Being an entrepreneur comes with lots of benefits – and some drawbacks, too. You’re thinking about taking the leap from a stable job to entrepreneurship? Here are my three key steps to making the jump.
Video Transcript
Hey, recently a friend got in touch with me to ask a question that I get quite often. He’s currently in a corporate job. We’ve been friends for a while he’s seen my entrepreneurial journey. And his question was, how can I become an entrepreneur? Because it seems to have so many fun benefits. And my answer is always trifold.
Number one, I don’t think everyone is made to be an entrepreneur. Even though I want to motivate as many people as possible, to go out and start businesses to bring their ideas to life, I don’t think entrepreneurship is for everyone. While you see a lot of the benefits like a lot of freedom, a lot of passion, and a team that’s not extrinsically motivated, but everyone wants to be there and wants to work on this problem. There’s also downsides that might not be obvious if you’re coming from a corporate job.
Financial Insecurity
The biggest among them is the insecurity that comes with only limited funding connected with that limited salaries typically in a start-up at the beginning of resources are very tight. And so you try to stretch the resources across as many people as possible. And that might mean saying goodbye to that comfy flat that you’re living in right now or that fancy car that you’re driving. So that’s the first step, think about whether you’re really passionate enough to work on this problem throughout the whole roller coaster. Because even though you might come to the table with an idea and think this is a great business idea, and this market must be huge.
I promise you there are going to be downturns, there are going to be setbacks. And there are going to be lots and lots of challenges with the business model with the market with your customers. And most importantly, with your team. Doing this is really, really hard. But if you’re so passionate about a certain problem, and its solution, that you’re not scared by this.
Just Get Started
Then the second step I think is to just get started. Don’t quit your job yet. First, think about how to approach this and how to build version 0.1. Think about how you can test drive the product, think about how you can build a prototype. And then use your spare time, your evenings and your weekends to go out and ask your friends, family. But more importantly, third parties, people that do not know you, what they think about what you’re working on.
And then third, as a last step, and that’s the most important one, make sure to make the jump into the startup once the idea takes off. So once you’ve verified that this is something that is worth working on for the next potentially dozens of years, then go all in, you will not be able to attract the best talent, you will not be able to attract funding if you’re not fully bought in. So at that point, quit your job, go all in and work 100% on this idea and focus on nothing else. So in short, if you think that your entrepreneurial journey is something for you, and you’re not scared by some of the potential downsides, then think about that. Find that idea that you’re really passionate about. Second, try it out, build a version 0.1, and test drive that with as many people in your network as possible.
And third, make the jump, and then potentially you might think about starting a remote team as you’re test driving this. If you’re thinking about how to build a remote team, check out the video up here.
And with that, Have a beautiful day. Stay curious and I’ll talk to you soon.
