Quote:
Originally Posted by mustard76  I'd like to hear from people who have made the transition from employee to entrepreneur/business owner. I'm currently making this transition and I'd like to know what to expect and how to prepare myself.
I'm interested in learning about the attitude adjustments required, how you funded your business, how you managed your personal finances, how the transition affected your personal relationships, how you motivated yourself and any other problems you faced. What would you have done differently? |
I made this transition seriously about 8 months ago, although I'd worked on and off as a sole trader before that but never 100% from home. I went from being a full-time web designer in an office of over 50 people, to a full-time illustrator in an office of 1 - me - unless you count my cats
If you're going to work from home full time expect a transition period, and you'll need to enjoy your own company or you will probably hate working from home. I've always loved time to myself, being a typical introvert time alone is like air to me, but I still found the transition from a people-filled environment to being alone most of the time quite challenging. My advice there would be - don't do it unless you genuinally enjoy spending time alone, and if you do decide to work from home full-time be sure to keep your social calendar busy so you get out of the house at least a few times a week. Also take advantage of the 'perks' of working from home like being able to cook your lunch if you feel like it, go for long walks, work in your slippers and basically have everything the way you like it
Income is probably the main concern when making the move from employee to business owner. I was in business for 6 months before I started making any real money as it took me that long to set up my website, documents, sales pages, build a customer base, etc. If you can it's often a good idea to do all that stuff while you're still working for someone else -then- launch your business, but in my case I decided to go for it full-throttle because I wanted to be completely focussed on what I was building. I also have the advantage of a partner with a full-time income and we're doing this as a partnership - he is working while I build a profitable business which will safeguard our income for the future. We both have a dismal view of the job industry and - having both worked in IT most of our lives - have been made redundant more than once, so we're working to trade in the "security" of a job for the more reliable income of an established business. So my husband's income pays the rent and bills while I grow the business - if I'd had to go it alone I just would have waited a bit longer so I could begin generating income to support myself before taking the plunge.
The other important part of income has been economising and living within our means. We have a budget for both living and business expenses and we stick to it. This is important not only for peace of mind while starting a business, but also for providing the freedom to take on only good clients as there's nothing more disheartening than having to take on a bad client or a bad project because you really need the money.
Being really organised and prioritising is also a must. I think one of the main differences between employee and business owner is that the employee gets paid just for turning up, while the business owner must provide value day after day to get paid. And while most entrepreneur's tend to be motivated it's easy to get caught in the trap of doing a lot and achieving very little, which is why it's doubly important to prioritise - there will be 100 things each day clammering for your attention and you've got limited time so you have to focus on the ones which are actually going to increase your income and genuinally improve your business. My system for doing this is to have a to-do list for every month, combined with a to-do list for each day. I plot this out a week at a time so that by the end of each month I've ticked off everything on the to-do list for that month. It's the only way I can actually keep up with my workload.
Finally it's good to have at least one day a week set aside for marketing as this is an extremely important part of any business but can often fall to the wayside because it's not as fun as other parts of the business. I set aside mondays (Marketing Mondays as I've heard them called) and spend this one day each week writing my next newsletter, updating my website, contacting publishers, and researching new avenues of income. I also set Friday's aside for generating passive income in line with my work as an illustrator. The rest of the week I use for client work.
Oh and one last thing, be sure to get enough rest! I find it's quite easy to work all day, stop for dinner, and keep working if I'm not careful because I really enjoy my work, but this will lead to burnout before long so I am careful to factor time to relax into my day. Generally, unless I'm really busy which I try not to do too often, I work from 8am to 5:30pm and then I stop to cook dinner, hang out with my husband / friends / family, watch movies, read a book, etc. until I go to sleep. Taking this break makes a big difference in my energy, productivity and motivation the next day.
I hope that helps. Good luck with your transition, starting your own business is definately an exciting and liberating thing to do! It has it's difficulties but nothing compares to being in complete control of your own time, your own income, your own environment, "holding the reigns of your destiny" as Steve P says