cable and other basic budgeting things, to really understand what we could live off of. I would frequently feel like I’d be able to earn so much more if I could just quit and be full-time in my business already, but this slowed-down pace really forced me to A) get a handle on our personal finances, and B) really understand how much it cost to run my business, and what my profit margins were. It was unsexy and not fun, but based on our family finances, was so smart. When I did hand in my notice, I knew how much I needed to earn each month, and I knew how much of a safety net we had if I missed it. This is exactly when my husband helped me build our Small Business Monthly Budget Spreadsheet, and I’ve been using it ever since.
Network like your life depends on it
Reach out to contacts, build relationships, and find potential clients to support your business. Go to local networking events, connect with new faces on social (and actually talk to them), and reach out to anyone and everyone in the Gmail inbox. Let people know about your business, who it’s for, and what problem it solves. Now is not the time to be shy. If you want to succeed, you have to let the world know you’re open for business, and at the beginning, nothing is as effective as the passion and enthusiasm that YOU bring to the table. A great tip I received early on is to reach out, ask what they’ve been up to, ask if you can help in any way, and then be genuine about trying to support them. Don’t look at people as if they are a sale, but rather as a person, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly your network grows. When you hand in your notice, you’re going to want a list of people lined up around you to support you. Start building that asap.
Get Your Ducks in a Row
There’s no shame in not knowing what you don’t know, so I’m going to lay out the basics for you. You need a business tax ID from the government. You need a business bank account. You’ll want to register your business with the state. You’ll need insurance (this is way more affordable than you’re thinking, I promise!) I recommend getting an advisor from the Small Business Development Center. They are free experts and have saved me numerous times. Check with your state to see if there are any other licenses or forms you need to legally do business where you are. This is no longer a side hustle, and having your ducks in a row is so important to protect yourself and your future.
Check your Mindset
I cannot stress this enough: if you don’t believe you’re going to succeed, you will not succeed. If you think running your own business is going to be awful and hard and you have to suffer for 5 years before you ever turn a profit… this is exactly what will happen. Yes, there is fear in doing anything big like this, but, at the risk of being trite, your faith has to be bigger than your fear. Some tips for getting your mindset in the right place, daily: 5-minute meditations in the morning, journaling those goals down over and over, listening to podcasts that encourage and educate, having a mantra taped to your computer monitor, writing your Why on your bathroom mirror. There is so much we cannot control in business, but your mindset is 100% your responsibility.
Pick a date and commit
Bonus point! At some point, you have to decide that you want to be your own boss more than you want the illusion of security from working for someone else. There has to be a day when you hand in your notice, and a day that you wake up, and don’t go into your employer’s office. I suggest reviewing this list, looking at the calendar, and choosing a date that works for you. Could be a year, could be six months, but whatever date it is - just pick it and commit.
The funny thing about quitting your day job to work full time in your business is that it feels like getting to Quitting Day is the big thing! “You’ve done it! WooHoo!” However, that’s just the start of the next phase, where you will wake up every day to a new adventure, and new challenges. This is where the fun is, where the hard is, where you will grow so much. And the best part? You get to keep making choices, choosing different roads, and trying new things. In 2 years, if you want to get a J.O.B. again, you totally can. You can get a side job. You can close your first business and open something else. But you have to try, or you’ll always wonder…
What other questions do you have about how to quit your day job?