Finding a new job, career change, or is time it time to quit the rat race? The decision is not easy but in recent years, the flexibility and options to launch a start-up has given many is us wings to dare to venture out and beyond. Job search gets tougher, especially if you seek a position that’s niche and on your terms. The competition has soared in many fields and that means that unless your CV is exceptional, it probably won’t even be considered. You will apply for countless jobs before you even reach the interview stage which can be frustrating and indeed heartbreaking. But it’s a fact of the business world today.
Even after you get a job, the desperate situation doesn’t change. Indeed, you might find yourself competing for people in the same office for that dream promotion. This is made worse by the fact that companies will often share the stats and performance of different players on the team to let you know how you’re doing against your competition. Business owners and experts believe this helps create a certain level of both teamwork and friendly competition. But it also does feel like you’re back in school, once again being graded on performance. You probably thought that you outgrew this when as it turns out, it continues well into adult life.
There really is only one way to escape this situation, and that’s to set up a business yourself. Are you ready to take this massive leap? Let’s find out.
Knowledge And Experience
When you decide to start a business, you do need to make sure that you have knowledge experience and training. This should be provable which means that saying you spend a few hours each night studying SEO isn’t going to cut it. Instead, you need to make sure that you have for instance an SEO qualification or that you participated in a course. You’re going to need to show future clients evidence that you are highly trained.
Alternatively, you can simply make sure that you have the right level of experience to impress customers here. Don’t forget, you will still be competing against the large companies. So, let’s say that you branch off to create your own marketing company. You need to make sure that you can play on the same level as the other businesses on the market. If you can’t, you will be hopeless, hilariously outgunned.
Building experience might also require you to stay in that rat race a little longer. In other words, you’re going to need to show a history of being successful working on a range of different projects in other companies. You might even be able to take clients with you when you do choose to leave to set up your own company. At the very least you can build up contracts. Careful though, because if you read your employment contract, you might just find there’s something similar to a noncompete clause. This is a dangerous add-on for an employment contract and it is something to watch out for. It could be more than enough to stop you setting up your own business.
Our advice would be to spend a couple years building up both qualifications and experience before you venture forward with your own business.
The Funny Thing About Money
You can start a business without any money in your bank account. You can, as many experts suggest set up a company with no less than ten dollars. Why? That’s enough to register your business on the market, and that is all it takes to set up a new company. But let’s be realistic here.
Setting up a company is not the same as setting up a successful business, and if you’re an eager, new entrepreneur, you’re probably aiming for the latter. You need about three or four thousand to set up an online company, and for a business, on the high street, you probably need to double that number. At most you should be looking to borrow a business loan of ten thousand. Business loans higher than this will come with a substantial, often unnecessary level of risk that you must avoid if possible.
Once you have decided on the money that you need to borrow, you can then think about the target to get it. There are various targets to choose from with the obvious option being to take out a business loan. With a business loan, you’ll be able to find the right deal for you. You could think about crowdsourcing, but the issue here is finding enough interest to get an expensive business idea off the ground.
Of course, getting the money is just half the fun because then you need to think about how you’re going to spend it. It’s important to think about carefully about the costs here because you need to keep them under control as much as possible. That’s difficult to do even for a seasoned business owner so make sure that you hire a business account manager or use an online accountant. Both could help you stay on stop of spending and avoid ending up in the red. This is particularly dangerous in your first year on the market which is when a lot of companies tend to go under.
Remember, you’re going to have a lot to spend money on from tech to staff. Even if you are running an online business, you’ll still need to pay for marketing, promotion, website design and none of these things come cheap. It can be tempting to cut corners here. For instance, rather than using a web designer, you might choose to instead use a template. This is a mistake, and it’s a surefire way to guarantee that your profits don’t surpass your spending. Why? Simply put, you won’t be able to make sure that your business is noticed by customers and this can lead to disaster. The last thing that you want to be when you set up a new business is forgotten.
Cutting Costs The Right Way
That doesn’t mean that you should be looking to reduce your spending in sensible areas. Again, make sure that you hire someone to manage your finances. While this might seem counterproductive, it really isn’t, and you’ll save a lot more than you spend if you use the right service. There are plenty of companies that can help here, many of which are online. That means that you won’t have to worry about filling your home or indeed your office. When you hire an accountant to make sure that they are chartered or trained and qualified. You see? That just shows how important training and qualifications are because many accountants are flying solo just like you. Indeed, if you hire an individual, you’ll also find the services are a lot cheaper with a personalized level of care while maintaining a high standard of quality.
Of course, hiring an online accountant is also an example of outsourcing which is another way that you should reduce costs. One of the options to consider here would be to outtarget marketing. Every entrepreneur will need marketing, but you don’t want to hire a full marketing team. Instead, make sure that you choose one of the businesses that will perform the job for you without charging a fortune. There are plenty on the market, and once again, quality will be important here. If you’re hiring a marketer, the best way to judge them is to look at their own marketing efforts. How hard was it to find their company? Were they in the SERPs or did they use PPC? If they use the latter and offer the former, it doesn’t suggest that they have a high level of skill. You can also check out reviews of other clients online.
As well as this, we do suggest where possible that you run your business from home at least at the start. Running a company from home, you can cut out a lot of expensive, somewhat unnecessary costs. For instance, you won’t have to worry about buying or renting an office, and that means you can avoid a lot of the hidden costs that come attached to this choice. Office politics, personal injuries and other employee claims can all end up costing a company a fortune. That’s something that you want to avoid. Running your business from home can help you do this, and of course, there are plenty of other perks aside from this.
An Alternate Option?
Rather than setting up a business from scratch, you can consider buying an existing one. There are countless businesses up for sale on the market every year for you to choose from. You can find a business that is right for you and then work to turn it into a profitable venture.
This will take a considerable amount of time and effort, but it can be worth it. It’s the business equivalent of buying a used home and fixing it up for resale. An extra tip would be to negotiate to keep the former business owner on to make the transfer as smooth as possible.