Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your 9-5 To Start A Business – This method of starting a business where we keep our jobs and start is called The Hybrid Path To Entrepreneurship as pointed out by entrepreneur on their website.
Please, it is so important that you understand this is my own 2 cents on this topic.
If you have savings to give you a runway of 6-12 months or, if you are very much willing to face the consequences and be broke for a while, you should totally do whatever you want to do.
I personally have a part-time job.
I also had one when I first moved to Lagos that I quit from and if the job was a good fit for me, I would have stayed at it.
We often want to leave our jobs and go and do our own thing, be our own boss or, we feel like we have this amazing business idea and we rush off to make it happen ?
Here are reasons why you should suck it up for the next 12 months or 6 with your annoying boss, put your freedom on hold and exactly what to do instead.
1. The Uncertainties In Business Are Too Many
You see all the things you have planned out as what you will do to get going and growing ???????????
99% of them will not work out the way you planned it to and I mean this with all love.
In fact, On Your very first try, you will meet so many challenges.
This is why a lot of people talk and talk but do not do.
The execution is where the problem is.
‘Doing’ is hard and once people get hit by the first three challenges, a lot of us give up.
You don’t want to be a victim of those uncertainties.
You want to make sure that whatever happens doesn’t bruise you so much that you end up homeless or hungry ?
I am not even exaggerating, this happens to people.
2. Your Business Won’t Be Able To Fund You When Starting Out
A business is a baby and the only food it eats is called “Money”.
This means that all the money you will be getting from sales plus your own money will be put into your business to make it grow legs.
This is why I shared this pricing article so that, more and more of us can avoid losing money.
It will take at least 24 months if you are lucky for your business to really start funding your lifestyle.
My father currently runs his own business and has a total of 8 departmental stores.
But, he has his 9-5 that pays well why?
He knows if he quits his job, his business cannot take care of his expenses and lifestyle.
3. The emotional stress from being broke will distract you
When I first started out TheStartUpReport, I was broke as fu**k.
I remember how worrying about internet data just screwed with my focus ?
It is also this that pushed me to take the 9-5 I took because the job will allow me to focus on execution than focus on “how will I buy internet data?”
This emotional stress can even lead you to lose focus on your vision and start doing things that don’t align with your business vision.
4. You will be tempted to take a loan
Not having money can be painful and frustrating.
Especially when you have imagined all the marketing campaigns you would run, In that state, a loan for 600,000 starts looking so good and you start seeing all the things you could do with that money.
But loans are death traps for startups and startup owners and very few survive.
5. You might not be interested in this idea in the next 6 months
I can’t tell you how many “cool” ideas I came up with that sounded like a million dollar baby but I lost complete interest weeks down the line.
Give it sometime before you make that jump say 6-12 months and see if you still love the idea as much.
6. Quitting your job will not help make your business successful
Not when you are just starting out.
Doing this when you have started gaining sales and traction will surely help your business succeed because now you have customers growing every day.
You need to be fully involved to make the business successful.
When you have started, what you want to do is focus on getting your MVP ( minimum viable product) out there first,
Then testing, tweaking, learning and doing business more of what works.
As you do this and start gaining traction, you can then choose to move on from the rat race.
7. Your 9-5 isn’t the problem, your work ethic is
People so often think “If I quit my job, I will have more time for my business”.
But, I find that it isn’t the 9-5 that jab the problem.
Lots of us are in our offices doing nothing.
We use our break times to actually take breaks.
We don’t try going in to work as early as 6/00am so we can start working on our own thing before office starts and even use their WI-FI ?
My father has a 9-5 and he is at the office every day at 6:00 am for the last 5 years.
Why?
He needs the 3 hours before work to catch up on things
What do you do at the weekends?
Most of us claim we are packed with chores but. How long does the chore last?
You surely can squeeze out three hours to work on your thing but, hanging with friends and watching Grey’s Anatomy will not allow some of us.
8. You don’t have the right idea, yet
I know most of us to think we are sitting on a gold mine with our ideas.
The sad truth is that your business is only a gold mine if the customer says it is.
READ ALSO: Top 10 Tips for Getting Ahead in Your Career Without Working Harder
They say this from how they pay for your services or products when they sign up for your app and actually use it daily when they tell all their friends to get on and buy from you.
Until then, please don’t quit your job and front that you have a gold mine for a business idea.
9. There is a 95% chance you will fail in the next 24 months
This isn’t a matter of “God forbid”.
We will fail at one business or the other, it could be this one you quit your job for.
You need to make sure that Incase you do, you are not completely torn.
You have something to fall back to.
Do you currently have a business idea or business? If yes, what is it about?
Written by Orieoma Okoh
WATCH: 7 Things I Did Before Quitting My Job To Become A Full Time Entrepreneur