If you feel stuck in your day job, the thought of ditching the office to pursue your side hustle full time can be very tempting.
Making the switch from traditional employment to entrepreneurship can be highly rewarding — but it’s a long, difficult process that comes with its own risks. Read on to find out whether it’s time to strike out on your own and how to make your new career move stick.
Take your time…
The idea of dropping everything to pursue your dream may have romantic appeal. However, giving up your day job too early could rob you of valuable learning opportunities that will give your business a better chance at success.
Keeping your job while building up your side hustle allows you to test your business idea in a low-stakes environment — before you have to rely on it completely.
With a steady paycheck covering your expenses and savings goals, you can confidently make decisions based on what is best for the long-term health of your business without worrying about short-term financial stress.
…but not too much time
On the other hand, it is important not to get so comfortable in your day job that you never take the plunge! If your plans for getting out of the corporate life are vague, you risk staying there much longer than you’d anticipated.
Setting concrete goals about when and how to make your side hustle your full-time job will provide you with a rough plan that you can use to judge your progress. What’s more, it will give you the courage to act when the time finally comes.
Before you quit, prepare to scale
The thought of growing your business might seem impossible when you’re still struggling to get it off the ground. But the need to scale can happen much faster than you might think.
Before you write that resignation letter, take a hard look at your side hustle and figure out what structures you can put in place today (such as cloud computing and fulfillment capability) that will ensure you can meet market demand tomorrow. Setting up these processes while you still have a paycheck will save you a lot of grief in your first few years of entrepreneurship.
Make a smooth exit
When you are finally ready to leave the office, be sure to do it gracefully. As satisfying as it might be to tell your boss in (explicit) detail why you’re leaving, ultimately you’re better off not burning bridges.
Write a polite resignation letter, and do what you can to ensure that the company continues to succeed after you’re gone. Who knows — someday you might even pick up your old boss as a client!
The bottom line
Entrepreneurship can be grueling, with lots of setbacks on the way to a sustainable business. But it can also be incredibly rewarding for those who stick it out. When doubt settles in, take a moment to remember why you decided to be your own boss in the first place, and keep going!
