10 Steps to Starting a Side Business While Working Full Time
We live in a time of endless possibilities. Never before have we had such a rapid growth in the number of young entrepreneurs who started working for themselves. From app developers to freelance writers, business consultants, creative producers and startup founders, there is no shortage of people willing to take big, calculated risks to create their own personalized dream career.
This post originally appeared on the Crew blog .
And why not? Every single day, many of these “sole proprietors” are growing their small businesses to millions .
However, despite the optimistic outlook, most would-be business owners still fall prey to the fear of turning their spin-off business ideas into reality . In a recent study by Bentley University, over 66% of people aged 18–34 indicated a desire to start their own business. However, as of 2013, only 3.6% of businesses in the United States were owned by people under 30.
And this is not due to a lack of education or talent.
Global access to free, low-cost online education resources across platforms such as CreativeLive , Skillshare , General Assembly and others has helped dramatically reduce learning curves and barriers to entry into many industries. Valuable online learning opportunities are as readily available as an internet connection, there is no excuse not to internalize new concepts and develop powerful skills.
Case in point: Over the past few years, I have personally gone from being the first founder of a failed business to being a freelancer and building four successful businesses – all while working full time . Through my work and my own experience, I have found three most common reasons why people do not take a case to starting their own business:
- Self-doubt
- Perceived lack of necessary resources
- And most of all, lack of motivation
Starting a business while you are still working full time is difficult. But he can provide you with a variety of luxury items and securities that fly out of the window immediately when you quit your job to pursue a business idea. From the obvious availability of stable income to fund your new venture, to forcing yourself to focus only on what works best and relieves pressure on yourself.
Now, before you take the plunge, you need to have a solid plan.
Here are my 10 steps to start a side business while maintaining a steady job:
1. Make a commitment
It will be hard. This will create tension in your relationship, and you will constantly be forced to make difficult decisions.
List all the activities and commitments you have during the week, along with the amount of time you devote to each one. Pay attention to the ones that you can afford to reduce your engagement with, and let them know that you are backtracking a little to focus on a new project that means a lot to you.
Then start crossing out the easy things first: time spent watching TV, playing video games, or surfing Facebook and Instagram. The more time you free up, the faster you can see results.
2. List your strengths and interests.
What skills are required for your new business idea?
You probably have at least some of the necessary skills to get your business going, but if you don’t, you will have a tough decision to make. Pause to take time to learn a new skill, or see someone else who can help solve this problem ?
If you’re looking to unleash your strengths as an entrepreneur, try this exercise to help you unleash both your soft and hard skills and unleash your unfair business advantage. Just remember, if your ideas and skills don’t match, you’re fine. If you look in the right places , you will see many talented freelancers willing to work with you.
3. Confirm your business idea
When Fortune decided to ask the founders of failed startups what went wrong, reason # 1 was the lack of market demand for their product (nearly half cited this as the cause of their company’s death).
Early in the planning phase, you need to test your business idea . This means getting honest reviews from real paying customers because, as Basecamp founder Jason Freed explains:
“The only answers that matter are dollars spent. People are responsible when they pay for something. This is the only answer that really matters. “
It is human nature to think that we are right and that our ideas are always great. Unfortunately, our business concepts and product ideas are often not fully thought out, useful, or even researched properly.
By slowing down and creating a very simple proof of concept with ongoing feedback with your target audience, you will gradually build a solution that is guaranteed to meet their needs. You can grow from there.
4. Build a competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage is defined as your unique advantage that enables you as a business to increase sales or profits and / or acquire and retain more customers than your competitors.
This is what makes your business, your business.
This could be your cost structure, product offering, distribution network, strategic relationship, customer support, or other aspects of your business.
Be honest with yourself here. Not only does your business have to honestly meet the needs of the market, but it also needs to do it differently than what is available now.
5. Set detailed, measurable and realistic goals.
You don’t want to take your first steps, at least not knowing what you might be.
Without setting achievable goals and realistic timelines, you will spend a lot of time spinning the wheels. In my experience, it’s best to set yourself daily, weekly, and monthly goals. This ongoing accountability helps you stick to both short-term and long-term goals.
Your daily goals are likely to be small wins or to-do items in the beginning, then you will gradually start reaching milestones as you get closer to launching your side business.
6. Make a plan before the launch date and after
It’s one thing to set goals, and quite another to map out exactly how you are going to get to points B, C, D and beyond.
You need to be extra proactive during this phase and expect to have to adapt regularly as things change over time. Nobody can run your business for you, but you can’t do everything yourself.
Your ability to solve problems and avoid obstacles will determine your level of business success. And if you need extra inspiration, see how some of the world’s top executives and companies are achieving their startup goals time after time.
7. Outsource your weaknesses
It’s all about focus. Look for opportunities to outsource every possible part of building your business. Obviously, you don’t want someone else to plan your goals, a roadmap, or tell you what your product or service should look like.
The point is, you only have to do what you do best.
While it would be great if you could write your own website to test the idea of an online service, if you don’t have any development knowledge yet, you need to spend a few months learning to get to the bottom of it. where you can understand the basics.
Luckily, I know a great place to find quality help for your business idea . [Ed. note: this post was originally written for Crew.]
8. Actively seek objective feedback.
Your goal is to create a product or service that will benefit people. Therefore, it is important that you seek objective external feedback to ensure that you are creating something that truly benefits your customers.
Do this from day one and never stop.
To find your early feedback group, you’ll need to individually target the people you know will give you an honest opinion. My group is made up of several close entrepreneurial friends and several mentors with whom I regularly communicate.
From here, you can start expanding your feedback circle and start including Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, Reddit, HackerNews , ProductHunt , GrowthHackers, and more.
9. Don’t blur the lines between work and your business.
It may be tempting to create “the best version of the company you work for,” but unless your employer missed a few important lessons, your contract probably clearly states that you agreed not to do just that.
Plus, it’s just bad practice and can ruin a lot of relationships that might instead be very beneficial to you one day.
This is why the best business ideas are those that increase your productivity at work and give you the opportunity to continue to build on your strengths outside the office. If you are subject to any non-competition clauses, assignment clauses, or nondisclosure agreements, it is best to consult with a lawyer for personalized advice.
This may seem obvious, but don’t get involved in secondary business during the company. You also need to refrain from using company resources in your business, no matter how tempting it may be. This includes not using your work computer, online tools, software, subscriptions, laptops, or seeking help from other employees unless you have specifically agreed to do so with your lawyer.
10. Reach Critical Mass Before Quitting Your Day-to-Day Job
Don’t get me wrong, I’m an advocate of doing only what I’m interested in and doing it with 100% of my energy.
That being said, I’m willing to spend my time fully validating the idea, discovering my target market and testing that idea with them before making an individual decision that “this should be great!”
Having time to keep thinking things through and looking for advice from others will greatly benefit your new business.
More importantly, unless you are working on a fast-growing startup and cannot secure funding from investors (or you cannot finance yourself), you really need some form of sustainable income before your new business can be your only source of livelihood. …
Starting a side business while working full time will undoubtedly be difficult, but doable. There are as many paths to entrepreneurship as there are entrepreneurs in this world. Take these steps into account and you will be well on your way to becoming your own boss. Imagine this amazing feeling.