Very rarely does one’s professional life start with entrepreneurship; we can’t all be Mark Zuckerberg, right? Often it takes time to hone specific skills, business acumen, or even a functional product prototype. The majority of entrepreneurs come into their role after years of working for someone else. In this guest blog post, David Freudenberg of Qwilr, talks about how employees can make the transition into entrepreneurs.
Guest Author: David Freudenberg, Public Relations, Qwilr
There is zero shame in the hustle, but often being a cog in the corporate machine tends to form habitual behaviors that can stand in your way, blocking you from achieving entrepreneurial success. These mental roadblocks can slow down the growth of your business or even keep you from taking the calculated risks necessary to lift your idea off of the ground. Get ahead of this mindset quickly by asking yourself these questions:
- Are You Ready To Be Your Own Boss?
This is probably the most important question to ask yourself before you quit your 9-5. Starting a business is hard and it’s not a quick fix for when you’re stuck in a job you hate. When you start a business, initially it’s all you. You are the acquisitions and marketing manager, the accountant, and the sales team. Are you mentally prepared to design the structure for every aspect of the business?
You will have to get very comfortable with the processes very quickly. Automating as much as possible early on will be your saving grace. The easiest, most immediate need to refine is your sales workflow. What materials will you need for prospective customers? Produce as much as you can early on. To speed up the time it takes you to send a proposal, you can use online proposal templates that allow you to efficiently manage client proposals. After the proposal is sent, there are email scheduling add-ons for Chrome to automatically schedule follow up emails.
Identifying opportunities in each part of your business to efficiently automate early on frees up your time to devote to other more important tasks as you step into the role of entrepreneur. The more you prepare, the better chance you have of succeeding as a business owner.
- Do You Know What Taking The Leap Really Means?
When you leave the security of a 9-5, a lot of people will refer to it as ‘taking the leap.’ However, this is not “Office Space,” where you are Ron Livingston rejecting the corporate life in a glorious fashion and riding off into the sunset. Successful business owners don’t achieve by leaps and bounds. They start small and (relatively) slow as to build from the ground up.
Give your business a chance at longevity, save yourself some headaches and probably save a few dollars by preparing before you quit your job. Building a business in stages reduces the risks you can control and gives you, as the entrepreneur, the chance to establish the foundation to reap more rewards in the bigger picture.
- Spend Time On A Business Plan
Be a successful entrepreneur by refining your idea with a business plan to serve as a roadmap for launching your business. A decent business plan details your core offers, your target customers, and how you plan to fund the company.
This document can be anything from an outline to a formal document. Take the opportunity to dish all of the details of your business; launch date, where you’ll operate, what inventory and equipment is necessary. Take the time to plan your marketing strategy and determine whether you will be bootstrapping your business or securing startup capital investments. If you do decide on securing startup capital, get a jump start on your proposals with this sponsorship proposal template. These plans will help you lead your business in the right direction.
- Flipping the Mental Switch From Employee to Entrepreneur
As you transition from earning a regular paycheck to owning a business, make sure you take the time to hash out important details. Being a business owner is tough, but now you’ve got passion and a plan- the key elements to being a successful entrepreneur.
Don’t get stuck in the rut of thinking like a 9-5’er. Doing so will stand between you and your goals of business success. Surround yourself with things that will empower you; read more about other entrepreneurs and their struggles, network with other business owners locally and use them as a support system, go to functions where your target customer will be. Do not fall into the trap of doing your eight hours and then going home as you did in the past. When you start a business, at least at first, you are your business. Don’t forget, you can do this!
The opinions of our guest bloggers are their own and not those of 1871. To learn more about Qwilr, head here.
